Here is a session with somebody who recently had cataract surgery and is currently struggling with Glaucoma and dry eye. In this session, I focus on the relationship between her high myopia and Glaucoma. There is a very strong correlation to our refractive error and eye disease. The difficulty comes in when you are nearsighted before the surgery, and you become farsighted after the surgery like this patient and I talk about the influences and also the effects of this discrepancy and how it may be playing into glaucoma dry eye and other things. Enjoy the show.
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eye, glaucoma, prescription, glasses, people, optic nerve, prisms, castor oil, called, lens, ophthalmologists, nearsighted, farsighted, vision, wear, myopia, red light, talk, physical therapy, eyedrops
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@drsamberne.com.
Great to have you on my EyeClarity podcast today. So I gave a session that somebody recently diagnosed with glaucoma. And she just had cataract surgery as well. She’s also dealing with dry eye. But the point I want you to hear about is the relationship between her high myopia and her glaucoma. There is a very strong correlation to our refractive error and eye disease. I know that’s not talked about very much in the medical literature or even in, you know, clinical practice. But when you develop a certain prescription like myopia, especially at minus 14 in the right eye and minus 11 in the left eye, that’s a high degree of tunneling and pulling in your vision which creates compression in the eye tissue, which is parallel to what Glaucoma is. It’s a tunneling. It’s a tightening. And there are different reasons why we develop glaucoma. Amin is a vascular disease, but function changes structure, how we use our anatomy is going to eventually change the anatomy and physiology.
The other piece I want you to think about is this patient was very nearsighted. And then she had cataract surgery and she became farsighted. And I talked about the ramifications of that in the session, because if you’re near sighted your personality or behavior, your response to life is very different. The mindset is very different than if you’re farsighted. And so those of you that say are thinking about refractive surgery, or cataract surgery, the best way to go is if you’re nearsighted before surgery, you want to be nearsighted after surgery. And if you’re farsighted before surgery, you want to be farsighted after surgery. The difficulty comes in when you are nearsighted before the surgery and you become farsighted after the surgery like this patient and I talk about the influences and also the effects of this discrepancy and how it may be playing into glaucoma dry eye and other things. I hope you enjoy the show. Thanks again for tuning in, leave a comment or review on Spotify, Apple, or my website. I have your history in front of me and your intake form. And it sounds like you want some advice from a functional medicine perspective. With optic nerve glaucoma, and
03:22
fuzzy vision and my dry eye,
03:25
your dry eye of course less. So give me a little context on what you’ve tried. Maybe what the other eye doctors have given you. Your glaucoma meds if you’re on any
03:39
Yes, actually. The glaucoma meds I’m only in my my left eye. I’m on Tima law with dorzolamide. Today in the left eye and then latanoprost at night. I don’t take any, any in my right eye because I have the Tribeca elective knee surgery done. And so my pressures are like eight to 10 and the right and then the left. They’re like between 11 and 13.
04:11
Okay, sounds good. That’s that’s a good place to be. What about the optic nerve? How’s the health?
04:18
Well, the the issue is because I’m so myopic, any of the cameras that they use, they don’t get anything accurate. So what they’re what they rely on is the visual field, which over the last couple years has been a little bit suspect. That’s why he I just recently upped an extra med on the on the left I used to be just the the Tim Hall, but he just recently added the dorzolamide. And I you know obviously I’ve noticed that there has been vision loss I have Two large areas where my you know, blind spots are that are very large. And every time I talk to my glaucoma specialist, he’s out of Mass General, I mean mass pioneer. He doesn’t give me much, you know, help on any other kinds of, you know, supplements or things along those lines that can support what I’m doing. So that makes me very nervous, you know? And he just looks at it is, you know, it is what it is type of thing. And he’s a young gentleman, too.
05:41
Okay, so how much myopia Do you have?
05:45
Well, really significant. There. What I could tell you is I can tell you what my diopters were when I wore contacts, in my right I was a minus 14 and a quarter and my left it was 11 and three quarters.
06:00
Okay, so do you were contacts now
06:03
I know the since I’ve had cataract surgery, I just wear overcorrection
06:10
overcorrection meaning something for reading
06:14
or for distance?
06:17
But what is what? What is that? Do you know what the diopters are?
06:22
I can pull out my prescription for you.
06:31
Ah
06:35
what? I have the sphere, the cylinder the access,
06:41
give it all to me. Right guys? So you can start there?
06:47
Plus 25 point 2025. Yes, cylinder is minus two point 25. Okay, axis is 110.
06:58
Got it left? Do you have an add on that?
07:03
But I also with my distance, they’ve added prism. So I have four in both eyes? We can do. So. Okay. And then the left is also a plus point two, five, a minus 1.25. And the axis is a point three, four.
07:27
Okay, you have a bifocal to that.
07:32
My readers I think are 2.5.
07:35
So do you just use readers from the drugstore or?
07:38
No, they give me a prescription? I do scrub for it. Okay.
