The way we approach health care for our eyes can either save us or cost us a pretty penny. I mentioned before that I am particularly interested in natural cure. This is by no means meant to totally dismiss the efforts and achievements of the medical field. I just strongly believe that there are natural ways to treat or cure some eyesight problems without having to go the traditional route which we all know can be pretty expensive. Natural remedy seems to focus more on the correcting the cause of the condition rather than treat or mask the symptoms. I recently learnt of a very inexpensive eye ware known as the pinhole glasses. As much as I like natural remedies I am also a skeptic, but I do my best to read and learn with an open mind.
Above is a picture of the rather peculiar looking glasses that I will be focusing on.
Natural Eye Cure - Treating the Cause More than the Symptom
I am still not sure what I think of those pinhole glasses when I look at them. They do remind me of a pair of sun glasses either me or my father owned back in the day - minus the holes of course. How on earth will those "dark" glasses cure anything? Based on my research they are said to be pretty useful in curing some rather complex eye conditions. These include cataract, astigmatism, short-sightedness and long-sightedness.
A rather tall order for such ordinary looking pair of glasses I'd say. This was all the idea of one John Bates who I will focus on in a later post. The concept here is that simpler approaches are many times the best way to deal with complex situations. A glasses with numerous holes versus prescription glasses.
To kick start the comparison I think we can safely say that prescription glasses only target the symptoms. Ophthalmologists do promise that the eye condition will be cured after wearing prescription glasses. They actually let us know that as time progress and one prescription fades out we will need to replace it with a stronger prescription. Pinhole glasses on the other hand is said to be worn for short periods and eye exercises are to be used to help strengthen the eye muscles which will lead to gradual improvement and even a cure for the patient's in eye sight.
In my layman mind there seems to be a bit more science in the use of the pinhole glasses. Let's explore this a bit more.
How Do They Work?
Pinhole glasses are equipped with plastic perforated lenses. The holes in the glasses will allow the light from the object of your attention to filter through to the eye's lens. This beam of light will pass through the aperture of the pupil before settling on the lens. The aperture is the hole or opening of the pupil. The light that passes from the pupil to the lens will be narrowed to allow a smaller blur circle to be cast onto the retina. This means the size of the object you are looking at is adjusted before it is passed on to the retina. Let us take a little time to understand a bit more the relation between the light rays from the object we are focusing on, the lens and the retina.
My understanding is that certain common sight problems are often associated with how the object falls on the retina - longsightedness (far-sightedness/hyperopia/hypermetropia) and shortedness (nearsightedness/myopia). A lens that is functioning properly will be selective in the light rays it allows to pass through to the retina. That would actually be the light rays from the object of our focus. In order to do its job effectively the lens must be able to change to the required shape to facilitate the viewing of various objects at various distances. When it loses its ability to change its shape, unwanted light will filter through from your peripheral vision. The object may appear blurry when this happens. The lens is controlled by the ciliary muscles. They pull the lens into the required shape based on the distance of the object. When these muscles become weak the lens loses its ability to change shape.
A healthy lens will refract/bend the light rays so they fall on the retina which will be able to send a clear message of the image you are looking at to the brain. If it is not working correctly the image will all in front of or behind the retina so it can only send a blurry image to the brain which must then try to decipher exactly what you are looking at.
Long-Sightedness
In the case of long-sightedness (hyperopia), the inability of the lens to focus or bend the light rays from the object correctly will cause the image to fall behind the retina. This is because the eyeball is too short. The image will then appear to be blurry. People with this condition avoid viewing objects from a close-up range.
Shortsightedness
Light rays from the object you are looking at falls short of the retina and the image is blurry. The eyeball is oval shaped instead of round, and therefore too long for the image to fall right on the retina. People with shortsightedness tend to view images from a closer distance such as sitting close to the TV screen or holding a book close to their face as they read.
You can often tell when an individual is suffering from one of these conditions. The inability of the eye to focus solely on the light of the object they are looking at will cause them to do something to help their eye focus. They may squint, blink the eye, hold things at a certain distance as well as move away or move closer to the object.
Now Back to the Pinhole Glasses
The pinhole glasses help to the eye to focus by blocking out the extra light rays that are in your peripheral vision. They allow the light rays from the object to pass through to the lens so it can bend the light and pass the image on to the retina. Extra light from your peripheral vision cause distraction that the lens cannot handle. We often squint to try to block out this extra light that is interfering with our vision. At times we may try to use our hand to shield our eyes and gain a more accurate focus on the object of our attention. By eliminating this distraction, the pinhole glasses allow the lens to go right on to its work without our assistance. If you should squint right now as you read this you will notice that as your eyelids come closer together the light coming in from certain angles are blocked out. The pinhole glasses actually mimic the action of the eyelids.
If you or anyone you know wear prescription glasses for farsightedness or nearsightedness you may notice that you/they still tend to squint a lot or sometimes place your/their hands just above the eyes when there's a need to focus. Wearing pinhole glasses for short periods during the day helps to strengthen the ciliary muscles. Here's how...
Each of the tiny holes in the glasses will only permit a certain amount of light to pass through. These holes are smaller than your pupils, and are therapeutic in their own way as they cause the pupils to relax and allow the light to pass through. The pupils do not have to work to adjust the volume of light that is filtered through. Remove the glasses and this will change as light rays start flooding in from various angles and cause a distraction. With the pinhole glasses doing the work of your eyelids the pupils simply adjust, accept the filtered light and allow it to pass through their center on to the retina.
The weakened ciliary muscles also get in on the action as they now start to pull the lens into shape again so they can adjust to facilitate the object you are looking at. Each time you wear the pinhole glasses the ciliary muscles get to exercise and get stronger and stronger. Over time they become strong enough to work on their own. e wearing of the pinhole glasses must be complimented with eye exercises. I will focus on that topic in another post.
A Little More on Prescription Glasses
I mentioned it before, but will point it out here again. Prescription glasses are not designed to filter light and therefore the ciliary muscles only get weaker as they get no exercise. Even with a prescription glass on many people still have to strain to focus. The eyesight continues to deteriorate, and this leads to the need for stronger prescription glasses. Not only do your eyes become dependent on these glasses, but the cost basically amounts to such high figures.
Pinhole glasses are very cheap and will not harm your vision. It really does not hurt to try them out. I see where some say they come in some very fashionable designs, but unless I'm missing something I have not seen that. What I'll say is that they are wearable and furthermore you do not have to sport them as you are only required to wear them for a certain period of time each day.
I look forward to updating with some personal reviews, and would like to hear from you as well. Spill it all - the good and the bad.
