Today is a throw back to when I sat down with Christian Yordanov, host of the Connecting Minds Podcast. I answer questions ranging from Autism, Vestibular Health, Amblyopia (lazy eye), Computer Vision Syndrome, and other topics. Enjoy the show.
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eye, vision, people, health, called, msm, create, light, visual, important, exercises, stimulated, vestibular, improve, child, vestibular stimulation, peripheral vision, lazy eye, earthing, talking
00:05
Hello, everyone, its 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@drsamberne.com.
00:29
Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.
00:46
And Dr. Sam Berne. Thank you so much for joining us on the connecting minds podcast. Thank you, Christian. It’s great to be here.
00:55
Great to have you. Can you tell the listeners what is your background and your specialties.
01:02
I was trained as an optometrist, and studied things like child development. And my early in my career, I worked with kids who had the spectrum disorders, I actually trained at an institute called the gazelle Institute in New Haven, Connecticut, and this was a multidisciplinary facility used to be affiliated with Yale University, and learn how to evaluate and treat all kinds of children and adults with learning problems. I also developed programs in hospitals to work with traumatic brain injury, did research in that area, and develop the form of physical therapy for the eyes. I also studied and became a cranial sacral therapist, because I saw the connection on a muscular skeletal level to the eyes, we could talk about that. I also studied aromatherapy naturopathic medicine, Chinese medicine, and energy healing. So as an optometrist, I look at the eyes as a whole body
02:10
system.
02:15
Right, that’s fascinating, I am interested in all of those things that you mentioned. And, you know, I hope one day to have some capacity and time to delve into each one of them in more depth. But to start with,
02:30
I suppose I actually I’d like to touch the
02:35
the child side of things. So can we let’s start at the beginning what in a human being what prevents proper eyesight from developing when, when growing?
02:48
Well, it really starts in utero. And one of the things I’ve learned is, what happens in gestation, what happens at birth, and what happens in bonding, critically affect the sensory motor development.
03:04
And if there’s been any birth trauma, for example, this has a huge effect on our visual development and our overall brain motor integration. Some other things that affect our eyesight would be nutrition. So if there’s a biochemistry imbalance, if we’ve been exposed to heavy metal, toxicities, or other toxicities, these are all impediments that don’t allow the normal developmental arc that young children need to go through. And of course, today with the digital screen time exploding, children are not able to do the same play time where they’re exploring their body in space. They’re just given a screen a phone, and they look at it. And this prevents the spatial visual development, peripheral vision, depth perception inquiry that you and I probably grew up grew up in. And I think this is a huge issue in terms of natural sensory development.
04:18
Yeah, you know, this is I recently stumbled upon something called
04:26
it’s called zing performance. And basically, it’s designed to do you do like a test for visual acuity and so on. And the outcome of that is you get
04:39
individualized exercises that you perform that stimulate the vestibular system, and cerebellar development so that I read that that’s really good for kids. And a lot of them have to do with like eye tracking and balance. So could you maybe explain how if, as the child is growing up if these are the VISTA
05:00
Do their system what if that’s not stimulated? How can that actually, you know, create impediments in other in the acquisition of other skills. You’re talking about one of my favorite topics vestibular health. And the inner ear is made up of these little tiny stones or bones that are part of the triangle, which I talked about called the eyes and the years and the feet are proprioception. And when we become over focalized, in our vision, this begins to desensitize the vestibular processing. That is why we do a lot of vestibular stimulation, rolling, spinning, swinging, and in doing that, it stimulates the vestibular functioning, which then helps connect our visual tracking in our reading. And so the vestibular dysfunction, I call it the stimula insufficiency occurs when we don’t get enough enough active movement, especially in gestation when we’re floating in the amniotic fluid and our peripheral vision is stimulated. So any program out there that stimulates the vestibular function is going to improve our visual processing. And a lot of people, a lot of kids, if they don’t access that kind of movement, it really shuts down their visual development. So vestibular visual, have this very intimate marriage that then goes in with proprioception. And this leads us to a really full life of understanding and processing ourselves in the world.
06:44
Interesting, yeah, I’ve been doing this program for maybe three weeks now. And some of the exercises were quite challenging, not the eye tracking ones, but new around court, coordinating movements, like spinning your one arm forward, one or backwards and so on. And I am not sure if it’s the placebo effect, but I have a feeling there’s some type of improvement already. I feel it’s like a qualitative, very qualitative type of improvement. Like, for example, driving the car, and I seem to be a lot, a lot more aware of the role, but without that internal anxiety as normally I would have had before, for example, right. So which kind of brings me to the next question. So what kind of what should a parent know? For, you know, when their kids are growing up? How can they know what the right type of stimulus stimulation exercises are for their child?
