Al’s Vision Improved: -4.00 To -1.50, No More Astigmatism

‘Ello, kittehz.

Jake here, your caped and crusadingly bearded, eyesight rescue hero.   

HERO.

The … hero you need.  Or was it, want?  Or in all actuality, just a retired banker f*ck who figured out the plain and obvious about eyes and myopia, started a rant-blog, and now just won’t stop pestering everybody for podcast episodes because he just loves all the (entirely undue) attention.

Thaaaat’s right.  That last one.

Also here is Al, who was entirely kind enough to step outside of his own comfort zone, and do a video chat about his own vision improvement.  This is what actually deserves your adulation and appreciation and general thumbs up.

Al knows a lot about sports and nutrition science, is a paramedic, surfer, and all around excellent guy.  He also managed to reduce from -4 diopters down to -1.50 inside a year, got rid of 2.25 diopters of astigmatism while he was at it, not to mention digging through this resource and getting all the answers to make it happen.

Check out our chat with Al:

I never stop being surprised by the level of genuine and passionate and interesting individuals come visit here at endmyopia.

So you should learn to behave yourself, Jake, you’re thinking.

As if.

If you prefer to listen to our episode with Al, you can do so directly from the following link – or use it to get to The Shortsighted Podcast on your favorite platform, from Spotify to Apple Podcasts, and lots more:

And you can also find all episodes of the podcast in our Youtube Playlist.

Moral of the story?  You do you.  And keep making those 20/20 gains.  And consider being part of the growing group of us, who raise our hands and say no thanks, to the lens-sellers and their glasses subscriptions.

Cheers,

-Jake

Podcast Transcript

We’ll come back to another episode of the shortsighted podcast, which yes. Still exists today. We’re talking to Al who has reduced his myopia from minus four adopters to minus 1.5 doctors. In a year, most interesting part. He also had 2.2, five doctors of astigmatism, which he doesn’t have anymore, which is an amazing reduction inside a year more.

And why and how in this pocket cast? interesting. Also Ali’s a paramedic in his late forties. He’s was quite into sports science and nutrition. So he has an interesting semi relevant background. I thought it was an interesting conversation. This one is not entirely, particularly long. I hope you find it useful.

Here’s out. Yeah. What, what, adopter glasses are you wearing there? A 1.5 minus 1.5 minus 1.5. Remind me, where did we start out? We started right. I minus four with a cylinder of plus 2.2, five and left was minus 3.25 with a cylinder one. That’s one. Complex story there to start with a lot of adopters.

Yeah. How long ago was this? This was, last August. Yeah. Quick. And are we, are we rid of the cylinder for distance also? Or is this just yep. For the, for distance? Yep. Like magic, like magic. How did you do it? Yeah. How did you do it? Well, I obviously listened to you a lot and, read a lot about, the backgrounds and it was a bit dubious, to begin with stuff came up in my, my watching lists and et cetera.

I found your character interesting. so basically I, I yeah, kind of accepted it. There was a time at, I got new lenses and new frames and the same frames. So I had a period of time. I thought I had a bunch of my old glasses, and a drawer, but we recently moved a home. So I found a pair that must’ve been about 15 years old, potentially about minus two with a lot less cylinder.

and they were fine for the week while I was waiting for my new lenses. and the old glasses. Normally I would just get new glasses, new frames. It’s an opportunity like you say, to get new frames. about like these. So I found that my vision was fine along with listening to your kind of advice and insights, the ugly wisdom and, yeah, I thought this is okay, this is all, this is potentially a thing then, And between smell and measurements, looking at, a little bit of science to me or stuff, which I did at the start, but was awful.

so I really didn’t kind of go by that and just my previous prescriptions, prescriptions, No it’ll work anyway. Subscriptions. Exactly. Yeah. I kinda came up with a figure, which I think, yeah, I was going go to, so I went to a minus three to begin with my right eye, with a plus one seven, five cylinder and the minus 2.5.

Okay. On my left with no cylinder. Cause it was only one, plus one cylinder. Hmm. Yeah. Out of personal curiosity, just if you feel like sharing, like what’s your background or are there other related topics that you’re into? How did you, what got you into this eyeball topic of all things? Yeah. there was a bunch of things, basically.

It was a lot to do with research and the health. Can I say the things, I had. Illness within my family, that I was trying to rectify my mum wasn’t well, it was kind of diabetes related things. so I went down that rabbit hole, low carb ketosis to do with, kind of Apple MCs and various other things that went right into that very heavily.

not from my own perspective of health, but for family members, like I say, and I ended up. A lot of it just from so much reading. Can I filter it into me, so I kind of eat, it started to eat better. And then there’s a guy. I was like, you were on his podcast. I ever come in. So it’d be nice to, I didn’t want to, I was almost like you guys, you guys share a similar accident, but okay.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. and I thought, okay, he’s evidence-based engineer, et cetera, et cetera. and if he’s got you on and he’s red and. Slice and a bunch of stuff then maybe, maybe I should go for it. Plus I had a change of work. I am a medic paramedic and a slight change of position into an area, that we tend to deal with more can, we have more gear, helmets and masks and various suits that we have to do, where to do with different incidences, whether it’s environmental or hazardous areas that we work in.

So that was going to involve. Change, you know, having to wear things, maybe getting steamed up in my glasses and it was something I’d always looked at. I’d always look something potentially LASIK back in the day. I tried the, what’s it called again? The hard lenses change the shape of your eyes.

you wear them overnight. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I tried them eyes were a little bit dry, really worked well. so I’ve always kind of dabbled in trying to get rid of these pesky pesky things on my face. It’s, you know, I think I also liked the, the paramedic common background. I think I’m being silly a lot on the internet because it’s, if you know, the story started as it’s a little procrastination project, I’m doing it for fun.

I’m not trying to, you know, gain the trust of strangers, but at the same time, I think. If your background is somewhere related to biology or evidence or science, it’s a lot easier to speak past the dig past the sarcasm and the jokes into there’s a fairly notable reality. There there is absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And a Sonder that’s really interesting cause that’s a lot of sound. Was it difficult to sort of, it was bizarre. Yeah, I can. I took it in increments, a big step to begin with. and through my reductions was kind of happened quite quick and I think because it happened quite quickly, I think there was a lot of.

Access, because I’d always been asking for kind of real clear vision kind of night shifts, driving at speed, et cetera, et cetera. one of my cards is to be on point kind of thing. so I think there was maybe quite a bit of overcorrection. the cylinder, a bizarrely, I found quite a lot of clarity, cause I’m pretty much on the 90 access.

A phone, quite a lot of clarity within that, within the kind of directional blur it was on my right eye. There was, you could see that there was a real clarity. Bizarre. I dunno, just real. I don’t know how else to describe it. clarity would be the way, within the, the fuzz in the blur, I find that quite encouraging.

So that’s still a little bit of a thing I can see outside to the trees here. and the leaves is great. Yeah. Some that seems to disappear quite easily. but trying to get my centimeters, it’s a little bit difficult because you try to see what’s a directional bar and what’s actually. just you’re so, yeah, sorry.

That’s fine. And also, I think interesting too, is professions where your vision applies in a no nonsense sort of must have in a way. I’m also seeing a lot of real straightforward, good improvements because you’re, you actually need your vision and you’re using your vision. Quote unquote, professionally, right?

It’s not just a recreational sort of, yeah. I should work on my side. You’re using the things and you need them to work as well as possible. Yep. Yep. Completely off topic. And this is my new thing now, because I don’t know how to just having these conversations, but I’m personally curious because I remember I had a ER nurse as a girlfriend way back in the day.

Yep. That is traumatizing work. The stuff you guys do. Yeah, it can be. Yeah. bizarrely, I mean, it’s something you. Manage within the teams that you have, if you’re working with a colleague or there’s been a bunch of, quite a disturbing job, you, you talk about that and the place, but it kinda initially it’s a, it’s a bit of a shock.

When you go into the field, you kind of like, well, the depravity and the, the trauma of the EDC, but then again, you’re going in with the technical perspective. I have to do this. I need to stabilize this person. What’s the best way to do it. And you’ve got these technical skills, so you’re not potentially getting the backstory, which I think can be more traumatic.

You know, it’s not like a tale of the person’s life or going, and yes, it’s a mess and it doesn’t look pleasant and there’s all the things have happened where you’re going in to deal with it from a technical perspective. Yeah. Not, not side of things. It’s easier to manage. I’m like, okay. I can’t imagine I had a super traumatic car accident.

At one point I was just a passenger, but a car cut into, I was in the hospital for weeks at my short term memory. Still from that around the time it’s just gone and ever since then I get blood tests every quarter. So every year, because I’m just a little bit, yeah. Curious about other health things. And I went through this long period where I just couldn’t see even that little bit of my blood without just getting faint and not a good time.

Yeah. Other people’s blood’s fine when it’s mine. Yeah. Great. And now from this whole experience, is there any. Have you talked to other people about this, do people think it’s weird, especially since you’re in that sort of environment? Is that something you bring up or is that your own personal little secret that you’re asking kind of a personal little secret of brought up with a few folk and from that is kind of being enough to go.

