Thursday, January 22, 2009

So What Is It: Fine Print or Horizon?

Dr. Bates says that straining to read fine print alleviates myopia and causes or worsens hyperopia. Accordingly, straining to see distant objects causes or aggravates myopia and alleviates hypemetropia. But then he mentions that reading fine print in dim light is especially beneficial for presbiopia, which is a form of hyperopia. So it naturally follows that looking at the distance should be beneficial for myopia. And in my experience it is. Curiously enough, Bates himself never mentions it as a possible cure. Could it be because he himself suffered from presbiopia?

It's curious that it's the opposite of the theory but I think I know the reason. Here it is. People with myopia don’t strain to see close. They automatically relax. Besides, they became nearsighted by looking at the close object for hours on end. Remember that vision is mostly mental. The opposite is true for people with hypemetropia: they strain to see close and automatically relax when looking at the distance. So myopic people can’t strain when looking at the close but they can relax when they look at the distance.

3 comments:

Thomas Wold said...

Hello Alice:

Clever and inspired deduction.

You seem to be on the right track of a different new way to improve vision naturally.

Keep up the GOOD work!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice,

Just some thoughts on this, I think Dr. Bates frequently recommended myopic patients to relieve their strain by looking into the distance and relaxing:

Dr. Bates recommended myopic patients relieve their strain of the distance by alternately reading fine print (that they can see clearly without strain) and then looking at a larger copy of the print at a further distance. This is the way in which Dr. Bates found most helpful for helping myopes to relax when looking at the distance. Look at something close with no strain, then maintain that relaxation while looking further away. Another method he recommends is to use the Snellen chart at a distance while practicing central fixation, memory and imagination. In this way, one can immediately see if the activity is having a positive (relaxing) effect on distant vision. Everything he recommended for a Snellen chart can be creatively used to look at any other object in the distance like mountains and trees! Use a photograph, for example, at the near point.

Fine print is recommended for all to prevent presbyopia. Farsights are instructed to regard it using central fixation, memory and imagination in the same way that nearsights are instructed to look into the distance.

I hope you are doing well!
Sorrisi (sorrisi.wordpress.com)

Alice deMont said...

Hi, sorrisi,

I've been using near-far swing before and I found it helpful. But the trouble is that relaxation does not last, as soon as I look at the distance I can feel the strain. So now I try to relax while looking at the distance, without the "near" part.

Thank you for your input. I look at your blog too and I think it is very good. Keep posting about your progress.

Alice