i am done with glasses and contacts - how can i train my eyes out of glasses?

[raelize]

i know this is possible, i have read about people doing it.  i know there are opthalmalogists who can teach you how to do this, but they aren't on our health insurance and i can't afford to payout of pocket.  i started wearing glasses in middle school for distance.  looking back, i don't think i needed them, but everyone in my family needed glasses and i think my mother just went along with the common idea that you NEED glasses.  i only ever used them to drive.  then, when i was 18, i thought, man i hate carrying my glasses everywhere, let me just get contacts.  of course, within a year my prescription doubled.  it has stayed at exactly the same level for 15 years.  and i need them all the time.  i haven't been wearing my contacts for a year, i just wear my glasses and try to only wear them when i am driving or looking for something in particular.  i know, though, that i need to do exercises to really get out of glasses.  i just don't know what i need to do.

can anyone point me towards a book or program that will help me retrain my eyes??  thanks!

[swede]

subbing - because this is fascinating to me.  I would love to find something like this.  I am at -6.0 in both eyes.  What kind of opthamologists do this?

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Subbing

[raelize]

from what i have researched, they are called behavioral opthamalogists.  they give you exercises to do to train yourself out of glasses. its basically using your eye muscles to properly focus.  i have seen some books online, but i am hesitant to buy something just cause.  i would love to hear someone's review. 

i am very mad that i didn't understand this fact earlier. i wouldn't wear glasses now if i had known in high school that i could train my eyes out of it.  i was so close to not wearing glasses.

no one here has done this?

[raelize]

over the summer i started reading about this, and one thing i read was that you should not wear glasses as much as possible. so i nwo i only wear them for driving.  yes, i walk around all day with fuzzy vision, but i hate glasses.  then i read some other stuff on the web about exercises and techniques, which is what brought me here to find out if others have done this.  just last week i went to the eye doctor, a new one who doesn't have my old prescription.  when i got my new prescription, i thought the numbers sounded strange.  since i have been thinking about this since i first posted, i went to my closet earlier and found an old pair of contacts, and the prescription was 2.25- but my new prescription is 1.75!! i can't believe i made that much improvement just by not wearing my glasses.

anyway, i wanted to share that with you ladies who were subbing.

i also went on amazon and after finally finding the correct wordign for searching for the eye improvement books, i found one by tom quakenbush that i am going to buy. it has high ratings.  has anyone used this?  i think i am too impatient to try and wait for others opinions. 

anyway, if you go to amazon and search for "improve vision" there are a ton of books.  it seems like you will want to get something on the Bates Method or system. i imagine if you amazon that you will also find books.

anyway, i hope that helps.  i realize i am answering my own questoins, but if anyone out there has actually done this, please share your story with me, i am really interested.

[Katie T]

Sounds wonderful! I am legally blind in both eyes and can't function at all with out my glasses or contacts. This would be amazing to retrain my eyes! Let us know how it goes for you!

[herenow2]

I've been curious about this too.  I have seen the training system that mercola has on his website - 

http://products.mercola.com/eyeport-eye-exercise/

don't know anything about it though.  keep us posted if you find something that works!

[carfreemama]

I am in this situation, but because of double vision. I had a "lazy eye" when I was a kid that wasn't corrected. Now I wear a prism in my lenses and my prescription still keeps changing, even at nearly 43. Glasses are very, very expensive because of this. I can't take advantage of specials or on-line prescriptions. Also, now that I am on the cusp of needing reading glasses, it's a whole other dilemma. I can't read without glasses, because I would still see double. Right now I have computer glasses and regular glasses. I had a prism put in reading glasses, but it's so hard getting used to all these prescriptions! I would need glasses anyway (or retraining), because I am near-sited. But this really complicates things. I have been told I will need surgery, have been told that for years. There will come a point where the prisms just become impractical or unmanageable. Doc says I'm fast reaching that point. I DO NOT want surgery on my eyes!

My insurance covers something called ocular motility retraining. I am looking into this. I think it addresses double vision more than near vision. It also involves patching the weak eye and going in for training sessions 3 times a week for 12 weeks! So lots of time invested. Not sure how I would manage that with my job/kid, but better than surgery if it works. I'll let you know if I find out anything interesting.

[newmum35]

I once bookmarked a neat site http://www.myopia.org/ which I thought had helpful info on how to improve vision naturally.. unfortunately, no personal experience here - always meant to find time to test all that out (could use it myself!) but forgot about it til now (I have a LOT of bookmarks lol)

I do believe that going without glasses does improve vision. I was always supposed to wear mine all the time too. My eyesight got worse and worse for years (age 10 through age 20 approx) until I stopped wearing my glasses all the time and only wore them when watching tv, or driving, etc. I spent most of most days without them.  Skipped the eye dr for years but when I went back my eyes were both the same (one used to be different from the other) and I can't verify the numbers or anything but one of my old pairs of glasses seemed especially strong to me (so I think my current prescription got better) - was cleaning some stuff last year and might have tossed them- can't remember but I looked through them first :)

[Magelet]

interesting.  I'll have to read more. the myopia institute seems a little... paranoid conspiracy theorist for me, but that doesn't mean they might not have a grain or more of truth in them.