Okay. People really aren’t. Ken is, partners, my partners kind of interested. but she’s yet to kind of take the dive a few friends of canal, right? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see how you go. why do you think that is? I think it’s probably stuff that you’ve discussed in the past. you’ve just got to be ready.

It’s cultural. This is your eyes. This is how you deal with it. Hmm. I don’t believe that. And I think it’s the same with the kind of low carb stuff and high fat things and all these kind of. Things that were cutting through with the internet information, be more valid, readily available. I think the standard health model people like you’ve signed with your own dad just accept as dogma.

And that’s the way it is. That’s the way it’s always been. This sounds like some kind of hooky nonsense. It’d be weird. we’ll see. Or you go and you survive and their health intact, you know what? My. We might believe you there. No, that makes sense. What about active focus? Did you have a hard time finding that?

Was that easy for you? What was that experience like? I’m asking this because people keep reminding me that I never asked this question. I kind of read about it a lot. but found it to be a relatively straightforward, simple, I didn’t have, like, I can’t recall remembering like a week or days, or I’m kind of stared at things willing to come into focus.

it was never really an issue for me. Yeah. I just find it kind of, I don’t know if I’ve changed between cause he used to wear contact lenses, playing football or surfing or doing whatever and how he shouldn’t wear them in the water, but I’ll always have, yeah, never been an issue. It was a few blinks and you’re like, Oh, okay.

That street much clearer you sir. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You sure. If up there it’s called possibly the water. Temperatures can get down two degrees Celsius minus, about seven in the winter up North. we’re a small Island, so there’s lots of swell directions and you can travel a few hours and usually catch something somewhere.

That’s amazing regularly. A little, not so recently with things as they are, we’re kinda limited on travel, but that’s eased up again. So yeah, desperate to get back in, but it was weekly for, for years. Cause I grew up overseas. I never believed you could do it here and then find the joy of white suits. Yeah.

Yeah. I used to surf on the North coast of Spain and it got super cool. Califia And about Saint Saint it’s on the right on near the border Saint Augustine. I want to say like 15 years ago. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was too cold for me. Oh. Oh. I was going to ask you about that. Do you use contact lenses when you surf?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How has that experience work? Well, It works well, you can kinda like if you blink too hard, sometimes I’ve lost lenses or duck diving like swale or whatever I can, or if you’ve played unexpectedly and you’ve not gathered yourself, you can lose the lens, but usually it’s just the one you can get by for the rest of your session before you get back in.

You wouldn’t by accident have seen the last one episode. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Alice jealous. I’ll swap with the Manny that I just assume soon as he came on, I was already like, this is going to be yeah. Amazing with the mustache and then the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good guy. Yeah, living like that, it must be amazing.

And his enthusiasm, that’s just like with you, you have a more professional sort of, right? Like you need your eyesight for your work and just his enthusiasm for getting back to you’re going to surf and see clearly with no men’s stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did actually go in for a swim. I ordered a minus 1.25, both eyes, just for a swim in the sea.

There was no swell and a, that bizarrely was. Really good. Almost better than the minus 1.75. So it was wearing at the time and it was a slight difference. But when you come down to, to these diopters, there was a meant to be that great difference and acuity. So, yeah, no, and that’s an interesting, I, I often say this.

Or I don’t know how to say, but yeah, I often mean to talk about this, that, especially when you’re in that kind of the environment where you’re comfortable right there, you’re not in a familiar place, you know what you’re doing and you’re doing that like that minus 1.75 to minus 1.25. Good lighting. Right?

You’re you’re enough comfortable, good scenario sometimes surprisingly, well, how that works. And sometimes it’s really a great step for this last, the range to get, to start it off there. And then you start needing them less than once. Yeah. I’m, I’m of cutting a bit at the house with my, with this kind of scenario and, you know, most days in the house I’m, I’m fighting like that, you know?

So it’s good. We’re kind of getting there. I’m excited to say excited, but almost kind of slightly reticent just to go, okay. This, this would do as well, you know? Yeah. So I’m, I’m in no hurry. And I, I remember that feeling. When did you start wearing glasses? Probably when I was about 15, 16, when I just come back from South Africa, which was obviously a good light.

and then when I moved over here, I used to play a lot of. Soccer football. And I started to realize that, you know, I’m having to see this blurry thing come out of the distance, the football, and then suddenly it’s on me, nice to recognize players or teammates, not just by the strip, but how they, they ran and, you know, general body shapes.

We start to adapt these things like, okay. Maybe my, my version is not great. Yeah. So when I came back to Scotland, 16 years old, I mentioned to my dad who wears glasses okay. Contained to the oppositions. And that was the start of it. It’s going to be weird. I’m telling you, it’s going to be weird because if you’ve been wearing glasses for that long, I still like I’m in my mid forties.

Now there’s moments where I still go crap. I forgot my glasses. Like still, it’s like a Phantom, the opposite of a Phantom limb thing. I guess you just go, wait, I don’t need them. Right. Like if I spent too many hours staring at charts and screens and stuff and it’s raining outside and I go outside, my vision is blurry and I, that that’s my first instinct.

yeah. Yeah. These are it’s bizarre and equally liberating to just standing in the rain, you know, little things like that. And just, there was nothing to that’s. The big thing I kind of get sick of. I was, I was a bike courier for years and wearing glasses and Glasgow and New York and stuff. and when it’s raining and you’re, you’re, you’re like see, seeing through a frost frosted window and it’s just, you know, you would deal with it.

But it’s just annoying that I know. And it’s, and it’s interesting too, because I think there’s a, there’s a strange, it doesn’t fit together with your personality type or with a lot of people’s personality types while you’re not a quote unquote, the kind of person who would be because you’re interacting with your environment differently.

Right? Like once you’re in that, because now you’ve got to clean these things off and I can’t see, and you’re squinting and blinking at things, and that’s not you as a self expression. No. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. That’s great. Need to get rid of I’m really, I’m excited for you because I think this is a fantastic point that you’re at, and I’m always excited.

Like if you watch the Joey thing, you know, people that are into sports because there’s such an incredibly satisfying thing about not wearing this. Prosthetic sort of thing that you need to, to enjoy yourself. Yeah. Yep, absolutely. What about Jake? You have to let me know. Please do. Yeah, I will do. What about differential and normalized?

Did you stagger that approach? How did you go about the general? I did. I didn’t. Can I go to differential first? But my first differentials were minus two on the right eye, plus one seven, five, same cylinder on my right. And then I might just, so it was a diopter drop from my normalized dial to dine. And initially that was quite a struggle.

I was like, Ooh, this is quite difficult on the computer. and eventually, yeah. Yeah. I’ve got you a decent distance. So normally I wouldn’t wear my glasses when I’m on the computer, right? Yeah. Yeah. What is that experience like? And that’s just me asking him because I feel I’m in this odd place where I’m communicating with via text on the internet.

Right. I’m just, I’m genuinely curious. What is that like? Did you question. The whole approach or were you more just. Expecting to have to go through this adjustment period. Yeah. I expect it to go through it because it was so well, documented by yourself, that you kind of had everything covered in maybe the too good, good a job.

you know, I didn’t have the joy of the self discovery, although the self discovery within that, Yeah, it was kinda, you covered it really well. So there’s no surprises. You had to give it time. This, obviously within that, you’re going to know this is, this is nonsense, this isn’t happening. am I doing the right thing initially?

It was trying to get the glasses realizing that I could get them online. no gray expense. So it was worth the worth, the gamble. So that’s what kind of sold it to take the step. but then the process of first couple of weeks. Okay. This isn’t great. This isn’t happening to, okay. This is suddenly improved.

And the steps initially were quite quick. Again, I think a lot of that was potentially overcorrection and then you get the excitement of seeing improvements and that self motivates, you know, like, okay, this could be real. Okay. So this salary spasms away now, potentially that’s what it is. My eyes are getting back to where they, where they should be.

if I overcorrection speaking of self discovery, I don’t know. Because I would have much preferred to have the assurance of some somebody going, okay, this is the correct way. Because when I started out, I had all the joys of self discovery and I didn’t truly enjoy them because there was nobody to go.

I’m not crazy. Right. There was a long period of time. I’m like, maybe I’m just too hard headed about this. Right? Like, cause I went from minus five to minus three. I didn’t have this concept of normalize and differential. It was just. I’m going to wear lower glasses. And I was spending a lot of time walking around, not seeing anything, self doubt.

Am I a lunatic a lot? And especially I would talk to Thomas for awhile. I was like, okay, this is what I’m doing. Yeah. Yeah. From the kind of science that you read. Sure. The science, there was plenty of science suggesting. This is what’s happening, right? Like this is why very clear. And then the optometrists were telling me that there’s nothing that can be done.

