Thanks Tyler. This is a great podcast and website. I'm going to contact him as I think he could really help me.

I'm a bit confused by the artificial light aspect though. He says dimmed light is damaging to the eyes and to use full spectrum lights. At night now I only use candles and red tea lights - do you think this might be making my vision worse?

 

A couple things I would say. One is to join the facebook group, its called "endmyopia (Improve Eyesight & Myopia)" its a good place to ask questions to people who have good experience, and Jake sometimes gets on there also.
The second thing I would say to address your question is to balance blue light exposure with good lighting. So on the one hand you should definitely avoid indoor lighting, but if you are going to be indoors you at least need good lighting to help your eyes, on the other hand the more blue light the worse it is for your health. I would personally avoid the blue light and just deal with the dim light BUT make sure to reduce the amount of time looking in the dim light. If the majority of your day is spent outside practicing the active focus and distance vision that Jake recommends then a little time indoors will not be enough to offset the improvement in vision you get from being outdoors. This is what I've found for myself and also what Jake confirms. He even says that someone who works in front of a computer for 8 hours a day can still see improvement if they do it right and spend enough time practicing the techniques in good lighting.
In other words I think you'll be fine. I have found that my eyes do pretty well and progress pretty regularly as long as I'm not confusing them with too much change in differential lenses and too much blur.

 

My tenpenneth: I have no idea how much UV is emitted from mass-produced tea lights and candles, but I do know that most of them, for some strange reason, contain UV suppressing chemical additives. I use candles. Old school independently produced beeswax ones.

 

Overexpression of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Protects Large Retinal Ganglion Cells Following Optic Nerve Crush in Mice, published on January 5, 2017, in eNeuro and authored by Liang Feng, Zhen Puyang, Hui Chen, Peiji Liang, John B. Troy, and Xiaorong Liu.

BDNF is a retinal Rx for illness correction.
Nature does not reason with us. Nature is no democracy. Nature doesn't sit down with you and start a discussion.........you need to remember how you were made to exist within her frame work and if you do not, disease is the result! Simple.

BDNF ALERT: Without our biological, or circadian, clock we would be sleeping in multiple episodes spread over the 24-hour day and our performance would not be stable in each wake bouts. This is linked to the levels of BDNF in the brain. Brain derived nerve growth factor (BDNF) levels are markedly altered when ubiquination is off kilter. It is also linked to Vitamin A and melanopsin de-coupling in th eye clock to lead to elevated ubiquitin marking in the retina. Ubiquitination is linked to altered light cycles = circadian disruption. BDNF increases new neuron sprouting and new growth in our brain, but the newly created circuits have to be pruned by the action of melatonin at night, during autophagy. This is how % heteroplasmy rates are reduced by sleep. If you have a circadian mismatch because of blue light toxicity, you do not release melatonin properly at night, so you never optimally prune these new arborizations. As a result, your brain does not work well. This leads to obesity by altering appetite. This loss of BDNF levels really affects oscillations of the mitochondria in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Here the 100 Hz frequency vanishes and fat burning in these mitochondria stops. The PVN is where adrenal fatigue like symptoms begin and it can cause leptin resistance because of how leptin links to the PVN via the melanocortin system. The effects of BDNF are similar to drug addiction in several studies you can read on pubmed. These directly link to dopamine levels. So when you start exercising, the feeling of euphoria is the highest at the beginning because of beta endorphin from POMC, and it goes down from there if heteroplasmy rates rise from too much stress from the exercise. With exercise, the dose makes the toxin because of how much energy we harvest from the sun via out mitochondrial colony. BDNF and endorphins are supposed to be yoked by our circadian cycle in their release, but when you are blue light toxic they are no longer yoked. They become uncoupled because of a loss of calcium signaling. Excessive blue light via the eye and skin chronically causes altered calcium flows into mitochondrial which altered the oscillations of the mitochondrial membrane. This destroys beta oxidation. What protein controls this "light timing" mechanism in all eukaryotic cells? Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II. nnEMF and blue light destroy this process of calcium signaling in the mitochondria.

Today neurologic research shows the release of beta endorphins have an addictive effect to keep us in the sun, and more exercise is needed to raise endorphins when there is a mismatch to light to achieve the same level of euphoria over time. This is why LDN is successful in SOME cases adrenal fatigue, poor sleep, and in autoimmunity, because endorphins are missing from the neuronal sprouting effects of BDNF. LDN only works because beta-endorphin is absent from a life without sunlight. A life without sun means no POMC and no POMC means no beta endorphin and a low dopamine and melatonin level. This situation predisposes us to mitochondrial disease. A lack of sunlight unleashes a Kracken hidden in our mtDNA. Those cases are rare and related to the % heteroplasmy in the brain's mitochondria in the hypothalamus.

