Read about my continued progress as I try to improve my vision by using weaker glasses.

Part 2: The experiment continues

This is Part 2 of my Ocular Diaries (you can read Part 1 here).

If you’re reading this for the first time, the short of it is that I’ve been successfully improving my short-sightedness (myopia) by using progressively weaker lenses.

Here’s my progress in a neat little table.

Before my experiment May 2011 -4.5 (left) / -4.5 (right) HIGH ASTIGMATISM
During my experiment June 2012 -3.00 (left) / -2.25 (right) NO ASTIGMATISM
October 2013 -2.25 (left) / -1.50 (right) NO ASTIGMATISM
September 2014 -1.50 (left) / -0.75 (right)  NO ASTIGMATISM

Over a period of about three years, my vision has improved by 3.00 (left eye) / 3.75 (right eye).

About this article and my journal entries

As I did in Part 1 of this series, I’m using my journal entries because there’s a step-by-step progression to my improvements.

The following journal entries are in chronological order — with earlier entries at the top and my latest update at the bottom.

Journal entry ~ 23 July 2012
Good progress on my vision with these new glasses. I’ve moved my monitors at work back to their original position now as the screen became sharp again.

Slow and steady, slow and steady…

 

Journal entry ~ 10 September 2012
Today I switched to my 5th pair of computer glasses (and the last I have on reserve). It’s -2.00 OD and -2.75 OS. I made the change partly because my 4th pair was getting a little loose and had a small crack on one of the hinges. I’m quite hard on my glasses because I keep taking them off and putting them back on. When they’re off, I hook them on my shirt collar—I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bent over and they’ve dropped to the floor. I think I half-stepped on them once by accident. Good grief. o_O

My monitor at work is quite blurry with my 5th pair on so I’ve had to pull it a few inches closer to me. It’s not ideal but I can work. 

For the past month or so, my eyes just feel more tired than usual whenever I have glasses on. So much so that it’s such a relief when I get to take them off. I think I’m more sensitive and physically aware to the fact that whenever I have glasses on, my eyes have to work and focus and strain, and that without them, my eyes (and my mind and myself) immediately relax and let go. I spend more time now wanting to feel comfortable and relaxed, and less time feeling the need to see things clearly.

I’m still on my 50mg maintenance dose of Iodoral + 3-4 mag chloride pills + high-dose Vitamin C a day regimen. My serrapeptase stockpile finished a while ago and I decided to try nattokinase as well. So far so good. I also just started taking probiotics more regularly. I’ve taken them on-and-off in the past, but am now starting to take them a few times a week instead. Let’s see what happens.

 

Journal entry ~ 24 September 2012
Got my first shipment of 3 new pairs. V excited. 

OS (left) SPH -2.50 -2.25 -2.00
OD (right) SPH -1.75 -1.50 -1.25

 

Journal entry ~ 14 December 2012
I’ve started my 6th pair of glasses today. It’s the much-awaited -2.50/-1.75, which means I’ve officially broken through to the 1.0 mark (well, for one eye at least).

 

Journal entry ~ 13 March 2013
My vision with this 6th pair has been slowly getting sharper. The operative word here being slow. I sometimes feel like I can’t wait to jump to the next level, and then when I realize I can’t yet, I get disappointed. But a bit later, I’ll realize that’s a silly way to think, I mean, this isn’t the amazing race.

As an aside, I recently bought a cheap pair of Aviator frames online, fitted them with my -2.50 / -1.75 prescription and added an 80% amber tint. Voila! My very first pair of “DIY” prescription sunglasses. Before this, I’d sadly given up on the idea of wearing sunglasses, so I’m really happy I got them for my upcoming summer holiday. I would never have bought them if they waren’t so cheap. Total cost excluding shipping was $11.90 ($6.95 silver Aviator frames + free prescription + $4.95 80% amber tint). If you need prescription sunglasses and you’re on a budget, I highly recommend this.

Journal entry ~ 22 March 2013
I’ve had more progress that came inadvertently. I went in for wisdom teeth surgery on 16 March and was given a week off from work so I’ve been recuperating at home (it was a bad one, I had both my left/right lower wisdom teeth out and the dentist had to remove some jawbone on both sides to do so). Without work, ive been using the computer much less (and not at all some days) so ive been going without my glasses completely much more often and for longer periods of time.


Also I had no idea wisdom teeth surgery would be so exhausting. I spent the first few days mostly sleeping or lying in bed. The good news is this that when I finally felt well enough to turn on my PC, I found I had to move my monitor back an inch because the screen was too sharp. Yeah!!!

 

Journal entry ~ 15 April 2013
Slow and steady progress. I moved my monitor back by another inch (2nd time I did this so far this month)

 

Journal entry ~ 19 September 2013
I admit it, I’ve been pretty lax about my eye exercises. As in I haven’t been doing them. At all.

It’s been a crazy year and I’ve got so much other stuff going on that this little experiment has taken a backseat without me even realising. Or maybe it’s laziness. Or a bit of both.

