The audio above is my interview with Esther Joy van der Werf, a Bates method trainer. In the second, I interviewed John, an anonymous polymath physician.
"I got your Substack with all the links to her books and this podcast. Thanks so much. I am almost finished listening here, and already have learned a lot. She and you are both very easy to listen to, very well-spoken. Interestingly, I often use ASMR vids on YouTube to relax and doze off. My favorite and most effective one is SRP Asmr. He is an optometrist, and uses his calming voice while giving eye exams with his closeup devices, looking into your eyes with the bright lights, giving eye chart exams and color vision tests, checking for lens strength ( first or second, first or second ), etc. His practice is in England
When I was a kid in the 1970s my sister was diagnosed with learning disabilities. For some reason, my parents had the idea to take her to Vision Training, taught by an opthamalogist trained at the Giselle (Sic) Institute.
After a pretty intense vision training program, her learning disabilities cleared up. My dad tried it next and he went from wearing Coke bottle glasses to 20/20 in about a year.
The idea was that you train your brain rather than your eyes
I went next, and went from being a kid who was fast becoming nearsighted to 20/20, which I remain to this day, age 63.
Everyone thought we were weirdos, but the results stand.
Another GIGANTIC topic. Another world of misinformed practices deemed normal. Dr. Yoho retired from surgery and took up dragon slaying! He uses the same precision, just a bigger knife. Thanks, Doc!
Another invent the disease and then provide the useless cure. It's been a pandemic for decades. I do not use glasses to read and try to keep them off as much as possible. They have been with me for about 60 years. I can't see distances very well at least for sharpness.
My nearly 97 year old father has been getting shots in his one eye for many years. Now his good eye is acting up. He will finally quit driving in a few months. I don't want to end up like this. You go to the doc, he finds a problem and then wants to drug it to death and you as well. No thanks.
So glad you posted about this. I read about Bates' methods a long time ago, but couldn't understand it. Fast forward 3 decades and over the pandemic policy period, I noticed a distinct decline in my eyesight requiring a switch to "new" prescriptions. I also found I was wearing them a lot more.
Then I came across a mention of Bates again on FB and so I did some searching again and came across Esther's book and some podcasts.
I quickly read the book and decided to stop using any glasses (including sunglasses) and simply relax my eyes. I noticed a significant difference within weeks, using very basic relaxation techniques outlined in Esther's book.
After that I booked a session with her. I haven't worn any glasses for 1.5 years now. I have confirmation from my ophalmologist that my eyesight significantly improved although it is far from perfect.
The biggest challenge for office workers like me, is to get enough outdoor light but I'll never go back to glasses.
So interesting, thank you ! Have just realised that I occasionally wore magnifying lenses for close reading at night and now I need to wear them everytime I read...... my brother used to advise me to do exactly as specified in a section of your story- look up every few minutes and focus on an object in the distance. Also to look at green-toned things. That was seventy years ago now.....
I was Rx’d reading glasses in 9th grade which I wore through HS. Off to college, I stopped, my eyes improved and at nearly 67yo I read perfectly w/o them.
Thank you for this. I first heard concerns about glasses on a video that sounded like they would want to sell me something in the end, so I made a mental note but hadn't researched it yet.
I originally asked for multifocals so I didn't have to put reading glasses on '100's' of times a day, basically for convenience. But with increasing prescriptions every two years from then on, I wondered if my request had precipitated the deterioration somehow. Again, thank you.
I needed this. I wear glasses for reading and a different pair for driving. I seldom drive at night, but last night after shopping I drove home in the dark. The right lens corrected the vision in my right eye, but the left lens made the vision much worse in the left eye. I kept having to peer over then through.
And the cheap reading glasses I have now are much the same. I can't afford new prescription glasses right now, certainly not ones with different prescriptions.
I will listen to this interview, and hope I can find something I can do to help myself. Before I turned 50 I had near perfect vision, never wore glasses, and could read very fine print easily.
Yes, thanks, I read the reviews of her book on Amazon, and I plan to purchase it soon. Already this morning, after arising I did not put my glasses on right away, and started becoming cognizant of some of the techniques she mentioned.
