I'm just wondering what really IS the main cause for eyesight problems in myopes? There seems to be a lot of support for the reason that people become nearsighted because they have too much near focus and do not use their far/distance vision as much as one should which then results in the eye not being able to adjust correctly to focus the light properly onto the retina vs.
incorrect visual habits i.e. not looking for details in what you see, but if this is the case then why do you start the iincorrect visual habits? If the natural funciton of the eyes is when they are constantly looking for finer and finer details in what you see then what drives someone to break the habit and force our eyes to do something that they aren't meant to be doing?
Aura Wrote:I'm just wondering what really IS the main cause for eyesight problems in myopes? There seems to be a lot of support for the reason that people become nearsighted because they have too much near focus and do not use their far/distance vision as much as one should which then results in the eye not being able to adjust correctly to focus the light properly onto the retina vs. incorrect visual habits i.e. not looking for details in what you see, but if this is the case then why do you start the iincorrect visual habits? If the natural funciton of the eyes is when they are constantly looking for finer and finer details in what you see then what drives someone to break the habit and force our eyes to do something that they aren't meant to be doing?
Nobody knows. Most of the 'research' done by 'scientists' ignores Dr. Bates' line of inquiry - which is that nearsightedness is primarily a psychological stress-related disorder. Dr. Bates was correct, but it didn't support the magical instantaneous fix of lenses and now surgery, so he, his path, and his 'cures' were and are disregarded, disparaged, and disposed of.
But the problem of nearsightedness has been spreading and worsening world-wide since the mid-1900s. That indicates not an organic or natural or genetic cause but a man-made one. What could it be? If it is stress, what is causing the stress and why doesn't it affect 100% of us? (I'll suggest that unless we begin rejecting the magic fix of lenses/surgery, nearsightedness (or a worse mental disorder) will soon afflict every civilized person in the world.)
Today it occured to me to wonder: Why do the vast majority of nearsighted people have as their dominant eye the one with worse vision? That makes no sense at all.
No, I believe the cause of nearsightedness is a misorientation, misdirection, misalignment and mistiming of each of the major components of the visual system. It can be caused by various things, but I believe one overwhelming cause since the turn of the 20th century has been the near-universal use of unnecessary neonatal eye antibiotics in nearly all modern hospitals. They cause an initial disruption of visual unity which in most people is never corrected. That latent problem of an disunified visual system is then exacerbated in school or elsewhere during development and a fixation at the nearpoint occurs.
So, first they 'magically' take away our visual unity with unnecessasry eye goo, then they 'magically' fix it with lenses which don't cure the problem. It's diabolical.
The actual 'cure' may be as simple as: Equalize/Reverse Your Eye Dominance. To start the equalization/reversal, practice the Bates Long Swing by alternately letting the worse eye lead while turning left (10 reps) and better eye lead while turning right, then reverse it (10 reps), and then finish with 10 reps letting both eyes share the lead. One set in the morning, one in the afternoon, one at night. After a few weeks you will notice a difference.
JMartinC4, with all due respect, I think you may be over-simplifying when you say all myopia is initiated from neonatal antibiotics, and I feel the dominant eye being weaker in myopic people is even further off-track (pun unintentional!). My dominant right eye sees more clearly and the same is true for my myopic male partner and for a very myopic female friend. (They are both -8 or more and I started with a worse prescription than that before NVI.) I'm not saying your theory is all wrong, just that it may reflect only some factors, or not the main ones, and you may need to widen your perspective (another visual pun, unintended). My opinion alone -- I am not trying to start an argument, so please do not feel attacked.
Nancy Wrote:JMartinC4, with all due respect, I think you may be over-simplifying when you say [1]all myopia is initiated from neonatal antibiotics, and I feel the dominant eye being weaker in myopic people is even further off-track (pun unintentional!). My dominant right eye sees more clearly [2]and the same is true for my myopic male partner and for a very myopic female friend. (They are both -8 or more and I started with a worse prescription than that before NVI.) I'm not saying your theory is all wrong, just that it may reflect only some factors, or not the main ones, and you may need to widen your perspective (another visual pun, unintended). My opinion alone -- I am not trying to start an argument, so please do not feel attacked.