07:44
All right. So question When did this glaucoma diagnosis come up for you?
07:51
When I was happy birthday when I was 40.
07:54
Okay, so a long time ago. Yeah. And then the dry eye. When did that emerge?
08:01
I would probably say, in my 50s, late 50s, mid to late 50s. But I’ve also, I’ve also been diagnosed with macular degeneration, but that’s more related to because I’m high myopia. And I’ve had some injections in the eyes, nothing consistent. The last one I think was five years ago.
08:25
Okay. All right. So you must have found me on social media, I guess.
08:34
Yes. Through. You did a talk with I think, either Jeff brand, or Paul matar either one of them?
08:42
Or? Yeah. So. So I guess you have consumed a little bit of my content, what is it about my perspective that inspires you enough to want to talk to you?
08:59
Well, I actually I do see a functional medicine doctor myself for other issues. Yes. So I have been looking at looking for somebody to address the eye and actually, my sister helped me to gear towards you, because she also uses a functional medicine doctor also. So I understand the approach. And, and I, you know, and the funny thing is, I’ve been in medicine for 42 years. So I you know, I understand, you know, some of the drug stuff, but at the same time, I also believe that you have to look at the core and, you know, kind of peel back the onion on things.
09:49
So, what does that mean you’ve been in medicine for?
09:51
Well, I In other words, you know, you have a complaint, a symptom. People go to a doctor and they get a drug where you know, What is, you know, what is the underlying stuff going on?
10:05
So what do you think the underlying stuff is?
10:08
Well, for me, you know, a lot of it is anatomy, you know, because of my myopia. I have a to my eyeballs too long, and it’s just kind of stretching everything out.
10:21
But do you have the cataract surgery? Yes. So do you think that changed anything?
10:29
I have not really thought about it. I mean, I know that after the cataract surgery little, you know, things have cropped up.
10:38
Okay. Like, like, what was
10:41
the you know, the dry I go any further? I’m not really
10:55
well, I certainly have a lot to say, a lot to, you know, propose to you. So it’s kind of a paradigm shift. And so we’re going to be more in the camp of Dr. Koh minor and Dr. Bland in that sense. And let’s talk first about the glaucoma situation. Because the glaucoma situation is really an issue with vascular health. And, of course, the key and preserving your optic nerve is the first and foremost strategy when you develop glaucoma. And so either you can use pharmaceutical drugs you can do you know, you’re addicted Amis to Becky law dummies. That’s kind of the more nuts and bolts mechanical approach. There are some other avenues that one could pursue, and I can propose those and see how that lands in you. If you feel like you know, you’d like to embark on some of those things. So let’s start with the more basic stuff, which you already may be doing. So the optic nerve needs a couple of things for preservation. The first thing it needs is a DHA based EPA based, mostly DHA, though, of Omega three. And again, you may already have these boxes checked off, I’m just gonna go through. I do. Yep. So that’s a that’s a no brainer, Omega three. Another one that seems to have gotten some good results is a small dose of gingko you’re looking at maybe 80 to 100 milligrams a day of ginkgo. Also, there’s another one that’s really coming into into popularity now called nitric oxide. And I actually created an optic nerve formula,
13:20
which I know I saw that the powder Yeah, an
13:23
alpha lipoic acid. So that’s, that’s a good laser dilator. And some preliminary studies have shown that it can help neutralize some of the, the, you know, the vascular impediment affects. Another one is bilberry that’s helps improve not only optic nerve circulation, but also retina and maybe even a little bit Macula
13:51
Are you going to try treatment plan or you know, information onto the patient portal? Or should I be writing all notes down?
14:02
Well, I am recording this with a copy of it. And so I find people learn when they go back and the they you know, they write it down and they kind of take it in also available I can give you these things also. But this is being recorded for you. And so everything that I’m saying is you will get a copy of that. Okay, so sure. And then, you know, there are more, we’ll say new cutting edge things like red light therapy. I don’t know if you’ve seen what’s been talked about with red light, but there was an ophthalmologist in the UK. His name’s Glen Jeffries. And the Jeffrey’s lab has been doing neuro plasticity research on the eyes from Many years oh really kind of misses the ophthalmology radar screen. Because it’s, it’s related more to mitochondria stimulation. And when I talked to my colleagues about mitochondria in the retina or macula, they, you know, it’s like deer in the headlights. They’re just not really into that. But Jeffrey’s took a group of subjects between the ages of 40 and 70, who were losing their eyesight from to a variety of conditions.
