This article is Day 4 of a long term vision improvement experiment. To get the full value of what I am learning, be sure to check out the introductory article which also has links to all of my updates.
Life is a whole lot better without glasses, apart from the blurry vision. I can touch any part of my face without consideration for a fragile appliance sitting on my head. I can take my shirt off or put it on without damaging anything. I can lay my head on my pillow. I can do all these things without delay when I’m not wearing glasses.
The downside is that my uncorrected vision could use some serious improvement. I’ve adapted to being unglassed and I get around comfortably. My work at the computer isn’t slowed down too much. I find myself bringing my head in for a closer look at times, but I can keep it at the same distance I usually work from, 18 inches (which is probably too close).
Today I continued learning about the various methods of vision correction. I found out that the idea of removing my glasses for a month falls under relaxation, while other philosophies add or emphasize strengthening the muscles that control the eyes with various exercises. Some books suggest nothing but relaxation techniques like removing glasses as the way to correct vision. The other school of thought says that although relaxation is valuable, only actively working the eyes can produce results. They say that the many people who fail to achieve any vision correction have either not bothered with strengthening exercises, gave up on them, or didn’t do enough.
I’m inclined to believe the strengthening people, so I will be testing those techniques as well as relaxing my eyes every chance I get.
Much of the literature I’ve found is hard to read or just plain archaic, which certainly lends to the air of pseudoscience. Not long after I had that thought, however, I remembered a recent newspaper article I saved and dug it up. It’s a little blurb from the mainstream media that actually casts some doubt on the purely genetic interpretation of myopia. These nice people say:
The number of Americans who need glasses is rising sharply, according to a new study at the National Eye Institute. The scientists, writing in a recent issue of Archives of Opthalmology, found a 66% increase in myopia — the medical term for nearsightedness — since the 1970s, equalling 47 million people. … What’s more, there was a swing from mild to more severe myopia over the 30-year period.”
Parade Magazine, February 7, 2010
Ah, Parade Magazine. Now you can see what quality literature I read! Actually, I’m lucky if I even get to Parade Magazine when I read the newspaper. I usually read only the comics*. But I digress…
So myopia has increased 66% in the last 40 years? What could be the reason? As the article explains later: “The reason for the increase is unknown…” Since we all know that myopia is a genetic disease, the dramatic increase must be due to rapid evolution… NOT!
Seriously, little statistics like that remind me why I’m doing this experiment. The issue is far from settled. It appears that years of near work and glasses wearing both cause and worsen myopia. I’m almost certain that we didn’t evolve to become half-blind by our teenage years. The main question is whether the damage is permanent or reversible?
As I read through this archaic semi-medical literature, I’m encountering many different theories along with many possible solutions — many more than I realized. Some of the natural vision people even claim that you can’t fix your vision once it’s degraded past a certain point. I’m willing to try, though.
Once I sort through it all, I will be able to post more specifics about my own program.
By the way, to be fair to the article I mentioned above, they did quote a doctor who blames lifestyle. And it ended by saying that studies show that children who spend more time outdoors have less myopia. But it says nothing about what mechanism may be leading to all of this glasses wearing, or what might be done to either prevent or reverse it. The article doesn’t challenge anything; this alarming increase in nearsightedness is passed along as a curiosity that researchers don’t know what to do with.
*It’s been fifteen years since Calvin and Hobbes ended and the comics page still isn’t the same.
7 Comments
What kind of exercises are you doing? Or do you plan on reserving that for a later post?
I’ll be describing those in detail very soon. I jumped in to this thinking it was as simple as taking off my glasses and doing some exercises, but there are various schools of thought on what to do. I do have some interesting stuff to report.
Wow, I recently (yesterday) began wearing glasses. I am only 23 and cannot see 15 ft in front of my face. The glasses are great, I mean I can read road signs, see people’s faces, etc. However, I know that when I take them off, my vision is worse than it was before I put the glasses on, and within a minute it returns to normal (which is not quite as good as it is with the glasses).
I am a skeptic by nature and think that glasses only beget more glasses. And at 500$ a pair of glasses there is no incentive for natural vision improvement in the ophtho/opto field.
I hope your vision improves with the natural test. I am not sure if I should wear my glasses or not. Sacrifice my mediocre vision without glasses for perfect vision with glasses?
By the way…I agree about Calvin & Hobbes, I had all of the collections. Comics will never be the same.
We have much in common, are you a medical student as well? (I am) I will continue reading you blog.
Thanks for your comments. I’m a skeptic too. My vision did improve a little bit, but I don’t know whether that is due to increased focusing power, some kind of limited ability for vision to temporarily change, or genuine improvement. I guess I’ll find out!
I still question much of the common wisdom. I was stupid to wear my glasses all the time, including in front of the computer, as my doctor recommended. If I can see the display fine without glasses, why wear them at all? And the fact that you’re prescribed glasses under dark conditions, then go out and wear them in bright sunlight when your prescription naturally goes down a bit, is ludicrous. But since the optical community doesn’t believe glasses cause or worsen vision, they wouldn’t believe that being overprescribed is a problem.
Hey, I’m glad you like Calvin and Hobbes too. Do you also like scuba diving? Or hockey? I’m not a medical student, but I play one on the internet.
Hi Tod,
Like you I am totally interested in prevention at 20/40 to 20/60. I know all the “difficulties” and believe we should be taught to do this (plus prevention) before we begin to wear that wretched minus. Keep up your excellent work — we all learn TOGETHER. Best, Otis
There is no “perfect” way to say this, but as soon as we started reading, our eyes started to change their status, from plus to minus. The Eskimo data (study) shows this conclusively. The grandparents (Barrow, Alaska), had no school, and positive refractive status (excellent distant vision), and their kids, with 12 years in school with intensive, long-term close work, became 88 percent negative (or myopic). When a plus is used (difficult with children), the eye stops going down. Here is the graph of this effort.
http://myopiafree.i-see.org/bifig1.gif
What this graph shows, is that our (un-protected) eyes go down at -1/2 diopter per year, from age 7 to 17. When a plus is worn (in a bifocal) the eye does not go down. This is why it would be wise to start with the plus before your Snellen goes below 20/40 to 20/70 — in my opinion. An OD simply will not tell you these facts, because they believe that even prevention is impossible.
Hi Tod,
I know it is difficult to accept the necessity to wear the plus when your Snellen is 20/40 (and -1/2 diopter). At that point, people have worked themselves OUT OF IT. But these ODs simply DO NOT GET IT! Here is the example of the “office thinking” of an OD.
LayMan> One of my favorite testimonies of \a young man using the plus lens before his myopia got too severe. It’s been posted on this form before but it is time for a review. Please share it with all your friends and OD colleagues. (August S., cleared from -1 diopter to 20/20 — posted here.
TynerOD> My friends and colleagues have many anecdotes about young men whose myopia stops progressing.
TynerOD> Myopia almost always stops progressing.
-MT
++++++
This man misses the point. The issue is not “stop progressing”, it is to AVOID ENTRY, by AVOIDING OD who over-prescribe the minus, and “kill” your eyes with that minus.
I don’t argue that it is easy to start prevention (before you ‘deal’ with an OD.) But it obvious, that OD “thinking” is such that they will never help you.
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