I never ever wear sunglasses. Though if I worked in a situation with tons of glare I would, Such as being a sherpa or a mountaineer in snow capped ranges. Or if I were a fisherman.
I wear 1.50 glasses for my computer and have done so for 27 years. For reading books, I use a full spectrum 75 watt lightbulb/lamp and my prescription glasses. Or some 2.0 diopter glasses from Amazon.
If you are a big reader of books and magazines on paper. And your eyesight is not that good. Get a full spectrum bulb, 75–100 watts, behind you and shining on your book. You can test this easily. Go outside when the sun is shining brightly. Test how easy it is to read a book. I have loads of 75 watt GE Reveal bulbs . Full Spectrum. Contact me if you are interested.
Thank you, Dr. Yoho, for the eye-opening interview of Esther. You asked really sharp and useful questions which made the interview extremely useful. I am going to work on the concepts learned.
I was fitted with eye glasses near the end of my 5th Grade. While in the 5th grade classroom, we rotated desks one a week to that those in the back of the room would eventually be on the front row. I was poor student with a bad attitude after transferring from another school from the 4th grade. My 5th grade teacher treated me poorly and often embarrass in front of the class. I became the class laughing stock. So, I preferred to be in the back of the classroom all the time and did not complete assignments.
Back to the glasses. We had free eye exams and was found to be near sighted. So, I was fitted with glasses for that as well as astigmatism in my left eye. My 6th grade teacher was wonderful, she was aware of my situation and took a keen interest in my performance. My reading level went from 4th grade level to 8th grade level in just a few months. Was it the glasses? or proper learning environment, I believe both. In college I was always in the 95% in all subjects except Grammar. I earned three engineering degrees have several peer reviewed publications but may grammar still stinks.
I hate glasses and went to progressive lenses in my mid-50s. I went 10 years with the same prescription then I just stopped wearing glasses and refused to go back for another prescription. My eyes became stronger and I could do many things without them. I started wearing sunglasses while outdoors most of the time. Eventually my near vision changed sufficiently that I decided to go back to the optometrist. Therefore I ended up with a new prescription that was weaker (better eye sight) than my old one. The new glass enabled me to better read road signs and improved my reading. I still hate glasses but the astigmatism is still there so they are necessary. I was able to remove the prism which was an artifact of smoking too much Mary Jane in my 20's but the prism forces my eyes adapt to the lateral distortion. (Note: Lateral eye distortion is common to those that consume Mary Jane). I had the prism in my glasses for 30 years. Not wearing glasses for over 2 yrs. removed that lateral distortion so my new lens no longer has the prism. (Praise the Lord!!)
I know this was long but want to make it entertaining, I hope it was.
Thank you for this timely article, as I recently had a thorough eye exam... and had filled my reading glass prescription about a month ago. I HATE what my reading glasses do to my eyes, and my driving glasses are apparently slightly "outdated". I purposely have not changed them in about 20 years, thinking that I wanted to keep the same prescription for as long as possible and not get stronger glasses. Looking forward to diving deeper into this research with the links you provided.
While some truth here, lots of things that don't really work. This coming from an optometrist.
I really don't have time for a long post but here's a few thoughts.
Using the Bates method/sungazing/exercises doesn't really improve ones vision. What sungazing will do is cause one's pupils to shrink causing an increase of depth of field and an increase in the ability to see up close. Same concept with the really bright light someone was advocating. Great! you say.. it worked. However, not so fast. With smaller pupils now your night vision is worse.
In fact there is now a presbyopia drug out there that does just this called Vuity. It uses a miotic agent to shrink ones pupils temporarily. It also lists reduced night vision as one of the side effects.
Do some Dr's overprescribe -sure. But most of the time without the glasses the person can't function in the real world very well. With most older patients the prescription is usually pretty stable, and with many higher myopes, the rx will slowly drift downwards(as in get better) over time. (go up in teens, go down in 40's-50's)
But simply giving less than needed will almost never cause the prescription to go down - and I've had plenty of patients that have tried. I never had a problem doing it but really haven't seen any lasting results, unless they were over prescribed to begin with.
Some of the dry eye info here is actually good.
If I was to try to give a formula for reducing myopia it would be this: Have every kid be outside for at least an hour a day and drastically reduce computer/cell phone use until after the age of 16.