And he applied three minutes of red light to the eyes. It wasn’t even a lot. It was like three minutes a day, few days a week, and after the 12 weeks, the subjects increase their visual acuity readings by 22%. That’s unheard of in AI research usually increased visual acuity 2% 5% Maybe. And red light is getting a lot of interest now because what it does is it you see after by age 40, your retinas starts to degenerate, that’s everybody and has one of if not the highest metabolic needs of the body. The macula has the highest metabolic needs of the retina. And so as the mitochondria goes go down, it goes down and producing ATP. Something is starts to grow in they’re called reactive oxygen species, which is bad stuff. It’s like oxidative stress, inflammation. So what Geoffrey’s hypothesis was, is if we give red light, it reawakens that mitochondria to increase ATP and the RLs goes down. And this reduces oxidative stress regenerates the retina. As long as the cells aren’t dead, they’re dead. Nothing you can do. But if they’re just you know, clogged up with oxidative stress or inflammation, then the mitochondria like this red light, and the only stipulation is that you do it in the morning. That’s where you get the best marks. And so I work with him.
And then there’s a guy in at Stanford, who teaches ophthalmologists, he’s a neuroscientist. Huberman is his name. And I talked with him about it, he did a couple of podcasts on red light, and he was really pro red and red light. And he’s pretty standard medical guy. So between the two of them, I did my own research, because I’ve been doing color therapy for 40 years. And I was getting some really good results. So then, how do you apply it? Where do you get and there was a company of affiliated with Jeffrey’s in the UK called iPower. They were in London area. And I said, Send me some of your glasses, they were the special glasses. But they couldn’t deliver that it was just in the shipping was so expensive. So I did my own research and development with my own people. And I came up with a pair of red glasses, which has the exact tint the 670 nanometers, that’s what you need. That’s the red, the red frequency. And so people now are using these red glasses. And I would say for you, you know, coupling it with something around, you know, the nitric oxide and, you know, some of these other other things. I think that it’s definitely the worst case scenarios, nothing’s gonna happen. I kind of doubt that I think some positive things are gonna happen for you, that could help you improve your eyesight, and maybe slow down this this glaucoma progression?
Well, you know, it’s something, I’ve written a couple of blogs on it, there’s science behind it, you can look at some of the research and make your own decision. But so far, preliminary, it’s positive, and you don’t have to use drugs or surgery, which I like. And you know, it’s just I basically would do if I were you, I would do it every day, do it in the morning. You don’t need a bright light source. You can just do it looking out your window or you know, even in a dimmer room, if you’ve got light sensitivity, and you know, five to 15 minutes, it’s up to you. But in the morning, five minutes, and try it for a month and see what happens. I think that it’s definitely worth at least knowing about especially because you’ve got a lot going on. So I’m gonna pause here and see if you’ve got any questions either about the red light about any of these nutrients I’ve talked about, I can go into more depth or we can move on. It’s up to you.
20:02
Now, with the the red light therapy and the glasses. Is that something you have on your website? I mean, I’m going to be in London at the end of next month. I could I get them there?
20:16
I’ll give you the name of the I mean, I think mine are better because it’s a bigger lens, and it’s not the light. So you might have even trouble getting it in London. I don’t know. I mean, the company is called high power. Yeah, I wrote it down. Yeah. So or you can just get it on my website. So
20:36
they are on your website?
20:39
Yeah, my great glasses are on the website. Okay. Yeah, you can just get me more beads chip and D in a couple days. Okay. And you know, you’re done. And it’s a really, I had somebody at a seminar. And they were trying both the eye power glasses, they were able to get them in mind. And they like mine better because the lens is bigger. And, you know, it’s right on the eyes. And basically, you just need to look out. And, you know, the the light that’s coming in will deliver the read into the may even have some effect on the dry eye. You know, I preliminarily? preliminarily, I have seen a little bit of improvement with the dry eye. With that. So yeah, check it out.
21:23
And then your formula for the optic nerve. When I looked at it, it didn’t say how you use it, or how much you use, you know,
21:34
so it’s a scoop, right on the label. So you do a scoop and some water. And it tastes pretty good. It’s like a berry flavor. So there’s a scoop in there, you just do one scoop in the morning. And that’s it, you know, it’s very easy to take and tastes good. And you know that vasodilation is really important for you so and then you could look at something like, you know, I don’t know what you’re doing around I vitamin, my vitamin has taurine. gingko right there in it, you know. So you can kind of see how how that lands in you. There are a lot of good ones. So I would make sure. And mine also has these in it lutein and zeaxanthin because when you’ve had cataract surgery, let’s discuss blue lights. So artificial blue light emitted from this, any of the screens does have a tendency to affect the tissue of the eye dries out. And because the cataract lens probably doesn’t have any blue protect in it. I’ve talked to some of the manufacturers and companies that that manufacture iOS, and they put UV in it, but they’re slow to put the blue blocker in it. So that’s where if you’re doing any extended screen time, I probably would do some kind of blue lens blue protect lens.
23:00
My lenses do have it on I have the coating on it. Yeah,
23:04
I’m glad. And then the other thing is that there’s there’s a couple other things that you know, I went to a glaucoma meeting in December, it was like cutting edge. These are guys that ophthalmologists around the world and three days of glaucoma was all medical. So it wasn’t really functional medicine. But I wanted to see what they were doing, what their thoughts were. And they did say a few things that are appropriate to our conversation. Number one, they said if you can change how the cerebral spinal fluid interacts with the eyes, you will actually bring the eye pressure down. Now they didn’t say how to do that. The way you do that, is by getting a treatment called cranial sacral therapy. You may right. And so
23:52
I was a physical therapist, so I used to do it.
