I'm Answering Your Questions

I had a great discussion the other week with my followers on TikTok. They had some great questions that I wanted to share with you. We dove into how to improve your vision and when and where to use your stronger lenses. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

nearsighted, prescription, doctor, eye, lens, farsighted, vision, people, astigmatism, distance, progressive lenses, lenses, question, nob hill, reduce, eyepatch, creates, tension, exam, cataract

Hello, everyone. It’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.

Hey, everybody, it’s Dr. Sam. And I want to welcome you to TikTok live. I’m here in the Nob Hill section of Albuquerque taking some meetings today. And I’m really glad to be here. I’ve got a couple of questions that we’re going to take at least starting off. So yeah, I’m in the middle of the city this. This is Nob Hill. We got some kids over there playing around. So hey, very, they’re very curious about what I’m doing. Okay, well, let’s take the first question. Somebody is asking about my nearsightedness. Yeah, I was very nearsighted as a kid, and somebody was asking, well, how nearsighted? And how did I? How did I improve it? Well, you know, when I was, when I was a kid, I was not a very good reader. And one of the ways that I got through school was memorizing. And I grew up in a family that really emphasize school education. You know, I had an uncle, who knew like eight foreign languages, I used to go visit him. And he was so smart. I had two uncles and Ananth. And they were just that part of the family, my father’s side of the family, they were just so smart. So there was a lot of pressure on me to do well in school. And I think what I did is I put it into my eyeballs, in terms of my tension.

And so I became nearsighted as a way to survive and get through high school and college. And what was interesting was, is that as my prescription can kept getting worse, I discovered that, you know, I was really interested in the eyes. And so when I went to optometry school, and I started to study the eye, it was purely from a eye disease level. And, you know, that’s what most education is about. And what I learned in school was is that your eyes only get worse as you get older. And so, fast forward, I was graduating and, you know, I was more interested in healing and improving than just treating disease. But I happen to meet a doctor who ended up becoming my mentor, and his name was Dr. Shankman, Dr. Albert H Shankman. And he wrote a book called Vision enhancement training. He was also a yoga teacher. And so when I discovered yoga and meditation in my late 20s, and early 30s, I called him up and I started to work with him. And I used to live in Philadelphia at the time, and he was up in Central Connecticut. So I would drive up once a month, and I would spend the weekend, you know, he was actually doing a seminar with a group of young eye doctors.

So I, I got into that class. And I began to study with him, and then I became a patient of his. And pretty immediately what happened was, I began to feel that the prescription that I was given was just too tight for me. And I started to have an awareness that if I were something less, even though I didn’t see it as clearly, I actually felt calmer and less hyperactive. And so what, what happened over like a six month period is my my vision kept improving. And then I hit a wall, and I remember going to one of the sessions. And oh, just to give you the numbers, I was like a minus three in each eye. So that was, you know, a moderate amount of myopia. And I also had about three quarters of a diopter, of astigmatism. So I had both of those things. And I was in contacts at that point. So I reduced the prescription to about minus one and a quarter. And that was pretty, you know, mind blowing for me because what I learned from my professors is you know, you can’t improve your eyesight and vision. And you probably have experienced this you go to your eye doctor and say, Hey, do I exercises help? And what did they say no, no eye exercises don’t work. And you know, it’s just basically voodoo. So anyway, I, I was up at a session with him and he gave me these practices to do with an eyepatch and balancing and moving on a walking rail, two by four walking rail, and I couldn’t balance and focus with each eye separately. So

to make a long story short, he said to me, you’re going to spend the next six weeks on this exercise. And if you can do that, I think you can completely let go of your myopia. So I did that. And that’s exactly what happened. So I went from minus three, to where I am today, which is maybe minus a quarter, and I don’t wear lenses for distance or near. So I’ve experienced an improvement in my vision. And it’s the kind of thing where, you know, somebody’s asking, Well, how do you find a doctor who will allow you to have a lower prescription? Well, I think that I’ve done some video blogs on this, what what I think is that come out of the sun a little bit, what I think is that you have to ask around, and maybe look for a doctor who at least is a little more open minded, so that if you go for an exam, you know, I doctors love selling glasses. And you know, if you negotiate with the doctor and say, Okay, I’ll get the strong prescription. But can I also get a prescription for the computer, and a computer prescription is always less than a distance prescription in the nearsighted world. And by getting that reduce prescription, that would be a way for you to do it without getting into some kind of confrontation, because it does get a little sticky.

