Myopia affects nearly 1 in 3 Americans, generating a $30 billion market for corrective lenses every year. But glasses and contacts only treat the symptoms of nearsightedness - they do nothing to improve vision naturally.
What many people don’t realize is that there are natural ways to cure myopia. These methods are not only considerably cheaper, but provide long lasting results and protect vision health for years to come.
What Causes Myopia?
It is widely believed that myopia is caused by spending too much time on near point tasks. These include:
- Reading and writing
- Playing computer games
- Working on the computer
- Surfing the internet
- Sitting too close to the TV
In order to focus up close on these tasks, the eye muscles must contract for prolonged periods. Over time, the eyeball adapts to this stress by changing shape and aggravating the condition even more. In this irregular state, light rays focus too far in front of the retina, causing blurry vision for long distance eye sight.
What’s more, in many cases of myopia, the cornea also becomes squashed which refracts light differently. This is known as astigmatism.
Corrective Lenses
Eye glasses and contacts lenses do not cure myopia. In fact, it has long been known that they make nearsightedness worse:
“Single-vision minus lenses for full-time use produce accommodative insufficiency associated with additional symptoms until the patient gets used to the lens. This is usually accompanied by a further increase in myopia and the cycle begins anew.” Martin H Birnbaum (1973), Review of Optometry
Despite being expensive and requiring frequent updates, prescription lenses are the most common treatment for myopia today. Yet over the course of a lifetime, they are also the most expensive treatment option, fuelling the multi-billion dollar industry for corrective lenses.
LASIK Laser Eye Surgery
In time, those who refuse to wear corrective lenses turn to laser eye surgery. The most popular form, LASIK, is effective at curing nearsightedness in the majority of patients. However, 6% of LASIK patients do not gain 20/20 vision (or near) after surgery and must still wear corrective lenses.
Furthermore, laser eye surgery is expensive ($3,000 on average), involves intrusive surgery into the eye under local anaesthetic, and can be painful or very uncomfortable during the recovery period. The risks of laser eye surgery include eye infection, along with occasional side effects like dry eyes and poor night vision (halos). In fact, in a survey of LASIK patients by Real Self, 29% (1 in 3) said it was not worth it and regretted their decision.
Eye Exercises
Modern vision training has been around since the 1920s. Eye exercises work by first strengthening the six groups of eye muscles, and then helping them to relax completely each day to improve vision on a progressive basis. They usually form a vision training program of 30-60 days (or more in severe cases) and are known to be highly effective with myopia and astigmatism.
Eye exercises are backed by scientific studies and supported by anecdotal evidence from hundreds of thousands of people. Online eye exercise courses are cheap to acquire and cure the underlying cause of nearsightedness, unlike glasses or contact lenses. And unlike laser eye surgery, they are unintrusive and completely painless. For free eye exercises online, see below.
Further Reading
If you found Treatments for Myopia interesting, you may also like:
Eye Exercises and Vision Training
Improve Vision Naturally: The 30-day Eye Exercise Program
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