The cause and treatment of refractive errors
Thousands of times it has been clearly shown that any abnormal work of the external muscles of the eyeball is accompanied by a strain or effort to see and that with the removal of this tension the action of the muscles normalizes, and all refractive anomalies disappear. The eye can be blind, it can suffer atrophy of the optic nerve, cataract or retinal disease, but until he tries to see, the external muscles work normally and there is no anomaly of refraction. This fact gives us a way through which all these states can be eliminated, so long considered incurable.
It can also be shown that each type of strain corresponds to each refraction anomaly. The study of images reflected from various parts of the eyeball confirms that myopia( or a decrease in hypermetropia) is always associated with an effort to see distant objects, while hypermetropia( or a decrease in myopia) is always associated with an effort to see objects at the near point. Anyone who knows how to use the retinoscope can make sure of this, provided only that this tool is not brought closer to the survey object than 6 feet.
In the eye with initially normal vision, the effort to see close objects always leads to a temporary production of hypermetropia in one or all meridians. That is, the eye becomes either completely hypermetropic, or some form of astigmatism is made, part of which is hypermetropia. In the hypermetropic eye, hypermetropia increases in one or all of the meridians. When the myopic eye strains to see a nearby object, myopia decreases and emmetropia may appear( this is the state of the eye in which it is focused for parallel rays, which corresponds to the norm in the distance vision, but is an anomaly of refraction when considering close objects).The eye is focused for the far point, despite the fact that he is still trying to see near. In some cases, there may even be a transition through emmetropia to hypermetropia in one or all of the meridians. All these conditions are accompanied by signs of increased tension and visual impairment, but strangely enough, pain and fatigue are usually noticeably reduced.
On the other hand, if an eye with an initially normal vision makes an effort to see distant objects, myopia always appears temporarily in one or all of the meridians. If the eye is already myopic, the degree of myopia increases. If the hypermetropic eye strains to see any distant object, pain and fatigue may appear or increase, but hypermetropia decreases and vision improves. This interesting result is directly opposite to what we got when myopic strains to see at the near point. Sometimes hypermetropia completely disappears and emmetropia appears with complete elimination of all signs of stress. This state can then go into myopia with an increase in tension as the degree of myopia increases.
In other words, the eye that makes an effort to see at a near point becomes fatter than it was before, in one or all meridians. If it was lengthened from the very beginning, it can pass from this state through emmetropia, in which it is spherical, into hypermetropia, at which it is flattened. If these changes are carried out asymmetrically, then there will be astigmatism in commonwealth with other states. Conversely, the eye that strains to see distant objects becomes rounder than it was before, and can move from the flattened state of hypermetropia through emmetropia to the elongated state of myopia. If such changes are carried out asymmetrically, again there will be astigmatism in commonwealth with other states.
What can be said about normal eyes is equally applicable to the eyes in which the lens is removed. This operation usually leads to a state of hypermetropia. However, if the initial state of the eye was a high degree of myopia, the removal of the lens may not be sufficient to correct it, and the eye can still remain myopic. In the first case, the effort to see distant objects reduces the level of hypermetropia, and the effort to see at the near point increases it. In the second case, the effort to see distant objects increases the degree of myopia, and the effort to see at the near point reduces it. Many eyes with distant lenses( this condition of the eye is called aphakia) during more or less long periods of time after removal of the lens tense at vision near, creating such a strong hypermetropia that the patient can not read even the usual font. The accommodation capacity seems completely lost. However, later, when the patient becomes accustomed to this state, this tension often decreases, and the eye becomes able to accurately focus on nearby objects. There were also rare cases when, without glasses, good eyesight was achieved for both the distance and the near point. The eyeball was sufficiently elongated to compensate to some extent for the loss of the lens.
Similar phenomena associated with eye strain were also observed in animals. I made many dogs myopic, forcing them to strain to see some distant object. One very nervous dog with normal, as shown by a retinoscope, refracted the eyes gave a sniff a piece of meat. She was very excited, alert, her brows curved, and she wagged her tail. The meat was then moved away from the dog by twenty feet. The dog looked disappointed, but did not lose interest. At the time when she looked at the meat, he was lowered into a box. Flicker of excitement flashed through his eyes. She tensed to see what became of the meat. Retinoscope showed that its vision became myopic. It should be noted that such an experiment is possible only with animals that have two active oblique muscles. Animals in which one of these muscles is absent or rudimentary in nature, can not lengthen the eyeball under any circumstances.
Initially, the effort to see is a mental effort, and the tension of the psyche in all cases is accompanied by a loss of mental control. Anatomically, the results of the effort to see distant objects can be the same as when viewing a nearby object without effort, but in one case the eye does what the psyche requires doing, and in the other case this does not happen. These facts, I think, sufficiently explain why vision deteriorates as civilization develops. In the conditions of civilized life, the psyche of people is under constant stress. There are more things than uncivilized people, things that excite them. Modern people do not need to remain cool and be seasoned in order to see what their existence depends on. If the primitive man allowed himself to be nervous, he would quickly die out. The civilized man survives and transmits his psychic data to the descendants. Animals respond to the conditions of civilization in the same way as humans. I examined many pets and animals from the zoo and in many cases found them myopic, although they naturally did not read, wrote, sewed or typed.
