ask me about eyes

[Lyric]

What causes our eyes to change over time? Why do prescriptions get better/worse?

What causes astigmatism?

[BukNaked36]

Hey Slim,
Renodoc's obviously a dork and you can take 3 years off of his schooling as an undergrad in psych is only truly worth 1 year of college. http://nevadaretina.com/content/doctors/friedlander.php


That aside, I have a question. You mentioned earlier that exercises can't help eyes. What about the "See Clearly" method stuff I see advertised. Is this pure crap or does it have some basis?

[slim]

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Hey Slim,
Renodoc's obviously a dork and you can take 3 years off of his schooling as an undergrad in psych is only truly worth 1 year of college. http://nevadaretina.com/content/doctors/friedlander.php


That aside, I have a question. You mentioned earlier that exercises can't help eyes. What about the "See Clearly" method stuff I see advertised. Is this pure crap or does it have some basis?

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I haven't heard of "See Clearly".....what is it?

[slim]

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I found an old prescription of mine from 5-6 years ago. My eyes were -3.00 and -4.00 (the first number, I also had some astigmistism).

I just had my eyes tested last week and the first number -1.50 for one eye and -1.75 for the other.

Is it common for eyes to change that much in a few years? I'm 35 years old, if that matters.

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your prescription dropped by quite a bit. No it is not common for it to drop that much....not until your 40's anyways.

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What causes the vision to get better as we age? People often have better vision around 40 yrs old? This seems backwards to me.

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First, we need to make a distinction between "vision" and "prescription". Your best corrected "vision" never gets better even if your "prescription" gets better with age. For example, assume you are a healthy 18 years old and have a presicription of -5.00......through your glasses or contacts you will see a crisp and clear 20/20. As you age and get to 40 years old, your prescription may become -4.00 (which is an improvement) but your vision thrrough your glasses will NOT be better than when you were 18 years old. It may still be 20/20, but the crispness and vividness of your vision will not be like it once was. The reason why your vision will never be as clear as when you are young is because the transparency of the structures inside the eye gradually diminishes with age for EVERYBODY. The aging changes inside the human lens and vitreous and other structures causes the index of refraction to shift over time and that is why your prescription may improve with age.The corneal curvature can change with time as well and cause a shift in prescription.

[BukNaked36]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_Clearly_Method

http://seeclearlymethod.com/

Looks like I answered my own question. It's no longer for sale.

[slim]

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What causes our eyes to change over time? Why do prescriptions get better/worse?

What causes astigmatism?

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Generally prescrptions get worse to a certain point and stabilize. The most common and drastic time of change is during the growing years because thats when the eyeball changes in terms of physical size and corneal curvature. Your presciption is determined mainly by genetics.....not how long you stare at a computer like everyody seems to think.

AStigmatism is also usually genetic.....it really is no different than nearsightedness or farsightedness in that it is just an incorrectly shaped cornea. There are certain corneal diseases that cause astigmatic corneas but in general, it's just a common refractive problem.

[Kratzer]

slim,
i am nearsighted, 22 yrs old, Rx around -2.5 in both eyes i think. around a couple years ago i started noticing "trails", or light gray/brown translucent blobs in my eyesight. they are there all the time and they are scattered all over my field of vision. they follow whatever im looking at. so if i suddenly look left, about 1/2 second later all the "blobs" will shift over to the left in a floaty kind of way. if i dont think about them i dont notice them. ive never gone to a doctor about this but ive been meaning to. i dont think they have gotten worse since i started noticing them, but it's hard to say. should i get this checked out?

thanks for your advice

[slim]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_Clearly_Method

http://seeclearlymethod.com/

Looks like I answered my own question. It's no longer for sale.

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Everybody thinks there are eye exercises that can help them stop or improve their prescription. People don't understand that your eye is not a muscle.....there are muscles around it that control it's movement and the is a muscle inside (ciliary muscle) that controls the ability to change focus from far to near and vice versa. Think of the eye like a camera....there's a lens at the front and it can move back and forth depending on whether you are taking a picture of a far or near object. If that lens at the front is manufactured wrong (wrong power) then it doesn't matter how fast or smooth you can zoom it in and out, it still won't take a clear picture...you need to replace that lens or put another lens (a pair of glasses) in front of it to take clear pictures. Even if exercising those ciliary muscles can make them better (which it can't), you would still see blurry if your cornea was the wrong shape.

[Sponger.]

Slim,

I have never owned a pair of sunglasses. Is this really bad for my eyes or will I be ok?

[slim]

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slim,
i am nearsighted, 22 yrs old, Rx around -2.5 in both eyes i think. around a couple years ago i started noticing "trails", or light gray/brown translucent blobs in my eyesight. they are there all the time and they are scattered all over my field of vision. they follow whatever im looking at. so if i suddenly look left, about 1/2 second later all the "blobs" will shift over to the left in a floaty kind of way. if i dont think about them i dont notice them. ive never gone to a doctor about this but ive been meaning to. i dont think they have gotten worse since i started noticing them, but it's hard to say. should i get this checked out?

thanks for your advice

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floaters

since it's been a couple of years already, you'r fine. You should have gone when you first noticed them because they can be serious in a small percentage of cases.