Ditched Bates, Made Gains: -3.25 To -1.50 Diopters

Lots has been said by the wholiest of eye gurus on the topic of Bates Method.  

It was a great idea a hundred years ago when we knew nothing about eye biology.  And when we didn’t have TikTok.  Or a 100 billion dollar a year business obsessed with getting more people into lens subscriptions.

Anyway.  Endmyopia participant progress update:

Feel free to share your own journey.

Post in our private forum, our Facebook group, or just shoot me an e-mail anytime.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Pedro’s Optometrist: “You Need A Full Diopter LESS”

Optometrist confirmed vision improvements, kittehz.

Endmyopia relies on you to go get the gains and share the gains.  Ole Jakey, just the librarian of the collective experiences.

Here’s Pedro, generously sharing his updates in our Facebook group:

So proud of Pedro.

There are many optometrist confirmed gains reports.

And I’m sure there are many more that we just don’t get to hear about.  Remember, lots of free resources.  You’re helping the next newbies to gain confidence by repaying all of our work and effort by sharing your results.

There are many more gains updates, without necessarily an optometrist’s sign-off.  I put limited stock in their opinion, since their job is selling lenses.  In some way all the more awesome though if they have to concede that your eyes need less of their subscription treatment.

Keep making those 20/20 gains!

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Help! I Need To Fix My Child’s Eyes, FAST

I get a lot o fe-mail from concerned parents, about their children being “prescribed” glasses.

Here’s part of one just from today:

A busy parent, having bought my awesome BackTo20/20 course, hoping for help.

(And yes, the heading picture is not representative of a 9 year old. Not much time for well considered Photoshops these days.)

The thing about the course, it’s almost 20 years in the making.  Many tweaks and learning experiences on my part, figuring out things and improving the approach based on recurring questions and issue.  It’s been a labor of beardly love (or at least, trying to get less support questions).

And … it takes time to improve your vision.

Here is what I told this parent, and likely what I might tell you as well:

The thing about the course progression rate:

Eyes adapt very slowly.  Generally at least a couple of weeks before some diopter changes get a response from your eyes (and visual cortex mainly), and 3-4 months before proper adaptation to changes is realized.

I used to have the course as a ‘book’.  It was a miserable failure and it took me a long time to figure out the issue – which is that people consume the entire thing at once, implement changes as they interpret them, and entirely miss the most important aspect:  which is the timing.  Example, we don’t talk about distance glasses at all for the first month.  It’s not even an accessible topic.  If you do change distance glasses any sooner, the whole thing doesn’t work (nearly as well).  Because it really takes a month of just figuring out what the correct close-up solution is, and getting used to that, and active focus, before it even makes sense to discuss distance vision.

All that just to say, there’s no real quick absorbing the info option and then taking action and moving on.

I’d love to be offering some faster version since 100% I know you’re crazy busy.  My parents are both MDs also, I definitely get how it is.

20 minutes pers session, at most 2-3 a week.  It’s more like going for a run with the long term goal of better cardio, than “let’s get this done and over with”.

For a quick “fix”:

Print an eye chart to put up at home.  The #1 issue with these 1 diopter range myopia cases usually is ciliary muscle spasm.  Find out when he sees best and what line that is.  Compare before and after homework, screen time, figure out the pattern of what activities strain the eyes in a tangible way (can’t read x-line anymore).  Distance breaks and a good habit between distance and close up, especially if there is a tempting distance vision activity / hobby for kids, makes all the difference.

Kids eyes adapt super quickly.  If he starts to wear those glasses, a year from now he’ll need -2.  Conversely if there’s something he finds that he loves doing that doesn’t involve screens and lots of natural different distances, he’ll see better fast.

Also lighting makes a big difference.  Real test, can he see facial expressions at normal distances.  I always look for that, so their socialization doesn’t get disrupted because of lacking eyesight.

There it is.

It’s like when I put a keto diet on my experiment list, or getting serious about the gym.  It needs a little slot in your schedule, in your allocation of time.  You may have to cancel a few relaxing scrolls on the phone, or some TV show, or an hour of Youtube may have to be taken out, once in a while.

Believe me, I’m the least motivated, least role-model-like, I myself would be the worst of all endmyopia students.  Plus I’m busy with plenty of things, and tend to not just throw random new projects on my schedule.  So I get it and I’m totally with you, if you look at all this and go, duuuude that’s asking a lot.

