Wednesday 9th January 2002 - Iridology

If your eyes are the window to your soul, they are also a roadmap of your health.

Iridologist Claire Hicks, 28, believes that our eyes are the key to the secrets of our innermost beings, but she says: "I like to take a scientific approach and use the information a person1s eyes give me to apply nutrition to cure their problems."

Iridology is not a means of curing disease but of diagnosing it. Explains Claire, who works in Sussex: "The brain reflects what goes on in body, the iris, the coloured part of the eyeball, reflects what goes on in the brain."

Half a million nerve endings route into the eye from the brain building up a 'veritable microchip of information' about a person's health.

Iridologists detect genetic weaknesses, levels of stress and toxicity and the efficiency of all organs. In common with all natural therapists, they treat the whole person and not symptoms, using nutrition, herbalism or homeopathy.

For more information call Claire on + 44 (0)1243 268166 or visit www.phrenic.ndirect.co.uk/plaskett/ and www.gni-international.org

Iridologists use a torch magnifier and Jensen charts to make diagnoses.
Common markings are:
A sodium ring - a white line around the edge of the iris indicates hypertension and high blood pressure
A yellow ring around the edge of the iris could mean problems with cholesterol.
An assimilation ring - a brown marking around the pupil is a sign of liver problems
Uneven patches - a patch at six o'clock in your right eye could indicate kidney problems.

Next week: reflexology.

Mark Winter