So this means, if you have never exercised before, or at least not for a long time, your happiness gains will be the highest when you begin, or when your circadian signaling gets back to normal. This is why the Leptin Rx tells people to hold off exercise, until your redox state improves as you fix your light environment; if you don’t pay attention to this detail, you might be a good looking hard body cross-fitter who kills themselves someday. Depression and suicide is linked to low BDNF states when it affects key grey matter nuclei.

This shocks people when I explain it, because they are missing the key point of how cells are organized. There have been several recent high profile paleo suicides, and no one wants to talk about how the “lifestyle” might have contributed to the situation. That conversation needs to occur. It is not just about food, people. Mitochondria are quantized electromechanical heat sensors that pay attention to vibrations they get from the environment. They can’t pay attention to these oscillations when calcium is being chronically effluxed from cells because of poor lighting, and a lack of solar light. Variation in the BDNF gene also affect brain's regulation of appetite and sleep according to new research done on grey matter nuclei of the hypothalamus. http://snip.ly/m978p#http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/311210.php

 

Nature is the basis of medicine. Natural medicine was once the only medicine. It wasn’t considered “an alternative.” That only happened much later, after synthetically produced, patent drugs came onto the scene, and profit and not safety and efficacy became the ultimate priority of the healthcare complex.

 

So how can we track the conversion of sunlight to a DC electric current conversion in tissues to monitor the effect on cells? Why not track voltage, current, Coulomb force with a dye to show us where the energy flows? Researchers have developed voltage sensitive dyes that track the electrical activity of a beating heart to test for injury or disease. This means we can use it in most other tissues like the eye or spine to see how mitochondria in these local tissues respond. http://today.uconn.edu/2017/08/colorful-dyes-detect-electric-signals-heartbeat/

 

Thanks Tyler - I've joined so will ask for some help.
I think I may be doing my eyes some damage at present with the lack of light at nighttime.

I also take off my glasses a lot to get natural light on my eyes and wondered if this is also not good because at -12 and -13 there is a huge amount of differential blur. I wondered what you thought?

 

You sound like me, I definitely want to get as much natural into my eyes as possible. Here's what I did: In the morning I would stand facing the sun and not wear any glasses for 15 to 30 minutes. Then I would go ahead and wear my glasses the rest of the day. this assured I at least got what might be considered the minimum amount of morning sun that I need while still wearing the lenses most of the day so as not to have any blur. And I wouldn't worry too much about wearing the lenses all day, because the area around your glasses is still allowing natural light into your eyes, it's just not as much as would be optimal. My logic is that I want to get back to 20/20 as soon as possible so that I can start getting the optimal amount every day, and this requires that I wear the lenses for now to make this happen.

I will tell you the biggest thing from Jake that helped me was the change in habit/ change in lifestyle and behavior. This is difficult but it's crucial, I had to actively keep myself from falling to my old pattern of looking down when I walk or looking at things close to me. You have to break this habit! start looking in the distance. when driving look out to the farthest sign ahead and try to bring the words into focus (this is a crude version of the active focus, but it works.) when you walk look out ahead of you in the distance, don't look down! keep your head up and good posture (this will also increase your confidence). and very importantly make sure to not use your full prescription when looking at things up close, if its something small like your phone you can pull it up close to read it. keep it at just enough distance to where you have to actively focus to bring the words into clarity, without squinting! this is the sweet spot distance that you basically want everything at.

For me these habits were difficult, your body operates off of neurological patterns, this makes you more efficient in your movement and makes it to wear you don't even have to think about it when performing the tasks that you do often. And the way you look at the world around you is something that you do very often! But this also makes it quicker to build the new habit, you just have to work hard for about two weeks at catching yourself starring at the closer object as opposed to looking out in the distance.

I was scarred that it wasn't going to work when I first started, after listening to the podcast I went to the eye doctor (one that was willing to work with me) and he dropped my prescription down from -4.00 to -3.50 in both eyes. Turns out the -4.00 was overprescribed ( most people are overprescribed) and I had been wearing these for years ( I actually remember eye doctors for the past few years being surprised that my myopia wasn't progressing as most peoples do, because your eye will continue to elongate as long as you wear overprescribed lenses and practice poor vision techniques!) Anyways when I dropped to -3.50 I was skeptical but within about two months I could actually tell my vision was pretty good so I decided to drop down to -3.25. I didn't go to the eye doctor cause I could buy the lenses online for 15 to 20 bucks as opposed to 300 to 400! the -3.25's were pretty rough and I them for about 5 or 6 months, again I was scarred that I would stop making progress, but then things started getting clearer and clearer. I dropped again to -3.00 then in only a month I dropped again to -2.75. Hopefully I can keep progressing quickly, but from what I've read there will be some long stretches of seemingly no change and some breakthrough periods.

Anyways I hope this helps, I hear that high myopes like yourself actually progess pretty quickly in the beginning because of the way diopters are measured so hopefully you can jump down pretty quickly.

 

This is really inspiring. I'm going to double check my prescription today and order a pair half a dioptre improved! Thanks for sharing

 

This is so helpful - thank you for taking the time to message me the details. I will try and start reading Jake's stuff today. I need to order new glasses too so will get them a half diopter less I think. The tricky one is my right eye which has a cataract in. I can't see much out of that one at all so focussing will be irrelevant. Its hard reading all this stuff online too as I now its damaging my cataract eye even more. The idea of pulling my phone up to my eye close to read it worries me because of the blue light - what do you think about this?

 

I can't speak to having a cataract as I haven't really looked into it. I do know that Jake writes about it and here is an article where one person seems to have great improvements with their high myopia and a cataract in their right eye http://endmyopia.org/cataract-alternative-treatment-debbie-progress/ So it looks like there is some promising alternatives to surgery, such as eye drops.

As far as holding the phone close to your eyes I think the same advice would apply to everyone: the time spent looking at your phone or a screen should be reduced as much as possible. However, with long term viewing I would say you have two options. One is to use a blue blocker app on your phone and computer and just get your face close. the other is to have a pair of glasses that are reduced from your normal prescription that is specifically for up close things. Actually having two pairs of glasses, one for distance one for up close, is what Jake recommends. You don't want to have more than two or you will confuse your focal plane. I myself just decided to have one pair of glasses for distance. I just avoid up close work and when I do read a book or my phone, I just get my face close. And on my phone I make sure to have my blue blocker app turned on

zennioptical.com (where I buy my glasses) will make whatever lenses you get into blue blockers for a few extra bucks. This may be a good option if you decide to go with reduced prescription differentials.

 

Did you try the + lenses hack (reading glasses).

I had a look in the shop - my prescription is -4.75 - and they had +1, +2 and +3. Did you try that to relax the muscle Jake is talking about?

 

Thanks again Tyler. I'm currently in London and heading back to Ibiza in 3 weeks so need to get things going in terms of ordering my new glasses. I'm waiting on getting my prescription back so I can make a decision on what to order. I might get your advice if thats ok? Does the website you use deliver and do they take ages? Because I'm so myopic I have my glasses thinned down as much as possible for vanity reasons so this is going to cost a small fortune! I already have 3 pairs (one normal high prescription with UV protection (this can't be taken off as the prescription is too high apparently) one that block violet blue for laptop work - same prescription - and the UVEX Bono style orange complete blue blockers that I wear at night over my glasses.) Not sure I can cope with any more! I could really do with a one to one consultation with Jake for advice as to whats best but he doesn't do them sadly. I can't see anything close up more than about 12 inches away so not sure what I should do about this yet. I might ask for advice on the FB page.
Thanks again

 

If you are referring to wearing reading glasses for up close work then that will only be good if you have good vision already or if you wear contacts. For people like us we still need minus lenses even for up close work, unless you're like me and just get your face at just the right distance away from the close thing. But if you are higher than -4 then I would probably recommend a pair of reduced prescription lenses for close work like -3 or whatever is best. I actually do wear contacts sometimes (although I don't recommend this either as this will block almost all UV light) and when I wear contacts THEN I do have some reading glasses that I use to read a book or look at a computer or phone screen.

Basically the Habit and lifestyle change I mentioned earlier is what I did to relax the muscle. If you get outside and practice the active focus then the muscle will start to relax. So get outside and just look at something, back away from the thing to where the thing JUST goes blurry then just look at it like Jake describes. try to pull it into focus to where it is not blurry anymore, don't squint, if you have to squint then you're a little too far. I just practice this on random things as I go throughout my day. This habit change is what will get you results.

I just listened to the podcast again yesterday, I think the way Jake says to "only wear the lenses you need" is a good way to put it. So make sure to not wear your distance lenses for up close work, and the lenses you wear now are probably a little too strong so you can start by Immediately backing off your current prescription by .25 to .5 diopter (this might be tricky to determine but you can print out the centimeter chart and determine exactly what you need). I myself just went to the eye doctor that helped determine what the lowest prescription I could go with, which was nice because of the nice equipment they had to determine this, especially if you have astigmatism and need a cylindrical correction on top of your spherical correction. The downside to the eye doctor is that you get measure indoors under artificial light, so the diopter amount that you get in there will be different than what you get if they conducted the measurement outside because of the lighting. Now that I have a good idea of the whole process I haven't been back to the eye doctor, nor will I go back.