Seeing well is a worthwhile investment, in the long run.  See what other habit needs to be getting a tiny bit less attention, so you can look back a year from now, with less diopters to worry about.

Or even more awesomely, if you’re doing it for your kids.

Go make some 20/20 gains!

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

DMV Confirms: You Don’t Need Glasses (Anymore)

Oh boy.  Oh boy ohboyohboy.

No more glasses.  That’s our favorite kind of story, and we’ve collected many of them over the past 20 years.

Here’s another success story for you:

Pretty cool?

Note that our editing minion spent hours and hours to whittle this one down to four minutes.  For you.

You can find the full (audio) version of it on our Shortsighted Podcast page, or if you’re subscribed to our podcast, in your favorite podcast app.  The full video version is available from the Pro Topic Video list, which you have access to if you bought BackTo20/20 (or alternatively Le Rough Guide with the video option).

Some days I can’t believe that I’m still doing this.  So many years of the Sisyphus-ian futility of preaching sanity and beardly wisdoms unto fools and heathens, the disinterested and optometry brainwashed.

But so it goes.  I’ll probably have to die before I can have the statue in the park, before people realize the immeasurably awesome insights collected in the cavernous depths of this Website and it’s 1,200+ posts of guides and improvement updates.

Yes you can reverse lens dependence.  No you aren’t genetically broken.  And definitely, this is the destination if you want just habit based gains, without the eye exercises and eye yoga and fruitless side quests and unnecessary supplements.

What would I do, in your shoes, if I was just getting started?  I’d buy a course.

Honestly, and not even solely as a sales pitch.  Money involved means somebody is more likely to be accountable for improving your experience.  Free means nobody necessarily cares.  There’s no incentive.  I personally would definitely want the most concise, organized, support-provided option when it comes to experimenting on my eyeballs.  Which of course and granted, sketchy to begin with.  Only for those with some tolerance for experiments and challenges.  Probably best to just trust the optometrist and get LASIK.

That’s it for this month’s update.  I hope you enjoy these.  I also have several more podcast episodes already recorded for you, some really interesting journeys coming.  Stay tuned for the December update!

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

9 Year Old: 50% Improved Eyesight

Would you know it, another parent e-mailing about their child, at the same age range as our last post.

Though that last story was asking for help, and this one is about gains.  Take a look:

That’s beautiful.

Eyes and health and learning all the things about life, our work as parents.  Odds are certainly not in our favor with sugar and screens and all the commercial interests that need us to be addicted and broken, in order to generate profit.

But here we are anyway.  Thanks to the Internet we can connect and figure these things out together.

I’ve written lots child eyesight articles over the years, and shared these updates.

I hope you’re continuing to make great 20/20 gains.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Kaitlin: -2.25 Diopters To NO MORE GLASSES | The Shortsighted Podcast

Here we go, latest Shortsighted Podcast episode:

If you prefer just the audio track, here is that:

You can also subscribe to The Shortsighted Podcast in your favorite app.  See the full list of episodes and available channels here.

And here, the Youtube playlist of Shortsighted Podcast episodes.

SPONSOR

Who pays for all of this dramatically awe inspiring content?

Only two of these particular three are mine.

This episode is brought to you by, Jakey’s (borderline problematic) affinity for motorbikes.  Jakey never has enough motorbikes and doing all of this free stuff for you helps pay for them.

Wait.  No it doesn’t.

Actually buying any of our awesome eyeball tuning courses, does.  Or more likely, it helps pay for staff and software licenses and fixing things and running ads.  Which is all pretty expensive these days.  So we have great courses for anything ranging from a simple summary to stop you having to dig through the whole site, all the way to fully structured programs, with direct support from Jake.

There we go.  Four more podcast episodes are already on the schedule.  Stay tuned for more fellow participant updates and progress reports.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Chris: 25% Better Eyesight, Optometrist Furious

In the endmyopia inbox yesterday, a message from Chris.

This could serve as the very template of the exact things that you can expect to happen when finally trying to escape the lens-subscription machinations of your local optic shop.

Chris reduced his diopter dependence by 25% in the past two years, and the optometrist confirmed it – though not happily:

I remembered to post this one for you here, since somebody in our forum was questioning the standard improvement rate quote of about 0.75 diopters per year.  