07:37
Well, part of it depends on watching their infant or toddlers behavior, I feel it’s important to do a lot of tummy time. I know that’s controversial. But there’s a whole set of movement patterns called the primitive survival reflexes. And these are moving patterns that actually start occurring in utero. And one of the main purposes of the reflexes is to help the newborn adjust to coming out of the birth canal. These reflexes are controlled by our brainstem, our survival brain. One example would be the Moro reflex, which is our startle reflex being able to go into different environments and be able to handle all the changes that are going on. So if there’s been any birth trauma, C section, forceps delivery, stress at birth, in any form,
08:30
I would take your child to a developmental specialist, maybe an occupational therapist, or a developmental or behavioral optometrist like myself, and we can evaluate the visual system as it relates to the whole body. So some movements that are really important would be creeping, crawling, lots of crawling, and then doing the things like swinging and spinning, you know, going to the park and sliding. So in other words, I call it adventures in gravity, where you’re stimulating the vestibular system by working with different postural situations. And if you do those things, most likely your child is going to be very curious. And I know that can be stressful for parents, you know, because they’re going over here and going over there. But it’s precisely what they need to be able to control their body in space and I define learning in school is partly being able to control your body. And in doing that, you have to go through these developmental motor processes that start with the primitive reflexes and then they go into vestibular exploration, bilateral integration, and then finally, the visual motor skills those come a little later. So that hierarchy of development of reflexes motor fine motor is mapping
10:00
But you’re talking about cerebellum, prefrontal cortex. And you know, when you stimulate the neurons, you when you re fire the neurons, you rewire them. So there’s a neuroplasticity that’s occurring when you offer these new movement patterns to anybody. This is what I’ve seen in my therapy, that creates incredible improvements in people’s vision, because we’re offering them new patterns outside their normal, repetitive, deteriorating, closed system of you know, what we do robotically. So I hope that’s helpful and understanding.
10:41
Yeah, that’s, that’s fascinating stuff.
10:44
Just before we kind of move on to the next topic is of a great interest in autism. I’ve written a book on the topic. And peripherally from that also, some some of that is extending into ADHD and other children’s health issues. So in terms of your work with kids on the spectrum with kids with ADHD, can you tell us what, how does improving the eyesight affect the, you know, other conditions?
11:12
You know, I consult at an autistic facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico called Kidpower. And it’s, it’s an institute that they were seeking me out, because what they felt was the eyes were the missing link in connecting the brain to the body. Now, this is different than a regular eye doctor where you go for an eye exam, and you read the distance chart that’s actually called your eyesight. But what I evaluate is vision and vision is how developmentally the eyes in the brain and the body work together. So what I’ve learned at Kidpower is I’m evaluating the visual system in the context of the overall child’s
12:00
processing, auditory processing, motor processing, and in bringing the visual system into it, because it’s one of our most dominate dominant senses, it turns a switch on it, it connects them in a way where they go, Oh, I actually see something in front of me, oh, I can actually start recognizing letters in words, oh, I can start engaging my vision as it relates to my balance and movement. So it’s phenomenal that within a few minutes of my activating their visual system is kind of like I’m turning it on, that they get so engaged in a very different way. So I’m here to say when they’re, you know, when you see autism, there’s so many different kinds of autistic behaviors. And they’re in that spectrum, like what you say, autism to ADHD, Asperger’s is in that. So my piece is bringing in the eyes, it’s not the total answer. But it’s part of what is missing. And I think, in the education, with OTs and PTs, and so on, bringing the vision into it not eyesight, vision, can be a game changer in getting that autistic child more online with engaging to themselves and engaging with the world.
13:21
I mean, it makes complete sense because, from, from some of the, the research, we know that
13:31
autistic children’s brains develop in a different way, you know, in utero, and when they’re growing up, so, if you can, certain regions are, are more wire together, others are more disconnected. So if you can any intervention, be it you know, with vestibular stimulation or anything with the vision, if you’re re patterning and rewiring regions of the brain, I can see that
13:58
better connection between specific regions can have you know, immediate effects. Yes, positive effect. Yes, very true.
14:06
So, another, I guess this is
14:12
let me just briefly set the context. So, my I have a lazy right eye, so a stigmatism in the right eye and I’m farsighted. Same as my mother. She’s got a lazy right die. Same as my grandmother. She, you know, God rest her soul. She passed away two months ago. She also had a laser right eye now. My dad’s vision is perfect. My sister’s vision is perfect. So how, how much of this is her career? Terry? How much of it is not? Dr. Burn?
14:45
It’s a great question. I think I’m gonna bring in the work of epigenetics, which says that environment informs the genes to express in a certain way. I also think Rupert Sheldrake talks a bit about something called
15:00
The morphogenic field. And what this is about is that ancestrally, and especially on the mother’s side, so many of these eye conditions are passed down energetically. I mean, you were living in your mom for nine months, she was informing you in a certain way, and you picked up on that. And then the grandmother is also influencing you in utero as well, energetically. And so it’s, you know, it’s partly
15:35
environment, there is a genetic, you know, predisposition, there’s a morphogenetic there’s an epigenetic. And it’s also based on mirroring and you know, watching what your mom is doing what your grandmother is doing. So it’s all of those things. And it’s difficult to pinpoint, but that’s how I that’s how I think about it. And I want to also say, you can improve your lazy eye, and farsightedness and astigmatism at any age, age is not a deterrent. And we could get more into some strategies on what you could actually do to re educate how the two eyes and the brain and the body are working together based on this adaptive response that you have absorbed in the astigmatism, farsightedness, and lazy eye.