Bottom line - specific situations for a specific person are often used as something that will work for most eye conditions for almost anyone, and unfortunately that isn't quite the case.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I aways thought of optho as one of the least corrupt specialties, but in the context of what we see with the rest of medicine, the idea of no corruption seems far-fetched. The main point is that if the eye were just a series of lenses, ophthomology's ideas would all be correct. But it is biological tissue that molds itself due to its stresses. Esther's results seem to stand on their own to me.
Thanks for watching this interview and taking the time to comment!
I'd like to respond to some of your claims here, as it seems that you are not yet very familiar with the work of Dr. W.H. Bates, an ophthalmologist.
Dr. Bates' way of sunning for the eyes is not at all like what is known as 'sungazing' these days. Nor is the Bates Method a set of eye exercises. Sunning the eyes, when done right, plus more time spent outdoors, absolutely does help vision improve. Bates' way of sunning the eyes helps the pupil respond appropriately to light conditions; the pupils do not get 'stuck' in a small diameter, which seems to be your suggestion when you say it reduces night vision. Using drugs to reduce pupil size is obviously a very different thing, and not something I would suggest to anyone.
When it comes to helping someone improve their eyesight by lowering the prescription they use, you say that "simply giving less than needed will almost never cause the prescription to go down". That's likely true if that person isn't taught how to release their eyestrain, but when they learn to relax how they see, their eyes adapt to the lower prescription, and they can continue to lower the lens power.
Dr Bates developed a large variety of visual relaxation techniques that reduce eyestrain, and he totally agrees that one technique may work great for one person while not at all for another. Not a problem: simply try one of the many other techniques until you find one that does work well. As eyestrain accompanies most every visual challenge, especially the functional problems, reducing it leads to clearer vision, improves circulation and aids the healing process. Why wouldn't we encourage that?
It's only fair to get to know the actual techniques before judging or dismissing Dr. Bates' work. If you do, you may find, as many others have, that the traditional Bates Method is surprisingly effective. (As a tip: do read Dr. Bates' own extensive writings, don't fall for the misunderstandings of his teachings by others that resulted in a set of ineffective eye exercises.)
I've had many patients over the years say they want to try this or that method. I tell them go for it and note it in their chart. I have yet to see one have an improvement where they've reduced or heavily influenced their need for glasses. Maybe such a person exists, but I have not come across them after over 20 years of practice.
When you are nearsighted with a fully grown eye (not a kid anymore), no amount of relaxing the vision is going to magically reshape the eyeball and cause it to shorten although as I mentioned, higher myopes do tend to drift downward once in their later 30's and onward.
Likewise, once the lense in the eye hardens, near vision is lost. You can somewhat help the situation if your pupils are small. And in fact the muscles/zonules that pull on the lense to reshape it while it is still pliable continue working but the lense is now inflexible. Thus, no focus up close.
There are some supplements/eye drops you can take to keep the lense of the eye flexible for a bit longer(mainly NAC), but in the end, age gets us all.
Sometimes not wearing glasses or underpowered glasses can get you to have better blur interpretation, but I wouldn't really call that an improvement as the underlying rx is still there when measured.
If you were in my area I would love to see a person that was starting treatment by this method and see where they are at in a year. I am not so dogmatic as to not give a person a chance. Maybe you can point me to some studies as I really don't see how this could work.
Hello 'Hindsight 2020', I'm sorry I don't know your name, but I do appreciate your response and your openness to learning more about Dr. Bates' method, despite your belief that it can't work. It's also really a positive sign that you are willing to give a lower prescription to those who ask for it, not all your colleagues are open to such requests, so thank you for that!
You and I both work with people who come to us with eyesight issues, but we live in very different worlds of experience. I came into this work from a personal experience. My sixteen years of mild myopia (during which time I refused to wear the glasses that had been prescribed at the beginning) ended after just two weeks of learning to recognize my eyestrain patterns and substituting relaxed ways of seeing. As I was only mildly myopic, going from 20/50 to 20/20 wasn't all that impressive, I understand that. But my boyfriend's vision at that time was at about -4 myopia with astigmatism and he used his glasses all day long. In just one month of not using his glasses at all, he went from complete inability to even see the eyechart from 20 feet (so perhaps 20/400 or worse acuity), to reading 20/50. That significant change convinced me that the Bates Method truly works, and I only knew the basics of it back then. His result was far beyond my expectations. You can't say that this big of a change in one month was due to 'better blur interpretation', nor was it a 'slow drift downward due to aging'.
