The question was as direct as it was unexpected: “So, how long have you had a thyroid problem?” “I don’t have a thyroid problem.” “Oh, let me tell you that you most definitely do.” Considering this exchange took place within two minutes of my meeting Dr Ludmila Vassilieva, you can’t blame me for feeling incredulous and slightly outraged, but intrigued, nonetheless.

I was visiting Dr Vassilieva, a GP, homeopath and iridologist, at the Holistic Healing Medical Centre in Dubai to find out more about iridology, a diagnostic practise that studies the changing patterns and markings in the iris - the coloured part of the eye - to reveal potential and actual health conditions in every part of the body. Iridologists also believe that the practice can identify inherited weaknesses that may lead to physical and emotional disorders.

However, the first point Dr Vassilieva is keen to get across is that holistic health is very difficult to compartmentalise: “The various practices that make up holistic medicine work very much in conjunction with each other to heal the body, literally as a ‘whole’,” she explains firmly. “It is very difficult to talk about iridology in isolation without bringing other therapies into the equation.”

Which is why, after a long chat about holistic health in general, we meet again a few days later as, before we embark on the subject of iridology specifically, Dr Vassilieva is keen to have a look at my thyroid with non-linear analysis (NLS) on the centre’s Oberon machine — a genius invention that picks up the rotating magnetic fields in the various organs and systems of the body. As incredible as it sounds, all the patient need do is don a pair of headphones, while the machine analyses flows of energy - the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ - and transfers its findings onto a monitor. As the doctor suspected, the Oberon picked up imbalances in my liver, pancreas and thyroid gland, indicating there may be problems.

With me more than slightly alarmed about the state of my health (although lacking in symptoms of anything ! would consider out of the ordinary), we then move onto the subject of iridology and Dr Vassilieva warms to her theme: “Just think how often we look into people’s eyes - you can immediately tell so much about their physical and emotional state; whether they are tired, unwell, bored or upset.

“The eyes are the exterior part of the brain, therefore it stands to reason that they will carry information about every single part of the body,” she says, as we look over the iridology charts which, indeed, show all roads leading to the irises.

And what of my thyroid problem? After being referred for a thyroid scan at the Allied Diagnostic Clinic, small nodules were discovered on the gland but, because they were in their very early stages, the gland itself had not yet become enlarged. Had I not visited the centre, I would have been completely ignorant of the condition until I had started to develop symptoms in months, maybe years, from now.

“The thyroid is still compensating for the imbalance and producing enough hormones,” Dr Vassilieva explained to me at yet another follow-up consultation (she is nothing if not thorough).

She then prescribed me a three-month course of homeopathic tablets to help redress the imbalance in the thyroid and which may help reduce the nodules. In addition to my notes, which I was able to take away, I was given a list of iodine-rich foods that should constitute the main part of my diet.

“The correct foods are the best medicine we can possible take,” advises the doctor. Leaving nothing to chance, she also referred me on to the centre’s Chinese doctor for medicine to detoxify the endocrine system.

Despite me asking several times, she never did tell me how she could tell as soon as I walked in the room that all was not well. Was it in the eyes? I’m willing to believe so.

• Read more about the theory and history of iridology, and what to expect at a consultation, by clicking here.