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How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-08-2013
Hi, I have begun the Bates method, however my sight is so bad I simply can not do away with my glasses. I only wear them when necessary, but they are necessary a lot!
How could I modify my glasses prescription so that they won't interfere as much with the method? I currently wear glasses that are one diopter weaker than full strength. That is down from -4.7 ish to -3.7. The other numbers on my prescription are not changed. If one wears weaker glsses the method should still work right?
Would it be better to also lower the other numbers too? So that my eye sight always has room for improvement even if I'm wearing my glasses?
Thanks
Astralogic
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Rabbi - 05-08-2013
Wearing weaker prescription glasses will only strain your eyes. Don't do it. I have also tried it but it strained my eyes so much that I am now back to my original prescription glasses. I wear -2.50 glasses and I feel like I am blind as a bat without them. How could you just function without wearing -4.75 glasses? Its strange.
Sadly there is absolutely no non-surgical cure for myopia. Refractive surgery is the only cure for myopia. I tried every possible natural way to improve my eyesight but my eyesight didn't improve one bit. I won't say vision therapy is bad. They are very good for eye health if done rightly but honestly speaking there is no natural treatment to cure disgusting blinding disorder called myopia.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-08-2013
Rabbi Wrote:Wearing weaker prescription glasses will only strain your eyes. Don't do it. I have also tried it but it strained my eyes so much that I am now back to my original prescription glasses. I wear -2.50 glasses and I feel like I am blind as a bat without them. How could you just function without wearing -4.75 glasses? Its strange.
Sadly there is absolutely no non-surgical cure for myopia. Refractive surgery is the only cure for myopia. I tried every possible natural way to improve my eyesight but my eyesight didn't improve one bit. I won't say vision therapy is bad. They are very good for eye health if done rightly but honestly speaking there is no natural treatment to cure disgusting blinding disorder called myopia.
My full strength glasses strain my eyes much more than my weaker ones.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-08-2013
Rabbi, you may have been wearing glasses that were too weak and so you felt you had to strain to see clearly enough through them. Please don't proclaim your own negative experience as if it will be true for everyone else! I'd try a very slightly weaker prescription than your usual one, as you may have taken to big of a jump, plus some relaxation practices like palming.
Yes, Astralogic, glasses which allow you to see 20/40 are usually much more relaxing than ones which force you to a crisp sharp 20/20 or more. My behavioral optometrist reports that people who put on the glasses he prescribres for them often emit a huge involuntary sigh of relaxation at being able to see well enough, yet not straining as much as they were before with glasses on. It is very important for vision improvers to learn that seeing clearly is not supposed to be work!
If your astigmatism correction (the "other numbers"), the CYL one with an angle like 180 or 120, is less than -2 you can try eliminating it, else reduce it by no more than 2 (like changing -3.5 to -1.5 or -2). This is an additional minus correction in only one angle of your glasses and can often throw off your posture, head tilt, etc. as you naturally try to compensate. And as you've already said, do without glasses as much as you can, safely. You do not want to strain -- you want to learn that seeing is easy, and fun, not a big struggle.
Like I tell my students, see well, and be well!
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-08-2013
Here is my prescription:
Right eye: Sph = -4.75 Cyl = +1.25 Axis = 10D (or 100 can't quite read the hadnwriting).
Left eye: Sph = -4.75 Cyl = +0.75 Axis = 77 1/2
What modifications would you recommend? Also could you recommend a prescription that is extremely weak for when I am using the computer. I have to really stick my face to screen to see and it causes strain. I certainly wouldn't use them all the time, only at night.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-08-2013
See this link for more help understanding your prescription:http://www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/eyeglass-prescription.htm
Yours says, for the right eye
Sph = -4.75
which is the diopters, the amount of correction for near-sightedness. Then
Cyl = +1.25 Axis = 100
which is the amount (1.25 diopters) and angle (100 degrees) of astigmatism correction.
So since this is less than -2 you might try just eliminating if you're ordering a cheap pair of glasses to practice with. Be prepared for a bit of disorientation at the start as you re-learn to see without this, but you'll adjust quickly and it is one more step on the road to seeing without any correction.
I can't give any other recommendation for you as far as computer glasses -- some people are fine with a fairly high degree of blur as they improve, some aren't. Eye doctors typically prescribe a diopter weaker for computer glasses than for distance ones, but of course it depends how strong your glasses are to start, and how fast you're improving. Note I am not an eye doctor myself and am not allowed to prescribe glasses so you're completely on your own here, but many others have taken this path before you. Keep us posted!
