Glasses stop a key feedback loop from working properly.

You’re supposed to get “warnings” when you abuse your body.  But with lens prescriptions, you might not be.

At some point in the future, generations from now, the medical community is going to shake their collective heads at the folly of how we deal with myopia today.

We have no idea what we’re doing, prescribing lenses to billions of people.

Billions.  Meanwhile myopia spirals out of control worldwide, and nobody has a thing to say about it.  Although there’s a lot of flapping of the gums lately, in my e-mail.  Upset optometrists, complaining that I paint them in a bad light.

Really, I’m just saying, the lens-sales contingent know nothing about vision health.

(Disclaimer:  Sure, there are lots and lots in the field who know better.  Stuck with the rules.  Stuck with consumers who just want a quick fix.  Dumb prescription ideas aren’t living in a vacuum.  Finger pointing goes both ways.)

Just as doctors drilled holes in people’s heads to cure depression in the past, the way the medical community thought electroshock therapy was a grand idea, how babies were medicated with cocaine, glasses too will one day be a relic of misguided medical ideals.

Glasses are a stupid, stupid way to manipulate eyesight.

Glasses hide not just the myopia symptom, they also stop you from getting valuable feedback.

Your vision fluctuates naturally.  If you go on a binge of all sorts on a three day Vegas weekend, you’re supposed to wake up Monday morning, in a blurry haze.  “Woke up in a haze”, it’s something they say for a reason.  Your eyes are a highly complex, biologically demanding system.  If you stomp on your energy supply, if you wear yourself out, if you eat poorly, this highly tuned part of your body will just not work as well.

Glasses, though?

You can go on a three day bender, wake up Monday morning, and have 20/10 vision.

That’s messed up.

Think performance enhancing drugs.  Think steroids.  Think just anything you can take that’ll give you a boost past what your biology would otherwise be capable of.  And think long term side effects.  In the case of glasses, LIM (lens-induced myopia) is basically a given.

Whatever, you know these things already.  Here’s a forum thread on this topic, today:

Matthew posts:

Jake has posted on the effects of sugar on his visual acuity before. Today, my vision is noticeably blurrier than since I reduced my prescription most recently. Had too much sugar since Halloween, and I’m short on sleep today. My prescription is currently:

OD -2.25
OS -1.75 *-0.25 *177

Yesterday, I was seeing the 20/40 line on my snellen first thing in the morning (with only fluorescent lighting) and could bring the 20/30 line into focus, and almost the 20/25. Today, I had to work to get the 20/40 line into focus.

I’m not concerned about it – a few good nights of sleep and cutting out sugar should do the trick. But, it’s interesting to experience how diet and sleep affect my eyesight. This, in combination with other holidays coming up, and the winter, shows me how important it is to be mindful of the choices I make.

and:

I’m actually grateful that it happened. My current prescription is the first one that seems lowered enough for me to be aware of this stuff. I’ve cut out a lot of sugar from my diet anyway, but this is just one more reason to eat good quality food.

Climbing back from as blurry as my world was, I’m not about to mess up what gains I’ve made from candy bars and other junk. I love the feedback that our body gives us if we just know about it.

and a comment by Christian:

It’s good to know these kind of things like sugar and lack of sleeping affecting our vision. That way we can prevent them. But honestly, experiencing them is better sometimes.

You can literally see how real this stuff is when you experience everything yourself.

I was preventing going beyond 3 hours of close up, as to not get a lock up. But I kept wondering if I was already locked up and I didn’t know it. I wondered: what if I think I’m preventing a lock up but in reality my ciliary has already experienced a spasm and that’s why my vision isn’t improving that much?

So one day I decided to go beyond 3 hours, without changing focal planes or anything. I went maybe like 5 hours or a lil more.

And man I experienced that lock up. My eyes felt strained, I couldn’t bring anything into focus, I felt frustrated. I had the feeling that I had put differential lenses inside my eyes and couldn’t take them off.

The forum.  Great place for ideas.

You do need glasses if you are already myopic.  But who’s to say that you shouldn’t “turn down” the prescription strength to a more natural level, where you can actually notice the difference between good days and less good days?

It’s also a great way to be able to test just about every suggestion I make here in the blog, and especially in BackTo20/20.  Nothing I ever tell you needs to be taken on faith.  Just like Christian wanted to validate my statement about not exceeding a three hour close-up limit, you can do exactly the same.  And everybody’s biology is just a little bit different.  Take the guiding principles I collected for you based on lots o time and student data, and then expand to your own preferences from there.

Today’s Twitter recommendation:  @SarahJoLindsay.   “Personal Trainer London, 3xOlympian, 10x GB Short Track Champ, European gold, World Cup Silver Medalist.”

Why Sarah?  Because, flattery.

sarahlindsay

(also, inspiring Instagram if you need some gym motivation today)

Cheers,

-Jake