 

Yes they deliver, shipping is pretty cheap too. Do they take ages? I'm not sure what you mean. I think when I have ordered my glasses I did see a lens option that did say something about making it as thin as possible, I know they have a lot of options. The Facebook page is definitely a good option. Also I would go to the website and sign up for the seven day (or seven week??) email course. It's free, Jake just made a string of like seven emails that he sends over the course of a few days that will provide some info to get you started, I did this and a few months later Jake actually emailed me and asked how things were going, I responded and he responded back, it was really him. So you might just email him and see if he responds. And of course there is always the option of his paid service which will get you one on one consultation and he'll tell you exactly what to do, but even he doesn't recommend people do this because all the info can be found for free on his website... But yea I would try the facebook page.

 

Sorry I meant ages to deliver.

I did actually get a reply from Jake but he said eh can't do one to one as too busy. He was nice and said to stay in touch.

I'm slightly confused Tyler, apologies, would you mind clarifying for me. So, with -11.75 and -13.50 (and a stigmatism), should I be keeping my glasses on for all long vision and taking them off to read up close? And not keep taking them off to get light in my eye in the day? I also need reading glasses but can only wear those with lenses and I no longer wear those as they're too dangerous for my eyes being so myopic. I guess I'm asking what would you do if you were me? What prescription would you take my glasses too and not sure how I can use reading glasses without my contact lenses? I will definitely subscribe to Jakes 7day/week thing now! I've not had a chance before and then less questions for you! Thanks again.

 

No worries, I don't mind to help at all. So you would want two pairs of glasses. One pair for distance which will be close to what you have now but reduced enough to challenge you to focus on things to bring them into clarity and not be overprescribed. The other pair will be around -9 or -10 diopters. this is a really rough estimation, with higher myopia like yours a jump of 1 to 2 diopters is actually less of a jump than 1 to 2 diopters for someone at -4. At -4 diopters a decrease of 2 diopters is a difference of 25 centimeters, for someone at -12 diopters a decrease of 2 diopters is a difference of 1.7 centimeters. So you can get away with a bigger jump, but how big I'm not sure. You'll really want to thoroughly look through the blog and on facebook before getting your 2 pairs of glasses.... But if you find that you made a poor decision after you buy some you can just buy the right ones as its not terribly expensive, and you might be able to keep the other pair (if they're lower prescription) for when you can jump down to them. Also you'll want to come to a good understanding of how to correct for astigmatism, this is on the blog also, but you'll need to know when you punch in your prescription online (if that's the route you decide to go). I would definitely get a copy of your prescription from your most recent visit and go from there, make sure you also get your pupillary distance (PD) its the distance in millimeters between your pupils, its necessary for buying glasses and it wasn't included on my prescription from my doctor visits so I had to email the doctors office and ask them... or you can measure it, but its a pain.

If you read one blog post I posted earlier its about a high myopia person who quit correcting for astigmatism and she said her eyes did much better... I myself used to have astigmatism but it corrected itself long ago.. I do wonder if some astigmatism prescriptions are unnecessary, but you might want to do some more reading to determine for yourself.

So 2 pairs of glasses, one for most of the time when your outdoors/looking not up close, the other a reduced prescription for looking up close. I would recommend always wearing either pair and only wearing nothing for up to 20 to 30 minutes in the morning to get light in the eyes, otherwise leave them on. And if you decide to wear contacts (first of all you'll have to correct the prescription accordingly because the contacts are closer to your eyes the diopters will be slightly different than your glasses prescription) then you can wear reading glasses with your contacts when your looking at things up close... I know its a lot to think about but I want to really assure you and encourage you that its really not too bad to figure out, It will only take a few days of researching for you to understand how to figure out your prescription. And actually you can get on zennioptical.com and start to order some glasses and when you go to put in your prescription it will help you entering in the info and explain what each thing means, so you might want to look at that first then you'll know what numbers you need to go get.

 

They're pretty quick actually, usually takes about 1 week after I place my order to get the glasses

 

Thats so helpful Tyler. Thank you very much. It does sound confusing but so does everything when we first learn about it and then hopefully it'll get easier. The reason I ask about timing is because I head back to Ibiza on the 23rd and really want to get this done before I go as its tricky sending stuff there.

What would you suggest about blocking blue? I currently use two pairs of glasses already - one as per usual and one for computer use that blocks the violet for the day and then I wear the Bono ones over the top at night. I was going to get a 3rd pair made up with my prescription and the amber so I don't need the Bono ones. Now I'm not sure. What do you do?

Then no more questions

 

I don't have any blue blockers, I just don't watch tv or anything at night, and I go to bed at dark, and my phone has a blue blocker app. But it is a good idea to have some. I would say get blue blocker lenses on your second pair of glasses (the ones you'll use for close up) because I would imagine those will be the ones you'll look at screens with or be indoors, but it really depends on your lifestyle and what you do. If you don't mind spending the money then you could get both a regular pair and a blue blocker pair with each of your glasses. They are cheap but at about 20 bucks a piece 4 pairs of glasses can add up. So I would say this one is up to you.