First. There can only be one Jake Steiner.
Obviously.
Though in a parallel universe possibly bereft of the Jake, if one might imagine such sadness … there would be only one Steve Leung.
Steve is a handsome devil, and an optometrist in Hong Kong (much in the way Michael Jordan is “a basketball player”). Steve has been practicing there for over 16 years, looking at causes rather than just giving out prescriptions like candy. And he’s run afoul of the local powers for not following the good-sheep-optometrist scriptures. Steve has taken serious chances, to help people, especially parents with young children.
Steve is a hero, one that optometry barely deserves.
If you are anywhere near Hong Kong, you should visit Steve. Support the very few in the industry who’ll have your back, and give you lower prescriptions.
I asked Steve to introduce himself here, via a little interview.
(For now we have it in text, bear in mind that Steve’s first language isn’t English. And hopefully soon we’ll be upgrading the interviews to some fun podcasts, too!)
Here it is for today, question number one for Steve.
“Many optometrists have limited apparent knowledge they are willing to share with patients about the bigger picture of vision health. It’s an eye exam, a lens prescription, and on to the next. The current prescription paradigm certainly has a number of valid reasons, and few mainstream practices offer an approach like yours. Here’s the question: how did you end up in the natural vision correction part of optometry?”
Steve says:
“To refract & to prescribe glasses for all cases of myope to restore normal vision is not a difficult task by using concave, or negative lens. That was what I had been taught to do so!
Young myopes correction bothers me greatly because the use of concave lens makes matter even worse in the long run except instant clear. The one corrected will need stronger & stronger power over a period of time after reaching maturity by age 20 or more.
In the early stage of my practice, after graduation, I didn’t pay much attention about the issue.
Only thinking that was normal for all myopes as they were undergo the stage of puberty as well as development.
Until I became a dad of two girls, I pondered the issue over in my mind to think about alternative and better ways to manage myopic eyes, because I am also nearsighted.
I didn’y want the two girls follow the same path of great majority myopes.
I deeply believe genetic has nothing to do with myopia, my parents have perfect vision! And there is a way out!
Thanks to internet, I began much broader research into the subject matter.
I was astounded that many scientists including physicists,engineers and even some health workers have formed an opinion that concave lens is definitely harmful to young myopes’ long term vision.
The natue is fair enough, according to my ancestoral theory of YIN YAN balance. The way of vision restoration could be figured out.”
There we have it. A proper optometrist says, “hey this whole prescribing minus business just doesn’t seem like a good idea”.
Also when Steve says “thanks to the Internet”, of course the internet he’s referring to is “the fiefdom of the one, true, Jake Steiner”.
(ok so not really, that part. he just meant Internet)
You’ve heard this before, here. Optometrists starting to question the lens manufacturer mantra of “just give them more prescriptions”. Remember our
chat with Dr. Steve Gallop?
And yes, naturally we’re only going to be talking to optometrists who are a) sympathetic to the cause and b) have the first name Steve.
Steve almost got kicked out of optometry, for such heresy as he mentions above. Seriously. What would you do if your entire schooling, your decades of career are suddenly threatened?
I’ll tell you what Steve did. Or rather, Steve will.
Cheers,
– Jake
P.S.: Here’s where you can find my favorite optometrist in Hong Kong:
