Some of the vision improvement voodoo on the Internet says that glasses are the root of all evil.

Stop wearing glasses, they say.

Which of course is sucky advice, since you end up giving up all of your clear vision.  And while your myopia will reduce to a small extent, it won’t likely reverse your myopia or improve your quality of life.  

It’s why Jakey says, don’t just stop wearing glasses.

Instead learn what causes myopia, understand concepts like hyperopic defocus and the issues with the mainstream single correction paradigm, and the basics on how to actually improve eyesight.  You’ll find that you do want glasses to help you along the way, for a more productive (and fun) experience.

Today we’ve got Keith from the Facebook group, helping to illustrate how glasses can be a good thing.   

Keith’s intro:

10+ years of trying to improve his eyesight!

Things worth noting here:

Low myopia.  It can be a real challenge to reverse low myopia.  High myopia is easy in some respects, since you have a lot of diopters to work with, and the decrements are appropriately granular.  And you don’t need to concern yourself with tricky questions like plus lenses for close-up, and the relatively larger gaps in acuity you’ll experience in poor lighting.

Also, ten years of trying things.  Odds are that Keith would have bumped into something that should have worked.  You could just do active focus with an eye chart for a year or two, diligently, and get rid of that last diopter (though, not a fun way to go about it).  

What I’m saying, this isn’t about to be a definitive success story (it’s still in progress).  But it will help to illustrate the benefit of glasses.

Keith went back to glasses, to get a more usable blur horizon, and focus challenge.

Here’s the update he just posted on Facebook:

OK, time for some SUCCESS metrics folks, at least I hope that’s what it is. It’s almost a bit hard to believe. So as some of you may know I’ve gone uncorrected for the past 5yrs (before finding Jake) and, had an autorefractor reading 3 weeks ago of about:
R: -.75 -3.75 113
L: -1.5 -1.5 77

Started with this pair only 2 weeks ago, seeing about 20/30 in good light:
R: -1 -2 113
L: -1.75 0 0

Measured today, and I was able to make out half the 20/15, and the odd 20/10 lines!!! In the last 2-3 days I had a feeling they were becoming too strong.

I have on order 2 pairs, which I’ve been wearing for about 1.5 weeks in my test frames for computer (diff) and TV (new normalized), respectively:
R: +.25 -1.5 113
L: -.25 0 0

R: -.75 -1.5 113
L: -1.25 0 0 

So I go to the chart a few mins ago, and BLAMO! I’m seeing 20/30 SHARP with the new normalized above, which I haven’t even received from Zenni yet!!! I can’t believe it, I’m so excited. Looks like I’ll need to put yet ANOTHER order in even before the one I’m waiting for arrives. Don’t know how or why its working so fast for me. Perhaps since I went so long uncorrected my eyes are just soaking this shit up!! lol I can literally feel my bad astigmatism pulling out in my R eye, like a good soreness stretchy feeling. Think I’m gonna work on reducing CYL in my R eye, and leave my L for the next reduction, since its still quite a bit fuzzier on the charts. I’m thinking something like this, pending chart testing:
R: -.75 -1 113
L: -1.25 0 0
Which would also balance my eyes using spherical equivalents, and help me get my L eye working a little harder on distance active focus.

Thank you so much Jake. I hope this post motivates and inspires. I aim to be 20/20 by next summer at the latest..! Boooyah!  

Too long for a screenshot (full post is here).

See what I mean?

Make things easier for yourself (and your visual cortex), by giving your eyes the focal plane correction they need.  Clear vision, but with some focus challenge.  Avoid blur adaptation, enjoy crispy views, and some text blur you’ll feel motivated to clear up.

Keith still has various challenges to sort out, but at least now he has the proper tools to get there. 

Hopefully those 20/20 gains updates, posted in the Facebook group soon!

Cheers,

-Jake