The Practical Herbalist

Floaters

There are many conditions which patients are unaware that there are herbal treatments for. This is often because western biomedical medicine does not have a good treatment for the condition. The result is that many people then assume that nothing can be done. A good example of this are floaters. "Floaters" is the common term for odd squiggles and small dark spots that move through the vision of a patient. Sometimes floaters can get severe enough to diminish vision.

In Chinese herbal medicine, most cases of floaters are seen as a symptom of much larger dynamics in the body that result in a deficiency of nourishment to the eyes. Herbal formulations can be used to change how the body nourishes various parts of the body, including the eyes. The visual nature of floaters makes them a very useful indicator as to how well a treatment is working.

There are various herbal formulas for treating this type of condition. In general they all fall into a category called "Blood nourishment". Floaters are often (not always) seen in conjunction with several other symptoms. They include dizziness, ringing in the ears, low stamina, anxiety and sometimes dry signs throughout the body. This may include dry skin and hair, and dry or thin nails.

In many ways the herbal formulas are variations of general blood nourishing formulas used in the cases of weak menstruation and anemia. These formulas tend to have heavy blood nourishing herbs, mixed with herbs that direct the herbal function to the head and eyes. The unfortunate thing about floaters is that since it is not life threatening, little research into treatments have been done. Far too many patients are living with this situation because a physician told them that there is no treatment. Hopefully more people will learn that Chinese Herbal medicine does have treatments. Patients should not give up and always search out all possible answers to their problems.