Where I doctors in you, you’re basically challenging what I’m saying we because I learned this in school, being able to prescribe something less in their world, and it’s not in my world now, but in their world is irresponsible. And you have to know when to wear it, of course, you’re not going to be wearing it when you’re driving on the freeway, or you know, looking at subtitles in a movie. But if you if you broach it in a way where you’ve got the distance, and then you get the computer prescription, they most likely will give it to you. Now, another way to go about it is to talk to you know, people in your community, who are maybe natural doctors like acupuncturists or naturopathic doctors, or, you know, you’ve got to ask around, like in my town, if I wasn’t around, yeah, it would be kind of hard to find somebody. But there are older dogs who are little more, let’s just say maybe they don’t believe in it, but but they will do it. And, you know, by the way, you can always contact me, and, you know, I can help you out.

But, you know, if you all right me at once, I’m going to be overwhelmed. Because it’s, it’s a really interesting thing, when I started my practice in Santa Fe, and everybody in my practice was reducing their prescription. What happened was, is that LensCrafters, which is at the mall, they actually because they had so many requests for my office, they actually began off offering a 60 day. 60 day policy where you could actually go back in and have your lenses remade to a weaker prescription, and there’d be no charge for that. So, you know, my reputation, pressured them into offering it and it was good for them. And it was good for me. And so, you know, it’s the grass roots, this is going to create the changes, and there are always going to be doctors that are going to say, Oh, this is just, you know, this is voodoo, it doesn’t work. But I’m telling you, you know, if I did it, then you can do it. And even on the astigmatism part of it, which you know, astigmatism means there’s a warping on the eye, there’s a irregular shape in the eye. And of course, that translates to some kind of a postural issue or a neck tension issue. You know, depending on how sophisticated you want to get with it, because, you know, if you go to a body worker, like cranial sacral or you go to,

you know, an open minded chiropractor, and they start releases, releasing tension, either in your neck, your cervical spine, your occiput your astigmatism is going to change and it’s probably going to go away if you can get your doctor to say, okay, you know, I’ll give you a non stigma Isn’t correction, maybe they need to make you sign a waiver or something that you’re only going to use this, you know, in non threatening and non demanding situations. So somebody is asking computer prescription to wear for reading, then possibly, you know, reading prescription might even be more reduced.

Because you have to remember that, wherever you’re looking at the digital device, so like a computer or laptop, desktop, usually about 22 inches away from your face, but your phone is usually about 14 inches from your face. So the closer you’re holding the digital device, the more of a reduction you can make. So let’s say for example, my case I was minus three in the distance, I probably could could have worn like a minus two for the computer, and maybe a minus 1.5. For reading. Now, the thing is, is for nearsighted people, they usually can see well, up close, they just need to hold their, you know, whatever they’re looking at closer. And if they do that, then you know, they don’t need a prescription at all. So I would probably go for the computer prescription because usually, you know, if you’re anything over like minus 150, for distance, getting like a minus 75 for the computer might work for you. But then I would do the plus lens, the blur exercise, and that’s the one where you’re doing the opposite lens prescription.

And I’ve talked to, you know, my doctor colleagues at different conferences, and you know, they really don’t understand the the idea of being able to challenge somebody, and have that be a positive experience. You know, if we take the fitness world, for example, when you’re in, say, a fitness training program, your trainer is always challenging you and in some cases really stressing you. But in the end, it creates kind of more resiliency in your body by going through some kind of a challenge to experience. So why not your vision? Now, of course, of course, you’re going to be doing this in an environment where you need to feel totally safe. You know, many years ago, I had a couple of people in like the minus 10 range. And they would, you know, drive to their appointment to come and see me. And they’d say, Hey, Doc, you know, I didn’t drive with my lenses today. And I’d go, no, no, no, you don’t want to do that that’s not the place, you want to practice Vision Improvement, you want to practice it in a very safe environment. Because most people that are nearsighted it’s a safety issue. That’s why they became nearsighted to begin with, they didn’t feel safe. And so they pulled the world in as a defense strategy. And what it really did was