16:34
Yeah, you know, I’d love to explore that further. But let me just say before, you know, you kind of discussed that at length. I love Rupert Sheldrake work. In fact, the reason I asked you how much of this is hereditary and not genetic, is because she’s convinced me that heredity is not solely based on the genetic material, heredity, hereditary. T, can be these, you know, Morpho genetic form giving field that’s why I’ve stopped saying genetic so much. When I say hereditary.
17:07
That’s kind of the it’s fascinating that you we’ve that Sheldrake is working there. But yeah, so please, please discuss that further. Because
17:16
I had laser eye surgery, maybe, I don’t know, five years ago, or so. And it just in the in the right eye. And my vision has improved a little bit, but I still can’t, I still am very dominant with my left eye. So how would I go about, you know, rebalancing their dominance.
17:37
We want to blame faulty vision on the eyeballs, the eyeballs fault. And really, it’s the programming behind the eyes, that causes the eyes to change. So function changes structure. And you’ve got a couple of things going on here. And when you do any kind of refractive surgery, you’re changing the prescription in the eye, but you’re not changing the programming that caused the prescription. And sometimes this can create a little confusion in the brain. But no worries, you can still overcome the laser surgery. But what it’s going to take is for you to do some stimulation with the right eye, that engages your brain and your body in a self awareness process. And when you do that, initially, what’s going to happen is, you might actually start seeing better out of the right eye. And then if you continue with some of the physical therapy exercises, the left eye in the right eye are going to match up in a different way because both eyes are going to be now in a different relationship with each other. So in terms of the specific exercises,
18:56
there’s an exercise that I use, which is more in an internal exercise called Eye dialogue I developed this many years ago. And what it is, is that you talk to each eye separately, and there’s certain questions you ask each eye like how old does each I feel? What’s the marriage between the two eyes? Like that would be an interesting question for your right eye to answer and your left eye dancer, and they may not even be married. So internally, if they’re not married, the external vision is going to represent that. And it isn’t like you’re just wearing a patch eight hours a day, that doesn’t hurt by the way that that is a caveman medicine type of thing that I never recommend. It’s very traumatic, but by wearing the patch over each eye a few minutes and do some work for you and doing some internal questioning. And then when you take the patch away, you’re going to notice that the two eyes may be trying to work better together. When
20:00
We can also do some things like color and light therapy on that right eye. We can also think about maybe adding a lens part time and a contact lens, possibility that might give you better acuity. And that can help match up the left eye.
20:17
There also may be some vestibular stimulation, things you could do while patching the left, I suppose there’s a lot of territory you could use. And, you know, improving the lazy eye does not have a statute of limitations. You know, in the old literature, they say, well, by a certain age, if you don’t improve the vision in the lazy eye, it’ll never get better. That is a myth that is completely false. So if you started to really do some active, stimulating with the right eye, connecting your inner vision with your outer seeing, you would profoundly see some changes and improvements, but I would caution you that some emotions may come up, some memories may come up, some traumas may come up. And that’s all normal energy that’s being stored in that right eye. And also, you might want to change the label of instead of calling it a lazy eye, you might call it the more sensitive i are the eye that sees in a more intuitive way, you know, we we get labels, and then we live out the diagnosis of the label. And so maybe it isn’t lazy, maybe it’s the I that see is the more visionary i We don’t know. So there’s a lot here to unpack. But boy, the upside would be incredible for you.
21:37
Yeah, you know, I absolutely love this kind of not labeling people like someone is is autistic or is diabetic, I actually prefer an annulment. Many people may disagree, that I would prefer to say someone has something has a condition rather than they’re defined by the condition. Now, I know in the Autistic community, there’s a lot of disagreement with that.
22:05
A lot of people would prefer to be just called artistic. But in general, with anything like this, like that, yes, whatever. I think you’re right. That’s it. Because the when you label someone or yourself as something you tend to develop, it’s like a self fulfilling prophecy. Just wanted to add that there.
22:25
Okay, so there’s quite a lot of stuff to go here.