Anyway, today I suddenly realised that this is unacceptable. So I bit the bullet and downgraded to my 7th pair (-2.25/-1.50) today.

I’ve been so out of it that I actually forgot the power of my current lens — I had to open up this diary and read the last couple of entries to find out. Not good.

A simple fix — I pasted a post-it note with my current prescription on my monitor. Now I won’t just forget, I’ll be more motivated.

Things are generally blurry as I walk around my apartment with my 7th pair of glasses — it’s all indistinct and fuzzy edges. But I know my sight will sharpen as I continue to wear these new glasses. I’m feeling good.

 

Journal entry ~ 4 November 2013
I’ve been doing much better since my last entry.

Or at least I’m finally back to making healthy changes.

You see, my workload has increased quite a bit this year. I’ve gone from working 9-hour days with a good lunch break to 12 hours of working, and lunch is shoving food in my mouth as quickly as possible so I can get back to work. I rarely take breaks or remember to.

It was scary to notice just how much time I’m spending staring at a screen each day.

Many days I’ve been so tired after work that I just go to bed immediately, without any downtime to relax. That is not sustainable because I’m not Supergirl.

So I’ve been purposely slowing down and taking more breaks + resting my eyes during the day. I’m very lucky that I can work from home, which means I can do some unconventional things like going into a ‘downward facing dog’ pose a few times a day. It really feels good for my head/brain and my poor tired eyes.

I also remove my glasses when I do some things like cooking (unless I’m handling a knife).

Supplement-wise, I’m still taking iodoral, magnesium cloride and Vitamin C. 

I’ve also been taking eyebright recently (an herb) and I’ve just ordered lutein pills. Eyebright seems to make my eyes feel better during long days, and I’m hoping lutein will do something too.

It’s still not an ideal situation since I’m spending copious amounts of time in front of the computer (no way around that). But I’m so glad that I’m doing it wearing my low-powered glasses. I can’t imagine how much more tired and strained my eyes would be had I been wearing my full-powered glasses from way back!

 

Journal entry ~ 3 January 2014
New year, new glasses.

I’ve made the leap down to my 8th pair of glasses today (-2.00 / -1.25).

Things are blurrier, but it’s not as bad as I’d expected. I just moved my monitor up by 1-2 inches and things sharpened up enough again.

I think I hung onto my 7th pair for so long that it felt more than a little daunting to think about moving onward…

But now that I’ve done it, I have to wonder — what was it that I was so afraid of???

 

Journal entry ~ 8 July 2014
Yup. It’s been more than 6 months since my last entry. 

What can I say except I’ve been working longer and longer hours this year. And rest has been an elusive thing. With more demands on me at work, I’ve let all the good eye care habits (resting my eyes, taking breaks) fall mostly by the wayside.

The only real and mostly consistent breaks I give myself are about half an hour each evening when I take my glasses off and watch the evening sky outside my window. 

Yet today I change my glasses to -1.75/-1.00. And for once since this great experiment started, this isn’t by choice. I’d accidentally scratched my older pair too badly for me to see clearly through anymore. And I refuse to go backwards and use my previous pair of stronger glasses, so I downgraded and moved my monitor closer to me.

Wish me luck!

 

Journal entry ~ 6 August 2014
Surprisingly (or not?), since I was forced to downgrade my glasses, my vision has improved quite a bit! I been feeling that progress has been coming very slowly this year, but for some reason, I’ve gone over the “hump”. 

I’ve been taking lutein pills (and then eyebright) daily. Both are eye-strengthening natural supplements. And I’ve also discovered something that’s made me quite giddy with happiness — I can read and write text on my monitor without glasses! I need to zoom my browser to 150% in order to do this, but that’s my default setting anyway with my weaker glasses.

I’ve always felt unconsciously/consciously beholden to my glasses whenever I’m at the computer (which is all the time), so this discovery is very free-ing to me. Plus, I know from all the literature elsewhere that progress comes fastest when you go without glasses completely. Yeahhh!!

Journal entry ~ 25 September 2014
Amazingly today, I’m switching to the very last pair of weaker glasses that I have on hand, which is -1.50/-0.75. 

I’m going to have to place an order for my next set soon. That makes me really happy because I’ve had my current batch for ages! 

It feels like progress again. 

And I’m attributing this to my last recent discovery — that I can use the computer without my glasses at all. This one thing has made a sea change.

I still wear my low-powered glasses for some things, but more than half of the time, I have them off while I’m at the computer. And my eyes thank me because they feel great when I’m reading without my glasses — no strain, just a natural and pure relaxed state.

 

So this has been my much long-in-coming update.

When I look back, I can see that it’s been full of stops and starts, but in the end I managed to get further down the path (somehow).

And as with a lot of things, the biggest obstacle proved to be me and my own fears, rather than anything external.


This is the end of my post. If you’re like me, and you have myopia and want to improve your vision naturally, I hope I’ve given you some ideas to go on.

~ Love, Sam