From dtrudget@candelo.dpie.gov.au Ukn Feb 9 08:50:31 1995 Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 17:22:21 +1100 From: dtrudget@candelo.dpie.gov.au (Danny Trudgett) Subject: Vision Improvement (re meditation) Status: RO X-Status: G'day I believe thare are four major steps in myopia therapy. In order of importance: * Reduce eye strain eg take regular eye breaks, use +ve lenses or weaker -ve lenses, etc * Relaxation if stress (read muscle tension) is a contributor, then remove the cause * Diet plenty of fresh fruit & veges, lots of vitamins (esp B group) * Re-learn teach your eyes how to relax and see clearly in the distance The first two are concerned with removing the cause. Good diet allows the body to function properly. Once the optimum (or at least improved) environment is created, then we can start to correct. Meditation appears especially beneficical as relaxation technique (reversing the affects of cumulative stress). Also, during meditation there is no accomodative strain (or at least there shouldn't be). Add to this the power of positive suggestion via the mantra, and you have a pretty good method for correcting stress-induced myopia. Worked for me, anyway (sans mantra). I improved 0.5 to 1 dipotre (from -2.5) over a 6 month period. Unfortunately, I lacked the discipline to stick at it and my eyes have regressed back to -2.75 . Such is life. FYI There is a place in India that teaches the 'relax and see' method (I don't actually know what the method involves, but it sounds pretty self descriptive). They treat myopia via diet & meditation. You must stay at the school full-time for at least one week. THE SCHOOL FOR PERFECT EYESIGHT 3, Rue Saint Louis (Upstairs), Sri Aurobindo Ashram P.O. Pondicherry 605002 India. Their telephone number is : 0091- 0413 - 37156 (91 is the country code for India, and 0413 is the area code for Pondicheery). Cheers Danny ========================================================================= From owner-i_see@indiana.edu Thu Apr 6 19:20:12 EST 1995 Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 19:11:54 -0500 (EST) From: Alex Eulenberg Subject: Emily Bates's Tips for Better Vision Status: RO X-Status: Emily A. Bates, laboratory assistant and then wife of Dr. William H. Bates (author of "Better Eyesight Without Glasses") was herself a leading practitioner of the Bates method. I just discovered a book by her, called "Stories From the Clinic", written under her previous name of Lierman, published in 1925. It is an excellent collection of case studies and a description of the Bates method in practice (Margaret Darst Corbett's "Help Yourself to Better Sight" and Clara Hackett's "Relax and See" are two other great resources for applications of the classic Bates method. They are out of print -- check your library or used book store for them). Here are some "suggestions" she gives (pp. 15-16) * * * 1. If the vision of the patient is improved under the care of the doctor, and the patient neglects to practice when he leaves the office, what he is told to do at home, the treatment has been of no benefit whatever. The improved vision was only temporary. Faithful practice permanently improves the sight to normal. 2. If the patient conscientiously practices the methods, as advised by the doctor, his vision always improves. This applies to patients with errors of refraction, as well as organic diseases. 3. For cases of squint [turned eye] we find that the long swing is beneficial to adults and to children. 4. When a patient suffers with cataract, palming is usually the best method of treatment, and should be practiced many times every day. [note for newcomers: Palming = covering the closed eyes with cupped hands, the fingers crossing on the forehead, so as to shut out all light -- the hands do not touch the eyelids!] 5. All patients with imperfect sight unconsciously stare, and should be reminded by those who are near to them to blink often. To stare is to strain. Strain is the cause of imperfect sight. The following rules will be found helpful if faithfully observed:-- 6. While sitting, do not look up without raising your chin. Always turn your head in the direction in which you loook. Blink often. 7. Do not make an effort to see things more clearly. If you let your eyes alone, things will clear up by themselves. 8. Do not look at anything longer than a fraction of a second without shifting. [Note: shifting = moving your point of visual attention, while observing the thing viewed to "move" in the opposite direction.] 