1) I never said 'all'. I know my theory is new and complicated, but it's not magical thinking. It's observation, logic, trial and error, hypothesis testing, and theoretical thinking based on facts.
2) Yes, indeed. Those of us who do not wear our glasses 'all' or even 'most' of the time and have experienced flashes of clear eyesight seem to have a reversal of the norm. Hmmm....
BTW - Here is the latest new factoid I found: In those with anisometropic myopia (i.e. different amounts of nearsightedness between the two eyes), the dominant eye has been found to be the one with more myopia.[12][13]
and I found it here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance</a><!-- m -->
And you can dog-in-the-manger (vs 'attack') me all day long - it won't change the facts. Do you have anything new to add to the scientific inquiry that Dr. Bates believed in?
I guess I'll keep my disagreements with your theories to myself so I don't get attacked further. Once again I'm concerned that newbies will think you've got The Answer and look no further, maybe even think they're doomed to poor vision forever since they got neonatal antibiotics years ago. I thought my dominant eye seeing more clearly (and the same for the seriously myopic people I know well) was "proof", but no, since it differs with your data I guess it's not. How unscientific! Read my blog if you want to see my progress, which is slow and steady. I'm really getting tired of your reactive attitude and not-so-subtle implication that anyone who disagrees with you is stupid or uneducated. I do not consider Wikipedia to be an accurate flawless source of wisdom! OK, I'm ducking now for the retaliation, but won't respond. Believe it or not, I do want to hear what you have to say when you keep the smart-aleck tone out of it and just say what you think or have discovered. Thanks for listening.
Thankyou to both of whom replied to my post. I have realised that there is so far no definite answer to why we acquire eye problems and I appreciate the different views that you have. I will continue to think about and hopefully gain more information as to why vision problems occur.
I think there are many causes in our modern life which are responsible for our disturbed vision.
But first of all there must be a certain weakness of our eyes (most probably genetic) so that bad habits and mental and physical stress affect the eyes in the first place - other people might be more affected in some other organs for example develop more easily high blood pressure or a stomach ulcer....
If the eyes respond readily to conditions of modern life - almost the whole day inside, locking at things in a very short distance, seldom needing to look at small distant objects - it is not astonishing that they loose capacities rarely required for the sake of a good near view.
What makes it worse are the habits to which we are already trained in school: not reading letter by letter, not even word by word, but go through texts as quickly as possible and taking in as much information at a time as possible - to look at the whole, not at one small detail...
Then there is the 'performance pressure' which can be felt as a burden that affects the eyes. Whenever I'm under stress, my eyesight becomes immediately worse.
And, I think, the individual 'sight of life', the way we experience our environment, can reinforce bad seeing habits and block a relaxed and normal vision.
I wrote about that in another post:
Quote:- there is definitely a connection between the state of the mind and the eyes.
My 'weak point' , which causes strain and stress in my mind - as in my eyes - is, that I always fight against the 'blurr'; that is to get everything organized and under control, to fit in the pattern or frame of my life; it doesn't have to be all perfect but at least I have to be sure, that I can handle the situation. I find it difficult to let the situation just be as it is and not worry about problems, for which there is no solution possible at the moment and to concentrate only in what happens here and now (concentrate in a small point of life). It therefore helps (my vision and my state of mind) when I just try to remember the way I looked at the world as it is when I was a child - not always comparing it at once with the world as it should be in my eyes. When I remember how I child can get 'lost' completely in a momentary situation and try to find the same 'look', I can really feel a burden falling from mind and eyes and feel relaxation (and improved vision) at once.
Perhaps you should concentrate on finding out, which is your 'weak point', what stresses your mind and prevents you eyes to get full relaxation.
