The Sun Is the Best Optometrist

WHY is nearsightedness so common in the modern world? In the early 1970s, 25 percent of Americans were nearsighted; three decades later, the rate had risen to 42 percent, and similar increases have occurred around the world.

There is significant evidence that the trait is inherited, so you might wonder why our myopic ancestors weren’t just removed from the gene pool long ago, when they blundered into a hungry lion or off a cliff. But although genes do influence our fates, they are not the only factors at play.

In this case, the rapid increase in nearsightedness appears to be due to a characteristic of modern life: more and more time spent indoors under artificial lights.

Our genes were originally selected to succeed in a very different world from the one we live in today. Humans’ brains and eyes originated long ago, when we spent most of our waking hours in the sun. The process of development takes advantage of such reliable features of the environment, which then may become necessary for normal growth.

Researchers suspect that bright outdoor light helps children’s developing eyes maintain the correct distance between the lens and the retina — which keeps vision in focus. Dim indoor lighting doesn’t seem to provide the same kind of feedback. As a result, when children spend too many hours inside, their eyes fail to grow correctly and the distance between the lens and retina becomes too long, causing far-away objects to look blurry.

One study published in 2008 in the Archives of Ophthalmology compared 6- and 7-year-old children of Chinese ethnicity living in Sydney, Australia, with those living in Singapore. The rate of nearsightedness in Singapore (29 percent) was nearly nine times higher than in Sydney.

Nearsightedness is caused by the deformation of the shape of the eyeball that occurs when the eye muscles can’t relax. That’s why eye exercises work - they gently induce relaxation. This isn’t mystical mysteriousness. It’s based on the really complex observation of the behavior of all the other muscles in the body, and the jump of incredible insight and genius that says, “hey, maybe eye muscles are... muscles.”

Optometrists and opthamalogists (generally) call eye exercises bunk. But after doing eye exercises and getting rid of my glasses, I call optometrists and opthamalogists (generally) bunk.

Think it through - reading inside stresses the eye muscles in exactly the same way for many hours each day. What if you took a weight and did one arm exercise with it for the same number of hours each day - even a very light weight? You know what woud happen to your arm. So if your arm got tense, tight, spasmed, or otherwise unable to relax, would you do exercises to relieve it’s tightness and stretch it back into relaxation? Or would you follow the doctors orders and wear a sling for the rest of your life?

Very well researched and presented.

The people who have made a science of growing (medical) marijuana indoors, know that there are two requirements for growing (beneficial) light — range (spectrum) and intensity (power).

Usually what is referred to as “artificial” light, is Edison's original incandescent light or the original fluorescents — which if they tried to grow plants, would fail to do so either — because they lack the necessary spectrum and power. So to compare that light with sunlight, is not an equivalent — but if they start talking about halides and the latest state of the art lighting, then it approximates natural (sun)light, including those tanning bulbs — that cause tanning, while you can lie naked under a regular lightbulb all your life and not get any tanning effect.

And particularly important is that range and intensity of light to health and growth of the eye and brain — despite optometrists (eye doctors) saying light doesn't matter. That is what you're seeing — some people more sensitive to these differences than others, just as some people can hear ranges of sound beyond what others can, or sense anything else (taste, smell, touch).

There's a tendency among the social scientists (the politically correct) to make an equivalency of everything — so that no distinctions (and discrimination) of anything anymore, is possible.

In many cases, a person just needs to optimize the lighting, not to need glasses — as often is the case when one uses an Ott light. Another alternative technology that works is the use of a pin-hole (reading glass) instead of
the polished optical glass — that many find helpful staring at computer screens all day, in reducing eye strain. Again, many optometrists (eye doctors) insist that it's not possible or doesn't make a difference when even they use a pinhole instrument to first detect whether one’s vision problem is refractive or eye disease of greater seriousness.

Other vision experts have claimed that they can correct vision defects with the proper training in how to see correctly — because all of our organs don't come with instruction manuals on how to use them properly, correctly and optimally, as most people have to discover on their own — or not.

That is often the case with one’s muscular development, as well as mental development, social, psychological, moral, spiritual, etc. Most often, we learn from those around us — but whole social strata (ghettoes) can often be dysfunctional in that way. That is a common cause of behavioral problems like obesity, addictions, codependencies and mental health issues.

Obviously there are more factors than “just” reading, but in the main, reading is the culprit. The “mechanical” aspect of a person's eye also has a lot to do with it.

I've had a variety of eye problems for most of my life. While many doctors and specialist have offered a variety of advice, one constant among all of them, “for gosh sakes, don't sit at your desk and read all day, try to stand-up and focus your eyes on something on the horizon for at least five minutes every hour.”

I'm cool with it but my boss gets really annoyed.

Being indoors more and more is only part of the problem. It’s what one does while indoors that makes a bigger impact on vision (i.e. being in front of computer monitors for hours on end, watching television constantly, etc.). Or, at least, that’s what I think.

You're close, except for the television. Television is viewed at a distance that is comfortable for most people. A study of the Inuit peoples of Alaska in the 60's revealed that the eyes are adaptable. If you do a lot of close up work, your eyes will adapt and you'll develop myopia to make up close work more comfortable.

The Inuit had no written language prior to contact with Westerners. When we introduced reading to them, the incidences of myopia increased several magnitudes overnight.

My son reads books like they are candy, and has since learned to manage his extreme dyslexia in 1st grade. He got 4 theoretical physics books as an end-of-school present, and one week later, he’s nearly done. We also picked up about 30 books in the fall for him from a friend that was getting rid of them ... almost done. As well as all the AP reading he has had to do, and books he re-reads constanly (Stephen Hawking).

His vision is better than perfect (at 17). I got glasses at 12 and my husband at 16 ... we are both readers too, so no explanation for the boy ... except he is a 3-sport athlete, so he is outside a whole bunch. None of the four kids have glasses.

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