Aparna’s Myopia Reduction

A Year’s worth of vision improvement, with scanned prescriptions

by Aparna Nair

First posted: December 30, 2008

INTRODUCTION

Hi,

Just to introduce myself, I’m a final year medical student, who started wearing glasses (-2.00) aged 8 years. I expected my myopia to stabilise when I entered my 20s (I’m now 26) but that did not happen! In fact my vision worsened faster after I entered medical school and started doing much more reading and computer work than ever before—it reached -5.00/5.25 at its worst.

A while ago I read in the paper about a pilot who’d improved his myopia enough to get into aviation school through vision training. I was sceptical but was ready to try anything to prevent my vision worsening and thought I had nothing to lose by giving it a go!

I started out initially with Bates techniques (palming etc). These days I mainly practice the ‘retinal defocus’ program described by Mr David De Angelis in his book (The Secret of Perfect Vision), as this has rapidly improved my vision—by about 1 dioptre since I started three months ago—and I’m hoping for more!

All the best to those of you who’re trying to improve your vision—it can be done!

Just a brief explanation of what happened around the time of each eye test, so you have a better idea of what was going on in terms of the prescriptions.

DECEMBER 2, 2007: -5.00 (right eye), -5.25 (left eye).

This is the highest myopia I’ve had. I’d been wearing -4.50 contacts daily, or -5.00 specs, for a whole month before the eye test (instead of my reduced -4.0 specs). This was because I was practicing intensively for a university dance competition at the time and wanted 20/20 to feel confident!

JANUARY 22, 2008: -5.00 (right eye), -5.00 (left eye)

Vision is a bit better in left eye. I had started Bates techniques like palming after the December eye test. I had this eye test after about a month of Bates to check the benefits.
I was a bit disheartened by my still high prescription. This, and having to prepare for some stressful exams, led to my stopping all vision training exercises for a while. I continued to follow Bates’ advice to avoid wearing glasses as much as possible though.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008: -4.75 (right eye), -4.50 (left eye)

I read The Secret of Perfect Vision by David De Angelis at the start of September, and had been doing the exercises for about a week when I had this eye test. This was the first time that my prescription had significantly reduced and I was very pleased.
I decided to intensify my program, and start doing 1-2 hours of print pushing six days a week. I carried on doing this for the next couple of months before my December eye test.

DECEMBER 11, 2008: -3.75 (right eye), -4.00 (left eye)

This eye test was soon after I returned home after two months abroad on a relaxed medical training placement during which I didn’t need 20/20 much!!
I’d been wearing -2.00 or no glasses (rarely -3.0, never -4.0) during this time. I also did 1.5-2.0 hours of print pushing a day, and kept tabs on my vision with my home Snellen.

(Sorry I haven’t bothered mentioning the astigmatism, but overall that’s improved too!)

Needless to say, I am over the moon at the reduction in my myopia! I am definitely going to keep at it to see if I can improve further as it’s been working for me so far!

LESSONS I’VE LEARNT

The key lessons for me from the whole process have been to:

Avoid glasses like the plague!! (sorry if it sounds a bit dramatic but it’s what I feel!)
Stick to whatever eye exercises seem to be working.

PRINT PUSHING

I do the print pushing exercises pretty much the way Mr De Angelis has described in his book. That is, I take a book and hold it until it blurs just a little, and then look sharply above/below/left/right/diagonally, as far ‘out’ as I can for about 5 seconds. I also raise my eyebrows widely and blink forcefully 4-5 times as I look back at the text.

I usually sit near a window as I do print pushing, and look up sharply at the sky as a CRB movement. Aside from the stretching benefit, I think looking to a distance helps to reduce any strain that might occur from looking repeatedly at a book during a 20-30 min print pushing session.

GLASSES/CONTACTS WEARING

For the last year, I’ve worn glasses that are one dioptre less than my current prescription. Last year my prescription was -5.00/-5.25 and I wore -4.0, but only at work and never at home.

As my prescription is now around -4.0, I wear -3.0 to work. Again I never wear glasses at home, but have a pair of -2.0 that I use very rarely in 'safe places' like home. I keep my -4.0 specs for 'emergencies' like when I'm lost somewhere and need to read signs at a distance!

I avoid wearing contacts as much as possible—have worn them (-3.25) for one day in the last three months.

SNELLEN READING

I do have a home Snellen chart (3 m / 10 ft chart) and test my vision every day. With my -2.0 specs, I can now make out the letters on the 20/125 line decently well. I couldn’t do that three months ago, when I could not read below the 20/200 line with -2.0 specs.

Without glasses, I can only see the topmost 20/400 line, but not the next line below (20/200).

RECORD KEEPING

I also keep an eye exercise diary and record the amount of time spent doing print-pushing, and my own estimate of my vision based on Snellen readings.

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