Right. Also deny the existence of this. So there was a strong suggestion that there was something going on here, but on the flip side of, can I reverse this as much murkier? Cause there’s a books out there and people who have various ideas, but there was nothing really that that initially worked for me.

So it was definitely dark. I have a comment. How did you find him a fucking, that was low carb type things, whether it was Rhonda, Patrick, or Joe Rogan’s or various other folk that you were reading about or listening to their, interviewees. Yeah. How did they get to know Dave Feldman as well? All the kind of LDLs and all that kind of thing.

They’re not just fat. We’re in a fascinating time with all this. It’s great. Yeah. Hey, I like citizen science and yeah, that’s all very good. It’s kind of blowing a lot of the dogma at the water. I language is great as well. And what if I’m, what was the Josh, the guy on a wire. Joey, Joey. Yeah. You mentioned Andrew Huberman.

Yeah. Kind, a lot of interesting things there to do with you and your, your advice and I’m potentially crossover with, the other. Site of vision improvement that you might be doing, like to discuss you like to run it against the, the plumbing guys and, and all the rest, but yeah. To do with sunlight and let you see, and going out for walks, that kind of metronomic aspect as well.

So a lot of interesting things within that. Yeah, and for sure. And I’m only renting because no, I encounter so much. It’s just, there’s really cool pieces and everything. It’s just, what’s being quote, unquote, promoted and sold online as an alternative just doesn’t work. And then people try that and it doesn’t work.

And then they, they go back to glasses. That’s the only reason I have nothing. Yeah, no, no, absolutely. Yeah. I appreciate it. And enjoy your rents. I just tone it back because. Sometimes it goes a little far. Yeah. You don’t want to get sued? No, I don’t want to get sued debates people. Won’t hopefully. So what is your forecast?

What do you think is left? So now, from now to maybe no glasses. Yeah. It’s a B minus one. By next year and I’ll be on the cusp of 50. so that would be nice to have that last diopter to play with in my 50th year, I can sit on a poorly beaten, well, sorry, four years wearing glasses. So that’d be really good.

And just the freedom to go in the water or go run in the rain and, and, my, I have to put these things on. Yeah. So yeah, for minus 1.5, Ashley just dropped yesterday. so that’s nice. four or five months it’s taken longer and I obviously centimeters is as much greater between each quarter to drop.

so yeah. Yeah. Minus 1.25, maybe early spring. for us January, February, March, maybe minus one late summer would be nice. I’m not gonna yeah. Presbyopia, no presbyopia symptoms. Right. it starts a boat when it was on my mind is fours reading with my glasses on was ridiculous. And that was another thing.

Or my specs were constantly in my head, whether it was looking for drug dates or, and all the rest. So I was constantly doing that. so now obviously I’m reading without glasses. so it’s never an issue and he kind of even even notice this last day off to drop, Looking at my watch or whatever.

It’s much easier with just that quarter diopter less. but any close up stuff, it’s specs on the head. Yeah. Which is good. Anyway, I just bring it up because interestingly, I haven’t run into anyone yet. Who’s made it. This close anyway, and never ended up with any, any presbyopia symptom that required lenses.

That’s another step. I mean, there last year, the opticians are trying to sell your bifocals or multifocals or whatever in the Senora here. You’re an ad. Was my ads a plus two. No, that cylinder. Yeah. Plus two and a plus one ad. Which thankfully I did, I didn’t bother with imagine wearing that with a gigantic amount of cylinder.

Right. So you’ve got the spherical ratio of the cylinder ratio. And on top of that, you have some multi-focal mess. Yeah. It would have just got messed up. and I was doing fine just going over. Thankfully, the glasses stay on my head. So why don’t I just put them, you know, I don’t want to have to be.

Looking at different angles to read and, you know, you kind of see folks doing it and talk in their head in a funny way. And you’re like, what are you doing? You know, it’s officially an old guy. Once you get to that point, I think as well and not necessary. And it does all kinds of weird things to your posture and how you just interact with your environment when you can only see things when you’re yeah.

Doing weird things there. They’re trying to resist trying to resist. Yeah. And we’re kind of in the same age group, we’re just, I think a couple of years apart maybe and yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that’s also maybe a time, I don’t know, because you have a different professional background where we get more curious about health.

When you start getting up and feeling funny. Right. Yeah. Maybe I haven’t, maybe I won’t eat this sugary thing today, to be honest, that would be in my initial, it was my background. It was my first degree. It was kind of spore science, nutrition type related stuff. was a big passion early on. And then I kind of went haywire in between various jobs and loving up and.

Moving around and being a power, a beast, as much as I could be. and then they go from this semiprofessional state and ah, and sort of, it was kind of like re rejoining with something that you’re passionate about and interested. Back in the day. Yeah. That’s just been good. Yes. Lucky for you because I discovered all of this, again, completely off topic, but in my twenties, I had massive inflammation issues.

My neck would hurt for days on it debilitatingly. I would lay on the floor and just, just terrible stuff. And it turns out I cut out certain foods and all that’s gone. Yeah. Oh, I like that. I could have had decades of much more relaxing experiences. Had I known. Yeah. Yeah. That was a big thing for me. It was like, Oh, major change here.

I have new reconstruction. My ACL, my hands were getting a bit, yeah, broken, basic fists and various other things and all those aches and pains that we’re starting to get. Like you say, you’re getting up in the morning and you’re creaking those stairs and it takes you 15 minutes to warm up. that’s all kind of gone and almost forgetting about it now, which is great.

All right. So that was Al I hope you enjoyed this episode. I did. I’m never very good at these things. But I think it’s important to highlight individuals, experiences, meet different personalities, have firsthand sort of listening in on what people experienced to get yourself motivated and realize that this is not just possible, but entirely doable and will improve your life in so many ways.

A lot of people are not super motivated by this. A lot of people are like, yeah, well, I sight glasses are fine, but the shortsightedness being literal is also metaphorical. Right? The limits your life, your choices, your decisions, the way you see things in so many ways. Of course, I’m biased. I recommend you improve your eyesight.

I recommend that you subscribe to this podcast. I have more episodes already done that. Just need a little bit of editing that are equally super fascinating. Hopefully I’ll have your listening on the next one.

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

Elina: -5.00 To -1.50 Progress

Haven’t been doing these updates for a while now.

Mostly if you want see or read a ton of improvement reports, stop by our Facebook group or the Shortsighted Podcast.

We’re slowly moving away from text-based, Jakey-copy-pasta improvement updates, to more real time, in-person, talking talkey updates.

For the sake of nostalgia though, here are some recent Facebook member updates:

All praise the wholey guru.

Or praise Eva, since she’s actually doing it!

That’s how.

You’re only ‘broken’ as long as you believe it.

Or them.  Whoever is trying to sell you a symptom treatment while blaming some mysteriously faulty genetics.

Think!

And Anna:

Too see, or not to.

Your eyes is how you see the world.  

Appreciate them a little more.  Give them a little love.  Perhaps consider no longer slapping plastic focal planes in front of them, while mindlessly consuming endless corporate sponsored ‘influencer’ content online.

Follow your favorite influencer, online.  #thewholeyguru #unicornmilk3000 #gurubeardzzz

Cheers,

-Jake

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

Joey: 40% Better Eyesight – In ONE Year | Shortsighted Podcast

The time to ‘cast haz once again cometh, darling kittehz!

A great chat this one on the Shortsighted Podcast, with Joey.  Who started out with a -5 and now a year later is comfortably around -3 diopters.  

And surfing a lot.  And doing great things with his life.

Short clip:

This is what it’s all about.  

Learning things, knowing things, realizing who and what you’re all about.

If you don’t care about your eyes, you don’t care about you.  Saying “oh these glasses are fiiiine” is saying, fine, take my vision.  I don’t need to see anyway.  I just live in front of these screens, mindlessly consuming ‘creator influencer advertiser friendly’ content. 

I’m just another little sock puppet in the big machine, and I don’t need to see.  

GIVEZ ME THA GLASSEZ.

Seriously, it boggles the wee mind.  People tell me that they’re too busy.  Busy with WHAT though?  Yes yes, work.  But how much of that time is spent staring blankly at the screen, or pretending to be doing things?  How many hours in the bathroom, on public transport, at home, scrolling through mindless nothing?  

It’s like the Matrix happened and as you look around your life, everybody is engulfed by that blue glow of the screen, their thumbs just scroll-scroll scrolling.  

In restaurants, on busses, even while walking down the street.  

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Another nice video rant, like a proper one for once, could be in order.  

There is this somewhat recent one:

Though that’s not really taking into the account the side of the user, the people who actually want the glasses.

Supply and demand.

But that all is hijacking this post, which should be all about Joey, and him saying no to lifetime lens subscriptions.

Take a peak:

Thaaat’s right!

Alternatively you can also just listen to it:

There’s also the whole playlist of all podcasts to date.  And also here some of the podcasts your favorite old soapbox-guru has been on.  

And also, here all the podcast platforms you can find The Shortsighted Podcast on.  

