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+--- Thread: Astigmatism reduction ideas (/showthread.php?tid=3098)
Astigmatism reduction ideas - pureharm - 08-14-2015
Found these on an article on earthclinic.com and they both seemed interesting. I've been trying both for a couple of weeks now, and to some extent I do believe it has helped my strong -3.50 (ATR) astigmatism in my OD:
First one:
"I was diagnosed with astigmatism in my right eye by an ophthalmologist when I was 20 years old while in college.
Glasses were prescribed and I bought a set. My right eye had a stigmatism I was told by the doctor. A few years later I picked
up a book by an ophthalmologist at a health food store because I wanted to find any alternative to deteriorating visual
conditions. That book explained what astigmatism is and it is a simple phenomenon and an equally simple solution to obtain
proper vision. First a stigmatism will always develop in the dominate eye. Each person has a dominate eye just has one has a
dominate hand, usually right, and even a dominate leg. Mine is left!
To determine which eye is dominate, simply point to a distant object and without moving your hand shut each eye. You will see
that the object moves when one eye is used and does not move when the other eye is used. In other words, the eye that is
doing the focusing is the dominate eye. What the eye does then is uses one eye, the dominate eye, to dominate all focus
actions. Now what happens in time, especially in a "book" focused society (worse now with computers) is the dominate eye will
become strained... literally the dominate eye's muscles will be strained and will LOSE the ability to focus. As such the dominate
eye will ALWAYS have the stigmatism.
The solution then is to relax the dominate eye and retrain the muscles in the dominate eye to be in proper focus. This is
accomplished by a simple exercise. By using an eye chart or my favorite is a distant tree, one puts the palm of the hand over
the dominate eye, but allowing light to come through on the sides, and you focus on the distant tree... A tree perhaps a
hundred yards away. You focus with the non dominate eye on the limbs of the tree for perhaps ten seconds, then transfer the
hand over the non dominate eye and allowing the dominate eye to "re set" by example of the non dominate but non astigmatic
eye. Repeat three times. In a mere minute you have reset the stigmatized eye. This is harder to accomplish for a person who
has over time put on ever stronger glasses. In that case, the book said the process had to be reversed and go backwards to the
lest strong glasses and repeat over weeks to finally get to ground zero. Well, I was fortunate to find this book when I had the
first weak set of glasses; as I said when I was only 20 years old. I used the eye chart provided in the book and now, over 40
years later still have that same eye chart taped to my vitamin cabinet. But usually I use an outdoors object, as I said, a distant
tree. That's because you can use the limbs of the tree to find more refined focus points... some more narrow than others and so
you can intensify the focus exercise.
Oh, one last point for how to do the exercise I described above. You begin by covering the
dominate eye (the stigmatized eye) and focusing on a distant object with the non dominate (non
stigmatized eye) for ten seconds and then WITHOUT blinking, shift the other way around so that
you next cover the non dominate eye and again focus on the same distant object for ten
seconds; repeat without blinking three times and finally uncover both eyes (without blinking) and
look at the object with both eyes. Repeat this three times. (Now you can blink. ) This exercise
takes about 90 seconds. Repeat three times a week or when you notice your eyes are "blurring."
At the end of the exercise you can actually feel the weak (dominate) eye muscle change. What
you are doing is "making" the dominate but strained eye, reset using the non strained eye. And
once again, I got this from the book on the subject by an ophthalmologist."
And this is the other:
"Hi Kathleen, astigmatism is lumpy eyeballs which I figured came from uneven pull from the eyes
that move the eyes, so when I read of Edgar Cayce's eye exercises, I figured that they would
probably help alleviate the problem. This exercise is to roll your head as close to your body
(back, chest, and shoulders) as you can l0 times to the right & then 10 times to the left. I did this
twice a day, upon arising and when retiring to bed. After a few weeks of this I stopped wearing
any glasses for years. When my arms started getting too short to hold my reading material far
enough away to read it (presbyopia in my later 40's) I went to have my eyes checked & was told
I needed reading glasses. I then asked him what about my astigmatism and was told I didn't
have any. After I remarked that I wore glasses for astigmatism for several years before doing
some eye exercises and going without them for more than 10 years, so my eye exercises must
have gotten rid of it. He then informed me that you don't get rid of astigmatism. I smiled at the
optometrist and told him that the glasses prescribed by an opthalmologist for astigmatism was
needed because of eye strain until after the exercises eliminated the need for glasses for years
afterwards."
Thoughts?
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - Nancy - 08-14-2015
Yes, astigmatism is an imbalance. Eye circles or tracing the Tibetan Wheel might be more help than just head rolls, as long as you do them without strain. Here's a post I wrote a while ago on astigmatism: http://www.iblindness.org/1051/yes-but-i-have-astigmatism/
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - pureharm - 08-14-2015
Thanks for sharing the article Nancy, good read! I have done circles and the Tibetan wheel for years, and never really had a lot of success with either. Perhaps the stretch/exercise really isn't the only fundamental component. Albeit it is the "physical", as I am now coming to realization the emotional/mental component is far more important, and must be addressed first before any "physical" changes take place. The emotional release and imagination techniques I have been reading about from yourself and David I found have been a huge breakthrough for me. After doing this for almost 10yrs, I think being the scientific type, I always overlooked or thought of those elements as hocus pocus, and really didn't matter. Truthfully in the last 2 weeks I think I've come to realize they are pre-cursors to any lasting improvement. Your eyes will only see as clearly as your thoughts allow them to. I'm currently trying binaural beats to help release worry and anxiety, in addition to my physical awareness of tension, and actively always trying to release it, at near or distance viewing. Also, following David's description of looking for little details, aka naturally shifting. I'm so grateful this site exists, what a huge help!!