23:55
So I’m a cranial therapist, I went back 30 years ago because I was measuring people’s glaucoma, their pressure, and I’d give them a session and damn the pressure, their numbers would go down four to six millimeters just after one session. So it was great to see these guys actually admit, well, if you can do something to the cerebral spinal fluid flow, you’re gonna bring the eye pressure down. So I think getting some cranial work, I think lymphatic stimulation, I mean there’s been studies that show jumping on a rebounder can bring your eye pressure down.
24:29
Well I do do some lymphatic stuff in the morning. I also do dry brushing, you know so I’m you know, cognizant of that.
24:38
Yep. And then you know, in I also studied acupuncture and in my acupuncture training, I learned that the liver and the spleen, the gallbladder, all the meridians basically almost go to the eyes. And so, sometimes acupuncture can be helpful There’s also the relationship between the liver and the gallbladder. This is not well known. It’s known very well in functional medicine because it’s where I learned it. So here’s the deal. The liver produces bile, and the gallbladder stores it and bile is important for helping you absorb fat soluble vitamins. And those fat soluble and vitamins are very important for the eyes, vitamin A, lutein and xantham. So if there’s any struggle with either producing or absorbing or storing the bile, I have created what we call a gallbladder formula, which helps in the production and absorption of fat soluble vitamins. And there’s another piece to this, that I learned in functional medicine, which is sometimes the pancreatic enzymes are not being produced, and they also will come in and help us in fat soluble absorption.
26:01
Right, that was one of the first things the functional medicine doctor did is check that and I went through a whole regime of doing that. Yeah. Okay.
26:11
Not many people know about it. But I mentioned it to ophthalmologists, they’ve never heard of it. So again, if you study functional medicine, yeah, I think you’re it’s obvious. Because there have been a number of people who have taken been taking a lot of eye supplements, or they eat really well like you. And we add these two things. And that seems to help them reduce the dryness, the dry eye, and also helps their eyesight, but you got that covered. So we’ll we’ll we’ll move on. See if there’s anything else to talk about. So some some other things that, again, this is more in functional medicine, and you may be doing this already. The intermittent fasting has shown to be helpful, sometimes moving more towards a keto diet, the glucose situation, I mean, these are all things you probably handled
27:13
quite well, I do intermittent fasting, anyways. Yeah, so so all that
27:18
all that’s good. Which now brings us to the conversation of your minus 14 minus 11. So I’m gonna say something that’s a little out of school, perhaps for what maybe you’ve been exposed to. But what happens in nearsightedness is there’s a tendency on a functional level. That’s in other words, how we use our eyes to tunnel our vision. And what we do is we become very Macula centric. In myopia, because myopia is a lot about I need to see clearly, and I need a minus lens. And so when you wear a minus lens, it focuses almost all the light into the macula area.
But there’s nothing in the periphery because the lens, even a contact lens, is thick around the edge. So you’re basically tunneling. Right? And so it’s almost like a form of glaucoma, but it’s a functional form that’s driven by your prescription. And, you know, working with a lot of people in myopia, I don’t believe in lasik surgery. But when you start understanding myopia, a lot of my patients will say, Well, what causes the myopia? Is my programming, what my mental setup is, that changes the shape of the eyeball? Well, that’s kind of radical to say that because, you know, in the medical literature, they say, well, it’s mostly genetics and you know, blah, blah, blah. But I certainly have seen enough cases where there is an environmental impact on how we use our eyes, that creates a certain type of prescription. Okay, so now you go and have this cataract surgery, and it changes the refraction in the eyeball. But does it change the refraction in the mind or the brain or the body? Now, that’s a debate that I have all the time with my ophthalmology colleagues because they say, What are you talking about there?
There’s no prescription in the body. There’s no prescription in the mind. But what I see over time is that especially in the LASIK world, that prescriptions tend to creep back in because there actually is a mental programming that is stronger than the prescription. They change in the eyeball. Hmm. And there’s another factor here, which is that nearsighted people operate in visual space very differently than farsighted people. So just to give you contrast, and nearsighted person tends to do really well up close, they don’t need glasses, or if they do, it’s still a minus lens. But their strength is I can see well up close without much of a prescription. They pull the world in, there’s a tightening of the muscles like the muscles become tight. And the minus lens kind of reinforces that that’s kind of the strategy of the nearsighted pattern. And in farsightedness, it’s just the opposite and farsighted. And as you push the world away, you have difficulty with focusing muscles, the muscles become flaccid, you depend on the lens changing the size of the object to help you in your focusing. And that you get dependent on this farsighted lens and then you need stronger and stronger farsightedness.
