|
Who Needs Glasses? An eye-opening look at exercises that can help improve vision By Gary Legwold This article is about the ego and the eyes. I thought I'd look better without glasses. I don't like contacts, so last spring I began a vision-improvement program hoping I'd become glasses-free. Oh, I told people I didn't like glasses because of inconveniences (like fogging) and costs that get bigger as lenses get smaller. Blather. Shedding glasses is about giving the ego the "go" sign. Sure, the ego needs to be penned in; people are peacocks when it's always "about me." But the ego also needs a good romp occasionally. This was my romp. I did it with the balanced approach Golda Meir advised when she said, "Don't be humble. You're not that great." The Eyes Have It I called Vision Improvement Technologies, which sent The See Clearly Method package (www.seeclearlymethod.com). SCM consultants admit their program isn't new; various programs have surfaced since the early 20th century when the Bates Method for Improving Eyesight became popular. Ophthalmologist W. H. Bates, M.D., sought to improve sight and restore natural habits of seeing, which are lost through strain, tension, and misuse of the eyes. Bates used relaxation exercises to cause the eyes and mind to better focus together. In theory, the Bates Method increases awareness and appreciation of what we see, which gradually causes vision to improve naturally. Newer programs have added this exercise or that twist to the Bates Method, and SCM is just one of several I found online. The SCM team of Merrill J. Allen, O.D., Ph.D., Francis A. Young, Ph.D., and David W. Muris, O.D., have pulled together what they believe is the best of these methods and have added a polish of their own. Instruction materials are well done and include a manual, daily progress journal, eye-exercise charts, and the 19 exercises explained on audiotapes, videotapes, and a computer CD ROM. Cost was $311, and the guarantee was impressive; if not satisfied after a month, I'd get my money back. Vision Improvement Goals An ophthalmologist checked my eyes in May, shortly after I received the SCM material. I asked about SCM. He said these vision-improvement methods might provide a small benefit for farsighted people (I'm nearsighted) and people whose eyes don't work well as a team (not me). I also asked about Lasik (laser in situ keratomileusis) surgery. He said it would correct my nearsightedness, but I'd need glasses to read. A few cases involve complications (glare or halo around lights, inflammation, incorrect surgical correction). Cost for both eyes would be $2,800. I was not interested in Lasik surgery, not if I could achieve the same goals naturally and more inexpensively. My goal was to be glasses-free. But SCM consultants, who were enthusiastic but not over-the-top, encouraged me to consider these goals as well:
Peer Passion I was pumped about this program and worked on SCM exercises through summer and fall. They are simple and require about 30 minutes daily. The program includes several eye-relaxing-and-energizing exercises, including four acupressure techniques. Some exercises strengthen the six extra-ocular muscles that enable the eyeballs to move and point together. Other exercises work the ciliary muscle, which surrounds the lens inside the eye. This muscle changes the focus of the lens. I particularly liked the relaxing and energizing exercises. One is called light therapy. You sit with eyes closed and about six inches away from a 150-watt light, moving your head from side to side so each eye receives an equal amount of light and warmth. Palming is another exercise. You close your eyes and gently cover them with your palms, breathing slowly and imagining the eyes becoming stronger. A third exercise is hydrotherapy. The other two exercises feel great, but this one feels the best. You dip a washcloth in warm water and hold it against your closed eyes for 30 seconds. Repeat using a washcloth dipped in cold water. Repeat warm-cold-warm-cold for a total of 3 minutes. Very refreshing. In two weeks, I increased the hours per day of not wearing glasses without eyestrain or headaches from two to four and then six. After week four, I spent most of my days glasses-free. When I wore glasses in the evenings, my vision was crystal-clear. Within three weeks, I could read without bifocals. During a follow-up eye exam in November, my doctor noticed this and wrote an "optional bifocal" prescription. By the way, SCM provides a bookmark that you insert a few pages ahead of the page you are reading. When you get to the bookmark, you stop reading, repeat an affirmation, and do exercises listed on the bookmark. This helps you get into your busy day a few exercises, and it serves as a reminder to change the focal distance so that your eyes can rest. Distance vision improved slightly in my right, or weaker, eye, said the ophthalmologist. When I started SCM, I could read line 3 of the SCM Word Chart held at arm's length (line 1 is smallest and 32 the largest). The distance at which objects become blurry was 18 inches. In November, I could read line 1 on SCM's chart, and my blur distance was 27 inches. Better, but I could not see far objects as well as I wanted. Still, I functioned well in most situations without glasses. Writing was no problem, and when I ran I was carefree when I wiped away sweat, as opposed to daintily dabbing at drops around glasses. When I kayaked, I'd leave my glasses onshore and not worry about $600 worth of eyewear washing off my face during a spill and sinking into the deep blue. Ophthalmologists' View: Dim What's the American Academy of Ophthalmology's view of these vision-improvement methods? Not much. AAO spokesperson Richard