The Secret Eye Killer...

Despite being soft and vulnerable to the outside world, You’re eyes are surprising very resilient. They have alot of mechanisms to counteract possible problems: whether the problems are dealing with refraction, disease, or disorders. As a matter of fact, the cornea of the eye has the ability to heal itself from minor scratch and etc.

However, all of these mechanisms fail you are voluntarily placing harm on your eyes. Whether this is through your habits, your actions or somebody else actions.

What am I talking about?

Specifically, I’m talking about prescription of glasses during an eye exam. Getting the wrong prescription from the doctor is dangerous, and is going to cause you to pay another visit in the future with a worsened problem. A wrong prescription is going to get you the wrong glasses, and over prescribed glasses is sadly, both common and harmful. An over prescription WILL worsen vision and slowly kill your eyes. A doctor who isn’t doing their job correctly can harm your eyes through the same glasses intended to help your eyes. At that point, it won’t even matter how many hours of close-up you cut back on to better your eyes because you’ll worsen your eyes just by WEARING the glasses.

A lot of optometrists don’t have the same level of care for your eyes as you do. (Optometrists are the ones that perform your eye exam while Ophthalmologists are the ones that perform surgery on your eye.) They are usually infamous for having patients come back for another visit just to get another prescription.

Unlike other areas of medicine, there is not a specific protocol or procedure that optometrists need to follow when doing an eye exam.

In CPR, the specific sequence to follow is Compressions, Airways, Breathing. First provide a set number of compressions to the victim’s chest, then open the airways of the victim. Lastly breathe into the victim. To perform proper CPR, these steps must be followed in this order (To perform proper, these steps must be followed). Comprehensive eye exams are different; Eye doctors are free to do what they see fit. There is not a governing procedure. There are general tests that SHOULD be performed such as

but….

Pseudo myopia

The real killer is pseudo-myopia, but is preventable if your optometrist is any good. Any good optometrist should be knowledgeable of pseudo-myopia. This is really important when testing for distance vision.

What is…?

Just like myopia, pseudo-myopia is a refractive error. Pseudo-myopia however is caused by the lens rather than increased axial length. It is temporary and can be relieved fairly quickly. As the name says, it is not real myopia, its temporary.

Pseudo myopia is harmless and does not worsen your vision. With good vision habits and a good doctor, you wouldn’t have to worry about it at all. But many doctors are careless, and not accounting for pseudo-myopia can harm you in the long run. Pseudo myopia can get an over prescription.

In the western world, Eye doctors are quick to prescribe glasses for eye problems. Pseudo-myopia gives you glasses for myopia you don’t have. You don’t get an accurate diopter reading, and could be stuck with glasses that could be really highballing your ACTUAL prescription.

What do optometry clinics say to this? Imagine you go back the day after getting your glasses and say you are having a hard time seeing through your new glasses; the glasses might not be the right prescription. The response is “Try wearing them in the morning when your eyes are fresh so that they can adjust to them.” With these higher than needed glasses prescriptions you are basically forcing your eyes to worsen.

On the other hand, there are still doctors that know what they are doing. A good doctor knows to not give you glasses based on pseudo myopia. These doctors test for distance vision after administering specific eye drops that relieve pseudo-myopia. That way your true myopia can be found. This procedure has been done since 1946. Check out page 2 of this document. (link)

Don’t blame the optometrists

Many glasses are prescribed every year, sometimes when they aren’t need. This is mainly the fault of the optometrists that don’t properly check for pseudo-myopia, but I would say the root problem is in western medicine itself. In general western medicine relies on the separation of the person from the disease. The western approach is to look at the disease instead of the person and just solve the disease.

This isn’t a bad approach, but in the case of optometry. The doctors are just in a haste to prescribe you glasses. Instead they aren’t looking at the person.

On the topic of myopia, instead of deciding what caused your myopia and giving you a potential reversal strategy, the doctor’s job is to had you a prescription and recommend glasses or contacts. As a matter of fact, the optometrist is required by law to hand you your eye prescription at the end of your examination. There is no acknowledgment of the actual science that myopia is reversible. They just care about the disease, and glasses get the job done.

There is virtually no eye doctor out there that is focusing on the person: recommending lifestyle changes, providing reversal remedies, and bringing forth the actual science.

As a matter of fact, the last known western doctor to do so was William Bates. You can read more about him here (link). Although his theories, methods, and guidance were not exactly spot on, he was headed down the right path. And this is the same path that is being neglected today.

It's very unfortunate the rate at which vision of general population is worsening, yet as a society we are still at the same level we were 700 years ago when glasses were invented. Today doctors give a common suggestion, and the glasses and contact companies know this. Myopia has become a business, and an ongoing cycle.