This episode of the podcast kicks off a new feature called "Second Look", where we replay selected talks from past Ancestral Health Symposium conferences, that we think will interest you.
This talk was presented by Todd Becker at the 2014 Ancestral Health Symposium meeting in Berkeley, California. The title is: "Myopia: A Modern Yet Reversible Disease"
Myopia is also called near-sightedness. It's a refractive defect of the eye, where close up objects are in focus, but more distant objects appear blurred. Glasses or contacts are typically prescribed to correct this condition -- although in reality they don't actually correct the underlying problem. They are just a crutch that aids you in seeing more clearly. And often they just make the underlying problem worse, so stronger lenses are needed.
Todd wore glasses for my his myopia, starting in high school, and over time the eye doctor kept increasing strength of the prescription... until he discovered how to get rid of them in his forties.
The first part of talk is about about the increasing incidence and causes of myopia, including the underlying biology of how the eye becomes myopic by increasing in axial length, due to environmental factors such as poor vision hygiene -- spending too much time reading and looking at screens up close.
The second half of the talk builds on this biological understanding to reverse the process, describing in detail how to use an active focusing technique to reverse myopia and restore normal vision. The method was adapted from research and practices used by others. Todd first wrote about his success and the active focusing approach in 2010, on the blog, GettingStronger.org It's one of many applications of a general biological principle known as hormesis - the judicious application of controlled low-dose stress to make the body and metabolism more resilient in different ways.
The talk also indicates how the same principles can be used to reverse hyperopia, or far-sightedness, where one has trouble focusing on fine print or objects up close. Something that many people encounter as they get older.
This talk on Myopia Reversal remains the single most popular recorded talk on our Ancestral Health Society YouTube channel, with well over a million views and 4000 comments. The comments fall into three main categories:
* A small number are from skeptics who don't believe it is biologically possible to reverse myopia.
* A larger number are from viewers who applied the technique with success, and either reduced their glasses prescription or got rid of their glasses or contact lenses for good.
* And there is another group with questions from those interested in trying the technique but are unsure about certain details. For thesse people, there is an FAQ post on my blog that answers many of those commonly asked questions.
Resources:
* Blog posts connected with the talk:
* An annotated summary of the video
https://gettingstronger.org/2014/08/myopia-a-modern-yet-reversible-disease/
* easier to read copy of slides
* references and links to related blog posts
* Frequently asked questions and a very detailed guide to the active focusing techniques
* https://gettingstronger.org/2016/03/faq-for-vision-improvement-by-hormetism/
* Scientific articles on the biology of myopia:
* Birnbaum, M.H. (1988). Myopia and near-point stress model. In Myopia & Nearwork. Butterworth Heinemann.
* Drexler, W. et al. (1998). Eye elongation during accommodation in humans. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science. 39 (11) 2140-2147
* Hung, L.F., et al. (1995) Spectacle lenses alter eye growth and the refractive status of young monkeys. Nature Medicine, (1) 761-765
* Hung, G.K., Ciuffreda, K.J. (2003). An incremental retinal-defocus theory of the development of myopia. Comm. Theor. Biol. 8: 511-513
* Irving, E.L., et al. (1991). Inducing myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism in chicks. Opt. Vis. Sci., (68): 364- 368.
* Read, Scott A. et al. (2010) Human optical axial length and defocus. IOVS, 51 (12) 6262-6269.
* Schaeffel, Frank et al. (1988). Accommodation, refractive error and eye growth in chickens. Vision Research. 28 (5) 639-657.
* Books on myopia reversal
* Brown, Otis S. How to Avoid Nearsightedness--A Scientific Study of the Eye's Behavior. C&O Research, 1999
* DeAngelis, David, The Secret of Perfect Vision: How You Can Prevent or Reverse Nearsighedness. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2008.
* Orfield, Antonia. Seeing space: undergoing brain re-programming to reduce myopia. Journal of Behavioral Ophthalmology 5 (5) , 123-131.
* Severson, Brian. Vision Freedom, 1998.
* Websites with related (but not identical) methods:
Here is a guide to topics discussed in this podcast episode:
Time Topic
0;07 Intro to this "Second Look" at this AHS 2014 talk
4:46 Todd's story of wearing glasses until his 40s.
9:41 To reverse myopia, we need to understand the causes
6:23 Definition of myopia & possible complications
7:26 Is myopia caused by genetics or environment?
9:27 The incidence of myopia has doubled since 1970
9:58 Influences of education and diet
12:17 Interaction of genetics and environmental causes
13:15 The biological mechanism causing myopia
16:25 The Incremental Retinal Defocus Theory of myopia
18:22 How can myopia be reversed?
18:37 Applying the hormesis principle
21:06 Active focusing - what it is and how to use it
21:29 Quantify your myopia with a Snellen chart
22:33 Technique #1: Print pushing
25:36 Technique #2: Progressively weaker lenses
26:35 Technique #3: Fusing ghosted images
28:21 Frequently asked questions
33:07 Rediscover your natural vision!
35:08 Q&A and references
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