November 30, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
Today we are talking about all things related to astigmatism. I get a lot of questions about this, so I wanted to break down what it is and how you can improve it. Enjoy the show.
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
astigmatism, eye, stigmatism, develop, body, repetitively, cornea, talk, posture, work, retina, astigmatism correction, measure, left, corneal, twisting, cranial sacral therapy, warped, distortion, part
Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberne.com.
Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So before we get to today’s show, I wanted to let you know that you can now text me your questions 1-844-932-1291 That’s 1-844-932-1291 Or you can send me your questions via email. Hello@drsamberne.com.
So today I want to revisit a subject that I talk a lot about. It’s called a astigmatism. And in astigmatism Well, the way I define it is that it’s a twist, a turn a warp that’s in the eyeball. I’ve done a lot of video blogs on on the stigmatism. And it just brings a lot more questions to me. So today, I want to delve very deeply into this topic. And they’re, they’re kind of different aspects that I have learned about and I apply when I help people reduce their astigmatism.
So let’s bring in one of my reference books, it’s called the dictionary of visual science and I’m quoting, astigmatism is a condition of refraction in which rays emanating from a single luminous point to this is an object in space are not focused on a single point by an optical system, the retina, but instead are focused as to line images at different distances, generally at right angles to each other. So in layman’s terms, what this means is that when light enters the eye, if you’re near sighted, the light focus is in front of the retina. If you’re farsighted, the light would focus behind the retina, and then the astigmatism it focuses in multiple places. And this is due to the fact that the the eyeball we just talked about the structure becomes more egg shaped as opposed to being round. In optometry school, my professors taught me that astigmatism occurred when light entered an eye that was egg shaped, and the light focused on more than one part of the retina simultaneously.
And this created a blur that was warped. But there was never a mention in my optometry training about the mind body connection to a stigmatism. And as I delved into my physical therapy protocols, and I started to explore the deeper aspects of astigmatism. I made some discoveries, which I will get to a little later in the article. But first, let’s talk about what causes a astigmatism.
So there are many causes. One could be just an irregular curvature in the cornea that’s the the front surface of the eye the clear window or there could be also a distortion in the lens of the eye. In fact, when people start developing cataracts, sometimes a stigmatism will will be able to be measured by the eye doctor. Astigmatism also tags with nearsightedness, and farsightedness so you can be nearsighted and then you start developing a stigmatism or you can also say start wearing magnification glasses bifocals, in the magnification plus lens, and you also start developing a astigmatism. Many times when I measure astigmatism, there’s a fluctuation it varies. And this is why people can experience fluctuations during the day I get a lot of comments, how can my vision goes up and down?
How come some days are better than others? A lot of time it’s the astigmatism that gets worse gets better and it’s based on many things stress, and how you hold your eye muscles, and what kind of things you’re focusing on what your prescription is, and so on. So, Corneal hydration is very important. I talk a lot about that. And when you start straining, squinting or tilting your head or you start twisting your body while you’re focusing. This also can influence the development of astigmatism. So what are the types of astigmatism you go to your eye doctor, and he says, Well, you’ve got a astigmatism, it’s this power. But astigmatism is based on the shape of the eye.
And let’s go through the different types. So the first one, very common, it’s called with the rule of astigmatism. And that means the vertical part of the eye is more warped than the horizontal part of the eye. Number two, there’s against the rule. And this is a astigmatism, where the horizontal part of the eye is more warped, warped than the vertical part. And then we have oblique astigmatism, which means that the diagonal part of the eye is more warped than either the vertical or horizontal. And then we have number four irregular astigmatism, meaning that neither the horizontal vertical or oblique parts of the eye are warped, but the distortion moves around based on your posture, your stress, and your lifestyle. So some of the symptoms that occur when you start developing astigmatism, blurred vision, a distance at near double vision in one eye, crooked looking lines, eye strain, and you can even get migraines.
Now some of the causes that causes astigmatism would be things like corneal dystrophies, like folksinger syndrome, or keratoconus or just dry eye. There is a genetic influence. It’s maybe about 20%. But I would say the biggest factor that causes astigmatism is the environmental influences that you put on your eyes. And this could be due to the type of job you have, how much stress you’re under, or even your diet. One of the new causes that I’m now seeing with the astigmatism is when you get the eye injections for wet macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, that researchers are now measuring Corneal Astigmatism after these injections. Cataract surgery is another reason why we develop a stigmatism. And finally, these conditions called Tourette, GMs or pinguecula, as these are growths over the cornea. If left untreated, they can actually grow on the cornea. These can also cause astigmatism. Now mainstream eye care, the way they deal with the astigmatism is, you know, they measure your eyes in an exam. And then they fit you with the amount of astigmatism that they’re measuring, either in glasses or contacts, so they’re basically reinforcing the astigmatism that you bring into the office.