Now the the the rub here is that if you are nearsighted before the surgery, but your eye is now farsighted, after the surgery, how are you adjusting to that difference? Now? Maybe you’re testing really well I you know, you probably are, you look like you’re pretty self aware. But that’s a lot of astigmatism. Maybe they’re giving you and a lot of magnification up close. When before the surgery. Your your best vision was more, you know, up close. I mean, honestly, with the minus for you 14, you still needed, you know, prescription you couldn’t see without lenses, but so where am I going with this, we know where I’m going with this is that my theory is that part of your glaucoma and dry eye is related to either the pre surgical myopia that’s still affecting your eyes and your anatomy.
And the possible discrepancy that you’re dealing with between your nearsighted pre surgery and your farsighted post surgery. So then it becomes if there’s a way that you could do some kind of vision, physical therapy to integrate the farsighted prescription now, and maybe release some of the pre surgical myopia, which is more mentally driven, if you could release some of that, understand it, get more awareness around it, it would create more circulation and less compression. And so the way you use your eyes functionally, does affect the anatomy, structurally, function affects structure. And, again, it’s a buy in because you might say, well, you know, this is you’re talking Japanese to me, I’m doing great as I am. And this makes no sense to me. And if you say that cool, we’ll just move on. But I need to share with you my body of work of 1000s of people that I’ve helped reverse myopia and hyperopia. And also dealing with surgery, and refractive surgery, cataract surgery, and how it changes the mental, the emotional, the, the postural aspects of, you know, your, your vision, and it has more than do more to do with vision, which is how the eyes and the brain and the body work together than it is about reading an eye chart. So, you know, this is this again, this is a huge new arena, you probably haven’t seen this on my content, but I’d love to hear your opinion. And feel free to be completely frank with me.
34:24
Well, I know I, you know, I I can see your thought process. I’d be interested to know what you know, type of exercises you’re talking about, you know, I’m being as a physical therapist, I’m always open to exercises. So, you know, I’d be interested, you know, to see what that entails.
34:48
Okay, so that’s a fair question. So before I enter that, the University of Rochester did a very interesting study on how much of the brain Pain is involved in vision. And their findings were that 50% of vision takes place in the brain. So it isn’t just an eyeball experience. No,
35:11
I totally understand that, you know, I, you see that you see that with stroke people and, you know, certain portions of the brains that are, you know, affected and you know, they can the anatomy of the eye could be, you know, perfectly fine, but if the brain isn’t functioning, then you have a non functionally eyeball, you know?
35:31
Yes, exactly. So, think of this as physical therapy for your eyes. Really, what, what it is, and, you know, working with OTs and PTs over the years, like with traumatic brain injury, right? There is a neuroplasticity, but I get arguments from my ophthalmology colleagues all the time, there’s no neuroplasticity, the eye is only going to die aging. And I can’t, you know, talk them into anything else. That there is a, an effect, but the eyes are the only part of the brain that are outside the cranial vault. So, if the eyes are brain, why can’t you access neuroplasticity? Well, again, I get nowhere with my ophthalmology colleagues, because they want to just do surgery and all that. So that’s, that’s kind of the deal. Okay, so I got a couple of questions for you, which will help me determine what is the best or maybe a few physical therapy exercises for you? So my first question is, how much of the day do you wear this prescription glasses?
36:46
Oh, my, well, I have to, you know, my distance. And then my, my reading glasses, I am a big reader. So I do, you know, several hours a day of reading. And a lot of times in the house, I may not wear my distance glasses, but I definitely wear them for driving. And when I’m out in public, I definitely wear them because with my glaucoma, I have problems with you know, you know, light in construction of the, you know, my pupils and being able to see, you know, from light to dark or from, you know, dark to light, that type of stuff. So then now, definitely wear them out then. So I would say glasses, I’m probably a good, you know, 80 to 90% of the day I have something on.
37:40
Okay. My next question is, what was the purpose of prescribing the prisms?
37:50
From what I understand as the muscle imbalance that I have,
37:57
I’m talking about subjective symptoms that you’re having not something in your muscle, like what? What was your visual experience where they would even introduce prisms because prisms weaken your eyes, they also weaken the muscles of not all prisms, but the prisms they’re giving you and it’s actually converging your eyes even more, which is you can’t access as much periphery. So it’s not great. It’s not great prescription in terms of wellness. It’s, it’s very symptom driven. I mean, were you having double vision? Are you having fatigue, I
38:37
think I might have been more. I felt one I was working harder than the other.
38:46
I think you’d much be much better served by doing a physical therapy exercise to where you’re in a situation where you have to use both eyes together in an exercise context. Then with glasses, again, it’s Think of it like a splint. They’re kind of keeping you stable, but it’s not a great setup. And then the other thing is, they’re actually special kinds of yoke prisms that I develop. They’re called yoked when I worked in the hospitals, and these are prisms that actually enhance your peripheral vision. In other words, what when you put them on, they take your peripheral, if you see my hands and they move them out here. So I would rather see you in yolk prisms. Now they did pray don’t know what that is. But one of the things that so when I say yoked, here’s my hands.
