I have been going through some of my favorite pieces of research for a friend, and an interesting book project.  While I’ve been discouraged to talk about that, I’d like to bring you some of the choices pieces here, to the blog.  It’s hard to choose since so many of them are equally compelling and disturbing.  

So in no particular order, take a look at this (titled “Vision Therapy to Reduce Abnormal Nearwork Induced Transient Myopia”; by Ciuffreda, Kenneth J. OD, PhD, FAAO, and Ordonez, Xavier OD.  Published by the American Academy of Optometry):

quotes-blueAfter brief periods of nearwork, some younger patients complain of transient distance blur that is correlated with a transient pseudomyopic shift in their distance refraction. This phenomenon has recently been documented objectively. However, there is lack of objective documentation demonstrating the effects of conventional optometric vision therapy in symptomatic individuals manifesting this “abnormal nearwork-induced transient myopia” (ANITM). Five symptomatic subjects received 7 to 10 weeks (5 to 6 sessions) of accommodative facility vision therapy (i.e., lens flippers and Hart chart). Objective recording of their ANITM and its decay were taken before and after the vision therapy, using a Canon R-1 autorefractor. A daily log was maintained, describing qualitatively their nearworkrelated symptomatology. After therapy, there was marked reduction of symptoms and considerable improvement in clinical accommodative facility measures, as well as improvement in the objective findings. These results demonstrate multi-faceted positive effects of optometric accommodative vision therapy in this diagnostic group of symptomatic individuals.

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The whole article, detailed and insightful, is here, in PDF form.

If you come here often, you may be thoroughly bored by the very proverbial very dead beaten horse.  

That study was published a decade and a half ago (!).  It was published in the Journal of Optometry and Vision Science, which should be firmly on the list of subscriptions of your vision health professional.  Things get hardly more mainstream vision science than the American Academy of Optometry.  Tl;dr though, all of it, to most ophthalmologists (I’m a bit proud of my well timed knowledge and application of Internet slang).  And here, not only do we already know what NITM is, we also know that the participants eyesight improved significantly, measured objectively, using vision therapy.

I do get a lot of e-mails, asking me if this site is for real, if eyes can be rehabilitated, and why in the world nobody knows about this.

People do know.  Everybody who is involved in the science of myopia, knows.  Your optic shop, entirely not to be confused with vision science, is staffed by lens salesmen in lab coats.  What you may want to try, is this:  Go to a car dealer specializing in selling large trucks and high performance luxury cars.  Get one of the sales staff, and ask him/her about the merits of electric cars.  

Take that advice at face value.  Electric cars, as you’ll be told, are entirely useless.  And of course, so is vision therapy.