So what is this then? A lucky exception to the rule? I don't think so.
In the 24 years since then, I've delved deeply into the methods, and I've helped countless people improve their sight, so my experience is that not only can eyesight improve, in many cases it is actually easy to improve, you just need to grasp what it takes to make the change.
It could be that I am just getting the 'easy cases' and only the people who are motivated to explore what it takes to help their sight improve. I don't mind if people think so. Those who prefer the quick fix of glasses, and those who believe like you do that the natural options can't work, they will come to you and your colleagues, and that's totally fine. I'm not here to tell everyone to do what I did, I'm just here to point the way to those who would like to explore the natural options for improving their sight.
I don’t really have the desire or the time. Bates foundational principle of the lens not changing shape during accommodation has long been proven incorrect with the advent of high resolution photography and his theory was an outlier even then.
So I would encourage you to have a refraction done by any optometrist, then do all of Ester’s exercises and then go back in a year or 6 months or however only it takes and report back to us. I would be very interested in that post. Best of luck.
Your point on the argument being one of relaxation/accommodation verses a mechanical/optical misalignment is spot on in this case.
Accommodation/relaxation can certainly play a part in optometry but this is certainly stretching things way past where they are applicable.(in my opinion)
From Rumble
"I got your Substack with all the links to her books and this podcast. Thanks so much. I am almost finished listening here, and already have learned a lot. She and you are both very easy to listen to, very well-spoken. Interestingly, I often use ASMR vids on YouTube to relax and doze off. My favorite and most effective one is SRP Asmr. He is an optometrist, and uses his calming voice while giving eye exams with his closeup devices, looking into your eyes with the bright lights, giving eye chart exams and color vision tests, checking for lens strength ( first or second, first or second ), etc. His practice is in England
Lol, thanks for reposting my comment from your Rumble channel.
When I was a kid in the 1970s my sister was diagnosed with learning disabilities. For some reason, my parents had the idea to take her to Vision Training, taught by an opthamalogist trained at the Giselle (Sic) Institute.
After a pretty intense vision training program, her learning disabilities cleared up. My dad tried it next and he went from wearing Coke bottle glasses to 20/20 in about a year.
The idea was that you train your brain rather than your eyes
I went next, and went from being a kid who was fast becoming nearsighted to 20/20, which I remain to this day, age 63.
Everyone thought we were weirdos, but the results stand.
Another GIGANTIC topic. Another world of misinformed practices deemed normal. Dr. Yoho retired from surgery and took up dragon slaying! He uses the same precision, just a bigger knife. Thanks, Doc!
Another invent the disease and then provide the useless cure. It's been a pandemic for decades. I do not use glasses to read and try to keep them off as much as possible. They have been with me for about 60 years. I can't see distances very well at least for sharpness.
My nearly 97 year old father has been getting shots in his one eye for many years. Now his good eye is acting up. He will finally quit driving in a few months. I don't want to end up like this. You go to the doc, he finds a problem and then wants to drug it to death and you as well. No thanks.
Exactly.
So glad you posted about this. I read about Bates' methods a long time ago, but couldn't understand it. Fast forward 3 decades and over the pandemic policy period, I noticed a distinct decline in my eyesight requiring a switch to "new" prescriptions. I also found I was wearing them a lot more.
Then I came across a mention of Bates again on FB and so I did some searching again and came across Esther's book and some podcasts.
I quickly read the book and decided to stop using any glasses (including sunglasses) and simply relax my eyes. I noticed a significant difference within weeks, using very basic relaxation techniques outlined in Esther's book.
After that I booked a session with her. I haven't worn any glasses for 1.5 years now. I have confirmation from my ophalmologist that my eyesight significantly improved although it is far from perfect.
The biggest challenge for office workers like me, is to get enough outdoor light but I'll never go back to glasses.