Podcast Transcript

And yes, newly and lastly, there is the whole thing in (somewhat accurate) transcript form:

Joey: From -5.00 To -3.00 – In One Year!

[00:00:00] Bam. And there he is. Yay like magic here. What is that behind you, man? That’s a tapestry. A friend gave me it looks awesome. And it’s, it’s kind of waving behind you as well. Yeah, it’s nice. There’s a little breeze behind me. That’s awesome. That’s cool. That’s what time is it over there? Midnight. I meant to click on noon, but no worries.

[00:01:01] I just ate dinner. I’m wired up. Is that normal for you? No, no, no. I’m like an 8:30 PM kind of guy, maybe, man. Um, thanks for hanging out anyway. Oh, Cause sometimes I do these podcasts with, on other podcasts and they send me their hours and their like rest hours and they’re like midnight 1:00 AM. And I’m like, no way I can’t.

[00:01:29] Yeah. That’s awesome. Do your, yeah. Where do you surf at? I live on Oahu. Oh yeah. North shore who? I live on a boat in the woods. It’s midnight. So you can’t really tell, but it’s an old sailboat. That is freaking amazing in the forest. I know my girlfriend found it on a sketchy ad on cake list. Then it ended up not being sketchy, but we’re thrilled.

[00:01:59] So they’ve renting the boat or did you buy it’s in the forest? It’s on stilts. It’s like a old sailboat that they like mounted on stilts. Oh yeah. Cool. And how long have you lived there? Only since August, she started grad school here. So I followed her out here. Wow. That’s super cool. That is kind of hippy-ish I want to say it.

[00:02:25] Yeah, I think so. We were just in [00:02:30] Copenhagen, it’s some Island in the South of Thailand and it’s all like, kind of hippy-ish and I make fun of that stuff a lot, but I’m not serious. I joke. And when we first arrived like the first week, or like, Look at them all, like they don’t, they’re not even wearing shoes, walking down the street.

[00:02:46] Nobody’s got a shirt on all eating, just this like local vegan stuff. And a week later we’re not wearing shoe is not

[00:02:56] given how random people, uh, and now I’m back in the city I’ve been back in would be like two, three weeks. And next week we’re going to go back to the Island. Cause I can’t deal with the city. Yeah. And I say you can actually go to a grocery store without a t-shirt year, without a shirt on same on the Island.

[00:03:16] Right. But you’ve got to wear a mask, but, but just, just a mask and shorts. You’re good. Yeah. You don’t need choose. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s super cool. So you started out with minus what was it? Five, the worst that I’ve seen. From old contacts that I have laying around is negative five. Wow. That’s a lot.

[00:03:42] Yeah. I think it was negative five in both eyes. How do you surface context? They fall out occasionally. And then how do you find your way back? Or you just follow the wave? You just kind of go, yeah. They’d take you in. Yeah, I probably, so I’ve been surfing over 10 years. I’ve probably only last 20 contacts.

[00:04:03] Oh, that’s not so bad. No. No, it’s actually gone up now that I’ve learned the dailies, cause I’m going through, you know, diopters and I’m just ordering dailies off of a vision, direct.co.uk. I don’t know. I don’t know if that, because that’s the only one that I’ve found that you can order contacts on without a prescription, uh, the pesky prescription.

[00:04:30] I know, I know it delayed me from starting the diopeter movement probably several months because optometrists kind of shunned on me. Yeah. Yeah. After that, I just made a rant video talking about the right to repair. Haven’t but, but it’s like the right, right to repair your eyeballs, right? Like they’re literally just withholding stuff from you.

[00:04:58] Like if you want low [00:05:00] adopters, I just, now I’m getting angry now that right there, I’m going to start that’s going on with the cardboard and I’m going down the street tomorrow. So you’re down to two something now, right? No. So I text her when we were emailing, I said 2.75, because that’s what I was wearing for probably a couple of weeks in both eyes.

[00:05:24] And then I realized I was too ambitious. I’m wearing 3.25 right now. Still that’s still a big difference, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s what I remind myself. And I’m stepped. Yeah. Cause it’s only been a year ish. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s a lot like if you’re being, especially if you’re being that realistic about it, that’s a lot, that’s like two doctors just about.

[00:05:45] Yeah. Yeah. So I’m stoked because at night, definitely 3.25. So the best during the day, sometimes it feels like I can see anything super crisp. So I think that 3.25 is still pretty good. I wear, um, negative 1.25 when I’m on the computer or no, plus 1.2, five, sorry. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and yeah, yeah, I think I go where threes now?

[00:06:15] Uh, Oscar, sorry. I forgot what I was going to say. Especially if you surfing, like you kind of want to stay like just okay. Who knows really? Right. But I’d be like on for surfing. I keep it to where you need some active focus, not a lot, but just a little bit. Right. Just, just to make out like details and then it’s even fine in the evening to go up a little bit when it’s not enough.

[00:06:40] Yeah. And that’s what I’m thinking. I’m going to try and have multiple diopters on hand for different times and activities within just like, you know, just, I’ll probably be switching between 3.25 and three point hours in the next year. Have you lost any of the minus threes in the water yet? Yeah. Yeah, but I, I have more on the way.

[00:07:03] I actually went crazy on vision direct because I don’t know. I’m worried that the U S is going to make it more difficult to order because all the websites for ordering contacts in the U S. Are really picky about having your prescription co.uk? Well, yeah, I mean, there’s, a lot of people do a lot of different things that I won’t comment on or endorsed to get their contact lenses, [00:07:30] but yeah, I’m sure if may I heard it mentioned in the Facebook group, but just I’m an Asia and here you walk in an optic shop and you just go give me this and that.

[00:07:39] We’ll just sell it to you. Like there isn’t any. Yeah, they’re nice. Okay. Yeah. This is all so far. Actually I’ve bought some lenses off of eBay in the UK, just with no correction, just the photochromic lenses and abroad, the raw lenses and a frame about somewhere else to an optic shop here. And I was just like, here, cut me these.

[00:08:03] And they don’t even ask what it is, why it is. They just give me five bucks. We’ll do it. Wow. Good deal. So if you lose the minus threes, How’s that different from losing the minus fives? Have you compared that in your mind? Okay. This was something I was going to mention when I said that I forgot what I was going to say.

[00:08:25] Yeah. I not sure if this answers the question, but I hadn’t tried on, I have some four point fives laying around. And I was too scared to try them. I was like, Oh, now my vision is going to be so good. I’m going to be like, it’s not working. And then my girlfriend convinced me to try them. And I did have like some bubble vision, whereas like kind of stressing me out like that.

[00:08:49] You would, I think feel if you try it on someone else’s glasses and you didn’t need them. So I was happy about that. So, I mean, like, so in the water, like you’re in the water, you’re losing contact lenses. I remember. Cause I was at minus five and if I lost my glasses, it was just like blur city. Okay. Yeah. I, I think that when I wake up in the morning, things are more clear.

[00:09:16] It’s hard to do like a side by side comparison, I suppose, but. It’s definitely feels like things are significantly more clear and losing them in the water. It’s usually one at a time I’ve never lost those at a time. So it’s that weird? Like one, I kind of trying to overpower the other one and then I’m like, I’m going around like this.

[00:09:41] And like, people like, who’s this crazy guy, but then, you know, you can get whatever way you want, if they think you’re crazy. That is also very true. Yeah. Minus three, like another doctor less. And you’ll be able to go out without context, like a nice day. It won’t be perfect, [00:10:00] but like, if you, if you skip boring them for a little bit, for like half a day or something, and then go out, like on a nice sunny day, you might be able to be pulling that off, around minus two.

[00:10:11] Yeah. Yeah. So stoked. Cause it’s kind of a session ender only a few times. I’ve. Stayed out there, but I keep extra contacts in the car. I usually will just come in, but then there’s times where like the contact or slide back in my eyeball, I’ll go in and then I’ll find it in the mirror. And I know it’s, I don’t, I don’t do it put up there.

[00:10:36] That’s terrible. No. And how did, how did you Emilia get that high being like into outdoor and surfing stuff?

[00:10:46] Probably video games as a kid. Yeah. I grew up with active parents, but I still played a lot of video games. Yeah. And they took you to the optometrist. It took me to the optometrist, you know, probably couldn’t see the guard or something, but I was probably one of those kids that wanted to sit in the back of the classroom anyways.

[00:11:05] And then like that probably contributed right.

[00:11:13] That’s a cool, I, the thing is just the thing behind you is just kind of waving around. I’m just envious because I’m like, you must have good airflow. It is, it does get some grit, but it’s pretty good. I’m kind of in a window at year. Yeah. Why did you girlfriend try to convince you to wear the minus 4.5?

[00:11:35] Okay. Um, I suppose I would just say, because she’s very, she’s, I’m super lucky. She’s super in tune with me. And she knows that I probably had a fear of like trying those four point fives. She was like, she was, I’m sure, confident that they would give me that bubble vision sort of thing of like hyphae glasses.

