We live in a a tiny bubble.  I live in a tiny bubble.  Though we do live in extraordinary times, where companies like Google expand our access to information in ways that were inconceivable just a decade ago.  This is just the beginning of a larger access to knowledge.  And it is still very limited when it comes to only locally accessible health related knowledge.  You might still have to stumble across an individual in some small town somewhere in the world, who knows how to fix what ails you.

In my bubble, the process of improving eyesight has been largely “home grown”.  I am the second generation of a practice specifically focused on myopia rehabilitation, and we had to uncover the majority of our therapy approach ourselves.

It really is a tiny bubble, considering that apparently hundreds, if not thousands of optometrists and ophthalmologists are actually providing prevention and rehabilitation advice.

Janice writes:

quotes-blueDear Alex,

I have been using the basics of Your rehab method sine February now. My last prescription was -10 SPH with -2.5 CYL. I estimate that this was an overprescription by about 1 diopter of effective strength. Right now I am down to wearing -7.5 SPH for distance and -6.5 for near work without astigmatism. I buy my glasses with -0.25 diopter steps directly from a factory in China. It costs me ~10$ per glasses and they are quite decent quality (well at least if I wear each of them for ~3 weeks as near-work glasses and later for another 3 weeks as distance glasses once I have progressed downward, since the close steppings of 0.25 allow me to rotate freely in strength rangeas I feel comfortable). http://www.aliexpress.com/item/6-colors-wholesale-rimless-with-hinged-memory-titanium-optical-frame-eyeglasses-specs-free-shipping/591137493.html
I use lens width of 43mm for the cheapest 3EUR lens pairs that make the lenses thin enough even for -8SPH.

I am very grateful for Your site and everything You are doing.

I read Your latest blog post where You contemplate how much staying under the radar is better then attracting too much trouble. I do not know how relevant it is to the discussion and maybe You already know this. But it is a fact, that SOME of the knowledge that is contained in the program was known and used in the territories of the former USSR. I was very surprised about this. I come from Latvia which is now in EU and while i live in Germany now, my younger sister lives in a small town in Latvia. And when I told her about my eye rehabilitation program that I am undertaking from Your site, she put it matter-of-factedly to me that yeah she is aware of these princples! She’s in junior high and studies really hard. Her eyesight had weakened recently and she went to the local practitioner and was prescribed a light plus, for strain reduction and prevention since otherwise her eyesight was always quite perfect and has been wearing them always when studying and on computer. I heard a similar story from my mothers sister who has first grade daughter. Their eye doctor (I do not know the details) had just advised her that the small one has still some natural plus buffer remaining, but that it would be advisable to wear a preventive plus if they are able to convince her to do it, soon.

I also talked with my mother and she explained that in USSR the prescription policy was mostly without astigmatism (she had a -8SPH when around 30, but no CYL), and eye doctors were extremely weary of strengthening Your prescription whenever You came in for an eye check and that strain reduction exercises were always part of the consultation process. This is probably because these doctors were not in the business of selling anything at the time. I do understand that this was not based on anything resembling active-focus, but was more like Bates method. I think that this was standard policy across all USSR and thus probably there are people practicing something similar in Russia, the stans, Balkans and maybe even China, etc.

What has recently happened with the Baltic economies undergoing massive economic devastation is that people are simply unable to pay for new high-index glasses any way and that ironically this is the reason some practitioners have started adding value to their consultation process, giving more focus on prevention, rehabilitation hoping this results in more return visits over a period of time instead of trying to sell 200-300 EUR glasses which most people can’t afford anymore ( nearly no one has any meaningful insurance that would cover glasses ).

This certainly surprised me to learn of these things. So if You do not want to subject Yourself to too much attention and litigation risk, it may be possible for You to get in touch with similarly minded people who are practicing the basic principles that Your program seems to be based on. It is likely that some of them reside in jurisdictions where US lens manufacturers and trade associations have a bit shorter teeth and are somewhat more below the radar.”

***

How fascinating is this?

Just a few hours drive away from where I practiced for 40 years.  There are countries where practitioners would have laughed at me, trying to reinvent the wheel, struggling against my own country’s medical dogmas.

We owe Janice a heartfelt thank you for taking the time to write and share her knowledge.  Now I hope to find more specifics on ophthalmology education in these nations where prevention and rehabilitation have not been the taboos that the industry has created in many western countries.  It would be fantastic to get a whole library of insights out of these tiny bubbles, out here to the Web, and give more people access to healthier vision alternatives.

A quick aside, I’ve once again been a bit preoccupied offline, causing a bit of delay responding to e-mails and forum questions, and updating the blog.  I do appreciate your patience, as always!

Enjoy!

alex cures myopia