You’re you’re accessing much more of your vision out in this area. And sometimes it can help you compensate for the blind spot. And what you’ve got is a Um, you know, it’s a symptom, they’re trying to control a symptom and those kinds of prisms are not great. So there’s a couple of couple of ways to go here one way is that you sent me your distance prescription, I would be open to writing a new prescription for you with the yoke prisms in it probably give you 20 to 30% more peripheral vision than with those. And the other thing to consider,
40:35
and where would I find somebody that does your prisms?
40:39
Or they just have to fill it? It doesn’t matter? I mean, I would go to a lab and do it. Wow, the law honey lab would do it because there’s okay. You know, so I’m medically licensed in 50 states. So you can go out and go to an optical store. And you take the prescription and then they’ll they’ll make them for you. Okay, so you get a frame that’s not too small, you know. And the other thing is, and this gets kind of out there, I would do a plastic frame versus a metal frame.
41:07
Oh, yeah, I always do I, you know, most of my I have plastic. Yeah,
41:12
yeah. Okay. So then what what you’ll do with those base down your prisons, so we’re going to do base down in each eye, instead of base out, just start wearing them around the house and wear them and you’re probably going to notice, you’re going to have more vision, less blind spot. And so neuro neuroplasticity wise, it’s stimulating your retina differently because it’s moving the light in a different angle into the retina and the optic nerve. And you can let me how you do let me know how you do with it. But to me, that’s, that’s an easy upgrade. Okay. And then the next thing you could do, there’s a couple of things that I’ll propose to you and you kind of decide how you want to approach it. One thing that happens when you wear a plus lens. And what you’re wearing flip farsighted is, it does in some ways, make your eye muscles less responsive to focus. And one of the ways to counteract that weakness that starts to come in, is getting yourself a pair of what we call pinhole glasses. And you can online anywhere. And you’ll be surprised when you put those on, you’ll actually be able to read without the magnification. And wearing those a few minutes a day, it’s gonna make you move your eyes through the holes. It’s like an exercise, it actually strengthens your eye muscles. So that would be something that you could do, it’ll even help your distance. So I would just do it in the comfort of your home, just to wear something other than a prescription that’s weakening your eyes because that’s what you know your farsighted prescription is doing. So that would certainly be easy.
There’s also an exercise that involves using your two eyes together where they have to focus at the same time. And it’s called it’s on my website, but I’ll send it to you. It’s called the Yin Yang peripheral vision exercise. And the reason why it’s called Yin Yang is you have two yin yang symbols on a piece of paper. And then you’ve got three other pairs of images on that sheet you printed out and what you do with the first set of Yin Yang, you just start there and you hold it right up to your nose, but you mentally look through the paper, you mentally look through it, I’ll send you directions, you push it out. And all of a sudden those two yin yang will become three. And when they become three, it means that both of your eyes are working together. Okay. And so then you spend maybe about, you know, a minute just kind of moving the paper, you want to get out there at arm’s length if you can. So you’re now introducing to your brain and eyes, what’s what it’s like to be simultaneous in your focus will get the feedback. By getting the three images, you’ve got four pairs of images, so you spend about a minute with each pair each pairs is different. And so by getting those three images, then you are now retraining or reprogramming the eye that’s more dominant. Now the other eye has to come in and simultaneously, you’re using them both together.
Do this without any glasses. And you know, do it two or three times a day, a minute or so. And you might find after you’re done you might actually get some clear eyesight from it, because it’s really working the muscles and the visual coordination. So I’ll send you a link on and how to how to do that. Okay. And then after that one, we do a relaxation exercise on the eye muscles called the palm hum. So, in the palm home, you’re rubbing your hands together, you cupping them over your eyes, I’ll send you directions, your eyes are closed, you breathe in through the nose, when you exhale, you keep your mouth closed, but you’re making a humming sound like this.
45:25
Um,
45:31
so you’re gonna get vibration in your jaw in your face. And it’s going to echo into the eye muscles. And also, because your hands are over your eyes, these are going to be kind of like tuning forks. Whenever you put sound into the eyes, it’s going to open up compression, it’s going to bring better circulation. sound healing is, you know, a lot of people use it, anyways, you do six or eight of the hums, you keep the hum contained in your face. After that six hum, you can drop your hands and slowly open your eyes. And people report to me they see things much more clearly. They don’t need their distance glasses for a while. So it’s certainly something that if you could try it and see if it does that for you. But it’s a way to bring more of the parasympathetic nervous system into it, create more relaxation ation, you know, it’s a, it’s an organic way to improve your, you know, your eyesight. So the Yin Yang, and then the do the palm home. After that, he decided to get the panels.