9. While reading, do not think about your eyes, but let your mind and imagination rule. 10. When you are conscious of your eyes while looking at objects at any time, it causes discomfort and lessens your vision 11. It is very important that you learn how to imagine stationary objects to be moving, without moving your head or your body [i.e. sub- or semi-conscious shifting] 12. Palming is a help, and I suggest that you palm for a few minutes many times during the day, at least ten times. At night just before retiring, it is well to palm for half an hour or longer. * * * Note the emphasis on EFFORTLESSNESS, SHIFTING, PALMING, and FORGETTING ABOUT YOUR EYES. These three principles are often neglected in modern interpretations of Bates. Modern methods of vision improvement usually go along the lines of "practice makes perfect". What the Bates method emphasizes is that there is a right way and a wrong way to practice. If you try to look at those blurry letters by staring or straining to see them, YOUR VISION WILL GET NO BETTER. Failing to take these principles seriously is what I believe is the source of most discouragement and skepticism of the Bates method. Again I emphasize the importance of PROLONGED PALMING -- a half hour, preferably longer -- each day, and at smaller intervals throughout the day. If you think it's crazy and don't do it, you're missing out on a lot! During palming, it is helpful to visualize something pleasant. You must palm relaxedly -- we'll talk about how to do this later. --Alex ========================================================================= From owner-i_see@indiana.edu Sat Jun 3 23:38:28 EST 1995 Date: Sat, 3 Jun 1995 23:35:47 -0500 (EST) From: Alex Eulenberg Subject: Choosing your therapy glasses Status: RO X-Status: On lessening myopia. I've just been looking over some books by Jacob Raphaelson, published in the 50s and 60s, published by the "Research Foundation for the Prevention of Myopia, Inc." which, unfortunately, died with Raphaelson in the 60s. He presents an incontrovertible case against minus lenses and for plus lenses for myopes. Most of his advice is for children, for preventing myopia. He argues that if you just wear +1.00 reading glasses (available at any drugstore) for all prolonged near work, you won't go myopic. My advice for moderate myopes (-3.00 to -5.00): You want to give your eyes as much distance practice as possible: you want to "unbend" your eyes so they can see into the distance. First of all, NEVER READ WITH MINUS LENSES ON! If this means you have to hold the paper four inches from your face in order to read it, so be it! If you hold the paper as far away as you can so that the letters are still good and legible, this will be equivalent to looking at the moon WITH your glasses on, as far as your focusing is concerned. Conversely, reading at a "comfortable" distance with your glasses on is like holding the paper even CLOSER to your face than the distance you would read it at without glasses, as far as focusing is concerned. Does this make sense? If it is difficult to read, this is probably because it's hard to read while your eyes are so crossed. I suggest putting a patch over one eye as you read, alternating the patched eye at regular intervals. Always have your reading material as far away as possible. Can you get around without your glasses? My advice is to get yourself used to walking around lensless. I am, with about 1 diopter of myopia, able to get around with +3.25 glasses on (the equivalent of a -4.25 myope without glasses). If you're really serious about this, I think you can make great progress in a week if you JUST DON'T WEAR YOUR GLASSES. Summer is a great time for this. Make sure you get a lot of walking done outside. Look at the treetops (but watch where you're going!) Close your eyes and let the sun shine on your face as you rock back and forth -- this does wonders! At first, you might get eyestrain, because your brain/muscle system is learning new perceived distance/amount-of-focus ratios. Take it in stride, using your favorite relaxation technique (e.g. palming, swinging, neck massage, acupressure) when things start getting strenuous. I've been doing some research on myopia reduction projects; in all of them the subjects are "undercorrected", which means they wear weak minus lenses during the course of the project. The results are kind of ho-hum. In all the best "improve your eyesight" books and articles (the ones with the best and quickest reported results) the advice is to discard your glasses as soon as possible. No halfway measures. Every myope's first goal in vision improvement should be to learn to manage without glasses at all. Yes, it will be fatiguing at first, so choose a period of time where you won't be under a lot of extra stress. Maybe you want to experiment for one day a week, or a block of hours every day, and gradually increase. (Importantly, make sure you LOOK AROUND during this time!) If you drive, get yourself a pair of 20/40 glasses (the legal minimum for driving). Vic pointed out you may want to save your 20/20 glasses for night driving. Important: request a 100% spherical correction, which means no cylinder, no "astigmatism" correction. Get some cheap but