it they tightened up their eyes, they amped up their sympathetic nervous system. And by creating that blurry vision, basically, the eye doctor at the exam validated their reaction to life. And that’s what most eye exams do is they just validate the adaptive response that you’re bringing to the exam. And then of course, if the exam is stressful, then you’re going to be even more stressed out and you know, choosing that lens one or two, and then having to wear it for the next year. Or, you know, two years. I mean, that’s kind of unnerving. And let’s say you’re having a bad day, let’s say that, you know, your child is sick at school and you had to go pick them up, or let’s say you’ve got some bad news at work.

And then you go in for your exam, you’re already kind of in a down state and then you have to perform by choosing the right lens within 10 to 15 seconds. It’s, that’s that’s really tough, you know, so, and one of my video blogs on tick tock, you could look for it, I discuss a way to kind of neutralize your eye doctors speediness by saying hey, can you slow down in the changing of the lens and take at least 30 seconds and feel into your eyes and body as you look through the lens. And the goal for you is to choose the lens that you see clearly. But also you feel more relaxed in your eyes and your body. And if you do that, you’re going to choose a lens that’s going to be more supportive. Okay, so somebody’s asking you a question about minus and positive. If my glasses say two is that minus or plus? Well, here’s the way you determine that.

If you just Take the two off, we don’t know minus or plus. The key is is that when you take it off, if it’s more blurred in the distance, what that is saying is that you’re nearsighted. So that means the two is a minus. If, however, you take the lens off, and you see better in the distance, and you see worse Admir, then it’s a plus two. So plus two magnifies things. And it’s used for reading. And a minus two is minify. minified. And minimizes things are makes things smaller. And it’s used to correct the distance vision. So that’s how you tell minus or plus. Now let’s say for example, you are plus let’s say now I’m going to address the farsighted community. We have a lot of questions that come in about farsightedness. And the deal with farsightedness is you start off in farsightedness and you’re seeing well in the distance, and your problem is seeing well up close you you can’t focus or see well up close. It’s a whole different kind of personality. Honestly, the personality of a farsighted person is one that’s very global, that sees the big picture that’s a futurist, whereas the nearsighted person is more detail oriented, sees well up close. I mean, if we, if we did occupations, we probably say, the near sighted person would be the CPA or the bookkeeper. And the farsighted person would be the forest ranger, or somebody who works in a think tank, who’s thinking about, okay, what are the trends in the future. And so we develop our prescription based on our preferences on what, what we’re attracted to, you know, what we like to do, people that read a lot, tend to become nearsighted people that, you know, are more into nature and look into the distance a lot. And they that’s where they want to spend their time.

Usually, they’re farsighted. And now those are generalities. And, you know, they’re like, in my case, I was forced into reading because of my family and the academic stress that I that I was in, you know, both my brother and I became doctors. And so we, you know, that was our, that was our lineage. If I had to do over, I’m not sure what I would do in that, in that scenario, because it created a lot of tension in my eyes. Now, when I completely reduce my prescription, I love to read and I’m a researcher, and I’m always checking things out. But my, my preferences are really broad at this point, I love, you know, looking out into space in the forest. And I also love, you know, learning about computers and technology and reading, but I don’t have the tension surrounding it, I don’t have the adaptive response anymore. So my system, my organism is more free, and being able to flow into what my preference might be based on my intuition based on my you know, interest, and I’m not polluted by the nervous system response of,

you know, I’m forced to read or I’m forced, you know, as in farsightedness, what happens is we start getting reading magnifiers. And if we’re not careful, and we start looking through that farsighted prescription, especially in more of the middle distance, or far distance, then we go back to the doctor and we start losing our distance, as well as our reading. And then we’re confined to the death sentence, which is the bifocal, and, you know, I put out these videos on Tiktok about progressive lenses and people get flipped out, they get it’s like the biggest controvert my the two controversies are progressive lenses, people are defending them, I need them the you know, the best thing and, you know, I need that far to near the far vision. And then I have to say to them, okay, based on those circumstances, use your progressive lens, but they are really damaging your, your eyes to have to look through a tiny hole and split your vision into three different compartments.

