Donald S. Rehm The Myopia Myth

Here is a totally different method claiming to prevent and reverse mild myopia. It’s none other than the (in)famous “plus” glasses method. Why “infamous”? Well, first of all, these people think that they got the answer. According to them we are back to Leibniz theory of nearsightedness, according to which visual defects like myopia are caused by the changing in the shape of the lens.

I wonder how they explain the reason for hyperopia? The lens can become too round during accommodation but what makes it flatter than it is? Explain that!

Back to the review. I read Rehm’s book. The idea is that you should wear plus glasses (with convex lenses) for close work in order to prevent lens accommodation. But here’s right from the horse’s mouth:

He actually admitted that his vision went slightly worse even when he wore “plus” glasses working at some tense job. While he was on vacation his vision improved. He thought it was due to his glasses but we can see that he was just relaxed and that was the real reason.

He flatly denies that Bates method has any foundation behind it though he does admit that lots of people were helped. He can’t come up with better explanation than they hypnotized themselves into that or something like that.

He came up with some apparatus that he called myopter. Same thing: it supposed to eliminate near-point accommodation and help with fusion.

I wonder if the proponents of this theory see that you basically just exchange “minus” glasses for “plus”? Somehow, I don’t think so.

In my opinion he just missed the whole point. He would be far better off developing good visual habits than coming up with a weird mechanical contraption. But when he admitted that his vision became worse that for me personally, has clinched his case. So I do not recommend his book. It’s far better to apply the Bates method straight from the master himself.


If you want to try the convex lenses method to improve myopia, check out books The Secret of Perfect Vision and How I Cured My Myopia by David de Angelis. He claims that he discovered some kind of ocular gymnastic and his system helps to reverse myopia. I personally have not read any of his books, his site does not give any information what his system is all about so I can’t say anything about it or really recommend it. If you tried it, your feedback is surely welcome! Total absence of any reviews about his system looks suspicious.