Iridology - Real or Pseudoscience?

[BadOctopus]

For those of you who haven't heard of iridology, it's a branch of alternative medicine wherein it's practicians claim to be able to assess the state of a person's health by looking at their irises. Abnormalities in various areas of the iris point to different types of maladies. For instance, an unhealthy level of stomach acid may manifest itself as a ring of dark orange around the pupils. Stuff like that.

Most practicers of traditional medicine don't put much stock in iridology, and maintain that the iris does not change. On the other hand, one can just look at some people's eyes and tell that something is wrong with them. Like these:

I don't know. That doesn't look healthy to me.

What are your thoughts? Do you think it's pseudoscientific hogwash? Or do you think there's something to it?

 

[Xann]

Interesting. Reminds me of Sanpaku Eyes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanpaku

The Eyes Have It: The Sanpaku Eye Superstition

 

[Frosty]

I mean, I am pretty sure that there are medical causes to some changes in the iris. I believe that osteogenesis imperfecta can cause a blue tint to the irises-although this is something innate from birth and unchanging so yeah probably not really the same thing.

But yeah, I think that in extreme and particular cases this sort of thing can be seen and can be a sign for a few disorders. But I am not sure whether I would say that they would have any affect in diseases not regarding the eye-or at least not regarding nutritional disturbances.

Facebook cases show diseases being diagnosed from particular visuals in eyes, tumors I believe. But as a sort of vague horoscopical thing, where slight changes are coorelated with particular diseases, seems as if it would generally result in more misses than hits.

 

[Qlip]

Seems plausible to a degree. It stands to reason that at least some aspects of health could be discerned from the eye. I actually did regularly see an iridologist/herbologist as a kid at the behest of my mother, he was unable to ascertain that my malady was being a liar (faking sick so I could stay home and watch The Price Is Right and play with the stove). But maybe my health did need attending to? Who knows?

 

[Dyslexxie]

A close family friend of my mom's is an iridologist (sp?), and a while back while I was reeeeally struggling to pinpoint what was causing all my health issues, we decided to book an appointment with her.
I'm a huge skeptic and I thought it was bullshit science but she went into a lot of detail and she even mentioned some family medical history that I still have no idea how she could've known. She knew my mom's mom has an IBD and that my dad's dad died from lung cancer, both issues that play out in my own life - she had NO way of knowing because my grandma is overseas, and my granddad has been dead for 20 years now. She also mentioned some very specific health issues I've dealt with that very few (if any people) really know about, and I have NO idea how she could've known. I mean she showed me on the chart where she was getting this info from, but still...some of it was incredibly eerie. I'm still skeptical about a lot of it but she was far more accurate in pinpointing what was causing my health issues than two specialists before her who actually did a lot of testing so idk...