[00:11:57] And so I’m pretty sure she probably just wanted me to experience that. That’s cool. How is her today? She doesn’t wear glasses, but she does have a pair of glasses. And I think that they only correct one eye for an eye stigmatism first because looking at lights and bright things at night, I think is difficult.

[00:12:22] That’s cool. How did you find the whole end myopia thing? I think that I was actually thinking about [00:12:30] LASIK or curious about it, because I had heard you weren’t supposed to have it until you were like 25, at least. And then I’m 29 now just turned 29. And so I was like, ah, you know, like it’s kind of a bummer wearing contacts.

[00:12:46] I’ll just look at it it, and then I think that led to. I think that led to looking at alternatives and whatnot. I’ve been a big fan of alternatives. You know, like if the medicine, whatever, I actually did a tacklers and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. And I was very fascinated and why I’ve focused on neural engineering, like the mind and the brain and.

[00:13:16] I’ve always been super interested in like your body’s innate abilities to heal itself. And so your everything you’re doing with spending and my obvious, like right up, like everything that I find secret fascinating about like humans and like, are like, Power and like what can, what our actions can do to inspire us and like how powerful they are.

[00:13:41] So, so no super stoked. Thanks for chatting. I’ve seen your videos and this is crazy that we’re chatting, dude. I really appreciate it. Cause when I emailed it was literally because he said surfing and hiking and I never get to talk to anybody. Well, that’s not true, but like same alley, right? Like I’m more into kite surfing right now.

[00:14:02] Right. But it’s like, Yeah, you’ve got to have eyes for that stuff. A lot of times when I talk to people, um, my enthusiasm, I’m always excited, but it’s not quite to the same level. Like when you say surfing and like you’ve got to have eyes yeah. For that stuff, I could just have to write. And also a couple of friends of mine that surf that had myopia reverse theirs pretty fast.

[00:14:25] And I’m not saying this for other people to have higher expectations, but just because you spend so much time. Right. Like a looking at everything around you, like seriously, like you’ve got to see exactly what’s going on. So you don’t, I don’t, you don’t even have to think about active focus and all that stuff.

[00:14:40] You just have to wear whatever context, give you a little bit of challenge. So you get a lot of that and it’s super naturally happening. So it seems like most people get a doubt the year, but surfer friends usually do better, faster. Thanks. And probably because you said that it’s going to happen faster because it’s already.

[00:15:00] [00:15:00] Who doctors in the years already. Super great. I mean, that’s saying right. Like one more, because two doctors is right at that point where you just need them, but not like you can’t live without them. Right. And then one more doctor you’re to the point where you forget, forget them at home, or you don’t put them contact lenses in and you’re still fine till there’s less light.

[00:15:24] Like you’re on this. This path after one more to object turns into one of those, you can get away without it more and more. So, yeah. Yeah. Surfing’s all right. I went mountain biking like a week ago or something with a 2.75, and it was so dangerous. Like I couldn’t see anything. And that’s when I was like, okay, I have some 3.5, like lying around.

[00:15:48] I’ll try him. No, I have 3.2 fives. And so I had like three pairs and then I just ordered another two boxes from vision direct because I’m still able to do the active focus with 3.2 fives and not be super dangerous when I’m doing it speed, especially right. Like speed changes stuff a lot like static acuity is a whole different ball game than when you’re just racing down the mountain.

[00:16:15] Sketchy. Yeah. You don’t want to do that? Yeah, no, I super appreciate it. Yeah. Like surfing, like you can definitely be in front of everything exciting and not worry about your contacts, but as soon as you’re trying to like get up under the lip or anything, like that’s when the, you know, you accidentally get clipped in the head and it hits a contact out, so it just makes you a little more cautious and it makes it a little less fun.

[00:16:42] So. Every day after I go down, it’s like super exciting piece of cake. Then imagine waking up one day, like not having to put in contacts 12 years old, we’re going to have to do an update for that one. Yeah. We’re going to need some B rolls, some GoPros, something we’re going to have to do that one on the beach.

[00:17:07] Yeah. It was like, I dunno, some. Effects and like slow-mo and then a little speed thing. Like, they’ll be like a couple of those fancy follow you on a drone. Yeah. So what are you going to do with that degree? That sounds like sort of interesting stuff. [00:17:30] Yeah, I found it super interesting. Um, most of the jobs were in cardiac disease and cancer, and that kind of pushed me towards helping small farmers with marketing and distribution, because I don’t know, I think that a listener might be able to make the connection, I suppose, but I just thought that a healthier relationship with nature and, you know, the nature that supports us would give us, you know, better health.

[00:17:58] And something like 80% of healthcare dollars are spent on preventable diseases. I think that’s what the CDC said and like 2015. And so I was that kind of naturally pushed me towards trying to create, help grow a better agriculture system. So anyways, I’m doing software development, helping small food producers and food distributors.

[00:18:25] I’m on the computer a lot. And these I think have helped the reading glasses. What kind of software do you develop to help producers? I have a script front end and backend Java script. I lived in San Luis Obispo for 10 years, central coast, California. That’s where I went to school. Cal poly was the school’s name and, um, a lot of farmers there.

[00:18:50] It’s great. Uh, Lucky place to have lived. Um, anyways, their biggest hurdles are accessing customers and then also accessing the distribution that reaches those customers. So I ran, I owned a little startup there, uh, called local zone market and we did distribution and e-commerce for farmers. And now, since I’ve been here, I’ve helped this other distributor here called Allahu fresh with their software and distribution.

[00:19:22] That’s quite all web development, JavaScript, trying to crack. That’s interesting. You’re combining a lot of different stuff there. Yeah. Also software is good for surfing because it’s mostly contract jobs. Um, bright. That’s good thinking. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Yeah. That’s that’s awesome. And you live in an awesome place, right?

[00:19:50] I know. It’s super lucky. Yeah. Well now lucky, cause you’ve moved there. You probably picked that, right? No girlfriend picked it for school. It was between this and [00:20:00] Anchorage, Alaska. She was like, do you want to go to Anchorage? I was like, I love you, whatever, wherever you want to go. But we might’ve known.

[00:20:13] Yeah. You whispered to her in her sleep. Yo don’t like bears there’s breakfast for eight hours until it’s you I’ve got the night slept during the day. Yeah. That’s how it works out. So how long are you guys going to stay there? She’s doing a master’s now, but likes it and might continue through a PhD or at least one more year for the masters.

[00:20:35] And if she does the PhD, then it would be probably three more years from now. And she’s doing wastewater management, turning poop into electricity, and they have a, there’s a big issue here because there’s a lot of, I suppose, outdated infrastructure, a lot of. Neighborhoods are using like cesspools where they just like disperse the waste instead of like trying to treat it.

[00:21:02] Some, I go in the ocean too. I think. Well, it definitely does from the cesspools because Hawaii is organic or volcanic rock and it’s very porous. So when you try and distribute the waste, it naturally like feeds into the ocean because of waves and tides coming in and out. So she might get a job here. Or somewhere else, but that’s another reason why software is cool.

[00:21:27] Cause I can do it anyway. Yeah. Is there a wind there when? Yeah, it’s usually East Tradewinds and a lot. Who’s got this funny shape where there’s the, the magic North shore side is West facing. So. I don’t know. Okay. I’ll look at my screen now. So why would a compass look like to the viewer? Anyways, offshore is good for surfing and then, but there’s North and South shore that are pretty much off shore for the East trade events.

[00:22:02] They blow very consistently. So there’s wind, but it’s usually Goodwin. Strong enough to strap yourself to Kate. Maybe you should try Maui. Maui is got like some, I guess like world class when surfing. Yeah. It’s really windy over there. I think they don’t have as much that blocks it. We kind of, I think a lot who has more mountain ranges that block the East Tradewinds [00:22:30] and then.

[00:22:31] But on the East side, I don’t know. I haven’t heard much about wind surfers, but there’s, there’s the Windward side of Oahu, just East side. And it’s really windy. It blows on shore all the time. Whereas like Maui as like a North shore and a sash shore and the Honda side, the East side, and like the wind, this comes all the way through there.

[00:22:49] And like lots of wind. I’m not really cool enough for windsurfing. I only kite surf the thing of the kite. It’s like twintip or surfboard, but a kite. Yeah. There’s, there’s wind surfers where we K and I’m always super impressed. Cause that stuff is old school hard. You know what I mean? Like you got to pull that sale out of the water and you’re strapped to the army.

[00:23:15] Yeah. Yeah. How was the kite surfing where you hire? Um, here there’s not any cause I’m right. And I’m Bangkok. I’m kind of, sort of stuck here because. Airports are closed. Um, but I usually kitesurf more in Vietnam. Wow. That’s more, I’m not cool enough for, you know, Hawaii, California, anywhere around there.

[00:23:36] It’s more, it’s more my world. No, world-class anything, but it’s not far. It’s like an hour and a half flight, so I can get there any time when there’s not Corona lockdown. Yeah. It’s nice. So do you live there permanently nowhere permanently? Aye. Yeah. Yeah. Just, I’m mostly around Asia. Like to go to Europe.

