Natural Vision Improvement

[indigobarbie]

Hi I am really interested in this ie the bates method, and Dr Martin Sussman. They advocate doing without your glasses for as long as you can, or getting a weaker prescription. Has anyone tried this? I have read a lot of success stories, anything is worth a shot ;)

If you can do without your glasses for any period of time, you are very lucky already... As for a weaker prescription - do you fancy crashing your car?

Otherwise translated as, I think it's a load of codswallop. Might help psychologically, though, if you convince yourself it is less strain to do things without your glasses/old prescription these days.

However, some opticians do technically over-correct, as in, eg, correcting a short-sighted person's vision to better than 20/20 (but possibly producing more muscle strain therefore for them while looking at things close up, as the muscles have to work harder to focus) - this can also result in quite flatteringly significant improvements in prescription when short sighted people get old enough to start getting presbyopia (thus not benefiting any more from the "over-correction", as it just makes the presbyopia more noticeable). So, a weaker prescription in those circumstances wouldn't do you any harm and might even be beneficial - you'd still be able to go about your daily business quite safely.

ps I'm not an optician or eye expert, so feel free to take my comments with a pinch of salt! I was informed, however, that my optician-tested prescription was higher than the prescription indicated by the machines that assess your refractive error, hence my comments on over-correction.

HI rabbitstew, thanks for your reply. I know what you are saying re crashing the car, but from what I can gather, if you get glasses which are slightly undercorrected then your vision can improve, but you would need to keep revisiting the optician to get a weaker prescription (that's the theory anyways).

I am shortsighted -5.50 in each eye, so can't really go without them, but I believe for the last 17 years of wearing specs that I have been getting over corrected, and I would so love to be able to do without glasses or contact lenses and without going for laser. There are many many accounts of people (in books, and on the web) of people who have achieved 20/20 vision after years of wearing glasses.

I want to be one of them! A few years ago I tried to find behavioural optometrist, but without any luck. It's bound to be worth a shot, and opticians will still make money from dispensing me a lower prescription. :)

If you can cure your eyesight problems that way, I'll eat my hat... I don't believe you can significantly change the shape of your eyeball by going without the right glasses prescription.

As an Optometrst, I must agree with Rabbitstew's opinion about it being codswallop!!

You are moderately short-sighted at -5.50DS, and what it means is your eyeball is too long or the lens inside your eye is too powerful. Whichever it is, the light focusses to0 far in front of your retina and so you can't see in the distance without help.

I see no way that by having a weaker prescription you can make your lens become less strong or your eyeball to grow longer. Certainly not by -5.50DS.

Laser surgery works by removing tissue from the cornea (front surface) to make it less powerful. This is in effect changing the shape of your eyeball.

If you were to be undercorrect to, say, -5.00, you would be reading about a line or 2 less on the letter chart. This would make you unsafe for night driving. So it would be very very costly, even if by some miracle your eyes did improve, to change your prescription in the way you suggest.

Codswallop!!

As an Optometrst, I must agree with Rabbitstew's opinion about it being codswallop!!

You are moderately short-sighted at -5.50DS, and what it means is your eyeball is too long or the lens inside your eye is too powerful. Whichever it is, the light focusses to0 far in front of your retina and so you can't see in the distance without help.

I see no way that by having a weaker prescription you can make your lens become less strong or your eyeball to grow longer. Certainly not by -5.50DS.

Laser surgery works by removing tissue from the cornea (front surface) to make it less powerful. This is in effect changing the shape of your eyeball.

If you were to be undercorrect to, say, -5.00, you would be reading about a line or 2 less on the letter chart. This would make you unsafe for night driving. So it would be very very costly, even if by some miracle your eyes did improve, to change your prescription in the way you suggest.

Codswallop!!

Sorry for the double post, I wanted at add that. And I am -5.75 and would love to improve my prescription. But do not see how this would work.

Oh Miffles :( Thank you so much for posting up! I get what you are saying re the lense of the eye and the underprescription thing. I am not sure how it is meant to work, but I think I remember something along what Rabbit said re the focusing and perhaps if wearing a lesser prescription the eyes don't have to 'try' as hard to see? Don't know.

