The Secret of Myopia V1.0

uh, well, you train for what you wish to do, that's how they do it in sports.

want to run a marathon? run a lot, increasing in duration, over time, you'll achieve the 42 km you want, unless can't be arsed anymore after a while, that is,

want to lift weight? continually increase the load, etc, etc.


the eye shouldn't be that different, but most people are forced to use them at close range for a long time and fall into patterns of behavior where they don't use the eyes to their fullest anymore.


i posted a thread on the Bates method years ago, it deals with ways to train your eyes with, for prevention or improvement. see: www.abovetopsecret.com...


stress or ingested stress hormones might also play a role.

Originally posted by Sky01
Summary:

1) Focussing on near objects causes stress on the eye
2) This stress can deform the eye
3) This deformation is treated with eyeglasses
4) These eyeglasses only bring things nearer to you (virtually, but real enough for the eye muscles)
5) This increases stress, increases deformation, increases prescription, cycle
Retinal detatchment, etc, and essentially incapacitation without glasses.

Um, sort of. I agree with 1, 3 (sort of), 4, and 5 (sort of).

For some people, long term near-point stress will cause ciliary muscle changes that are semi-permanent.

Also, and this is something you don't hear a lot about, your eye has the capacity to lengthen under certain types of stimuli. It's slow but it happens. The degree and speed at which this occurs is likely also genetic.

Definitely, one of these stimuli is low light conditions, oddly enough. If you are indoors all the time, your eyes will lengthen. Going outside and "sunning", something that Bates used to advocate, neutralizes one of the enzymes in the signaling cascade for eye lengthening, so it actually has some merit.

I would be surprised if constant near-point adaptation didn't cause it as well, although I haven't read any studies on it.

As far as glasses and progressive myopia goes, there are some very fascinating studies that are fairly recent that explain that in a way that actually makes sense.

A prime stimulus for long term eye lengthening/shortening has been discovered to be the focal plane in your peripheral vision. If the "in focus" plane for your peripheral vision is in front of the retina, your eye will over time become shorter until your peripheral vision is in focus. If the "in focus" plane is behind your peripheral retina, your eyes will lengthen.

The problem comes in with the way your glasses or contacts are made. They focus the image at your fovea, where your detailed central vision occurs, but they typically place the peripheral focus behind your retina. This causes your eyes to lengthen in response, as your eye tries to reshape itself to match long term changes in your natural optics. As this happens, the foveal focus will move forward in front of your retina, and your glasses "won't be strong enough anymore". So you get new ones...and once more the peripheral focus moves behind the retina, and your eye grows even longer in response.

This is the hotly debated new theory - it actually makes sense and there are some pretty good studies that seem to back it up.

There's no real reason you can't design glasses or contacts to maintain peripheral focus, or even to place the peripheral focus in front of the retina while holding the focus at the fovea, which should cause progressive improvement instead of progressive myopia, if the theory is true. They just don't, or at least, haven't up until now.

CooperVision is getting patents on it for contacts (see also MiSight contacts), and I've heard some of the lens guys are looking at it for glasses.

Oh, and that reminds me, there used to be a training machine for treating ciliary muscle spasm that NASA developed, you could book time on them at opthalmologists that owned them.

I can't remember for the life of me what the name of the machine was, but people could typically add back a diopter or more with use. Something like Accomotrac.

reply to post by VneZonyDostupa


You bring up valid points, but the fact remains that most people have no idea what glasses are doing to their eyes, as made clear by questioning real people on the street who wear glasses and have done so for many years, or those who do not wear glasses but know somebody who does.

And I do not deny that glasses/contacts are the fastest and easiest way to correct vision; this article is more about the prevention of myopia in the first place, and understanding why your vision blurs in the first place leading to a trip to the optometrist. This is why I devote relatively little space to the science behind why minus lenses accelerate visual acuity degradation

reply to post by Bedlam


Hmm, I hadn't seen this before; Accommotrac it's called, and it gives you sound cues to know how hard your focusing (how much stress you're putting on the cillary muscles), an interesting biofeedback device.

reply to post by Bedlam


By deformation of the eye, I do mean lengthening.

By wearing undercorrective lenses (-1.00 if you're a -1.25 myope), you sacrifice little in terms of vision quality and the the light rays converge (slightly) in front of your retina, rather than behind it as you said, if you are wearing minus lenses at your prescription

reply to post by Long Lance


Indeed, just like the rest of your body, the eyes have muscles that have no realized that energy is no longer a concern and that food is abundantly available, and they try to do everything to minimize energy expenditure.

When I was 15 I had myopia. I knew the idea of acclimation to glasses and so I chose not to get any. At the age of 19 I had an astigmatism from my eyes constantly trying to stretch my lenses to focus, eventually my lenses were stretched out of shape. My vision went from 20/40 to 20/150 at the age of 21. So I disagree in my situation. Not getting it corrected caused more problems. I adapted to my bad vision for so long because I refused to wear glasses that I had learned to recognize people by the pattern of their stride and voice because I couldn't see faces. I recognized letters by the shape of the blobs they made. I'm happy I got glasses.

reply to post by dbloch7986


I doubt your astigmatism arose in the way you said it did. Astigmatism accompanies myopia and also progresses with myopia in the vast majority of cases, the same vast majority which wear glasses at all times. I too had myopia at 15, and stopped wearing my glasses, and my myopia has not gotten worse, nor has my astigmatism changed...I suspect there is some crucial information missing in your story

reply to post by Sky01


My main point is that I did not wear glasses and my vision got worse. If you don't want to believe me that's fine. I'm only relating a personal anecdote.

If you would like to point me in the direction of whatever kind of information you thinl is missing, feel free. I will gladly see if I l forgot some details. Or maybe there is something that could have worsened my vision that I was not aware of.

I was 15, had an eye exam, told I was nearsighted (20/30) and refused glasses. When I was 19 and getting ready to drive and needes glasses and my vision was worse.

guys, check out taking supplements that can help to improve vision-
bilberry
elderberry
grape seed extract
lutein

a good place to buy this stuff is on vitacost.com

also, make it a must to take HEMP oil every day. google the benefits of it and you'll be on it forever!

also, google Edgar Cayce exercises for eyes.
I google Edgar Cayce remedies for all health problems- he was a miracle man!