[00:23:58] If I can. Right now, all bets are off obviously, but yeah, just depends on the season and stuff. Dang. That’s rad. I’m super impressed with end myopia.org and how you’ve made it happen and super grateful. You’re getting it out there. And somehow I came across it. I think I was looking at LASIK. And I came across and my Apia data, or so like, that’s exactly what you want kind of, I, that is what I want.

[00:24:26] And you know what, I’m in a way I’m always surprised because the thing is kind of a mess. People always complain about it. I’m like, yeah, well it’s my morning part time. Like when I find time, I mess with it. Like it’s not professional on any level, but then I’m still somewhat surprised when people make it work.

[00:24:42] Cause I know how much of a pile of stuff that is to dig through. Right. Like, so when you mentioned your background and I’m like, that makes a little more sense cause you’re used to research, right? Yeah. So I used to have like whatever the school has access to all the papers. And now I suppose you can find [00:25:00] stuff on Google scholar, but yeah, Google scholar is freaking amazing.

[00:25:05] It is. Back. I mean, back when I researched all this stuff, there was no Google scholar and I’m like, I’m like the old dude now is like, you kids tear it so easy and still nobody uses it. Well, Mike, you know, one little search will put you in front of a lot of interesting data. That’s not Google, like, you know, Bates method stuff, like actual data where you go, huh?

[00:25:27] That’s curious. Right. Like, wow. You can literally be sitting in the optometrist’s office on your phone. Pulling up pseudo myopia and going, what is this then? Yeah, I think I’m over three on optometrists that I talked to. How so?

[00:25:50] Shame. One of them shamed me. He was like, you’re wrong. There’s no way we can write the best lenses you can get. And then you kind of like, did this chuckle a little and then I was like, dude, and then the other one was like, no, I don’t think that’s going to work. Maybe if you’re a little kid and then the last one, I think just kind of didn’t respond.

[00:26:16] It just feel like, yeah, I got, I know I have friends by your strong word, but I know more than a few of them. And I hear the stories, especially. Guys who quit. Those are brilliant. And I’ve managed to get anybody anywhere. One of them on the podcast yet. Cause they don’t really want to put their face on it saying anything but behind the scenes, which pressures, especially if you’re working for like a chain, there’s just, it’s just numbers.

[00:26:43] Like how many have you sold today? Right. And yeah. And literally there’s a story I really, really want to get online. I can understand why people don’t want to put their face on it, but like we’re the manageable goal. Why did you let this guy walk out? And my optometrist cause, well he had fine eyesight and then just getting bit rated, right?

[00:27:03] Like minus one, minus one, everybody could use minus one. Like I’m just like, wow, that’s please let me put that on camera. And you’re right. And the dude’s like, no, I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want my face on that message. You’re on camera, but you’re on camera, but I wonder like, Before we chatted. I was like, but he’s he’s in Bangkok is what the zoom meeting said.

[00:27:26] So I’m like, are you on the run? Or you’re on the run from the [00:27:30] optometrist guys? Are you like the Edward Snowden of like my Apia? That’s what I know. No, but I got lawyers. I get the quarterly review of what I, what I say and what I add and what I can say. Like, there’s definitely, I get scrubbed because they own a big pile of the terminology.

[00:27:49] Like there’s certain things that I, as a non optometrist, can’t say, and then I looked into like, well, if come on, optometrist’s not that hard to do. Right. Especially in Asia, there’s lots of places where you can, you know, but then it’s even worse because now you’re accountable for the things that you’re saying, man.

[00:28:08] Yeah. I’ve had this discussion cause I do other businesses stuff. Right. Cause I got liabilities in general. Right. It’s not just end myopia. It’s just, I got to watch myself. It’s it’s, it’s kind of mafia.  the way it’s run, right? Because clear curved pieces of plastic aren’t prescriptions in a lot of places.

[00:28:27] And weren’t in the U S either till the lens manufacturing industry spent millions lobbying Congress to make it a law. That clear plastic is a prescription. Because these things cost five bucks, right? Like they cost nothing wholesale, but that way they control the distribution and they control the message and they make it sound like it’s a prescription.

[00:28:48] That’s why it’s $500. So you can buy these ones at the store, but no one has a problem, like staring, like. Add a tree two miles away. Right. And that’s, I am. Yeah, it just, yes. I’m not on the run, but I do have to be sort of careful and I’m not trying to get too much and stream with it and I’m not pushing it because it’s a hundred billion dollar a year industry and I don’t want to be too loud about yeah, I know.

[00:29:15] And that’s kind of super stressful. And so I just. Want to let you know how much I appreciate you putting yourself on the line like that and getting yourself out there at least enough for me and everyone else to hear you. Like, thank you so much, Jake. Nah, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I get annoyed.

[00:29:38] Like when you said the guy shamed you that stuff. Cause I get that too. There was some YouTube comment yesterday or something from an optometrist was like, he’s wrong? You’re wrong? And here’s why you’re wrong. And I’m like, well, like that gets me to just go, well, I’m not, and here’s why I’m not. And then I make more stuff.

[00:29:55] Cause some of that is just it’s bullshit. Come on. Like, [00:30:00] I would be cool if they were like McDonald’s and they said, right, may or may not be good for you, but it’s tasty. Here you go. They said if the treated glass is the same way, it’s like, do you want instant, great vision? Not saying it’s good or bad, just, you know, then I’d be fine.

[00:30:15] But when they put all those claims and who’s behind it, like you’re sick, you’re a patient, this is a prescription it’s unfixable. That’s why I’m like, that’s just, that’s just lies. Right. And that affected me personally. And I’ve got kids. I get all these emails from parents, with kids where they go all day diagnosed.

[00:30:32] My five-year-old. And they’re like, make sure to come in next year so we can make sure your eye isn’t disintegrating from the inside. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because we do health checkups too. That’s that’s really? Yeah. But yeah, I appreciate it. You coming on because what makes me feel safer in a way is the more people are talking about it, the less is just me.

[00:30:57] You know what I mean? Like the more is of this out there and the more it spreads. The less, like I was a lot more worried five years ago than now. Great. Yeah, it was worse. I used to get a lot more shit from optometrist on my end. Just eight male. I’m like, Whoa. That’s and that’s, I’m glad you feel safer.

[00:31:16] That’s good. At least like some something’s coming back for yeah. Or two yet some whatever, come on around. It’s coming around. So. Yeah. Well, I’m glad though, I’m glad. It’s like, this makes my day too. Right. Because before all this, I was just doing business and stock trading stuff. Like just feeling like kind of an asphalt.

[00:31:45] Yeah. So at least like, this feels better as like a thing. That’s cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I want to grow a mustache like that, but I don’t, I don’t know if I can pull that off. Yeah. Do you have plenty going on behind it? What I do is I grow out the beard first all together so that it doesn’t look funny when you’re just growing this and it’s like halfway there and then I shaved the beard and then you just have that.

[00:32:15] And then you don’t have that awkward phase in between like all the way out like this far and just like shave everything. That’s a good idea. I just want that to be my passport picture. I like really? That’s it. Yeah.

[00:32:34] [00:32:30] Yeah. Actually of, yeah, start now the bigger, the better that’s cool. That’s good. What I had, I liked this one. It was like this, but then like I grew the beard like straight down here and I guess, I didn’t know what it was called, but. I thought it was cool, but I knew girlfriend was all right with it. No, not that one.

[00:32:57] Yes. That one for like a couple of weeks, then I was like, okay, you look for your redneck. And then she like, would say that I look like a redneck, cause I have like a Mohawk sort of right now, like, like dirt bike references. And then she like said that it was getting a little, just like. I started getting into character.

[00:33:20] I think like an actor would sorta like when,

[00:33:28] like I blew all the jokes I made about the beard is like, I want to do a beard. I want to just do a, just a gigantic and I can’t grow it face. It grows well, but my girlfriend does the same thing. She’s just like after two or three months, she goes, you really, really. You start talking like a wizard and that’s weird.

[00:33:48] And it’s just like, it makes me happy, but then her and people around me in general and, um, especially in Asia, people afraid of not, I mean, not blanket statement, but I know I can’t get through immigration without a lot of questions when I have a beer, like just and all stuff like that. So I know that I want, I just want to lose your beard.

[00:34:10] Yeah. And just sit under a tree and spread, and my Apia that way, just tell you all stories about their eyes so much cooler. It would work. I will listen. Yeah. You’d be like, wow. And I could stroke the beard. Be like, right. I’d be an indeterminable age. You know what I mean? It would just be like, which would mean you wouldn’t ever get old, right?

[00:34:38] Yeah. Maybe be with us forever. Should be fantastic. Yeah. It might be too long for some people. Yeah. Well, one thing I wanted to say was, um, these optometrists. Are like, why wouldn’t they just like have support, but you were saying like, yeah, that’ll probably work because like the plus, like, even if it doesn’t work the [00:35:00] placebos, like what, 20, 30% chance it’s gonna work anyways.