That’s why I continue to add to the thousands of eyesight improvement updates.  And do the podcast. I want you guys to hear what I hear and have a way to look at the compounding picture of what goes on.  Yes, nobody needs glasses to see clearly.  Yes, the improvement rate, once you remove the problematic stimulus, is quite consistent.

And the other repeating theme, the optometry industry trying to sabotage any actual improvement in the condition they’re trusted to “treat”.

What they’re mainly treating is their margins.  And their customers, like they don’t deserve informed consent, legitimate questions answered, options given besides ongoing lens subscriptions.

/rant

Go make some 20/20 gains, darlings!

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Michaela: 40% Better Eyesight | Shortsighted Podcast

Buckle in kittehz, Jakey recorded another Shortsighted Podcast episode.  

Right on schedule at the rate of about one per decade, we continue the now millennia old tradition of chatting with fellow darling eyeball enthusiasts.  We regale you with their tales of leaving the Church of Mysterious Genetic Illnesses and finding out that their bodies are actually healthy and functional.  

The hundred billion dollar a year industry selling lens subscription is lying to you about your eyes.  Who could possibly have ever figured.  

Before this turns into a rant you’ve heard countless times before though, here’s the actual chat:

I like this episode.  It’s not flawless perfect smooth progress.  It’s also not epic years of struggles.

Actually speaking of epic struggles and avoiding them, Michaela found a neat trick to discover active focus almost immediately.  I have no idea if this is a thing that may work for others as well but as so often, we find something new, we share it and try and see what happens.  That’s the endmyopia way.

She also managed to get one of her two kids almost back out of lens dependence, and used her knowledge about eyesight to prevent myopia for the second one entirely.  

Here’s the audio track of the episode:

And here are all episodes, along with the many platforms you can get the Shortsighted Podcast from.

The more you know, the less likely you will be bamboozled by the “health care industry” and their endless attempts at selling subscriptions to lifetime symptom treatments.  

And of course your favorite Jakey is all for the many advancements in medical science.  There are a lot of amazing things that have been done, health and life spans increased.  It’s just that idle hands are the devil’s something-something, and when they don’t have something necessary to engineer and sell, they will find something to sell you regardless.

Like glasses.

If you really want to buy something, buy one of our awesome courses instead.  Support endmyopia, all our ongoing machinations, and also tune your eyes back to 20/20.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

I’m Old Greeeeeeeegg!

Off-shore winds yesterday.  Meaning, no kitesurfing at the beach.  

There is a lake though, a bit inland.  Full of patches of seaweed, with questionable gusty winds, a road with power lines adjacent, and just all around entirely not confidence inspiring.

Right from the start I knew it was a bad idea.

Of course we went out.  And predictably it was a shitshow.  All the dropped kites, all the getting wrapped up in seaweed, all the cursing.  It took an hour to make it back to the launch spot, with amused fellow kiters who’d been sitting there snickering and debating who’d have to go rescue Jakey’s failed attempt at taming a lake kiting experience.

Ole Jakey looked like Old Gregg, scaley manfish, covered in mud and seaweed.  (if you don’t know Old Gregg, I don’t know you)

But hey.  An adventure, and zero temptation or opportunity to play on screens.

Every day that has an adventure, is a blessing.  And I’ll also tell the story again that I like to tell often.  About doctors and opinions:

Your favorite old guru’s parents were medical doctors.  Mom a pediatrician, dad general practitioner.

Brilliant, kind, patient, you-want-these-for-your-diagnostic-needs, type of professionals.

Listening to them talk about their patients thousands of days at lunch and dinner tables, priceless insights.  Mom hated pills.  And frozen food.  She’s unplug our freezer to sabotage any frozen food efforts attempted at our house.  She’d always preach about eating right and not reaching for pills, unless last resort.

Dad on the other hand loved the pills.  To him they were ultimate-victory-of science, solutions to everything that might ail you.  You couldn’t talk him out of it.  He loved meeting the Pharma reps, learning about the latest thing to fix a condition.

Two entirely different approaches to health care, under one roof.  Plus countless entirely opinions, experiences, and bias.  