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-09-2013
Thanks for the information, however I could use some confirmation, I will get some glasses with the prescription below, did I understand your advice correctly and make the proper modifications or did I get it wrong?
Right eye: Sph = -4.25 Cyl = 0 Axis = 0
Left eye: Sph = -4.25 Cyl = 0 Axis = 0
Thanks
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-09-2013
Yes, this will reduce the diopters and remove the astigmatism correction completely. You may not even need to enter a CYL value at all in this case (not specify zero). It depends on the system taking the numbers. Please let us know how these seem for you, and go forward slowly -- some people adjust to no astigmatism correction quickly and some more slowly so be gentle with yourself. Baby steps ate better than no steps!
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - lou_deg - 05-09-2013
Astralogic Wrote:Right eye: Sph = -4.75 Cyl = +1.25 Axis = 10D (or 100 can't quite read the hadnwriting).
Left eye: Sph = -4.75 Cyl = +0.75 Axis = 77 1/2
I am used to seeing a negative power on the cylinder. Since yours is given in positive power, then Sph = -4.75 Cyl = +1.25 means that on one axis, the power is -4.75D and the other axis is -3.50D. Nancy, does the less than -2D astigmatism rule apply for positive power too?
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-09-2013
I wasn't going to go into this level of detail unless someone asked, and it actually doesn't matter because the absolute value of +1.25 is still less than 2. Most optometrists write the cylinder value as negative, since it's an increase in "negativity" or a minus prescription in that angle, but some write is a positive. It's unlikely a decrease in the prescription was meant (I'm trying to read the eye doctor's mind here), but either way as I said since it's still less than 2 units different from the base SPH prescription, I'd just try eliminating it.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-10-2013
Hi again Nancy, I have a question I think you might know the answer to.
Many years ago I remember getting either my second or third pair of glasses and they seemed to slightly distort things, like they got stretched sideways a little, my very first pair didn't do that, they just made everything clear.
Was that distortion astigmatism correction? If it was, what would I have experienced if they decided not to put any astigmatism correction in those glasses? Would it have been just clear vision or would I have experience some distortion due to my own astigmatism not being corrected?
Basically my question boils down to this, if people can become accustomed to glasses without astigmatism correction after wearing glasses for years that do correct it, why do opticians bother to correct it at all?
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-10-2013
Astralogic, I remember when I was about 10 (I first got glasses at age 5) getting a new pair of glasses, and when I walked down the hallway in my house it felt like the walls were sharply curving around me. I got dizzy trying to walk, feeling very disoriented, like I was surrounded with funhouse mirrors. I'm pretty sure this was an astigmatism increase -- I had -1.75 in both eyes before my behavioral optometrist removed it decades later in the first pair of glasses he gave me. As I've said it did take me a little while to adjust but not too long (a few days). So your experience sounds similar, and you're probably right that it was due to a new astigmatism correction.
Remember that vision varies moment to moment, depending on the conditions, your emotional state, your level of fatigue, etc. Also remember that the eyes are obedient servants of the brain and try to do for you what they think you want, so if you give them a prescription to look through they will adjust to see as well as they can through it. I'm sure you've heard of the experiment where people wore glasses that made things look upside down, and after an initial period the eye adjusted to reverse the view so it looked right-side up through the upside down glasses.
So finally to your last question about bothering to correct for astigmatism: eye doctors and opticians think they're helping! They often don't know or ignore the fact that the vision may correct itself on its own. The same is true of the main SPH minus or plus correction according to Bates, and I agree -- there are natural alternatives to corrective lenses. We need to help ourselves, educate each other about this, and spread the knowledge as widely as possible to change the situation.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - joanawilliam - 05-10-2013
Yeah that is absolutely fine. It'll be great and will absolutely work. You can probably contact your natural optometrist to discuss about the degree to which you must reduce your prescription.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Astralogic - 05-14-2013
My glasses haven't arrived yet, I'll let you guys know how it goes when they get here (hopefully this week). I also ordered a pair at -1.25 diopters on each eye with no astigmatism correction for close up work on the computer.
Re: How can I modify my prescription so my glasses won't... - Nancy - 05-14-2013
Astralogic, yes, please do let us know, so we can all learn from your experience. Depending on where you are, the glasses may take longer to arrive than you expect, but be assured they're on the way. I was very impatient for mine the first time which probably made it seem longer than it actually was. Also remember these are a tool to move you toward wearing no glasses at all and being able to see well enough, not an end in themselves. I had a student years ago who was so pleased with the way she looked in her fancy designer glasses that she didn't want to take them off, or get another weaker pair!