[00:35:03] If they just like tell someone it’s going to work, like that’s a good enough chance. He tells me people that are people that well, yeah. Technically they would sell a lot more glasses for one, right? Like you buy a ton of glasses going through this stuff. Business wise, it would make sense for them to do it.

[00:35:22] Also as if one optometrist does it. He’s got a competitive advantage because now you go back to this guy, cause he knows you. He knows a story. He knows that you’re reducing it by the glass room and it makes a ton of money. Cause you buy two pair every three or four months, you’re reducing. So you’re buying a ton of glasses.

[00:35:39] And even when you’re at 2020, you might still have some plus lenses. You might still buy sunglasses. It might still be buying stock. So it’s a net positive. It’s just a lot of them genuinely do not believe that the story they’ve been telling for the last, however many years, isn’t really accurate. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[00:35:59] Like, that’s a huge, like, they just can’t like my dad, my, my dad is a doctor. Right. And he loves statins for heart disease prevention and he will not look at any of the data. The saying that stands isn’t necessarily the right answer. He just won’t look at it. He refuses to talk about it. And when I finally figured out, it’s just, he’s told the story for so long, it’s like part of his truth and he something, your brain just can’t give up that like that’s part of yeah, it, yeah.

[00:36:32] You know, can’t. Can’t it’s tough to admit your honor, as much as, as he seen as to say that, but it’s just like, it’s okay. Grow and learn and change opinions. And I don’t think anyone, I think you, people will only respect you if you admit that you’ve learned more information and you’re willing to change and like adapt.

[00:36:54] Plus now, I mean, we’re making a phone app right now that allows you to measure your eyesight just with the phone. And that’s calming, like Amazon is going to come out with an app that lets you measure your eyesight and try on virtual glasses and was buying with a click. Like this is all not far away.

[00:37:11] And at that point, traditional retail optometry will be like taxis. You know what I mean? Like that, that industry is kind of sunset at this point. So whatever we’ve got time. We can wait them out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually almost became an [00:37:30] optometrist or at least like I got into this one school that was like a seven year bachelor’s plus optometry thing because my mom has had cataract surgery.

[00:37:38] She’s got a detached retina. She’s got macular degeneration when I was a kid, she had the thickest glasses ever. Um, And she had to wear like hard contacts if you wear contacts. Because I think her vision was so bad. She couldn’t read the soft ones anyway, she’s gotten cataract surgery. And so she’s got the new lenses in her eyes and she wears thin glasses now, but she still has like a blind spot and like part of her eye and like lots of floaters, I think, because the blind spot, I think because the detached retina.

[00:38:11] But so many eye problems. I just kinda thought it was genetic, you know, my whole life. And like that’s one reason I was interested in becoming an optometrist and that’s actually one of the reasons I did biomedical engineering was because I had to choose right out of high school for the school I went to.

[00:38:27] Uh, and I saw that it could be a path towards being an optometrist if that’s what I wanted to do in four years.

[00:38:39] And I just wonder, like what I would, yeah. I don’t know. I just, I guess I don’t really have much more to say other than that. Other than that, I was just, that’s an interesting little tiny side story factoid, I suppose, on that. And that’s also, when people go, how are these people like that? And I’m like, it’s just a, you pick a job direction when you’re a kid, basically.

[00:39:02] I mean, it’s not like. What are your friends doing in school? You picked us gig and then you learn what they teach you. And then you basically, it’s trying to make a living, right? Like, so in a way I get where they’re coming from. And then it’s kind of threatening. Like this asshole on the internet says we’re all wrong.

[00:39:18] You know what I mean? And I’m not even being that nice about it. So I’m like, I get it. Like, I should be nervous, but it kind of makes you angry at the same time too. Like it’s the not, not listening. Right? Like, I’m trusting you about eyesight and then I’m reading your scientist journals, literally like the optometry journal.

[00:39:40] And I’m like, okay, literally in your journal, it says to start it as a strange symptom, not as a genetic condition, what’s up with that. And we can’t have a dialogue about this. It becomes like ideology versus just a discussion about what might be going on. And that’s why I’m like, that’s just not. That’s not cool.

[00:39:58] When you also give me glasses, then I [00:40:00] can’t then can see my Twitter. You know what I mean? Like crossing the line and yeah. Yeah. No whatever. And it’s also emotional stuff. I get it. I got to be nicer about it. I gotta be more inclusive and. Yeah. I don’t know. I guess I haven’t seen all of your material. I guess I haven’t seen the CBRE angry ones, but I’ll look for those.

[00:40:28] I’ll try and find the super angry Jake videos. There’s not super angry ones on the blog. There’s some reds that are less friendly, but usually like I write the full on thing and then I delete like half of it out of there. So it’s still like, not great, but it’s not as bad as it started out. And then on videos, I try to turn a tone it down because I don’t really hate anybody.

[00:40:50] It’s just in the moment when people write shit where I’m like, this is patently wrong and you’re using it to attack me and you’re being dumb. Like this is easily disprovable and you call like, you’re calling me like fake and a scam in the same paragraph. I’m like, dad, it’s just dude. But on the positive, right?

[00:41:11] Like I’m trying to go more towards a positive, like you were at minus five. Now you’re down to the opters another year from now. You’re going to be maybe surfing without contacts, maybe a year and a half. I don’t know. Like, yeah, you’re just trying to get me excited.

[00:41:30] It’d be so cool to wake up and just not do it. I think it would be easier to get out of bed, you know? Like that’s like. Maybe I’d get like 20 extra minutes every day, just because I’d be so stoked. I can’t believe it sometimes. Cause I still get moments where I feel like shit, I left my glasses, like when I’m super in the middle of a ton of stuff.

[00:41:51] And then sometimes when all kidding, I’m still like, it’s amazing. I can see all of this time, like the short break. There’s this little just. The ShoreBank is pretty far out there and I’m like, Oh, there’s white caps on there, but it’s fall. And then sometimes I get a moment I’m like, I can see that, like, I wasn’t minus five.

[00:42:13] Right. Like I can see the little white caps way out there and I’m like, Oh, good wind, good offshore, wind. So awesome.

[00:42:24] Yeah. Another thing I just saw a. Or listened to two thirds. I’m not [00:42:30] done with it yet. A podcast. I don’t know if you know who rich roll is, but he’s like a, he’s an athlete. Author has a pretty good podcast. What’s the name of, okay, so he interviewed this guy. Can you still hear me? Yep. Okay. He interviewed this guy, dr.

[00:42:48] Andrew Cooperman. If you go on rich roll podcast. Dot com retro.com. It’s one of the most recent ones. I think it was just done within the last few weeks, but it’s a researcher at Stanford that research is vision and stress and. I was listening to this podcast. Like I want to remember every single thing this dude says so that I could say it to Jake, like, remember to say it to Jake, but I can’t.

[00:43:22] So I’m saying it’s just really cool, but he talks about things about how focus, okay. You hear like hippies, meditation, whatever you can control it, your autonomic nervous system, a bit with your breath and your diaphragm. Right. Supposedly, right. You know, like I’m aware of them breathing, whatever different yeah.

[00:43:43] Types, you know, you can, they’re like, okay, historically, I thought you couldn’t control this nervous system with, uh, your mind or your, you know, behavior, but now they’re saying, okay, your breath, you can do it anyways. This dude is saying another way to tap into it is your vision. And it’s like, okay. So a few of the things are when you have visual focus on something.

[00:44:08] It actually is directly linked to your cognitive focus on something. And when you have extreme focus on something, your autonomic nervous system is going a lot more. You’re releasing a lot more nor epinephrin. And when you have, when you’re looking at our horizon, Or something broad where you’re not focusing, it actually relaxes your autonomic nervous system and it’s a way to tap into it.

[00:44:34] And so one therapy that they do, it’s called EMDR for people with trauma is. They have like a swinging ball in front of them. And what that does is I guess it, it, it tricks the brain into thinking that you’re walking or you’re outside and you no longer have to be in hyper-focus mode. I’ll be in big observing mode and your stress levels go [00:45:00] down.

[00:45:00] So if you’re in a therapy session for trauma and that you look at this ball going back and forth, they’re actually seeing amazing results, bolts and treating post traumatic stress. If you pair therapy with looking at a ball like this, because I’m already more relaxed with you just going like that. I’ll keep doing it.

[00:45:23] It’s working for me. I don’t know why it is. And I’m like, yeah, that’s. Yeah, no, it was anyway. So it was come up with this, this researcher. I realized that they were more relaxed when they were John walks and they were thinking about their vision and then they started looking into it more. And so this came out EMDR and there’s been within the last few years, I think dr.

[00:45:45] Andrew Huberman said. Five really amazing stuff. He’s on it that showed that it works. And so his lab studies all sorts of, yeah. Vision, stress, focus, tapping into the, you know, things that we thought we couldn’t tap into before. Anyway, I thought it was super cool if you have time to watch it. And what I’m finding is when I’m using these things, it’s kind of putting me into a hyperfocus mode because everything else has gone blurry and the screens going clear.