It’s actually even more compartments. And the only part of the division that’s used is right down the center. So it’s, it’s kind of an interesting kind of defense that people have around progressive lenses. And they’re expensive, you know, they run anywhere between 400 to $1,000. So I get it, people invest in them and it does make it convenient. And if your lifestyle, you know, suggest that then I say to people you have my blessing were the progressive lenses. But the thing is, is when you’re farsighted, it’s better to take the lenses off. And just use them for reading and get a lens that’s not going to over magnify you again, one of my frustrations in eye care. And, you know, if I have nine out, if I have 10 people walking into my office, nine of them, I’m able to reduce their prescription. And they see as well, if not better, because the exam was so rushed, that the doctor invariably is going to increase the prescription so that he or she is going to give you the maximum and you don’t need the maximum, you actually need the minimum, and you need to be selective and when you use it. And this goes for nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism.

And you know, once you start wearing, you know, magnification lenses, then the next step in that if you want to reverse that process, that trend is to get some pinhole glasses and where those parts of the time for reading and do my opposite lens prescription. Now this is the minus lens. So if you’re farsighted, you wear a plus lens, you would wear the minus lens for your exercise time. And that would reset your eye brain body connection, so that you would need so much magnification. So it’s pretty simple in being able to reverse and regain your eyesight and vision. And, you know, it’s definitely possible by following this type of philosophy. Or if somebody is asking a question about Starburst, around certain lights, why not when driving at night? Well, the first thing that I would check you for would be cataracts. So if you’re seeing Starburst, especially at night, you may have either a posterior subcapsular cataract that’s in the back of the lens. Or you might have a cortical cataract, which is in the around the edges of the lens. And that’s more related to a glucose imbalance in your blood. So, you know, in any case, I would probably get that checked out and make sure you don’t have cataracts. But that’s usually what that means. So then, if you get that diagnosis, how do you improve your lens health? Well, there are a couple of ingredients you want to really boost glutathione, which is a map we call it the master antioxidant, vitamin C, and you want to eliminate any sugar from your diet, I would probably reduce or eliminate inflammatory responses from your diet, I think that would be another aspect.

Get some healthy fats and oils. And then also include your current noids, lutein, Xanthan. And ask Xanthine those three Carotenoids are super helpful for the lens. And you know, I would just start there. So I hope that’s helpful. All right, so now I’m farsighted and nearsighted after years of prescription, yeah, so this is a very common scenario where a person starts off on one end of the spectrum, and then because you know, their visual system is deteriorated. They’re now both farsighted in their sighted. So the way around that would be to just start going without your glasses in non demanding and non threatening situations. And when you do that, that’s going to start to reset your vision and get you out of that track that you’re in, which is you know, any any lens that you wear, is going to embed you or reinforce the situation. Now, that doesn’t mean you just throw the prescription away, and you’ll be frustrated about walking around in the blur.

What it means is that you use the lens you need to for the circumstance that you’re in, and then and then in non demanding situations start going without the lenses and notice what your thinking is notice mentally, what is coming up for you. Maybe even get an eyepatch and do my eye dialogue exercise to see how well your two eyes are working together. You know every time we do the the eye dialogue exercise where you’re talking to each eye. It’s really unbelievable how people recognize the right eye and left eye are completely at odds with each other. They are not working together from the inside out. And so when that happens, what it creates is a disharmony. When a creates a disharmony, this will translate into a physical problem and being able to see with depth perception. So, I think the dialogue exercise could be really, really helpful. And I, I would encourage you to start doing some things with your vision outside the normal habits that you live in. Now again, the disclaimer is you’re going to start this locked in your bedroom, you’re going to start it in a in a place where there’s no risk on your part. And maybe at that point, after you’ve done this for a few weeks, or a month or six weeks, then maybe you can talk to your eye doctor about getting some kind of a reduced prescription. So I think I’ve got all the questions here. I’ve got to get to another meeting. But I tell you what, it’s been great spending time with you. I’m going to do this again. Everybody. Thank you so much for joining today. Share this with your family and friends. And check out my new my new content coming out on Tik Tok. Alright, have a great weekend, everybody.

Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.