So interesting, thank you ! Have just realised that I occasionally wore magnifying lenses for close reading at night and now I need to wear them everytime I read...... my brother used to advise me to do exactly as specified in a section of your story- look up every few minutes and focus on an object in the distance. Also to look at green-toned things. That was seventy years ago now.....
I was Rx’d reading glasses in 9th grade which I wore through HS. Off to college, I stopped, my eyes improved and at nearly 67yo I read perfectly w/o them.
Thank you for this. I first heard concerns about glasses on a video that sounded like they would want to sell me something in the end, so I made a mental note but hadn't researched it yet.
I originally asked for multifocals so I didn't have to put reading glasses on '100's' of times a day, basically for convenience. But with increasing prescriptions every two years from then on, I wondered if my request had precipitated the deterioration somehow. Again, thank you.
I had the same experience.
I needed this. I wear glasses for reading and a different pair for driving. I seldom drive at night, but last night after shopping I drove home in the dark. The right lens corrected the vision in my right eye, but the left lens made the vision much worse in the left eye. I kept having to peer over then through.
And the cheap reading glasses I have now are much the same. I can't afford new prescription glasses right now, certainly not ones with different prescriptions.
I will listen to this interview, and hope I can find something I can do to help myself. Before I turned 50 I had near perfect vision, never wore glasses, and could read very fine print easily.
Esther is available for coaching online, and her book has all her secrets.
Yes, thanks, I read the reviews of her book on Amazon, and I plan to purchase it soon. Already this morning, after arising I did not put my glasses on right away, and started becoming cognizant of some of the techniques she mentioned.
Thank you for the work you are doing.
Get an updated rx from an optometrist, then do Ester's training and when you feel you have some type of results, go back to the same optometrist.
I don't think they'll be much change in your numbers, but who knows. Most of this is likely attributed to blur interpretation and pupil size.
I never ever wear sunglasses. Though if I worked in a situation with tons of glare I would, Such as being a sherpa or a mountaineer in snow capped ranges. Or if I were a fisherman.
I wear 1.50 glasses for my computer and have done so for 27 years. For reading books, I use a full spectrum 75 watt lightbulb/lamp and my prescription glasses. Or some 2.0 diopter glasses from Amazon.
If you are a big reader of books and magazines on paper. And your eyesight is not that good. Get a full spectrum bulb, 75–100 watts, behind you and shining on your book. You can test this easily. Go outside when the sun is shining brightly. Test how easy it is to read a book. I have loads of 75 watt GE Reveal bulbs . Full Spectrum. Contact me if you are interested.
Thank you, Dr. Yoho, for the eye-opening interview of Esther. You asked really sharp and useful questions which made the interview extremely useful. I am going to work on the concepts learned.
Thanks for sharing so much you are learning, Doctor. It's so valuable. Great resources!
Might be too late/hard to correct, but I hear John fine while Dr.Yoho you are so very feint. I miss hearing your input/questions!
John & Ester are both fascinating. Thank you!!
I was originally only going to transcribe this session, but John was so eloquent that I included it. Best and thanks for the comment.
Y’all are too kind to to mention my faint feint difficulty. Ha!!
Yes, Nama, you are correct. Dr. Yoho sounds so distant and faint. John is loud and clear.
I was fitted with eye glasses near the end of my 5th Grade. While in the 5th grade classroom, we rotated desks one a week to that those in the back of the room would eventually be on the front row. I was poor student with a bad attitude after transferring from another school from the 4th grade. My 5th grade teacher treated me poorly and often embarrass in front of the class. I became the class laughing stock. So, I preferred to be in the back of the classroom all the time and did not complete assignments.
Back to the glasses. We had free eye exams and was found to be near sighted. So, I was fitted with glasses for that as well as astigmatism in my left eye. My 6th grade teacher was wonderful, she was aware of my situation and took a keen interest in my performance. My reading level went from 4th grade level to 8th grade level in just a few months. Was it the glasses? or proper learning environment, I believe both. In college I was always in the 95% in all subjects except Grammar. I earned three engineering degrees have several peer reviewed publications but may grammar still stinks.