22:30
What would
22:34
Okay, so you have some exercises on your, on your website now that you already discussed, the ICT dialog, which are definitely, you know, going to look into? How would one know which because there’s quite a lot of exercises? How would one know what are the most bang for their buck in their particular instance? Well, the good news with that is that when I created my brand, and my website, what I took is 30 years of my physical therapy exercises, and I created 90 day programs, three month programs for every major diagnosis. And so if you go on my website, and you type in lazy eye, you’re going to come to a page that will have video blogs on lazy I just philosophy and how to do the exercises. But then you actually have the 90 day program. So you do like three exercises a week. And then you move on to the next three. And each program is specifically tailored for the diagnosis. And it’s all free. It’s all available. I’ve done hundreds of video blogs, you can even Google lazy eye doctor burn, you’ll get a lot on Facebook and Instagram. And, you know, I felt about four years ago that I want to take, I wanted to take this on social media. And so I studied how to do that. And through my podcasts through video blogs, you know, through all different kinds of avenues I’ve created, you know, probably 1000s At this point where you can just go online and learn about a condition. And so it’s it’s all there for you. And also if you have any questions, I do a Facebook Live q&a I do a clubhouse clubhouse is a new social media app that I’m on. I do a room every Tuesday mornings. So there’s lots of access to me that’s free, if you have questions, and I try to answer them online if possible.
24:37
That’s awesome. So talking about so that you already kind of dispelled a couple of myths around you know, for example, batching di where that there’s an age limit at which point that astigmatism can be improved. What other common misconceptions or are there that folks need to be aware of
24:58
wearing your glasses
25:00
Full Time weakens your vision that’s a myth. It’s really important to take your lenses off in non demanding and non threatening situations and experience the world of blur, especially from an emotional attitude place. But you’re obviously doing this where there’s zero visual demands so that you are safe. Another myth is that just because you get an eye diagnosis like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration or dry eye, you don’t have to live out the diagnosis. There are so many natural integrative holistic methods to reverse eye conditions. Another myth is that you don’t have to live out your eye diagnosis, and you can improve your vision at any age. I’ve got so many patients in their 70s and 80s that are reversing wet macular degeneration cataracts, reducing the need on bifocals, and so on. The last myth I’ll talk about is that diet has absolutely nothing to do with your eyes. Just the opposite. If you clean up your diet if you do a cleanse if you you know, eat mostly plant based where you’re getting a lot of antioxidants, you boost your microbiome, your eyesight is going to get better no question about that.
26:26
Right.
26:28
We’re going to discuss that later. What are the some of the most important nutrients for Eye Health?
26:35
Well, it’s really simple. We just do the rainbow diet of vegetables and the berry family in the fruit world. So when you’re talking about the rainbow, you’re talking about you know, a B, C, D E, things like avocado, asparagus
26:53
you know, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots.
26:58
So it’s basically looking at the rainbow and what is in season you know, I put red and orange and yellow bell peppers, the green leafy vegetables, kale, spinach and chard. The berry family is so helpful for retinal circulation, healthy fats and oil so I like to dehydrate and use raw nuts and seeds. Again, if you’re eating animal products, getting some kind of seafood the salmon very good for Astra Xanthine which is an important carotenoid for the macula. So if you follow those general guidelines, you know, even the Mediterranean diet, there was a study that came out in the American Academy of Ophthalmology. That said that eating a Mediterranean diet will reduce your risk for macular degeneration, including foods that contain glutathione and vitamin C can reduce your risk of cataracts for dry eye making sure you’re getting collagen boosting nutrients, enough fats and oils checking in with your thyroid health. So there’s lots of connections and I’ll say one more that in Chinese medicine, I’ve learned that the liver meridian affects the eye. So if you’re dealing with toxicity, mercury amalgams, from dentistry, head trauma, you know, all of these things are going to impact your eye circulation and the name of the game is improving your oxygenation and your hydration in your eye tissue from the front of the eye to the back of the eye. If you can achieve that goal, you’re going to avert any eye deterioration and eye disease. That’s what it comes down to.
28:50
Fascinating. So in terms of actual supplements, I have, for example, an
28:57
absolute crapload of supplements just looking around the healthiest supplements everywhere. But I’ve noticed since starting to take lutein and as to Xanten. I am pretty sure it’s not a placebo effect between maybe four months this point, I definitely feel an improvement. So maybe could you discuss the top of that? What would be like your top five supplements for Eye Health?