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - Nancy - 08-14-2015
(08-14-2015, 08:55 AM)pureharm Wrote: Thanks for sharing the article Nancy, good read! I have done circles and the Tibetan wheel for years, and never really had a lot of success with either. Perhaps the stretch/exercise really isn't the only fundamental component. Albeit it is the "physical", as I am now coming to realization the emotional/mental component is far more important, and must be addressed first before any "physical" changes take place. The emotional release and imagination techniques I have been reading about from yourself and David I found have been a huge breakthrough for me. After doing this for almost 10yrs, I think being the scientific type, I always overlooked or thought of those elements as hocus pocus, and really didn't matter. Truthfully in the last 2 weeks I think I've come to realize they are pre-cursors to any lasting improvement. Your eyes will only see as clearly as your thoughts allow them to. I'm currently trying binaural beats to help release worry and anxiety, in addition to my physical awareness of tension, and actively always trying to release it, at near or distance viewing. Also, following David's description of looking for little details, aka naturally shifting. I'm so grateful this site exists, what a huge help!!
Great! I'm right there with you, a left brain dominant over-thinking math major in recovery. Keep reporting your successes, and I love the optimism I hear from you about your vision now.
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - sleepmaster - 10-07-2015
I'd find an empty shopping parking lot at night, center myself n the center of the far end of it, and look at lit up store signs that are directly centered in front of me at the other end of the parking lot. Let the lit up signs in the distance straighten out your eyes.
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - plantsower - 10-25-2015
I was told I had an astigmatism for years as a younger person. Then in my 30's or so, I was told I didn't have one. Huh? I had quit wearing glasses for quite a few years in my 20's and 30's. Then mistakenly started wearing them again because I typed all day and thought it would relax my eyes. Big mistake but I didn't know any better. Anyway, I think that not wearing glasses made the difference some how.
I tried the Edgar Cayce head rolls awhile back. They made me very dizzy and scared me so I stopped. Maybe something is of wack in m vertebrae so I don't want to make it worse.
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - pureharm - 10-26-2015
Well I'm very hopeful that in time mine will disappear as well. Its been well over 5yrs since I have had any CYL correction, and at least 2yrs without any correction whatsoever. Sadly my -3.5D of CYL in the right eye persists, but interestingly enough I do believe when I have clear flashes, its mostly due to the astigmatism in that eye suddenly disappearing for a few blinks. It feel great when it happens, and all I want is it to last forever. Its hard to hold on to, and usually in less than a minute it pops back..
I don't do the head rolls any more. Spoke to a chiropractor about it and he said it imposes a LOT of stress on the spine, as our heads were never designed to roll like that. I was also giving myself a lot of mid to upper back pain doing them as well.
I'm still waiting for the opportunity to try Sleepmaster's idea in the parking lot at night with the signs. I think inadvertently I have tried that before but not exactly as described above. I don't usually go out at night much these days, but now that our winter is upon us, the dark falls very soon so should be able to get at that.
RE: Astigmatism reduction ideas - plantsower - 10-26-2015
(10-26-2015, 05:22 AM)pureharm Wrote: Well I'm very hopeful that in time mine will disappear as well. Its been well over 5yrs since I have had any CYL correction, and at least 2yrs without any correction whatsoever. Sadly my -3.5D of CYL in the right eye persists, but interestingly enough I do believe when I have clear flashes, its mostly due to the astigmatism in that eye suddenly disappearing for a few blinks. It feel great when it happens, and all I want is it to last forever. Its hard to hold on to, and usually in less than a minute it pops back..
I don't do the head rolls any more. Spoke to a chiropractor about it and he said it imposes a LOT of stress on the spine, as our heads were never designed to roll like that. I was also giving myself a lot of mid to upper back pain doing them as well.
I'm still waiting for the opportunity to try Sleepmaster's idea in the parking lot at night with the signs. I think inadvertently I have tried that before but not exactly as described above. I don't usually go out at night much these days, but now that our winter is upon us, the dark falls very soon so should be able to get at that.
***********
I neglected to say that once i started wearing glasses again my astigmatism returned. So, now I"m trying the no-glasses thing again. After a year of haphazard eye "exercises" I improved at first (not so haphazard) and then got lazy and tried to improve by lowering my prescription little by little. It didn't work all that well for me. It seemed to at first but then I plateaued for good and even got worse. I barely passed my DMV vision test by the skin of my teeth with my old, strong glasses the other day. It was 20/70. It scared me so I now have 5 years before my next DMV test. I need to get crakin'.
I wish you well. I know it's frustrating, especially when people say it only took them a few months or less to see a difference, when the rest of us take years to see a difference. If years was established as the norm, I think less people would give up.