[00:46:16] And I have sometimes had trouble getting distracted when, when I feel stressed, like if I feel stressed, then maybe I’ll look for pleasure. I dunno, look for surfboards on Craigslist or something, or watch a surfboard video. Uh, but when I wear these and I’m like more focused, I actually feel like more focused, like, um, Like, because I’m like hyper focused on something as opposed to more like observant sort of thing.

[00:46:51] I don’t know. It’s like, it’s, I’ve only had these for about two weeks and it seems like it might be affecting my ability to focus well in it as well in a positive way. That’s interesting. I haven’t talked to that guy. You got to combine, we could have combined the stream somehow. Uh, I think he’d be so thrilled because he’s all about neuroplasticity.

[00:47:17] And he was talking about how the eyes are not so much a separate Oregon. They are part of the central nervous system. They’re just like an extension of the brain that this is something that he like feels strongly about. And, [00:47:30] uh, he’s all about finding ways to. Overcome bad habits, even with your eyes and create new habits with your eyes and your gut, but that’s what positive.

[00:47:45] Right? We got to spend more time on this kind of positive stuff. Get optometrists are not important. Good things. That’s awesome. I’m going to, I’m going to write that down and I’m going to look it up. And I’m gonna see if I can connect to that guy. Yeah. And I’ll, I’ll send you an email too with the link or whatever.

[00:48:04] That’s awesome. And I’m going to look at, I’m going to see what papers he has that are, you know, public as well. I just, girlfriend showed me this a couple of days ago, so I haven’t, I haven’t gotten it as I want. Yeah, that’s super cool. Yeah. I’m going to fall into that rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It’s gotta be like, I am over there.

[00:48:30] I should probably let you, yeah, yeah, yeah. 12. Yeah. Thanks so much for offering to do a podcast, Jake, thanks for chatting. And I was like, this is such an opportunity to just talk with Jay. Super appreciate it. I really, really, really do. And plus I’m not just saying that we’ve got to follow up. I want to hear your minus two minus.

[00:48:53] To a minus one, especially with surfing, right? Like, cause you got a point, like you gotta, at what point do y’all you’re not bringing context to go surfing. I want to be in that conversation are man so excited. One year. We’ll see. Yeah. Yeah. One to two years will be my, my guests. Yeah. Someone there. Cool man.

[00:49:18] Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Super excited to talk more. I’m going to do more research. And if it still sounds like cool stuff with that doctor, even when I’ve loved to see what your, you know, you have more knowledge on everything that you’ve found with the plasticity and eyeballs and, uh, would love to, you know, chatting.

[00:49:39] It was like a, he sounds like a smarter guy than me. And I think that will be, I’d love to listen to him. Talk about some of this stuff. Maybe in context of myopia and stuff, you might have interesting insights on that too. Yeah. So in this podcast with rich roll, he talks about myopic vision, not in the sense of, you know, [00:50:00] uh, progressive myopia and like the transient myopia that, that.

[00:50:07] You talk about, but as in the hyper-focusing like myopic vision, like the hyper-focus even, he talks about drug addicts and this thing, like you will get in this such hyper-focus thing. And they think that the only thing that’s gonna give them pleasure and you know, is potentially that drug or alcohol or something.

[00:50:23] But if you can get into that different brain set where you’re observant of the other opportunities out there, it’s better. But. If you get in this hyper stress state where you think that the only thing that’s going to give you happiness. And so he relates this to all sorts of different, you know, you know, phenomena of the mind and the brain and like reality.

[00:50:48] And it it’s all rooted in the eyeballs and like how they relate to the rest of the nervous system. It’s brilliant people. They are totally out of my league because I’m literally just like on a side note, just figured out how to get out of myopia, which is freaking simple realistically. Right? Like my knowledge level is like down here somewhere.

[00:51:11] Okay. Like, not necessarily, because I think that there’s like, you know, a million kinds of, or billion kinds of intelligence, right? Like Feinstein, you know, The judge, a frog by its ability to fly or whatever. Anyway, it’s like, there’s the people like doing like the Hadron Collider and stuff, but how is that going to like help make the world better?

[00:51:32] There’s people that actively translate these amazing. Yeah, URIs and stuff into it, helping people’s lives. And so there’s like always going to be a business side and the social side and like a science side to these things. And you’re one of those sides and you’re really in to doing that. You’ve made it happen.

[00:51:51] You’re helping so many people. And that’s a form of intelligence that I respect in fact, uh, the most. And so. Thank you, Jake. Like we need your hand. So he’s not out of your league. You guys are just focusing on different aspects of ways you help other people and you’re killing it. That makes sense. You guys talked then, man, I listen 10 times, 20 times, 30 times until I can memorize it.

[00:52:20] I don’t know. I will definitely try. I will reach out to the dude and see if he’s up for it. That’s awesome. Thanks so much. I really you’re making my day. Cause it’s weird to be [00:52:30] behind doing all this from a, from a laptop feels weird. Cause it’s a social kind of engagement. Right. And we’re all just, yeah, this is cool.

[00:52:38] Thanks so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Awesome. Have a good night and I will send you this first. You let me know if it’s all right to publish and open. Oh, that’s all right. That’s all right, because if you send it to me, I’m still camera shy. I probably won’t watch it. It’s fine. Don’t watch my videos either.

[00:52:59] I never once where I don’t need to see.

[00:53:05] Alright, man. Well, have a good night and, and let me know when you’re down to wherever you feel like as a new landmark, maybe we’ll chat again. Heck yeah. Cool. Thanks Derek. I appreciate it. Likewise. Yeah. Have a good evening. Yeah, you too, man. See ya. Alright. See ya.

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

Optometrist Confirms: 40% Improved Eyesight + No Astigmatism

Back again so soon Jakey, you say?

Yes, indeed.  But just to gloat.

Important note:  If you want to get started improving your own eyesight, I offer a number of courses, including options for one-on-one support with me personally.  Check out the courses page for what’s currently available to help your eyeballs.

Ahhh, it’s nothin’.

So, look.  Reannon goes to the optometrist, he confirms her improving her eyesight by 40% and that her astigmatism has mysteriously vanished.

What does the professional say, upon being confronted with an actual improvement in the condition he’s tasked to treat?

Silence, that’s what.  

No questions, no curiosity, no excitement, no wanting to know more and perhaps share with his customer base.

This is why you get as much sarcasm and rants as you do here, my favorite darling.  Because this industry is a sham, last thing they want is for you to actually get better, and not depend on their lens subscriptions.

Literally the worst sort of professional, who wants nothing to do with you improving.

Also literally the best sort of experience, taking on the task of making your eyeballs happy and getting away from that whole group of monkey-making, no-questions-asking vendors of lies and poor eyesight.

And while we’re already here:

Well, would you look a that, then.

If you’re looking for happiness, for answers, for self fulfillment, for being in control of your destiny … you’ll have to go find all those things for yourself.

No ‘prescription’ vendor is going to help you with any of that.  Health, being complete, not being dependent on some ongoing fix doesn’t make anyone any money.  And they’re interested in you for depending on them, not for improving your own life.  Retail optometry is the McDonalds of eyesight.  Fast, easy, instant gratification.  Feel good now, pay for it later.

Enough of that, though,  Celebrate your understanding of your own biology, and having found ways to make yourself free – and see so much better.

Go make some 20/20 gains!

Cheers,

-Jake

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

Find Yourself A Supportive Optometrist!

Since we started the podcast in all of it’s media-rific glory, your favorite old Beard hasn’t really been posting interesting updates from the e-mail inbox here anymore.

Once in a while though something comes up that bears sharing with you.

In this case, a very nice improvement update, a note I enjoyed reading, and proof that you might get lucky and find yourself a supportive optometrist:

Important note:  If you want to get started improving your own eyesight, I offer a number of courses, including options for one-on-one support with me personally.  Check out the courses page for what’s currently available to help your eyeballs.

Well done.

Of course I still get all of your e-mails and updates and I do read all of them.

I may not be able to respond to all, or offer case specific advice, but I absolutely very much appreciate your notes and feedback.  They are how I start off my day, and often they do make my day.

So please do keep them coming.

Cheers,

-Jake

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

Kent Reverses High Astigmatism (-3.25 Cyl.) | Shortsighted Podcast

Here’s another Shortsighted Podcast episode, this time with Kent.

Kent did a fantastic job reducing his high astigmatism, which is a topic I get asked about very regularly.  So … if you have high astigmatism and are wondering if you can do something about it, listen to this episode.

Also check out the astigmatism section of the site.

Important note:  If you want to get started improving your own eyesight, I offer a number of courses, including options for one-on-one support with me personally.  Check out the courses page for what’s currently available to help your eyeballs.

Kent on the podcast:

Video version:

And you can find this and all other episodes in your favorite podcast app (including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many others) from our podcast page.

Or check out our Shortsighted Podcast playlist on the Tubes.

Cheers!

-Jake