Another thing that I have to bring in is lasik surgery. I’ve done a lot of video blogs on LASIK and the pros and cons. But it’s a slippery slope when you do LASIK surgery that you could develop a stigmatism after the surgery. So just to remind you that when you go for mainstream eye care and you have a stigmatism, they’re going to want to correct you for it full time full on, no questions asked. Because their feeling is that they want you to have the best resolution you can. Well, there might be another option. Stay tuned. What I want to talk about now is what does posture have to do with the astigmatism? And I want to bring in one of my mentors, Dr. Elliott forest, and he was a professor at the State University optometry school. And one of his hypothesis was that there was a relationship is a relationship between how we scan our eyes repetitively.
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We call that visual tracking. And we might scan them in one direction for a long period of time, say if we’re reading or, you know, working back and forth on a computer screen. So the relationship between how we move our eyes how we hold our head, especially if it’s an angled position, and could this cause a stigmatism especially in the eye that might we might be overusing. So one of Dr. forces students, Dr. Paul Harris, he wanted to test out Doctor force theory. So what he did was, he took two musicians who played for the Baltimore Symphony. And Dr. Harris firstly worked with a trombone player. And he observed the trombone player where the musician had to look more to the right, which causes the left eye to chronically look more to the left. And when he did that, when he measured that, he found that
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there was more astigmatism in the left eye. Dr. Harris also observed a cellist. And her music was set up so that
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she was off to her right and her posture was looking that way. Again, the left eye had to twist and turn, chronically, to the right, the trombone player, we also I said, the left eye looked left but no, the left eye looked right. And that was the eye that had more astigmatism in it. This was for both musicians. So the creek the key principle, is function alters structure. So the way we use a part of our body, in this case, our eyes, if we use it repetitively, it creates a structural change, which in this case, was a stigmatism. So what Dr. Harris did, validated with Dr. Force Theory said that, again, if you do high scanning repetitively, and you have to tell your head or your body, that you’re going to develop more astigmatism. So, one of the principles that I like to use when working with a patient is that any vision problem is more than in the eyeball, it’s in the whole person. And when someone measures a stigmatism and I started applying complementary protocols, this actually can help neutralize or even reverse astigmatism in the eyes.
So one of my techniques, and this is kind of radical, is I prescribe lenses without a astigmatism, so even if you measure it, I make you up a second pair, where it doesn’t have the astigmatism and this is only used during the physical therapy period of time or in non demanding non threatening situations. Since a stigmatism is highly influenced by how we are using our eyes in relation to our body and our posture, and our movement, if a person starts to develop a more integrated fluid type movement pattern in their daily routine, the astigmatism starts to disappear. Another technique I like to use in conjunction with no astigmatism correction in the eye, is cranial sacral therapy. So cranial work is a way that you can help unwind the twisting in the body. I call it body astigmatism.
And what’s really interesting is that when somebody receives cranial sacral therapy and that does unwind or release the stigmatism in the body, if you then put on a non astigmatism correction in the eye, the cranial sacral treatment holds much better. And there becomes this communication link between the eyes and the body. Whereas if somebody puts their strongest astigmatism glasses or contacts in after the cranial session, a lot of the benefits that they receive during this Session are negated, because the eyes have such a strong pattern on the body, especially if there’s a twisting or a warping in the eyes that you’re looking through, your body is going to follow that, that pattern. And so what we want to do is we want to heal the split between the eyes and the body. And the way to do that is to start introducing lenses that are more symmetrical that don’t have astigmatism that aren’t overcorrecting you so that the body work that you receive will integrate with your eyes.
I also think it’s really important that if you’re going to do a process of reversing astigmatism, you really have to do physical therapy exercises. To help the eyes in the brain, reprogram the pattern of the twisting or the warping. And in my notes, I’ll put my 90 Day program I clarity program to reverse the astigmatism it works really, really well. And finally, I say this a lot. diet has a huge influence on our eyes. So eliminating sugar, reducing or eliminating gluten.
Stop eating all those chemical preservative processed foods GMO, anything that creates more inflammation in the body is going to solidify the astigmatism in the eye. Make sure you’re getting the following vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E, vitamin C, trace minerals like magnesium, selenium, chromium, zinc, and the antioxidants, lutein, zeaxanthin, ASTRA Xanthine and bilberry. And finally, make sure you get healthy fats I like Omega three, the ratio of omega three to omega six, one to one would be ideal. Three to six. A lot of people they have too much Omega six. And this creates an inflammatory response in the body I would say the ratio of two to one six to three would be about the highest you want to go.
So in summary, reversing astigmatism is a process of unwinding the eyes and body and it does take time to release it. And if you have eyestrain while you’re wearing the non astigmatism, glasses or contacts, that just put on your astigmatism prescription when you need to perform at a high level and see clearly. But in the end when you release the astigmatism, you will see the world without distortion, which can be very freeing and empowering. So that’s our show for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, take care.
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