Visual impairment in the near-by point, however, is just as characteristic of civilization as a disturbance of vision in the distance. Myopics, although they see in the near point better than in the distance, never see as well as people with normal vision. With hypermetropia, which is more common than myopia, vision is worse at the near point than in the far.
Treatment is not to avoid working near or far away, but to get rid of the mental strain that underlies the imperfect work of the eye at both distances. Thousands of times it has been proven that it can be done.
Fortunately, all people, if desired, can relax under certain conditions. With all uncomplicated refractive anomalies, the effort to see can be temporarily reduced if the patient looks at a clean wall for some time without trying to see. To achieve continuous relaxation, sometimes it takes a lot of time and ingenuity. The same method is not suitable for everyone. The ways people strain to see are endless. Almost equally diverse should be the methods used to reduce tension. However, almost always the method that brings the greatest success, in the end, it turns out to be one and the same, namely, relaxation. Constant repetition and repeated display in all possible ways should emphasize that the ideal vision can only be acquired by relaxation.
Most people, when they were told that rest or relaxation would eliminate their faults, wondered why it was not a dream. Eyes rarely, if ever, completely relax during sleep. If they were energized, when a person was awake, this tension will definitely be more or less prolonged during sleep, just as the tension of other parts of the body continues.
The idea that relaxation gives the eyes rest in order to be able to use them in the future is also erroneous. The eyes are created to see, and if, when they are open, they do not see, it is because they are under such stress and have such a large refraction anomaly that they can not see. Vision near, though it is carried out with the help of muscles, is no more a burden on the eyes than a vision in the distance, performed without their intervention. The use of muscles does not necessarily lead to fatigue. Some people can spend hours without exhaustion. Many birds sleep, standing on one leg. The toes of their feet tightly squeeze the swinging branch, but the muscles remain unabated with obvious tension.
The fact remains that when the psyche is resting, nothing can tire your eyes. When the mind is under tension, nothing can give the eyes of rest. Everything that gives rest to the psyche is useful for the eyes. Probably, each of us noticed that the eyes slowly get tired when you read some interesting book, unlike reading a book boring or difficult to understand. A schoolboy can sit all night long, reveling in a novel and never once remembering about his eyes. But if he tries to sit all night for his lessons, he will very quickly find out that his eyes are very tired. One girl who had such a strong ordinary vision that she could see Jupiter's companions with the naked eye became a miopik as soon as she was asked to solve in her mind some problem in mathematics, a subject that was too unpleasant for her.
Sometimes the conditions that lead to mental relaxation, look very strange. For example, one woman could correct her anomaly of refraction when she looked at the test chart, bending forward at an angle of about 45 degrees. This relaxation was maintained after she took upright position. Although this position was uncomfortable, she somehow achieved the idea that it improves her vision, and it, in fact, really did give such an effect.
The time needed to achieve continuous vision improvement varies significantly between different people. In some cases, it takes 5-15 minutes and, I think, there will come a time when it will be possible to quickly help anyone. This issue of
is only the accumulation of more facts and such a presentation that will allow them to quickly understand and assimilate them. Today, however, it is often necessary to stretch the treatment for weeks and months, although the refraction anomaly can be no greater both in magnitude and in duration than in those cases that were quickly cured.
In most cases, to avoid relapse, treatment should continue for several minutes daily. Since any familiar object is able to remove the effort to see, a daily reading of the check table is usually sufficient for this purpose. It is also useful( especially when the sight is imperfect near) to read every day a small font, keeping it as close to the eyes as it can only be done. When there is an improvement in vision, it always goes on continuously. However, achieving a level of vision above normal-telescopic or microscopic-is very rare. But in such cases, treatment can also be successfully continued - it is impossible to determine the limits of human visual power. Regardless of how good the eyesight, there is always the opportunity to improve it.
A daily training in the art of vision is also necessary to prevent such deviations in vision, which are subject to almost any eye, no matter how good his vision is. Of course, no training system will provide an absolute guarantee against such deviations in all possible circumstances, but daily reading of small remote familiar letters will do much to reduce the tendency to strain when such negative circumstances appear. To all people, on whose sight the safety of others depends, one should do such training.
Usually people who never wore glasses are more easily cured than those who wear them. Therefore, glasses should be rejected from the very beginning of treatment. When this can not be done without significant inconvenience or when a person is forced to continue his work during the treatment and can not do it without glasses, their use can be resolved for a while, but this always hinders improvement. People of all ages achieved success in treating refraction anomalies by relaxation, but children usually( though not always) reacted much faster than adults. If they are not yet 12 or even 16 years old and they never wore glasses, they usually healed in a few days, weeks or months and always within a year by a simple daily reading of the checklist.