I hate glasses and went to progressive lenses in my mid-50s. I went 10 years with the same prescription then I just stopped wearing glasses and refused to go back for another prescription. My eyes became stronger and I could do many things without them. I started wearing sunglasses while outdoors most of the time. Eventually my near vision changed sufficiently that I decided to go back to the optometrist. Therefore I ended up with a new prescription that was weaker (better eye sight) than my old one. The new glass enabled me to better read road signs and improved my reading. I still hate glasses but the astigmatism is still there so they are necessary. I was able to remove the prism which was an artifact of smoking too much Mary Jane in my 20's but the prism forces my eyes adapt to the lateral distortion. (Note: Lateral eye distortion is common to those that consume Mary Jane). I had the prism in my glasses for 30 years. Not wearing glasses for over 2 yrs. removed that lateral distortion so my new lens no longer has the prism. (Praise the Lord!!)
I know this was long but want to make it entertaining, I hope it was.
See you in a few weeks.
Thank you for this timely article, as I recently had a thorough eye exam... and had filled my reading glass prescription about a month ago. I HATE what my reading glasses do to my eyes, and my driving glasses are apparently slightly "outdated". I purposely have not changed them in about 20 years, thinking that I wanted to keep the same prescription for as long as possible and not get stronger glasses. Looking forward to diving deeper into this research with the links you provided.
there is hope for you and I hope there is hope for me; I've had cataracct surgery and see well at distance but less well close up
While some truth here, lots of things that don't really work. This coming from an optometrist.
I really don't have time for a long post but here's a few thoughts.
Using the Bates method/sungazing/exercises doesn't really improve ones vision. What sungazing will do is cause one's pupils to shrink causing an increase of depth of field and an increase in the ability to see up close. Same concept with the really bright light someone was advocating. Great! you say.. it worked. However, not so fast. With smaller pupils now your night vision is worse.
In fact there is now a presbyopia drug out there that does just this called Vuity. It uses a miotic agent to shrink ones pupils temporarily. It also lists reduced night vision as one of the side effects.
Do some Dr's overprescribe -sure. But most of the time without the glasses the person can't function in the real world very well. With most older patients the prescription is usually pretty stable, and with many higher myopes, the rx will slowly drift downwards(as in get better) over time. (go up in teens, go down in 40's-50's)
But simply giving less than needed will almost never cause the prescription to go down - and I've had plenty of patients that have tried. I never had a problem doing it but really haven't seen any lasting results, unless they were over prescribed to begin with.
Some of the dry eye info here is actually good.
If I was to try to give a formula for reducing myopia it would be this: Have every kid be outside for at least an hour a day and drastically reduce computer/cell phone use until after the age of 16.
Bottom line - specific situations for a specific person are often used as something that will work for most eye conditions for almost anyone, and unfortunately that isn't quite the case.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I aways thought of optho as one of the least corrupt specialties, but in the context of what we see with the rest of medicine, the idea of no corruption seems far-fetched. The main point is that if the eye were just a series of lenses, ophthomology's ideas would all be correct. But it is biological tissue that molds itself due to its stresses. Esther's results seem to stand on their own to me.
Thanks for watching this interview and taking the time to comment!
I'd like to respond to some of your claims here, as it seems that you are not yet very familiar with the work of Dr. W.H. Bates, an ophthalmologist.
Dr. Bates' way of sunning for the eyes is not at all like what is known as 'sungazing' these days. Nor is the Bates Method a set of eye exercises. Sunning the eyes, when done right, plus more time spent outdoors, absolutely does help vision improve. Bates' way of sunning the eyes helps the pupil respond appropriately to light conditions; the pupils do not get 'stuck' in a small diameter, which seems to be your suggestion when you say it reduces night vision. Using drugs to reduce pupil size is obviously a very different thing, and not something I would suggest to anyone.
When it comes to helping someone improve their eyesight by lowering the prescription they use, you say that "simply giving less than needed will almost never cause the prescription to go down". That's likely true if that person isn't taught how to release their eyestrain, but when they learn to relax how they see, their eyes adapt to the lower prescription, and they can continue to lower the lens power.