29:23
Yeah, you know, I’ve done research. Over the years, I have had 30 years of experience with patients. And they finally begged me to create an ice supplement. I’ve created two. And there are two things you look at you look at the obviously the quality, and the second is the dosage. So I would say the top three for macular health would be lutein, you want to get about 16 milligrams a day of lutein. You want to get about six milligrams a day of Xanth and those are the plant carotenoids and then asked to Xanthan you want
30:00
Get 12 milligrams a day and that’s, that’s an animal seafood, you can get it through micro algae. That’s that’s going to be 12 milligrams a day. You know for vitamin A, you’re looking at somewhere between five and 10,000. I use, actually the B complex. I have put that in my vitamin because it’s really helpful for corneal health. And then you’ve got the herbs like bilberry, which is great for eye circulation taurine, which is an amino acid gingko, which is really important for vascular health, and optic nerve health. So for if you’ve suffering glaucoma, or optic nerve, inflammation, gingko, taurine. And of course, then your omega threes are critical. You can add things like quercetin and resveratrol, those are also antioxidants. They’re very helpful. And don’t forget the trace minerals, magnesium, selenium, chromium, okay, the trace minerals are so important for our eye health as well. So that’s just a broad brush, you know, but certainly, again, I’ve created lots of video blogs where I will spot like, say, for example, glutathione. So glutathione is the master antioxidant in the body, it helps us with detoxification. And when you have low levels of glutathione, it affects many negative things that are really affects your eye health, and you have a higher risk of developing cataracts. Eliminate sugar, this is another one that really wreaks havoc on your eye health, among any other things, eat a diet that’s anti inflammatory. So stay away from those foods that create more inflammation. Because if you’re injured in stress, it’s going to feed that inflammatory response and create more free radicals. So those are again, some of the generalities. And you know, if people follow those, they’re going to boost their eye health just like what you’re experiencing, that’s not a placebo, you’re getting better circulation to the focal part of your eye that’s involved with detail. And that’s probably why you’re feeling and seeing a difference.
32:19
Yeah, I think so. In my case, I’m probably thinking about upping the dosage is because I’m at the computer so much. But you also I also noticed you have an MSN, I drove
32:33
product. What is the I know it’s a sulfur sulfur containing compound. What is the
32:41
difference between taking that
32:44
in the eye as opposed to as a supplement?
32:48
You know, I made this discovery about 10 years ago, because I was using MSM powder to help people with their inflammation or joint health or collagen health. And I said Well, what about if we put MSM in an eyedropper. You know, this software, it’s an organic sulfur molecule. We know that sulfur is the third leading trace mineral found in our body. It’s really important for many cellular reactions. And it’s like sticky flypaper. So anything that attaches to sulfur gets flushed out of the body is anti inflammatory. It is lubricating moisturizing and brightens. And I wanted to use an eyedropper that actually had some therapeutic value. You know, most of the eyedrops that are on the marketplace actually make your eyes worse. You know, there’s a lot of preservatives, chemicals. You know, if you get into pharmaceutical eyedrops, it has a lot of side effects. So I was able to create to build this eyedrop and I started using it on my patients and I created two percentages. And the lower percentage helped with eyelid inflammation. You know, that’s one of the major causes of dry eye. When our eyelids become inflamed. This inhibits the glands to produce the proper tears that cover the cornea. And because I’m a somatic therapist, a body worker, I would have people wash their hands, put a little MSM in their eye and massage their eyelids who would think you’d actually touch your eyelids, but that combination helped reduce the eyelid inflammation. And then in the lower percentage, I would do something called the eye bath where they would put the MSM in the eyes and they would actually you know do several drops and that was incredibly lubricating and moisturizing moisturizing to the cornea. And then on the 15% MSM because it’s so collagen producing. This was a game changer for people who suffered floaters. So when you suffer floaters, this is a collagen imbalance in the vitreous gel. And as we age the vitreous tends to
35:00
shrink, it dehydrates. So if you add some collagen boosting eyedrops like MSM 15%, you have a chance to dissolve the floaters and I’m seeing a chance because floaters are there variety of different reasons why we develop floaters. We can’t just say it’s this or that. And so it’s not the magic bullet. But certainly I saw hundreds of my patients come back to me and say, you know, my floaters are less using the 15% MSM. So I’m at the stage now, where, you know, MSM is valuable in supporting optimal eye health, from an FDA standard standard. I cannot say that x treats why because it’s not approved by the FDA, just like a lot of these natural products are. But what I’ve observed is it does support better lubrication, moisturization and reducing inflammation. Try it out. It’s it’s pretty potent. And you know, all my customers on my webstore get very nervous when I sell out. Because they wonder, Am I going to be able to get more, but don’t worry, I’ve got a great manufacturer. So we’re, we’re good. And, you know, my I’ve gotten my customers and patients addicted to the MSM drops, but they’re super great. So thanks for asking that question.
36:23
Do you do you ship? Internationally? Yes, I do. I ship internationally. And so we’ve got a great webstore manager, and she’s awesome. And we’ve got a great team. So we do our best with customer service. But yeah, we do ship internationally. So if people want to order. Yeah, just contact us. And we’re running sales all the time. So want to want to get those two people and
36:52
go ahead and keep take them because my my fiancee wears contacts can you actually take those with contact lenses? Sure Can you can use them for contacts with contacts in. If you’re taking glaucoma medication, just wait 15 minutes before you put the MSM in. If you’ve had cataract surgery, the MSM is totally safe with the new lenses that are that are put in the eye. So as long as you are not allergic to sulfur, and most people what they get confused with is sulfur and sulfur. Sulfur drugs are different than the sulfur molecule. But I always say start slow, you know, start with the 5%. Maybe just put a drop in the eye see how it feels and they can sting a little bit. So you have to get used to that and the stinging is only three to five seconds. But you know, if your eyes are oversensitive, then
37:51
you know start slow. That’s that’s the way to go with it.