Now, that would be another technique. And then we’ll get to the prison base down to enhance your peripheral vision. Now you’re doing like four things that allow you to access vision improvement, which could indirectly number one, reduce any of this compression, anatomically in the eyes, because you’re changing function. And also, it might even lubricate your eyes a little better. So you can try it for a couple of days. And if you’re getting some benefits, then continue. If you’re not, so be it. I also think it’s a good idea in non demanding situations to go without your glasses. That’s a high percentage of time that you’re wearing them. And so whatever you wear is reinforcing the adaptation you’re you’re making to with yourself, right? So
47:36
I realized that, hey,
47:39
so the relationship that I’d like you to explore mentally, is your relationship to blurry vision. And there’s, there’s actually an exercise we do where you actually wear an opposite lens prescription. And when you wear that, you then mentally go into what do I like about the blur. And you’ll discover that there’s some level of hyper vigilance that you don’t like the blur for some, you made some, some association, well, if it’s blurry, I’m going to miss something, I’m going to get it wrong, I could fall down I, you know, we all have stories. So the thing is, is you wear that opposite lens prescription, and it’s challenging you to relax into the blur. You only do it for like a minute or so. And then you take the glasses off. And you will see things now in your naked vision much more clearly than you did before you put those blurry glasses on. And you do that exercise a few times a day. And over a period of a few weeks, people will say you know, I don’t need my distance glasses anymore, or I’m feeling like now my prescription is too strong. So there’s real value about emotionally and mentally going into the blur. But doing it in a safe environment where you’re locked in your bedroom.
But it gets you to interact with any emotional mental restrictions you have around blur. And I have a pair of glasses on my website, which are called minus lens to blur. And most eye doctors you know, they would never go for this but if you’re farsighted to wear the minus lens. And there’s a whole protocol I do and I’ll send it to you just so you can know about it. You can look at the video. If you want to really you know go deep in this doing that minus lens the blur could be really interesting around you relaxing into blur and then having more clarity without glasses. And so you know it’s it’s it just depends on how how deeply You want to go? I mean, even if you just did the pinholes, pinhole glasses, that would be in that direction? Because I think what you’re wearing is affecting you. You may not be aware of it, but I think it is. And and I don’t want you wearing a lot of progressive lenses, I’m assuming you’re not? No,
50:21
no, actually I try them. And I couldn’t, couldn’t tolerate them. I was so dizzy with them things in the periphery. Were not, like, stable. And it was it was just, I said, I can’t do these.
50:37
So the the response the retort to that is, Mary, just get used to it.
50:45
I said, No.
50:47
Well, you’re one of the few that got out of prison with that, because the doctor will just say, No, you’ll get used to it, you know, it’s something that really weakens your vision, and it actually puts more pressure on your maculatus Because the only part of the the progressive lens you’re using is your maculatus. I have a lot of people in those progressive lenses that I have to wean them off of it. So good for you for you know, knowing that that that wasn’t a good option for you. And that’s probably your physical therapy training. And so these would be some of the things and I am going to write out a little treatment plan for you. And I’ll send it to you spotlighting some stuff. So then you can do your own research. And please do I mean, again, this is not for everybody. And you know, mostly you’re doing well there’s one more thing I want to address is the dry eye. And so, being a chemist I developed some really awesome eyedrops, which you’ve probably seen called MSM, sulfur molecule that helps detox the eye lubricates, it’s anti inflammatory. You could do the 5% MSM eyedrops if you wanted to during the day, and then in the evening, I created organic castor oil, I dropped my sauna ointment, it’s like an oil, I use it as an ointment. So I put it on the outside part of my eyelids before bed and it’s very moisturizing. And with your dryness, I think possibly the castor oil could really help you in the evening. And then you could try the MSM during the day if you wanted to.
52:35
Um any concerns that I I mean, I don’t think I should, I mean because I do in my right I have the blood from the trabecular ectomy that the no problem with the castor oil related to IT
52:48
work has no problem. I would just start with a tiny bit. I mean just a little bit in that right eye and just see how you respond. My experience has been that it’s just going to create some moisture on the eyelids and castor oil is extremely anti inflammatory skin. So I mean I would just what I like to do with these things everybody has is different like even with your glaucoma meds, just wait 15 minutes after you’ve done the glaucoma meds before you do these if you’re going to do these MSM and or castor oil that’s safe. And then with the castor oil, just use a tiny bit on that right side and see how it responds. I mean, I’ve worked with people with corneal transplants with you know, the retinal detachment where they’ve had to put the oil in the retina and they do well with the castor oil, you know, they always go towards that and they go away from the pharmaceutical drugs because that dries you out even more. Those glaucoma meds are going to create more dryness.
54:05
No I and I know that yeah, my the eye that the left eye is always drier than the right eye.