sturdy frames and plain plastic lenses. Summer is the perfect time to start going without glasses! For low myopes: It's no problem for you to get around without your prescription. Now go to the drugstore and get some +1.00 reading glasses. Wear them for extended periods of time, and always when you read or write. Or be bold and get some even higher power -- the more power you can tolerate, the more dramatic your improvement will be! ---Alex ========================================================================= From owner-i_see@indiana.edu Sun Nov 26 21:44:51 EST 1995 Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 21:34:11 -0500 (EST) From: Alex Eulenberg Subject: Tips for the Nearsighted Status: RO X-Status: The best way to improve nearsighted eyes is... take your glasses off and get used to it! You will notice an amazing improvement in your glasses free vision if you can do this for a week, especially if you spend lots of time outside. This is not enough to bring you to 20/20, but it is a start. The most important thing is to practice looking at the details of familiar, distant objects. They should be familiar, because you don't want to waste brain energy trying to interpret what you're looking at, when you should be re-training your brain to focus for far. The trick is to see the point that you are looking at best. Strain results from trying to see everything all at once equally well. So imagine that whatever you are looking at is perfectly clear, sharp, and distinct, while everything peripheral is correspondingly indistinct. This will also force your eye to shift more frequently; less staring = less eyestrain. It is true that high myopia is caused by an eyeball that is inherently too long, but myopia also results from a focusing muscle that cannot relax. Relaxation of that muscle brings about a reduction in nearsightedness. Many believe that it is actually the over-contraction that leads to the eyeball elongation in the first place. Please check out http://silver.ucs.indiana.edu/~aeulenbe/i_see.html for more information on this subject, including bibliographies. There are lots of books still in print, and many more available at the library! --Alex ========================================================================= From aeulenbe@indiana.edu Mon Nov 27 10:06:01 1995 Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 10:06:00 -0500 (EST) From: Alex Eulenberg Subject: Focusing and Myopia Status: RO X-Status: On Mon, 27 Nov 1995 AmgS@aol.com wrote: > Sounds good, but - if the eyeball is already elongated, can relaxing the > muscle cause it to return to normal shape? > An normal eye can become nearsighted by (a) making the lens more convex, or (b) elongating the eye (increasing the distance between the lens and the retina). According to the standard theory of accommodation (i.e. how the eye focuses, or "accommodates" to see objects at different distances) the eyeball does not change shape when the eye changes focus. Instead, the ciliary muscles cause the lens, which is inside the eye, behind the pupil, to change chape. When the muscles contract, the lens becomes more convex for near objects, and when it relaxes, the lens becomes less convex for distant objects. Now if the muscles that control the lens become cramped, and unable to relax, then the lens will become perpetually more convex than it should be for distance viewing. This is known as "pseudomyopia". It can be cured by relaxing the ciliary muscles. It is thought that pseudomyopia, or too much close focusing, for one reason or another, causes the eye to elongate, either by the action of the lens, or by an increase in internal pressure during close-focusing. This is a poorly studied area, but there are experiments to support this contention (see Myopia Control bibliography at the I_SEE page). Many people have their eye-elongation myopia compounded with muscle-cramp mypopia, as evidenced by the fact that their prescription plummeted after a month or two of wearing no glasses, or glasses of a weaker prescription, and in that time, making it a habit to look at the details of distant objects. I add here that it has been theorized, and there is evidence for the idea, that, in addition to changes in the lens, the eye actually DOES change length during accommodation, primarily under the influence of the muscles OUTSIDE the eye. This makes the connection between excessive close focusing and increased eye length much easier to understand. Permanent myopia then, is the result of an over-stretched eye. No optometrist or ophthalmologist that I know of today believes this theory of accommodation; however, I have uploaded experiments that give evidence for the theory on the I_SEE page, that are about 200 years old... http://silver.ucs.indiana.edu/~aeulenbe/i_see.html --Alex =========================================================================