Bensinger, MD, says, "The success of Lasik surgery is the result of the un-success of these other methods." Bensinger says the lens can change shape in young and middle-age people. But it loses elasticity when people enter their 40s and becomes "like hard plastic" when they are in their 50s. So, doing exercises to affect the lens' changeability is pointless for older people. And the strengthening exercises for the extra-ocular muscles? "There has never been any proof that they have any effect at all," says Bensinger. Bensinger says SCM-like programs lack supporting clinical research and rely on promotional testimonials, the hallmark of "quack therapy." He adds that "whatever studies are done supporting these products are done by optometrists—and they have a rather limited sort of education, not very scientifically based." SCM spokesperson Steve Cooperman says research is planned for SCM, which was first sold in 2000. "We believe it will only help us," he says. "But frankly, we get thousands of calls daily, and research is not necessary for most people to decide to try this. Ultimately, it comes down to their own experience. If they're happy with results, they'll keep doing it. If not, they won't." Even if supporting research is published, says Cooperman, it won't sway most eye doctors. "Most optometrists don't believe this stuff really improves vision permanently. There's a lot of resistance based on their educational training of how the eye works. Ophthalmologists are much worse. But they are not seeing vision as more than what happens in the eye." The Vision Thing Vision, says Sue E. Lowe, O.D, involves more than the eyes. Vision occurs in the brain, which is fed data from the eyes as well as from other parts of the nervous system. Lowe, who is chair of the American Optometric Association's Sports Vision Section, says SCM-like exercises will not change eye structures. "However, vision can be improved," she says. "Optometry has done this for over 75 years." Lowe says SCM-like programs, as opposed to the sophisticated program she and other sports-vision experts offer, are too general and simple to do much to improve an individual's vision. "We have a vision rehabilitation-type program where you do a complete sensory-motor evaluation to see what is the facility, stability, stamina, and flexibility of your visual system. How efficient is the focusing, aiming, teaming, and fixating system? How are your perceptual skills? How is your visualization, your spatial-memory, your spatial-localization, depth perception? Do you turn off an eye when the image gets faster or closer, or after 15 minutes of reading? These are the type of things we can evaluate. "We are not strengthening eye muscles; we are changing the neurophysiology, retraining the brain and teaching a person what to look for and how to see it. So, the SCM-type of program and the professional's are quite different." The upside of SCM-type programs, says Lowe, is they make people appreciative of their vision and believers in vision improvement. The downside is up to 70 percent of those customers don't get their desired results and quit. She says her professional program, which can cost thousands of dollars for exams and months of therapy, has a high success rate. "I don't want people thinking vision improvement doesn't work," she says. "With these other programs, some people don't put in the effort. If they do, they may get to a certain level but perhaps not the level where they could be." I, for one, am probably not at a level where I could be if I were to use a program such as Lowe's. But I'm satisfied with my progress. It's good to know most eye professionals believe SCM-type programs are largely poppycock. But it's also good to know vision can be improved. My vision has improved. How much of that is due to SCM? I don't know and I kind of don't care. I just like that it happened. I'll probably keep doing a scaled-down version of these eye exercises the rest of my life. They feel good and they remind me that vision, which I can so easily neglect and abuse, is marvelous and precious. I reached all my goals but one. I now see better but I'm not glasses-free. I'll probably always need them for distance viewing. But that's OK. My ego tells me I look better with glasses anyway. The Carrot Canard (sidebar) The notion that we can naturally improve vision played a part in World War II. Richard Bensinger, M.D., spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, says one reason British fighter pilots prevailed in The Battle of Britain was Britain had radar and Germany didn't. Radar allowed British pilots to know in advance where German fighter planes were going to attack. "They knew the Germans would figure out Britain had radar, so they wanted to fool them," says Bensinger. "The British wrote articles in nutritional journals about how they fed pilots five pounds of carrots [carotene is good for eyes] a day, which improved their vision so well they could spot German planes coming." The Brits knew German scientists scanned British journals carefully. "They read this stuff and said, ‘Aha! Now we know why British pilots were so effective,'" says Bensinger. "Then the poor German pilots had to eat all these carrots." This amount of carotene is excessive to what the eyes need, so about all the Germans got out of this Bugs Bunny bit of bungling was orange skin. The deception "held off the Germans a little while," says Bensinger. "It took them another year or so before they discovered radar was the reason British pilots were doing so well. It had nothing to do with carrots. That was very effective and probably altered the course of the war."
© Copyright 2004 Gary Legwold and Conrad Henry Press. All rights reserved. |
||||