54:12
And so that’s where you need to counteract that with I mean even doing the symbolizing the homeopathic eyedrops, they’re safe. I would start doing some more natural kind eyedrops, like MSM, like homeopathic during the day and hydrate your eyes, four to five times a day and then doing the Castro at night. You know, some some people, they can do a lot of it. Some people they go I just need a little bit of it. They use too much their eyes may get red, they may burn. So just says because there’s a detoxification aspect to these eyedrops it’s going to push the toxins, the drugs, the the surgical things that you absorbed in the eyes out. So you need to start slow, and the application of them. But these are, it’s like eating organic food. You know, it’s like at first, you’ve been eating processed food. Yeah, you’re gonna feel sick and bloated and you know you’re going to detox and stuff may come out of your skin. It’s the same thing here. When a detox on your eyes with these kinds of eyedrops, so start very, very slowly. You can even just say, what a soft cloth and put a drop of the castor oil on the soft cloth, the white cloth and use it as a compress over the eye. That’s even more indirect, and just see how your eye responds and follow that.
Okay, it’s worth a try it boil. There was actually a study that was published ophthalmologists use castor oil to reduce meibomian gland dysfunction and the significant reduction in inflammation in the eyelids by using the castor oil. It’s not well known they don’t like because they want you to use Restasis. When I found that study, I was like, well, that’s interesting. Why isn’t that in the mainstream, and they used homogenized castor oil in the eye to reduce dry eye and in the results significantly, they say nificantly reduced dry eye symptoms. So that’s why I went for it. And now it works well. So So you got a lot of things here. So I’ll send you information, you know, keep digesting my information, see what feels right. The more intuitive you are with it. If you get a yes to it if you get a no don’t, if you’re uncertain and just waiting. But you’re very intuitive. And so use your intuition. Yeah, this makes sense to me, okay. No, I don’t want to do that. And just kind of learn better regulation in your eyes what you’re gonna give it and you know, you can improve your vision. Even if you get older, even with this glaucoma, what happens is the glaucoma fades in the background, and you still have it affecting you nearly as much, right? Especially if you start doing physical therapy, that’s very aggressive. You’re really, you’re really confronting the vascular health level? Yes, very
57:38
well, this time, you know, a lot of really good helpful information, like you said that certain things that I know that I will definitely do, you know,
57:50
like, keep in touch, send me an email, let me know how you’re doing. You know, and at some point, we can circle back and see what’s improved, where you want to go. You know, the less medical interventions you do now, the healthier your eyes are going to be. And that’s mostly in the pharmaceutical?
58:12
Well, yeah, well, that’s my my whole thing to you know, keep just, you know, I know, at one time before we did surgery to my right, I was up to, you know, five different drops before they, you know, did surgery to get the pressure down.
58:30
That’s yeah, that’s the main way to try to control it.
58:34
Right, right.
58:37
There’s many other things. You know, when I learned acupuncture, and we were in the clinic, and we were working with glaucoma patients, we actually saw quite a lot of improvement with acupuncture. And when I when I would do cranial sacral and measure people’s eye pressure, visual fields, I couldn’t believe in one session, how much better they saw just through the spinal fluid in the brain in the eyes. So you know, even meditation, there’s a study out that says if you meditate, it can bring your eye pressure down. That was one of the research papers that came out at that glaucoma meeting. I was I knew that that was great that they, they share that so I mean, meditation, a mind body, all of these
59:24
things. Yes. And I totally agree with that. Yeah. I really thank you for your time. You know,
59:33
welcome. Yes. And good luck to you. And so I’ll send you an email with the recording and I’ll send you a little treatment plan that would be fabulous. And then if you have any questions you know, just email me and I’m here.
59:46
Now where are just one quick question where exactly a new New Mexico I didn’t look geographically where what big city Are you near? near Santa Fe. Okay, because I’m going to be in Santa Fe the SMA Yeah. Oh, yeah, my daughter lives in California and one of her big things is she wants to go to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. So we’re going to do some time in Santa Fe and then go out to the ranch and stuff like that.
1:00:14
Make a reservation for Ghost ranch because it does fill up.
1:00:18
Now that’s what we just got our tickets or plane tickets. And then that’s what we’re doing next is
1:00:25
gonna be a very nice time of year and the I was just at the Georgia museum. It’s it’s wonderful right now. So great restaurants like to do. But look, if you’re feeling like you know, you want to see me in person, then just contact Monica. Yeah. And you don’t have to I’m not requiring you. No, no, no, no. But if you felt like you wanted to come and see me,
1:00:53
I was just like I said, I was just kind of, you know, curious. Like I said, I didn’t sit down geographically to find out where you were.
1:01:00
We’re right across the street from the opera, just north of Santa Fe, a village called Sookie Native American reservations. So.
1:01:12
Okay. All right. So I’ll wait for your email. And then I have a lot of stuff to work on here. And, you know, write it well, to me it there. There’s things that I can do. I just didn’t like the medical community to just to say to me, it is what it is, you know, so this is encouraging to me to try them and you know, see what happens, you know, so there’s something out there.
1:01:37
Oh, totally. Yes. Yeah. All right. Well, I wish you well, and I will talk to you down the road. Okay, thank you all. Bye.
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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