Perhaps I'll try useing my glasses a little less. (It's hard for me to not use them because my vision is so terrible, but I would love to have better vision)

[PeachBaby]

I'll share my personal experience.  I also wore glasses (near sighted), then switched to contacts, then decided to not wear anything since my eyesight is not that bad (and similar experience, my eyesight improved by not wearing the crutches!).  I only use glasses now for driving (although I don't really need it except to read road signs or if I am doing night driving). 

I went to this free seminar that was about introducing classes for improving eyesight.  I ended up not taking the (pay-a-fee-)classes because what I learned that day, I figured I will try it out myself and see if I can make any improvement on my own with their advice without having to pay for their class/support.

Basically, the objective is to relax the eye completely.  I thought, "Really?  That's all?!"  So I did that.  But I soon discovered how quickly I would find myself with tensed up eyes again.  Oh, so that's why they offer the class/support!  But still not wanting to spend money, I persevered even more.  So for a few days, I practiced dilligently relaxing my eyes all day long.  I used previous personal knowledge about relaxing body muscles completely until I could tell my eye muscles were super duper relaxed.  Then to my delight, I found that my vision improved over the next few days or so.  I remember sitting in my car looking at a sign that I knew I wouldn't be able to read, but this time with my relaxed eye muscles, I could easily read the sign!

I can still see why they offer the classes/support though, because I got so busy after that and haven't kept it up though.  Maybe the class might have had hints or tips to avoid falling back into old habits.  So I honestly can't say I have a long term experience with it, but just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone wants to try it.  I think for me, having a kiddo to care for and eyesight that's not so bad makes me put it on the backburner for now.  But now that I'm thinking about it again, I think I'll give it another try!

[KimPM]

I'm subbing too, because, wouldn't we all love to be glasses-free.

[Liquesce]

How are eye muscle exercises supposed to correct refraction disorders?

[cocoanib]

hmmm, interesting. can't wait to hear more experiences.

[Kurt]

@Liquesce 12/4/10 at 7:29pm,

According to the Bates theory as reported by Quackenbush (“Relearning to See”), errors of refraction are just defects in the image on the retina - caused by muscle imbalances in and, particularly, around the eye. And since, in general, those imbalances were probably learned, their correction should also be learnable with practice.

In my case my eyes became “needing” about -4 diopters (with about +2 for astigmatism) correction in both eyes (from +0) over the summer at about age 12 – a growth spurt. At about age 40 my correction started going down (to about -3) and I needed bifocals. Then trifocals at about age 55. About 2 years ago I got tired of head-bobbing to find the right focal and got two monofocal glasses, and around the same time I bought the Quackenbush book. The near vision glasses I ordered specifically +0.5 over the eye doc's measurement, and the far-vision pair about -0.5 (under) his measurement. That was so that the two ranges would meet at my computer monitor about 3 ½ feet away where my near glasses have my eyes relaxed. At great distance with my far glasses my eyes would also be relaxed. The result now (age 66) is that my far correction is down to about -1 (astigmatism is about +1), my near correction almost 0, and I can use either pair comfortably at monitor distance.

@PeachBaby 12/3/10 at 4:08am,

@raelize 11/29/10 at 8:17pm,

Thus, relaxation can work in teaching the brain for new balances for the eye muscles, but I think you may have to just keep pushing the envelope where your vision is almost in focus like I did. If the image is too blurry your brain won't be able to figure out how adjust your focus muscles to improve your vision.

@raelize 11/29/10 at 8:17pm,

I think that appropriate exercises can also work, and I suspect that they too might take time.

BTW and for full disclosure, during the last two years I have also been testing the effects of nutrients on my glaucoma and cataracts (not for refraction – but I don't know if they made a difference). For me the cataracts went away in less than a year (both eyes; first evidence in a week) with 100 mg of alpha lipoic acid per day. Last week the doc said I've got new ones … so I doubled the dose. The glaucoma (by retinal, optic nerve, and visual field evidence) went away after I started fish oil (EPA and DHA omega-3s). For others the same nutrients may not be the problem, and it's worth knowing that I was already taking extra vitamin C, D, E, and 12 mg iodine-iodide (Lugol's soln.). That's on top of a Paleo diet for ten years that is mostly raw, organic vegetables, sprouts, fruits, nuts, fish and fowl.

[zebaby]

Really quite interesting! I've always believed in refraining from glasses if possible, but it never quite dawned on me to be able to re-train your eyes. My DH has worn glasses since childhood, so I fear that my son might need some when he gets older. I would love to find out more in the event that DS starts showing signs of vision problems.

[Clarabear]

Check out Ran Prieur's experiences using the Bates method.

http://ranprieur.com/me/eyes.html

[KimPM]

Anyone try the Eyeport System?
http://www.exerciseyoureyes.com/