37:56
Yeah.
37:59
Okay, I’ll definitely get those try. What about another podcast that I heard you on? You’re talking about grounding or lack of lack thereof, as contributing to floaters? Could you maybe tell folks, what is grounding? And how can that contribute to floaters? Yeah, comes from the work of earthing earthing.com. And when we are inundated with wireless and EMFs, all day and all evening, and now we’ve got the 5g, which is really packing a lot of information in a very concentrated way.
38:36
This definitely, well we’ll just say it could have a negative impact on your health, your wellness, your circulation, and your eyes and vision. So in the grounding, because most of us are not getting out in nature, going outside and your bare feet, and sticking your feet in the dirt on grass is really important as a way to ground yourself from all the EMF absorption that we’re all dealing with. And another technique is called earthing. And it’s from a company called earthing.com. And they actually sell things like sleeping mats and grounding mats. So for example, I have a grounding mat below my computer, and I plug it into the wall and when I put my feet on that it actually helps release some of the EMF pollution that I might be absorbing as I sit in front of my desktop all day. So I think that getting back to nature grounding into the earth, and we then return to something called the Schumann wave, the Schumann Resonance, which is about 7.8 hertz is a very slow waveform and it runs from the Earth’s ground up to the ionosphere, and it actually helps regulate our endocrine system and our new
40:00
Nervous System. Now if you don’t want to know about the Schumann wave, just go take a walk in the park or take a walk in the woods. And notice how your nervous system and breathing start to return to a more harmonious state. That’s the Schumann Resonance, or the Schumann wave. This earthing is sometimes a way for us to also help remind us to get back to that slower wave. You see, with computers, we’re going at the speed of the computers. And in doing that, it’s compressing our tissue, we are going to the speed of the email of the reaction, the response, and we lose our own internal compass of slowing down. And this is where earthing going into nature. Not only does it balance our nervous system, but it also may contribute to a healthy microbiome, which is our bacteria in our gut, which reflects our immune health, our lymph health, and our again, our ability to destress.
41:06
Yeah, that’s, you know, that’s so powerful, because especially in terms of life, health, we only are kind of conditioned to think it’s mechanical, and the machine is just getting worse with age. That’s it. But you know, we were, we were away for a few days up in close to the mountains here in the hills, but we were we went hiking and stuff. And like, I’m coming back from that environment to this computer environment, even just the worrying of like the air filter, my computer, you know, the the humidifier, like just those frequencies, they’re kind of jarring and disturbing for me that exists today. Maybe I’ll probably get used to them over the next few days again, but it’s it’s amazing, like how much things open up.
41:57
Being more in that kind of natural environment. Even my eyes, I felt like they’re better today. And today more squinting at the computer for the last, you know, four or five hours. I’m already feeling like pressure building up is crazy.
42:10
But
42:12
wait, wait, I forgot what I was gonna ask you like
42:18
I lost my train of thought we were talking about. That’s exactly what I was going to talk about. So
42:26
yeah, so being stuck at the computer. So being looking at things constantly screens, how, what can ask folks that work on a computer all day, what can we do in between that every hour or every day to kind of reset some of the damage that is occurring.
42:42
There are several things that you can do. Number one, make sure you’re wearing blue blocking glasses after 6pm Because that will help block that chaotic high energy blue light that’s coming at you constantly. You can even get a blue screen, blue blocking screen protector on your computer, computer and phone. But you want to make sure you’re hydrating enough because there’s a tendency to get dehydrated. And on a visual level, it’s really important to look up and out, you know at least every 15 to 20 minutes so that you have a window that you can look out because that relaxes your eyes and releases them from being in that visual confinement state.
43:26
The MSM eyedrops are great to use throughout the day. That’s another great hydration. And there’s an exercise that I recommend that people do called the palm home. And what it is, is you rub your hands together for about 10 seconds, you cup your hands over your eyes, your eyes are closed, you breathe in through the nose, and when you exhale, you make a humming sound and you keep your mouth closed like this.
43:51
Um, M and you do six or eight of those. What that’s going to do is that’s going to put the sound right into the eyes, and it’s going to open up the compression in the eye muscles and it’s also going to moisturize the eyes. Your breathing is going to be deeper after you do those six or eight hums sound is one of the best ways to open up compressed tissue and your hands are like tuning forks that are directing the sound into the eyes. So doing that several times a day will reset you from the intensity that you’re in and then last but not least, get 30 to 60 minutes of natural sunlight every day. Get out there, walk, breathe. There’s a exercise I do called sun gazing where we do that at sunrise and sunset, where you allow the sun to absorb into your eyelids. You can do it with eyes closed, natural sunlight, not only do you get the vitamin D
45:00
but it also changes your mood. And it resets the light in the eyes, you know, light is a food, and we are heliocentric, we go towards the light, just like the plants. And we’re told to be afraid of sunlight. And that’s another myth. You know, obviously, if you’re out there eight hours a day, you want to wear hat, you want to wear protection, but you need to get 30 to 60 minutes of natural sunlight every day, as part of your overall health and wellness protocol. So those are some of the, you know, the broad brushes. Again, I’ve done lots of video blogs, and how to take care of your eyes with digital time. But that’s, that’s a broad brush there that that will help people. Go ahead. I’m sorry, did you?
