Seeing Your Roots

This is kind of an impromptu post, as before this morning, I didn't even consider this to be a topic. I'm a huge believer in evolution and I trust my body more than most doctors just because humans have been around way longer than modern medicine. I feel we should have a little more faith in that fact alone.

I had an eye appointment this morning, mostly to order contact lenses and to ask about a condition I've developed. My eyes have been extremely dry and I looked up the symptoms only to find that I have "Dry Eyes", which doesn't help much. The doc told me the same thing. I asked her a few more questions and she indirectly told me that sometimes wearing contact lenses can cause this sort of thing to happen, and that it is common and all I have to do is take some of these eye drops 4 times a day for MONTHS and then see if it improves. Doesn't sound fun. So I asked her about Lasik, and she said no surgeon would operate on someone who has that kind of dry eye condition.

So let me get this straight.

This temporary fix to nearsightedness could potentially be causing other problems that prevent me from a permanent fix?

That seems a little backwards to me. I won't even go into the insurance problems I had with coverage yet again, but it seems to me that the ultimate goal here is not for the benefit of me and my possible permanent fix to nearsightedness but a way to keep me coming back for more prescriptions and in some cases, drugs.

I looked up some potential causes of myopia (nearsightedness) and it seems to correlate with a number of factors including (but not limited to) lack of Vitamin D/ Sun Exposure, reading, computer usage, TV usage, and other things that basically limit your eye muscles to seeing short distances.

Now it seems to me that all exceptions aside, one could potentially go outside more and maybe "re-train" their eyes to at least reduce their use of glasses or contacts? Maybe even to the point of elimination? I've done some basic research, the "Bates Method" seems to be the most popular and I've already downloaded it to my Kindle. But I want to do more than just read. I think it's necessary to step away from the computer and go outside more to really get my eyes working outside again (I can only see shapes and colors farther than about 10 feet right now), maybe even watch shows/movies at a distance (since I AM still keeping up with pop culture due to my schedule), and whatever exercises they recommend. I could go further and reduce the size of the text on my screen or something, but I'll stick with something simple to ensure consistency.

Let me just make a statement. I TRULY believe our dependency on our current prescriptions (in most cases) is what prevents our eyes from getting better. If hunter-gatherers in other cultures and in our past ever had this sort of nearsightedness, they would not survive. But this epidemic of nearsightedness is ridiculous in my opinion, and making some industry incredibly wealthy. Ahem.

With that said, I will be only wearing contacts when I go out to important public events, wearing my glasses during other times to try and improve the dryness that may be caused by the contacts, and whenever I am in front of a computer or reading, I am going to try to use nothing to see. After reading this book, I will update you guys on what else I will be doing.

Oh and of course adding these elements into my diet. Almost forgot about that :) Mostly will be fish oil supplements and more carrots, because the rest is either not in my lifestyle choices, or is already in my belly almost every night (Yummmm Kale).

I'm not really looking for feedback on this post, even the science side. Frankly, I want to try it and let that dictate my opinion and how it applies to me. Other than that, I hope you are all well. Feel free to email me at sonya.m.ballas@gmail.com if you have any questions or suggestions!