What Is Nearsightedness

And What Are My Options?

Nearsightedness or myopia is the most common cause of blurred vision when viewing objects at a distance. People with nearsightedness must squint or strain to see objects that are in the distance. This is most notable for students in a classroom setting where it can be difficult to see the front of the classroom. At home, a child with nearsightedness might insist on sitting close to the television, or hover their face directly over their book or schoolwork.

Nearsightedness can develop at any age in life, but it sports a very strong correlation with level of academic achievement. Less than 5 percent of Americans are born with nearsightedness. Most become myopic during the first eighteen years of life. By ten years of age, only 10 percent are nearsighted; by fifteen, 25 percent; and by eighteen, fully 40 percent of us are myopic. Those involved with higher education increase the numbers - 60 percent of college students are nearsighted, as are 75 percent of those in graduate school¹. 

Nearsightedness is not considered a disease, but is caused by a shift in the shape of the eye. If one or both parents are nearsighted, it is more likely their children will also be nearsighted, but no genetic link has been discovered. Most evidence suggests nearsightedness is brought on by doing too much close work over a prolonged period of time. Luckily, there are many ways to treat nearsightedness.

Eyeglasses

Eyeglasses can correct the effects of nearsightedness, and advancements in lens material have made glasses more comfortable than ever. However, the cost of eyeglasses has never come down and continues to inflate in price, making for an expensive fix year after year.  

Contact Lenses

If you don't like wearing glasses, contact lenses may be another option for your nearsightedness. Hard or soft lenses are available in clear or tinted styles. Some people like to buy tinted contacts to change the color of their eyes. Others have difficulty placing something on the eye, or have abnormally dry eyes that limit the type of lenses which can be worn. The drawbacks to contact lenses is that they can tend to make your eyes tired or dry out even if you have never had a problem with dry eyes in the past. Additionally, like glasses, the cost can become prohibitive over a full year’s worth of wear.

Implanted Lenses or Laser Eye Surgery

If glasses and contacts are both undesirable for you, implanted lenses or laser surgery are two more options for correcting the effects of nearsightedness. These choices are more expensive than contact lenses or glasses, and may have considerable negative side-effects for you well into the future.

Eye Exercises

If you don't like the idea of having to constantly wear corrective lenses or having people cut on your eyeball to see better, you may consider eye exercises. We have done our research (including reviewing literally hundreds of medical and clinical studies) and have come to several conclusions about eye exercises:

1. The eye is NOT a static camera lens whose focal stop is determined by genetics (this is the model that most eye doctors learn in optometry school, called the Donder/Helmholtz model).

2. The eye's ability to focus is controlled by muscles that surround a clear, crystalline lens inside your eye. These muscles are called the ciliary body muscles, and they are completely responsible for your ability to focus clearly.

3. When you were young, your eyes were capable of correcting very large amounts of focal error in order to give you great vision. Almost all people lose this range of focus-ability as they grow older. Some evidence suggests that this happens because of eyeglasses or contact lenses.

4. Eye exercises can strengthen your eye muscles and eventually allow your eyes to once again correct through the nearsightedness, either up close or far away.

5. Very few eye exercises are designed to work and strengthen the ciliary body muscles. Other eye exercise programs provide only eye relaxation techniques, improperly labled "eye exercises".

The Eyezercise program is a complete and comprehensive program for developing strength and flexibility within the eye muscles to improve clarity of eyesight. Why not give our program a try? You have nothing to lose with our 60 day full money back guarantee!

1 Gottlieb, Raymond L. “Neuropsychology of Myopia”, Journal of Optometric Vision Development, Col. 13, No. 1 (March 1982), pp.3-27.