#438
December 9, 2025

Visionary Chinese Medicine Ophthalmology 
Marc Grossman, O.D., L.Ac

Our Sponsors

We tend to think of eyesight as a technical problem—retinas, optics, refractive errors, clearer lenses. But eyes don’t just see—they interpret. They blur when the world feels too intrusive, or sharpen when clarity feels like safety. The eyes are woven through with story, memory, emotion, and the ways we’ve learned to look—or to look away.

In this conversation with Dr. Marc Grossman, optometrist, acupuncturist, and lifelong investigator of vision, we explore how eyesight is more than biology—it’s biography. He’s spent decades asking not just what eye problems are, but why they appear in this person, at this moment, in this way. His work lives at the intersection of physiology, psychology, Chinese medicine, and the soul’s need to see clearly—not just out into the world, but into one’s own experience and heart.

Listen into this discussion as we explore how nearsightedness can emerge from emotional overwhelm, why some people develop tension in just one eye, how the optic nerve can reflect sensitivity and empathy, and why prescriptions sometimes don’t correct—but instead freeze—a moment in our story.

This isn’t a conversation about fixing eyes. It’s about recognizing eyesight as a living conversation between body, spirit, and the world we orient ourselves toward. It reminds us that inquiry—not protocol—is often the most powerful medicine.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Soul’s journey into Chinese medicine – how Mark describes acupuncture as something that “finds you” and unfolds as part of one’s destiny.
  • Early academic pressure and the roots of nearsightedness – exploring how his childhood, family dynamics, and emotional environment contributed to myopia.
  • Optometry training and the limits of Western vision care – questioning why eye doctors don’t ask why problems develop and how curiosity fuels deeper inquiry.
  • Discovery of vision therapy and holistic eye care – how early mentors shaped his approach to improving visual function beyond lenses.
  • Encountering Chinese medicine and shifting worldviews – the disorienting early stages of acupuncture school and the eventual click into holistic thinking.
  • Five elements, relationships, and pattern inquiry – moving from linear diagnosis to understanding relational dynamics across body, mind, and spirit.
  • Chinese medicine and the deeper meaning of vision – understanding eyesight through constitutional types, emotional imprinting, and energetic safety.
  • Patterns behind eye diseases – interpreting myopia, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and astigmatism through Chinese medicine, neuroplasticity, and psycho-emotional themes.
  • Integrating nutrition, herbs, and acupuncture in eye care – using gut–eye connections, neuroprotection, and herbal strategies to support retinal health.
  • Astigmatism, tension, and the tendomuscular system – revealing how posture, stress, instruments, or TMJ patterns can create refractive change.
  • Why prescriptions worsen and the problem with “you’ll get used to it” – how over-prescribing locks in visual strain and disconnects patients from comfort cues.
  • Mirror-gazing and witnessing transformation – using visual feedback after treatment to help patients recognize shifts in energy and self-perception.
  • Opposite prescriptions and neuroplasticity experiments – using far-sighted lenses for near-sighted patients (and vice versa) to stimulate new responses.
  • Integrating professions and building team-based eye care – Mark’s mission to bridge acupuncturists, naturopaths, and eye doctors through shared language and training.

I start all patient consultations with :

  1. Their  goals in working with me 
  2. A discussion that with most physical or mental conditions that they need to put their team together and I can help them out with that
  3. Discussion on the concept of body, mind. and spirit all as my approach to their health care

Marc Grossman, O.D., L.Ac

Marc Grossman, Doctor of Optometry and New York State Licensed Acupuncturist is co-author of:

Since 1980 Dr. Marc Grossman has helped many people maintain healthy vision and even improve eyesight. He is best described as a Holistic Eye Doctor, dedicated to helping people with such conditions ranging from myopia and dry eyes to potentially vision threatening diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma . His approach is not to just treat the eyes but to in addition to treat the person behind the eyes.

His combined multi-disciplinary approach using nutrition, eye exercises, lifestyle changes and Chinese Medicine provides him with a wide array of tools and approaches to tackle difficult eye problems.

 

Links and Resources

Natural Eye Care – A Comprehensive Manual for Practitioners of Oriental Medicine, published by Natural Eye Care Media Services, Inc. 2002.

Natural Eye Care – Your Guide to Healthy Vision published by Natural Eye Care Media Services, Inc., 2019

Member Only Content

This additional content is available to members of our podcast.

Explore Similar Podcasts

Subscribe to the Qiological Podcast in Your Favorite Player

You don't have access to purchase this item.