45:43
Yeah, of course, we’ll have the we have the links to your podcasts and your website for folks that you know, want to delve into it a little bit further. But just just on that topic of sungazing. Now, that’s another maybe another misconception you can dispel if needs be, is it actually dangerous to to look into the sun, let’s say a sunset or sunrise?
46:08
Well, you need to tune into yourself to see what is your sensitivity level. There’s I just had a great time I went to Hawaii, Hawaii is like my second home. So I was able to go there last month. And I did a whole video on sun gazing while the sun was setting, which was really fun. And one of the things that I brought out in that video was that when you start to go outside at sunrise or sunset, first of all your greeting the day it’s matching your circadian rhythm. You know, in the morning, you’re saying hello, in the evening, you’re saying good night. So just being in that circadian rhythm is really helpful for your overall health, your pineal gland, and so on. But what I recommend is going out there, sunrise sunset, and maybe at first put your back to the sun. And you’re still going to get the benefits of the sunlight. And then as you begin to acclimate, maybe turn 45 degrees towards the sun with your eyes closed, see how that feels. And then maybe completely turn towards the sun with your eyes closed, and start there. And then if that’s okay, maybe open your eyes for five or 10 seconds and look indirectly towards the sun at sunrise and sunset. And then close your eyes and see how that is. So you build up slowly. And if you do it that way, you’re going to get the benefits of the sun without damaging your eyes. Only after you feel like okay, I you know I’m used to this now then you can start doing the sun gazing with the eyes open maybe 30 seconds, see how that goes. You know, I did a video blog a few years ago where people look directly at the solar eclipse and I got a lot of, you know, oh my goodness, I’m losing my eyesight, you really have to look for a long period of time to do permanent damage. You know, the eyes and the retina have resiliency, we do have resiliency in our eye tissue. But it’s your lifestyle, your diet, your nutrients, your stress, your trauma, your toxicity, that then creates that lack of resiliency in the eyes. So it’s a total lifestyle perspective, in taking care of your eyes, it isn’t separate, like we’re told by the eye doctor, which is a reductionistic model. Our eyes are interrelated and interconnected to our emotions, our psychology, our spiritual energy, and so on. So we need to treat them as part of an integrated whole.
48:52
Yeah, I think just looking at the English language, the way we say I, as an myself and eyes. So similar as well, that has to do with how we perceive the world that’s
49:05
a little bit deeper, though than, you know, I intended to go but regarding actually looking at the sun it regarding that light coming into your eyes. What is it like an epigenetic benefit, what actually happens that’s so beneficial.
49:23
25 or 25% of the light that enters the eyes goes to non visual pathways.
49:32
So that means part of that light is being stimulated by the blood flow the arteries and veins in the retina. So that light is going to be transported throughout the entire body that takes about 40 minutes. And 24 or 25% of that light that goes to the non visual pathways will go to the hypothalamus, the pineal the pituitary. So it’s activating not only the endocrine system, but also the nerves so
50:00
All the nerves are getting the stimulation of the light. Now that 75% of the light that’s stimulating the retina, part of the reason why we develop light sensitivity is because those retinal cells become desensitized to the light. And it could be due to stress, it could be due to how functionally we’re using our eyes. And so by using color therapy, breaking the the white light down into different colors, you slowly can begin to re sensitize the photoreceptors to the light, so that you don’t have the light sensitivity anymore. One more point I want to make. Light is a two way street street. So when we absorb light into the eyes, there’s eventually an output of radiance, you know, part of our health is how light our light bulb is, you know, you see people go, Wow, you’re glowing, you’re radiant. That’s because they’re able to absorb the light. And they’re able to radiate the light out. And that’s a, that’s a reflection of our overall health and moments. That’s our biofield, which then informs our physical health to, you know, to be have good circulation, and so on. So I don’t know whether that answers but that’s kind of why light, funny light is the main, you know, entry point into the body.
51:25
It’s funny, you should say that what we absorb, you know what we absorb it we emanate, because
51:31
that’s literally what I was looking at you today, I was looking at some of the pictures on your website, like this dude, like, looks like he’s, you know, he’s radiating, you know what I mean? This, this kind of the energy I got about you. So you definitely are probably eating your own medicine that what you’re talking about? I talking about? Now, I don’t know anything about color therapy. But I do have a red light here that I don’t use as much as I used to in the new office. But I used to use that daily and I would even look at it and keep it close to my eyes. Can you tell folks? Excuse me? Can you tell folks listening?
