[HN Gopher] Myopia: A Modern yet Reversible Disease
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       Myopia: A Modern yet Reversible Disease
        
       Author : wassenar
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2021-07-29 17:46 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gettingstronger.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gettingstronger.org)
        
       | jsnell wrote:
       | This looks like total quackery to me, especially given the bogus
       | claims about glasses making myopia worse. Is there any kind of
       | credible scientific evidence for this working?
        
       | nicolas_t wrote:
       | Anecdote, as a teen, I was diagnosed as having myopia (mostly on
       | one eye) and got glasses. I refused to wear them most of the
       | time, during that time I spent more time outdoor, looking further
       | away and also develop an habit to stare at points far away
       | whenever I'm thinking.
       | 
       | Since I'm 25, whenever I do an eye test, they tell me that I have
       | a very small amount of myopia on one eye but it's very small and
       | I don't need glasses.
       | 
       | Interestingly, when I talked to an eye doctor recently, he told
       | me that they no longer try to push glasses so much when there's a
       | small vision issue.
        
         | legerdemain wrote:
         | Another anecdote: I developed myopia in high school and
         | college, where it became progressively more difficult to read
         | what was written on blackboards and transparency projectors. I
         | resolutely refused to get glasses. By the time I got my first
         | pair of glasses at 25, my prescription was around -3.25 in both
         | eyes.
        
       | wizzwizz4 wrote:
       | In theory, then, people at risk of environmental myopia should
       | get reading glasses to wear while working on close-up things. (Is
       | this the "print pushing" thing described in the presentation?)
        
       | linsomniac wrote:
       | Another no-glasses technique I've heard works is Orthokeratology,
       | specially shaped contacts that you wear at night which reshape
       | the lens, and the effects last through the next day. I find
       | contacts incredibly uncomfortable to wear during the day, largely
       | because it's very dry where I live, but I suspect I could wear
       | them comfortably at night.
       | 
       | Ortho-K is fairly expensive ($1-3K from memory), and fairly rare.
       | I could only find a couple places that do it in my entire state.
        
         | hondadriver wrote:
         | I use those (DreamLite)and they are getting more and more
         | common in the Netherlands. Every contact lens specialist shop
         | sells them. They around EUR 500 a year including cleaning
         | fluids and check-ups.
         | 
         | Be sure to get checks regularly and practice extra good eye
         | hygiene, because they do have a higher risk of infections, also
         | eye doctors do not recommend them.
         | 
         | Biggest drawback I experience are coronas around bright lights
         | at night, but you do get used to them. I can conformably drive
         | a car at night, because the sight is sharp. The extend also
         | varies from person to person.
         | 
         | If you can tolerate the lenses with your eyes open, you can
         | also already wear them in the evening if you need perfect sight
         | in low light.
         | 
         | On topic: you cannot permanently reverse myopia, but it gets
         | better when you get older for some people.
         | 
         | Ortho-K lenses can however be used by children to stop myopia
         | from getting worse.
        
       | kkoncevicius wrote:
       | There is a sceptical comment from the audience at 36:50 [1].
       | Maybe someone here has the knowledge to comment about that? Is it
       | true what the person says - that the actual problems with the
       | eyes won't be fixed, you would just get better quality vision
       | through some other way doing this?
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0&t=2210s
        
       | trey-jones wrote:
       | Well... my eyes have gotten progressively worse (more myopic)
       | since I started wearing glasses regularly to work about 5 years
       | ago. This was in my early 30s. Before that I didn't wear glasses
       | most of the time, but I still had some myopia that could be
       | irritating at times. I could still, eg. drive comfortably without
       | glasses. I can no longer do that.
       | 
       | It's something that has felt wrong to me, and worried me a lot
       | (you know, since I use my eyes for a lot of things that are
       | important to me). I will definitely look further into this and
       | try the techniques discussed here.
        
         | lefrenchy wrote:
         | Maybe I'm misunderstanding here, but I don't think you should
         | attribute the progression of myopia to your glasses. It's
         | likely it would have happened regardless, correlation not
         | causation.
        
           | trey-jones wrote:
           | Perhaps I misunderstood Slide 16:
           | 
           | Myopia progresses in two stages: (1) near work induces lens
           | spasm, causing pseudo-myopia; (2) use of minus lenses
           | temporarily improves distance vision, but leads to eye
           | elongation and axial myopia. The result of elongation is a
           | need to prescribe stronger minus lenses, in a vicious cycle
           | of ever stronger lenses.
           | 
           | I haven't watched the video yet, but this sounds like my
           | experience.
        
             | lefrenchy wrote:
             | Yeah, it's possibly true but I guess I'm just skeptical
             | that glasses make it worse. It just seems like it would be
             | easy to confuse the symptoms (eye elongation and axial
             | myopia) as being caused by the glasses rather than just by
             | whatever factors originally caused the myopia (or if it was
             | genetic/age driven).
             | 
             | From a brief search it seems that studies show that glasses
             | don't make eyesight worse.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | lefrenchy wrote:
       | Does anyone have actual experience reversing myopia? During the
       | pandemic my eye sight worsened pretty quickly and I have glasses
       | for the first time ever (presumably the worsening was already
       | there but accelerated by being on my computer more during
       | lockdown, working longer hours, getting out of the house less).
       | 
       | My prescription is really slight (I think like -.5 or -.75) and I
       | was really curious if this was reversible at all, but I'm
       | skeptical of claims that it is.
        
         | princesse wrote:
         | I did, but I was going when I did so. Spent more time outdoor
         | looking far, then close, then far, etc. I've become aware of
         | the duration of the transition in focus and it now serves as a
         | warning side. Whenever it seems to take longer to focus on far-
         | away things I know I need to do some more exercice. Went from
         | needing glasses (which I declined) and seeing everything blurry
         | to having a great vision I can't complain about.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | dandanua wrote:
       | Reasonable points.
       | 
       | I'm also very skeptical when doctors say you have to constantly
       | wear glasses. It's more logical that with glasses our eyes are
       | becoming even more lazy.
       | 
       | All this myopia pandemic looks like a natural consequence of our
       | modern lifestyle - looking at screens most of the time. So it's
       | more like an adaptation. But I don't think it's possible to
       | reverse it without throwing away all the screens.
        
       | webmobdev wrote:
       | Is there any study on how personality or mental health dicates
       | myopia in someone? I've seen kids suddenly develop myopia when
       | their parents suddenly start fighting (or get divorced), or in
       | teenagers and young adults in schools and colleges when they
       | can't fully deal with the prolonged stress of life. Our thought
       | patterns do have an effect on our eyes, and I've always wondered
       | if too much introspective thinking or depressive ruminative
       | thinking of the kind (where we "look inwards" mentally too much,
       | focusing on our faults or trying to figure out what's wrong with
       | us or the world) over a period of time, contributes to some form
       | of myopia.
        
       | hmsshagatsea wrote:
       | That guy's a weirdo. Look up Cliff Gnu's no BS guide to sight
       | improvement and it's all you need.
       | 
       | I have dropped 1.75 in one year. And this is without being super
       | intense
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-29 23:01 UTC)