Nini: I definitely agree with your opinions and I think it is very well explained and said however there is one part that I am not sure about, which is when you say that a certain weakness in our eyes is most probably from genetics. When we are born we cannot perceive the world as it is and everyone has blurry vision however as the months and years go by we learn the art of "seeing". 98% of people are born with perfectly normal eyes and sooner or later we develop clear vision, however as we cope with stress, both emotionally and physically to the eyes, it puts unnatural pressure and distress to the eyes which then would probably lead on to near-sightedness. When we first develop bad vision I believe that we force our eyes to do things that they are not designed to do and that is when vision falters. If genetics are the cause of weak vision then surely wouldn't we never acquire perfect vision in the first place? Don't most of us have experiences of having perfect vision as a child, or when we were younger?
Perhaps I didn't exlpain well enough in English what I wanted to say.
I totally agree with you, that most of us are born with perfect eyes and have clear eyesight at least during part of their childhood.
The 'genetic part' of the acquired short-sightednes is, that our eyes yield more easily to the pressue of stress and wrong habits than other organs; other people may have other 'weak points' which are the first to be affected, for example the stomach or the heart...
And I didn't want to say, that if its genetic, it is a fate and can't be helped or cured - but that our eyes, which are so 'over-receptive' and take in 'all the burden of our life' need very special care and attention, whereas maybe our stomach or our heart don't react to stress in the same way, maybe don't react at all.
That's why we should try to become aware of the 'mechanism', the way in which stess and bad habits act on the eyes and intervene in that process. Sometimes even the awareness, the understanding alone is enough to 'free' our eyes or at least lessen the pressure, sometimes we need hard work to change something in our way of life or in our 'world view'.
I'll give you two answers, that from the accepted scientific view, and that from Bates. In fact, they are getting closer all the time!
There are many scientists who still believe that it is too much nearwork that causes myopia. However, recent scientific research looked at many wide studies and compared many factors such as genetics, time spent with near work activities, and time spent outdoors, and time spent exercizing. This large study and some related ones link myopia to too little time spent outdoors when younger. Children might have spent the same time doing near work activities, but those who were outdoors more had less myopia occurances. They have theorized that lack of sunlight may cause the eye to lengthen, and others have suggested that when one is outdoors they use their eyes differently (such as more peripheral stimulation and looking at a wider range of distances). All of those theories fit well into what Dr. Bates said 100 years ago: sunlight is important to healthy sight, shifting the gaze is important, as is the way we use peripheral vision. (Here is one article that has an interesting review of these findings: http://www.sunilreddy.com/?p=1429)
Many people have also (for themselves) linked the start of their myopia with stressful situations. Many people get tense, lock up, don't blink, have shallow breath, and stare when under extreme pressure or in other stressful situations. This locking up does lots of things: prevents blood flow through the neck to the head/eyes, reduces movement of the eyes, both of which impair our ability to use the eye normally. This is the view taken by Dr. Bates: strain causes eyesight problems. This has been confirmed by everyone I have met personally. It is about where that strain is manifest, and if the strain is in the head/neck/visual system, then eyesight problems occur. That explains why everyone who encounters stress doesn't have eye problems. For example, my husband has perfect sight, he holds his strain in his stomach and has come to realize that that has caused some stomach problems. I have two friends who were prescribed glasses during times of great stress. I told them about the Bates method and simply asked them to not wear their glasses when they didn't need to (which since they just got them, they didn't really have to wear them for anything) and to give their eyes rest by taking breaks and palming. Both of them found other ways to manage their stress and have better than perfect sight again.
The view of Bates is difficult to prove, because it is a subjective matter, personal to every individual, how they strain. It is also only in the last decade that mainstream medicine is recognizing the mind-body connection in health and illness. Most recent scientific advances come closer and closer to the Bates method. I suppose in another 30 years it will be 'rediscovered' to great fanfare that glasses are not the solution to eye problems.
Wow it seems that there are a lot of theories to myopia...
Something that I find interesting is the theory about sunlight and the possibility of myopia.
The Bates theory is also very important, I think.
I believe that my myopia might be the result of stress, as I find myself to have chronic
neck tension which is very uncomfortable and makes my neck feel very stiff.
So is it possible to change where you direct your stress to? Such as can you redirect where your stress
is felt most or is it simply a matter of changing the way you manage your stress?