52:10
What if any, our benefits are there to red light, and what other color therapies should one consider? Well, red light therapy, as you know, produces
52:21
health in the mitochondria and the ATP. So it does many positive things. And depending on the type of infrared light source and the manufacturer, it can be very beneficial for high conditions. Again, you have to start very slowly, you have to check with your manufacturer and see if you can actually use it. But infrared light is awesome. I love it. And not only just for the eyes, but for pain, inflammation, so many things. What I’m referring to is something called the rainbow method in color therapy. And this is where we have color machines are color masks, where you look through these different colors. And it’s interesting the colors that you don’t like you have an allergy to the color. And what I mean by that is you have an allergy to the vibration of the frequency. So if you start spending more time with the colors you don’t like it’s like a homeopathic healing, where it opens up something in your health, that vibrationally you were allergic to the you were deflecting. It could be a trauma could be stress, who knows. And so we do something called the rainbow method where you look through all the main colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, asking yourself what you see in what you feel. For you, I would patch your left eye and I would do that rainbow color through your right eye. I think it would be profound to ask your right eye what I see what I feel, how do I relate to each of the colors, that in itself could be a game changer for you. So the color therapy has been around for 1000s of years, the Greeks, the Romans have used them. And so using it on the eyes, what it does physically is it opens up your peripheral vision that can prove your depth perception, your memory, your balance, your focus, your cognitive health. So it’s a powerful medicine that can improve your vision and health.
54:30
You know, I just remember that I use an app called Iris that
54:36
reduces a ton of the blue light and as the night approaches it even more, it reduces the brightness and the blue light even more. But I remember there was a setting on the app to do like to tint your screen like to do color therapy. You can do like a tint of a certain color. So I’m actually going to try that see if I can
55:00
I can integrate that into my daily
55:03
work throughout my 30 to 30 days, try to 30 Days Challenge. Do you write it from day one, your left eye day two, both eyes, day three. And not all blue light is bad for you. It’s the blue light between 405 and 455. That comes off digital screens is the high end energy, damaging light. But once you get higher than that 484 7480 We actually use blue light as a way to reduce inflammation, pain, open up the peripheral vision release trauma. So you need to know that this distinction between the different frequencies and blue not all blue light is bad for you.
55:47
Okay, I’ll definitely be looking more into that. And just one more question. Before we kind of wrap up. You said earlier that the thyroid can affect eye health, can you maybe I know it’s a massive topic, but can you tell us how can hormonal imbalances contribute to eye problems. So in terms of the thyroid gland, if you either have low or high thyroid, what it can do is it can cause a dry eye condition. It can also cause a condition where the eyes bulge out you know if you’ve got Hashi motos disease, you probably know that your eyes are dry. And so you need to take extra care of, you know, what are some of the things I can do to support better i moisturization on a natural basis. Another connection is adrenals. So if you have high quote, cortisol levels, your adrenals are working too hard, your peripheral vision is going to start tunneling. And your pupils are going to be too dilated. So that’s the sympathetic nervous system. overworking, you’re going to have light sensitivity and narrow vision. So those are two connections. Third one would be low estrogen levels in women who have a higher incidence of dry eye syndrome. So that’s another connection. So your endocrine system highly affects your eye health. And, you know, you connect the dots there, if you know your endocrinologist or your eye doctor is not putting it together, believe me they’re connected.
57:26
Right.
57:28
Yeah. You know, when you talk about the height, let’s say if your sympathetic system is in overdrive, I, your adrenaline and your cortisol are up, it makes sense that your peripheral vision would, you know, be diminished because you’re more around, you know, running away from something, which is you need tunnel vision for that or running towards something to kill it, you know, like, like a deer or whatever. So It completely makes sense, though. It’s kind of right, right. You know, peripheral vision and other kinds of aspects of, you know, more exploratory vision, for example, seeing kind of the details in on the trees and the flowers. Totally makes sense to me.
58:15
Okay, Dr. Sam Berne. I want to thank you so much for joining us today. Before we go, can you tell the listeners where they can find your resources on the internet, please? Web website www.dr Sam berne.com, Dr. Sam Berne on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok and clubhouse you can DM me you can email me happy to to answer your questions. And you can take a look at my workshops, the workshop coming up may 4, that is a month long, intensive. And so lots of ways to connect with me. Christian, I want to thank you for all the great questions and your interest. And hope we see each other again down the road. Thank you very much for having me on your show.
59:06
Absolutely, yeah, we’ll have all the links to your stuff in the episode show notes and on the website. And you know, again, like you’ve opened my eyes to so many things. I’m definitely definitely be doing your 90 day course 30 day challenge with the color therapy. I know this is this is something that you know, the eyes are like such a
59:31
pivotal way Wait to to experience in the world, you know, so it’s it’s so important. We take care of them. So thank you for the work that you do. Ha You’re welcome. All right, take care.
59:46
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.
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