This is a bit of a departure from our usual discussion about vision health – but nonetheless relevant and important for you to consider. It’s a different sort of myopia, in a figurative sense.
Dr. John Abramson of the Harvard Medical School says the following in an interview with Managed Care:
ABRAMSON: For 20 years, I practiced family medicine about 45 minutes north of Boston. I read my journals each week and believed that by applying the latest medical information contained in those journals, I was providing my patients with the best possible care. As the 1990s progressed, I noticed a growing commercial influence in the “scientific evidence” that defines the best way to practice.
MC: Where do commercial interests fit in this equation?
ABRAMSON: The real problem with American medicine is that most of the knowledge that defines good medical care for physicians, patients, and health policy makers is now pushed by the drug companies in pursuit of their own corporate interests. Medical knowledge is growing toward profits the same way that plants grow toward the light. I came to understand how difficult it is for practicing docs to see through the fog of complexity and experts’ recommendations to understand how they are being deceived.
Abramson has some very enlightening contributions to the subject of cholesterol, the impact of cholesterol on heart disease, and the use of cholesterol lowering medications. If the subject of cholesterol is interesting to you, you may take a look at the documentary Statin Nation.
Now, I am not here to advocate either stance on the subject of cholesterol.
Nor do I want to use Dr. Abramson’s rather damning statements about corporate interests dominating medical research, to validate this site, or myopia rehabilitation, or my method for myopia rehabilitation.
What I do want to do, is help answer the question, why myopia rehabilitation is such a marginalized subject.
Why do you not hear about myopia reversal? Who do trained medical professionals, in the field of vision care, flatly deny the possibility that you can improve your eyesight? It’s not malice. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s indeed possible that they are right, and that I am wrong (and by extension, your own eyesight improvements are just figments of your imagination).
Medical science is very often right. Medical science offers innumerable breakthroughs in understanding, and healing the human body. At the same time though, changes in medical science, new paradigms, breakthroughs, often come long after the science itself has proven evidence.
Commercial interests, for better or for worse, drive a great deal of medical science. If you want to look to the horizon for what may be coming in the future, digging into the research and studies that aren’t funded by corporate interests, are a must. We looked at why nobody talks about myopia, and the billions of Euros in cooperate interests.
I add small references to studies, like on the last post about myopic change in birds.
And of course I am saying that I am right, that we are right, and that much of the establishment is still caught in a fog of chain store optic shop retail motivation. But that isn’t necessarily the truth – just as they are biased, so am I. What I do invite you to do, is take the time to measure your eyesight, examine the method, look at your own experiences, the research, and draw your own conclusions. Thanks to Jake for bringing this subject to my attention.
It a complex, ever changing world. I do hope you enjoyed this article, and get something from following this blog here on the #endmyopia project site.