I think the main thing with these vision improvements is relaxation of the eye muscles. I thought that if your eye muscles were tight then this would change the shape of your eye? Obviously I am no expert, but it sounds good in practise. Other countries dedicate time to do eye exercises to relax the eyes, but in the UK it seems rare. Were you ever taught anything about the bates method when you were becoming an optometrist? I don't mind being a guinea pig for us all. I purchased this book www.program-for-better-vision.com/?gclid=CLK2_cT0qqQCFdhb4wod0gaH5Q I admit the website looks dubious but the book makes sense, well I'd like to it work for me!

Relaxation of the eye muscles can help with eye strain, but not with the permanent reshaping of the eyeball...

Although feel free to go ahead with it and report back!

I tried it in my early twenties (much against the advice of my optometrist at the time, but they did agree eventually to let me try the experiment). I can't remember how long I did it for but it was several months. At the time, I didn't drive, so there were no safety issues.

Basically all I achieved was a lot of migraines and I felt very isolated (so much of recognition/social stuff and feelings of safety in your surroundings are generated by how well you can see around you). It's not something I would ever repeat or recommend to anyone.

Incidentally - my prescription is -5.5 (L) and -3.25 (R) - so fairly similar prescription, if that helps.

Interestingly, I've just discovered that the Bates Method is covered on QuackWatch so if you're interested in a detailed critique of the science behind it, it's worth a read.

I am short sighted but rarely where my glasses, only for cinema and theatre.
My eyesight has not improved at all in 30 years.

I am also an optometrist and have seen some people who try these and similar methods.

I think a study was done on one method and the finding was, in a nutshell, that while prescriptions did not improve, that the candidates perceived that they had improved.

And agree with Miffles that optoms do NOT routinely overprescribe.

Bates method was based on the invalid assumption that refractive error was controlled by the six extraocular muscles.
It isn't.

I do think that if someone is pseudomyopic, relaxation methods will work but not where someone is actually myopic.

Also, as optometrists, one of the things we do with each patient is ophthalmoscopy where we view the back of the eye.

Without knowing anything else about the patient, nine times out of ten, I could identify whether the patient was myopic or not just by viewing the back of the eye. A myopic eye has a "stretched" appearance where the retina appears thinner than in a hypermetropic( longsighted) patient or one with normal vision. I don't believe there is any exercise in the world.which which will normalise this.

I am quite happy for any of my patients to try any method they want and will facilitate them if they want to try a weaker prescription, for example, but do advise them not to get their hopes up too much!

I think I could count on one hand how many people I've seen who were pseudo-myopic. And it certainly isn't the people who have had a moderate myopic prescription for 10 years or so!

I too would be happy to take someones money, sell them lots of spectacles or contact lenses to try things, but am pretty confident that it won't work! As Chipmonkey and I have said, you can't change the anatomy of the eye.

I do wonder if this is getting muddled with the theory about children's eyes and their development. In America some Optometrists will prescribe bifocals to children, so that they do not need to accommodate for near, with the idea being that the eye does not need to work so hard, so during development it does not grow to the focusing position. Trials and studies in England did not support this and so it is not practised.

Chipmonkey - have you come across the recent idea about peripheral blur inducing myopia? I believe one of the contact lens companies is investigating something to do with it....can't remember the details?

Yes, I have seen that but as far as I know there is still nothing available on the market to try? I know one of my very myopic colleagues is very excited about it!
It was based on a study by Holden if that's any help.

There is possibly also some evidence that children with poor accommodative facility ( ability to focus and unfocus) are more likely to become myopic than those with good AF but I think once you are myopic that's pretty much it.

I have found a few pseudomyopic children but very, very rarely find it in adults.

I have bought one or two of the books written on this, by the way.

One goes on about nutrition a lot but fails to mention lutein at all!

The other was for parents of children with eye problems and went on about how ophthalmologists and optometrist were "well-meaning" but mistaken. I wasn't impressed!