Johnny writes in the forum:
Hello all + Dr Alex
I thought I’d relate my experience of eyesight improvement as some may find it interesting/useful.
First some background. I started wearing glasses about the age of 12, when a school nurse tested all the kids in our class and decided I needed glasses. From that day I hated being short sighted with a passion. I refused to wear them until my myopia progressed to the stage where I didnt have much of a choice. I have asked every single optometrist I have ever been to over the years if there was anything I could do to slow the progression of my myopia or reverse it. The answer was always no and faced with such a wall of opinion I largely accepted it.
I studied very hard at school. Probably too hard and yes I am prepared to say I wrecked my own eyesight as a consequence.
My prescription followed the usual progression pattern getting worse year after year until it peaked in 2006 at OD -5.00 -1.50 x 85 OS -5.50 -1.00 x 120. 90% of the time I wore contacts with the prescription -4.75 -0.75 x 90 in both eyes.
Interestingly when I stopped studying (graduated from uni) my eyesight stopped getting worse.
After uni, and up until 5 years ago I had a desk job, in an office behind 4 computer screens. I lived in a country with bad weather and rarely went outside.
5 years ago I decided I didnt like my job or my life very much and decided to change it. I moved to the tropics and started working outdoors. Note this is a very big change!
In January this year before I found this site I went for an eye test. No change in my prescription but the optometrist found a retinal tear and referred me to an ophthalmologist. I had an operation to fix it but for a guy in his late 20s this was a somewhat sobering experience and it gave me new impetus to try and fix my eyesight to at least try and prevent any more retinal damage. I did a fair bit of googling and found this site.
It was an absolute revelation. What Dr Alex was saying made sense and confirmed a lot of my hunches about vision over the years. I immediately started applying the principles. This was in mid February this year. I slightly adjusted some of the advice to fit my circumstances, namely that I have no need for a reduced prescription for close up work because I dont really do any anymore. Crucially I work outdoors year round in high UV levels and bright sunlight, staring into the distance as part of my job. At the time of writing (late july) I have made rapid progress from my -4.75 0.75 x 90 starting prescription in February (contact lens) to my current prescription of -3.00 0.75 x 90. That initial progress was very rapid and I was struggling to keep up with prescription reductions, reducing by 0.25 every time. However the step down from -3.25 to -3.00 has been pretty tough and it would seem that progress from here on will be slower. I have been wearing the -3.00 0.75 x 90 prescription for about 3 weeks now and my eyesight has improved over that time but is still not 20/20. I have a snellen and good reference points in the distance at work. Also I have noticed that while I might be able to get 20/20 in bright sunlight during the day with a particular prescription, my night vision is not good, however it does improve with time albeit slowly.
I am lucky with my current circumstances and I think that reflects in my rapid initial progress. For those struggling with improvements maybe some holidays in sunny places would help. I am still ‘learning as I go’ and I will be interested to see if my progress increases again as the UV index here rises as we head toward the wet season. I will update here with my future progress – I plan to stick with my 0.25 diopter reductions and am very much looking forward to ditching the astigmatism correction around -2.50. Finally I want to say a big thank you to Alex for the time he puts into this site and for starting it in the first place!
Good luck everyone!
Johnny
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A great insight into an individual experience. Thanks to Johnny for taking the time to share.
This of course isn’t what everyone might expect, in terms of speed of improvement. There is the question of overprescription when starting out, as well as the degree of correction afforded by current normalized prescription. Persistent close-up strain management, as well as genetic predisposition also play a role.
“Can do”, though, is the attitude we want to find for ourselves. Johnny’s story is a great one for positive perspective.
The full thread is here, if you want to add or ask questions.