What I got out of all of it:  If you go see somebody, don’t expect truth.  Expect to get whatever the person believes, whatever they were taught, whatever makes sense to them at the time.  Truth in health is often fairly elusive and possibly requiring personal experiments and exploration.  And there’s always some new discovery, some new diet, some extra special unicorn supplement, a thing that somebody makes a living from if you buy it.

Sometimes it’s good, sometimes perhaps less entirely ideal.  Not so much black and white.

When it comes to myopia, glasses, eyesight, the relative truth is highly unprofitable.  Unpopular even.  It’s all about agency, personal responsibility, facing realities of (screen) addiction, having the time and know-where-to-look to question the vastness of mainstream doctrine.  You either believe that you’re genetically defective, or … you really are going out on a limb, figuring out what else might be going on.

Not something anyone would be expected to dive into.  Which is why glasses, contact lenses, laser surgery still entirely rule the conversation.

I’ve met optometry types that are like my mom.  Telling you to only wear glasses when you need them, giving you the lowest diopters that still work for you, talking to you about spending time outside, away from long close-up periods.  

Rare as they are, they do exist.

The types like my dad, far more common.  They’ve got a business to run, first and foremost.  Selling you $5 glasses for $200 is what pays the bills.  There’s no time in the day to question what was learned in school, or to explain long, complicated principles to people who just walked in, probably looking for a quick fix.  Supply and demand.  Most people don’t want to be told that their habits are the problem.  They want to be told that it’s the gene’s faults and they can just keep consuming endless meaningless piles of content on a tiny screen forever.

(Memorable and worthwhile) life so often happens when you leave the comfort zone.   When you start asking questions and living with purpose and not giving in to being told how you’re just genetically a failure and that you might as well just do as you’re told.

Maybe.  Or maybe your favorite ole Jakey is a fringe creature full of unpopular opinions and the urge to do things the hard way.

Here’s somebody who is doing eyesight the hard way:

Props to him for taking on this rabbit hole.

A rabbit hole that might offer its own rewards.

This, not for everyone.  This also from a weirdo who spent decades vagabonding around the world, flying paragliders past the Himalayas and kites in the Pacific,  building off-grid houses in rebel held jungles and in general living life like as if it were a one time only, limited time gift from the darling universe.  

Reasonable to assume that weirdo hippies aren’t ones to take general purpose lifestyle advice from.

Anyone is free to spend that life scrolling some Chinese video app on a little screen.  Really, it’s entirely encouraged.  The large corporations who sold you the phones, and provide you the free apps, and pay for all the ads and “journalism” articles and divisively flavored Twitter opinions.  Ask less questions, consume more narratives.  Be incensed, but mostly about nothing meaningful.  Default cultural context.  Stay disposable, be figures on a spreadsheet.

Or maybe … stay weird, darling kittehz.  Find adventures.  Go make some 20/20 gains.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Elective Un-Sheepeling

Thanks for dropping in!

Let me share with you a few e-mails from darling endmyopia readers and participants.

First up, a bit of discovery:

Well.  Does this surprise anyone?

Only if you don’t know how the 100 billion dollar a year, for-profit lens-selling business works.

Brenda knows:

It’s the theme.  Go with optometry, your diopters go up and up and up.  Go with us, and the reverse is true.

And just because:

Yay!

You probably can’t imagine how much e-mail an old eyeguru gets every day.

It’s a lot. 

A lot of awesome.

And for those who still think they need glasses for life:

We live in a weird world.  A world where making money is more the thing than telling you that your eyes work just fine.

If they told you, you wouldn’t buy glasses.  And they’d be out of business.

We’re mostly in the business of (virtual) hugs.

Hugs and diopter reduction reports:

And thanks, which I do enjoy and appreciate.

Your eyes are fine, as ole Jakey keeps telling you.  

Also, Michaela:

There we go.  That was about 5% of the inbox.  

Modern medicine diagnostic tools are amazing.  Urgent care saves countless lives.  We’re making a ton of incredible progress in living longer, healthier lives.

But also, blind faith can be misplaced.

Whenever there’s a financial incentive to sell symptom treatment instead of fixing the problem, we run into a conflict of economic interests.  Can we count on the establishment to not sell you a monthly subscription, when they can?  Can we figure that ideas of ethics will go over shareholder fiduciary responsibilities?

Who knows.  They might sell you stuff, if that’s the more profitable option.

It certainly seems the case with myopia, and glasses.

Go make some 20/20 gains.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site