Optometry Scam

Sam Mcgee

Sam Mcgee

I've found that my eyes are affected from spending too much time looking at stock charts and such on computer monitors. Over the last few years I've had to get stronger and stronger prescriptions. Finally my prescriptions for distance vision became so strong I wasn't able to see my computer monitor. The optometrist said I need bifocals. I bought a pair of glasses with progressive lenses which I absolutely hated. I could hardly see to drive except in one small area in the top of the lense. If I wanted to see my computer monitor I had to cock my head up and look at the monitor from about 12 inches away.

I did some research on the net and found claims that eye exercises can cure myopia. Basically the proponents of eye exercise are claiming that the whole system of optometry and opthamology is a scam. Here's one of many articles describing the theory in detail:
http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/3/free_your_eyes/

I'd love to be able to improve my vision and avoid having to get stronger and stronger prescriptions. Has anyone else experienced deteriorating eyesight from too much time looking at the computer? Has anyone tried any form of vision therapy or do they know anything about it?
 
There was the Bates method back in the day. I knew one guy that told me that his mom, and she was not very old, did the exercises and improved her vision substantially.. that is very anecdotal of course but I believed the guy, I was using the Bates method at one point but my life got disrupted and I dropped it, I seemed to be making a little progress really over my nearsightedness.. I've heard that eye exercises are not much good if you are too old..
 
I think this is a serious issue for anyone like a trader who spends more than an hour a day at the computer. I'm sure there are many traders who have damaged their vision with too much time at the computer. We'd all love to be good profitable traders but would it be worth it to go blind in the process?

Basically, what I understand, the major cause of myopia/nearsightedness is spending too much time with your eyes focused close in. Our eyes were designed to focus at a distance. Do some research and you'll see that Myopia was a rare condition until people started going to school and they had to spend hours with their eyes focused close up on books.

Optometrists will claim that myopia is an inherited condition but all the evidence shows that it's a behavioural condition. If people were born with myopia, evolution would naturally eliminate the condition since those people would make poor hunters.

Optometrists have been taught that the cure for myopia is to prescribe stronger and stronger eyeglasses as your eyes become weaker and weaker. It isn't actually a cure but it just compounds the problem. Its just like someone who can't sleep, the doctor prescribes them a sleeping pill. Then one pill isn't enough and the doctor has to prescribe stronger and stronger pills. Why didn't the doctor just tell the patient to exercise more and they'll sleep better.

My eyes are at about -3.0 right now. What I was going to do was to find a weak prescription for the computer so that my eyes would be focusing at a distance. Something like a -2.0, just strong enough to enable me to see the computer screen. My hope is to not make my eyes lazy by wearing too strong a prescription when I spend all day at the computer.

I'm sure my optometrist would refuse to give me an eyeglass prescription for -2.0, he'd think I'm nuts or would be afraid that I'd try to drive with it. I'll have to obtain mail order eyeglasses from another country but that's fine. You can get a lot of discount eyeglasses for less than $30 for any prescription that you want.

Does anyone else experience problems with their eyes from spending too many hours at the computer?
 
Go to an Opthamologist and get the correct prescription from an MD, not some schmuck at lenscrafters!

Your eyes change in your early 40's regardless of how many hours a day you spend staring at an ES chart.

Stop trying to save money, and get the correct glasses.

surdo
 
There are all kinds of problems with the article you linked to. For example, comparing rates between old Inuit raised in a traditional environment to young Inuit raised in a more modern is classic survivorship bias (old Inuit with myopia get eaten by polar bears before they're "studied"). Many more problems than are suitable for discussion in this forum.

The bottom line is that myopia most definitely IS a heritable condition.

The human visual system is immensely complicated and involves huge amounts of (the equivalent of) "photoshopping" of the incoming data. It is quite possible you can improve vision to a degree by practicing looking at fuzzy, distant objects, as it can retrain your "algorithms". But only to a degree.

If you really don't like glasses, try contacts. The relative feeling of freedom is...tremendous.

Good luck!
 
Quote from Surdo:

Go to an Opthamologist and get the correct prescription from an MD, not some schmuck at lenscrafters!

Your eyes change in your early 40's regardless of how many hours a day you spend staring at an ES chart.

Stop trying to save money, and get the correct glasses.

surdo
More...

I have my insurance, my wife's insurance and government insurance that will pay for the optometrist or opthamologist.
I'm not trying to save money, I'm trying to save my vision, read the whole post.