Dr Bates developed a large variety of visual relaxation techniques that reduce eyestrain, and he totally agrees that one technique may work great for one person while not at all for another. Not a problem: simply try one of the many other techniques until you find one that does work well. As eyestrain accompanies most every visual challenge, especially the functional problems, reducing it leads to clearer vision, improves circulation and aids the healing process. Why wouldn't we encourage that?
It's only fair to get to know the actual techniques before judging or dismissing Dr. Bates' work. If you do, you may find, as many others have, that the traditional Bates Method is surprisingly effective. (As a tip: do read Dr. Bates' own extensive writings, don't fall for the misunderstandings of his teachings by others that resulted in a set of ineffective eye exercises.)
I've had many patients over the years say they want to try this or that method. I tell them go for it and note it in their chart. I have yet to see one have an improvement where they've reduced or heavily influenced their need for glasses. Maybe such a person exists, but I have not come across them after over 20 years of practice.
When you are nearsighted with a fully grown eye (not a kid anymore), no amount of relaxing the vision is going to magically reshape the eyeball and cause it to shorten although as I mentioned, higher myopes do tend to drift downward once in their later 30's and onward.
Likewise, once the lense in the eye hardens, near vision is lost. You can somewhat help the situation if your pupils are small. And in fact the muscles/zonules that pull on the lense to reshape it while it is still pliable continue working but the lense is now inflexible. Thus, no focus up close.
There are some supplements/eye drops you can take to keep the lense of the eye flexible for a bit longer(mainly NAC), but in the end, age gets us all.
Sometimes not wearing glasses or underpowered glasses can get you to have better blur interpretation, but I wouldn't really call that an improvement as the underlying rx is still there when measured.
If you were in my area I would love to see a person that was starting treatment by this method and see where they are at in a year. I am not so dogmatic as to not give a person a chance. Maybe you can point me to some studies as I really don't see how this could work.
Hello 'Hindsight 2020', I'm sorry I don't know your name, but I do appreciate your response and your openness to learning more about Dr. Bates' method, despite your belief that it can't work. It's also really a positive sign that you are willing to give a lower prescription to those who ask for it, not all your colleagues are open to such requests, so thank you for that!
You and I both work with people who come to us with eyesight issues, but we live in very different worlds of experience. I came into this work from a personal experience. My sixteen years of mild myopia (during which time I refused to wear the glasses that had been prescribed at the beginning) ended after just two weeks of learning to recognize my eyestrain patterns and substituting relaxed ways of seeing. As I was only mildly myopic, going from 20/50 to 20/20 wasn't all that impressive, I understand that. But my boyfriend's vision at that time was at about -4 myopia with astigmatism and he used his glasses all day long. In just one month of not using his glasses at all, he went from complete inability to even see the eyechart from 20 feet (so perhaps 20/400 or worse acuity), to reading 20/50. That significant change convinced me that the Bates Method truly works, and I only knew the basics of it back then. His result was far beyond my expectations. You can't say that this big of a change in one month was due to 'better blur interpretation', nor was it a 'slow drift downward due to aging'.
So what is this then? A lucky exception to the rule? I don't think so.
In the 24 years since then, I've delved deeply into the methods, and I've helped countless people improve their sight, so my experience is that not only can eyesight improve, in many cases it is actually easy to improve, you just need to grasp what it takes to make the change.
It could be that I am just getting the 'easy cases' and only the people who are motivated to explore what it takes to help their sight improve. I don't mind if people think so. Those who prefer the quick fix of glasses, and those who believe like you do that the natural options can't work, they will come to you and your colleagues, and that's totally fine. I'm not here to tell everyone to do what I did, I'm just here to point the way to those who would like to explore the natural options for improving their sight.
Why don't you call Esther and have a chat?
I don’t really have the desire or the time. Bates foundational principle of the lens not changing shape during accommodation has long been proven incorrect with the advent of high resolution photography and his theory was an outlier even then.
So I would encourage you to have a refraction done by any optometrist, then do all of Ester’s exercises and then go back in a year or 6 months or however only it takes and report back to us. I would be very interested in that post. Best of luck.
Your point on the argument being one of relaxation/accommodation verses a mechanical/optical misalignment is spot on in this case.
Accommodation/relaxation can certainly play a part in optometry but this is certainly stretching things way past where they are applicable.(in my opinion)