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Vision Training for Nearsightedness

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Vision TrainingWhat if you could spend a few minutes a day to make your nearsightedness disappear?

You can.

About 20% more Americans have been diagnosed with nearsightedness as compared to 30 years ago. While I’m all about blaming the industrial food complex for just about everything else, this one I’m going to have to largely blame excessive time on computers, video games, and watching TV.

I’m a pretty hard-core geek, remember fumbling around in DOS, have done my share of computer programming, and never leave town without my laptop, so this is NOT a rant that all computers are evil. Instead, it’s about taking the couple minutes a day it takes to undo what I call “computer eyes” – or the effects of spending hours at a time staring at what is largely a fixed spot.

So, how does this happen?

The eyes are controlled by muscles – just like the rest of our moving parts. In the case of our eyes, there are six oculomotor muscles that allow our eyes to look up, down, left, right, track moving objects, and let us glance from the speedometer, to the rearview mirror, and back to the road. And, just like the rest of the body, it’s a use it or lose it proposition. When we spend a lot of time doing one activity, in this case staring at a screen that is virtually always the same distance in front of us and in the same position, our muscles get really good at holding that position – and that’s about it.

Fortunately, alleviating computer eyes is more simple than you might think. Move your eyes!

I recommend:

1) Eye tracking drills

2) Eye massage

3)  Vary your work environment so you aren’t always staring at the same point

Interested in learning more about vision training and eliminating computer eyes? Drop me a note and let’s get started!


Filed Under: Health

Move It Monday – Visual Training

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Healthy MondayThis week, when at the computer I want you to stop what you are doing every 30 minutes and move your eyes.

The six muscles that control the eyes need movement just as much as the rest of us — and if you spend your days on a computer, I can virtually guarantee they aren’t getting a workout!

Drill #1: Without moving your head, pick something to focus on that is above, below, to the left and to the right of you. You need to pick objects that are far enough in to the edges of your vision that you can feel it, but not so far that you have to move your head. Now, move your eyes between the top and bottom targets quickly 5 times. Do the same left and right 5 times.

Drill #2: Pick up a pen or pencil, and make large, slow circles at the edges of your vision, following the pen or pencil with your eyes — all the while not moving your head. 3 slow circles in each direction.

Did you manage hold your head still? Did you remember to breathe?  If you answered no to either question, then I want you to go more slowly the next time.

More vision training tips

Filed Under: Health

Vision and the elderly

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If you read the most recent Z-Health Newsletter, then you saw the Ask Dr. Cobb question about vision. The super-cool thing about the Z-Health approach to vision is that it’s trainable. Much of seeing well is actually a skill. The ability to move your eye musculature to the end ranges of motion, or quickly change between focusing near and focusing far, is all trainable.

An article recently published in Science News talks about vision and the elderly, and how the elderly need to start giving up their car keys as their vision goes. I think it’s great that these seniors are able to identify that their skills have declined and have voluntarily taken themselves off the road. What I think would be more cool is if more of them could stay on the roads — safely.

Vision training can often help with that. The reason I think this is because there is a hierarchy of information processing that starts with the visual system, goes to vestibular (inner ear/balance), and ends with proprioception (the body’s awareness of itself in time and space). If the visual information is challenged, then the body is going to start shutting down how fast and how well or fast it can move in order to protect itself. Of course, this whole idea backfires once you introduce a car in to it — because the body wasn’t designed to handle situations where we aren’t self-propelled!

So now:

  • By improving the visual system, you have “taken the brakes” off the overall body. This will allow the reflexes to respond faster.
  • By practicing near/far drills, you can quickly move from seeing the odometer to the road to the rear view mirror and back to the road.
  • By practicing drills that extend the end ranges of motion of the eyes, the peripheral field is improved, allowing drivers to better see things on the shoulder (deer, cyclists, etc)

If you want to learn more about Vision training, Dr. Cobb has some great suggestions and references in the January newsletter. Or, drop me a note!

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Filed Under: Health