It doesn't matter if he's a good opthamologist or optometrist or a schmuck. The whole industry is under the false presumption that the cure for myopia is prescription lenses when in reality, it's part of the cause of myopia.

A few people in the optometry business actually realize that they're causing harm to our eyes with prescription eyeglasses. However it would be foolhardy to actually admit it, they'd just be leaving themself open to a class action lawsuit. They make money with eye exams and selling eye glasses. They won't make money by just telling us not to spend too much time focused too close and to do eye exercises.
 
Quote from Random.Capital:

old Inuit with myopia get eaten by polar bears before they're "studied
More...

You could extend that logic to explain why the polar bear population is in decline. Global warming is a myth, that's not what's killing the bears. Maybe we should stop sending eyeglasses to the Inuit so the polar bears could have a fighting chance to get something to eat.
 
It would appear that Myopia does have some hereditary component but the traditional view that it is completely hereditary is falling by the wayside:
http://www.agingeye.net/myopia/2.1.php

A study could show that myopic children come from myopic parents but wouldn't it be logical that parents who read a lot will raise kids that read a lot.
 
Quote from Sam Mcgee:

I'd love to be able to improve my vision and avoid having to get stronger and stronger prescriptions. Has anyone else experienced deteriorating eyesight from too much time looking at the computer? Has anyone tried any form of vision therapy or do they know anything about it?
More...

I used to work in the field...

Your eyesight may deteriorate slightly, if at all, from excessive computer work. But there is little evidence that computer work, watching too much TV, reading too close, etc. has a major permanent effect on acuity. What usually happens is that the ocular muscles become tired for a short time. You lose your ability to focus from one distance to another and/or you get headaches or eyestrain.

That is one reason patients fall into the stronger and stronger prescription problem. They get used to an Rx, but when their eyes get tired, things get blurry. So they need a stronger Rx to do the work for them again. And on and on.

Vision therapy can help among other things with your ability to focus, also known as accomodation. It will not help your acuity directly, but in helping your accomodation, your acuity may improve indirectly. ie. Since you get tired less often, your vision may seem more clear, and your acuity will seem better.

One easy form of vision therapy you can do at home is to cover one eye, and have an eyechart on a distance wall and an eye chart a few inches from the eye. Practice reading a letter at the close chart, then far chart, then close chart, back and forth, back and forth...You will find in laymans terms that your eyes get stronger. But like other forms of exercise you have to stick with it.
 
Quote from Sam Mcgee:

I think this is a serious issue for anyone like a trader who spends more than an hour a day at the computer. I'm sure there are many traders who have damaged their vision with too much time at the computer. We'd all love to be good profitable traders but would it be worth it to go blind in the process?

Basically, what I understand, the major cause of myopia/nearsightedness is spending too much time with your eyes focused close in. Our eyes were designed to focus at a distance. Do some research and you'll see that Myopia was a rare condition until people started going to school and they had to spend hours with their eyes focused close up on books.

Optometrists will claim that myopia is an inherited condition but all the evidence shows that it's a behavioural condition. If people were born with myopia, evolution would naturally eliminate the condition since those people would make poor hunters.

Optometrists have been taught that the cure for myopia is to prescribe stronger and stronger eyeglasses as your eyes become weaker and weaker. It isn't actually a cure but it just compounds the problem. Its just like someone who can't sleep, the doctor prescribes them a sleeping pill. Then one pill isn't enough and the doctor has to prescribe stronger and stronger pills. Why didn't the doctor just tell the patient to exercise more and they'll sleep better.

My eyes are at about -3.0 right now. What I was going to do was to find a weak prescription for the computer so that my eyes would be focusing at a distance. Something like a -2.0, just strong enough to enable me to see the computer screen. My hope is to not make my eyes lazy by wearing too strong a prescription when I spend all day at the computer.

I'm sure my optometrist would refuse to give me an eyeglass prescription for -2.0, he'd think I'm nuts or would be afraid that I'd try to drive with it. I'll have to obtain mail order eyeglasses from another country but that's fine. You can get a lot of discount eyeglasses for less than $30 for any prescription that you want.

Does anyone else experience problems with their eyes from spending too many hours at the computer?
More...

one thing i think reall hurt eyes, was the change from black backgrounds on computer screens in the early 1990s

people were looking a way fewer lighted pixels back then
 
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