I am a master optician and a lot of customers ask me “if you can improve your eyesight naturally?”. In this article, I talk about my experiences with customers that tried training methods and grid glasses to improve their eyesight naturally.
In general it is not scientifically proven for training methods or grid glasses to improve eyesight naturally.
The golden standard is the subjective refraction to see if the prescription did not change got worse or change for the better. When I tested customers that claimed to perform eye exercises like eye yoga to improve their vision naturally I did of course see in my data what refraction they had before and what refraction they had now. Over the years I looked at the data of half a dozen of people that visited my optical store and tried to improve their vision.
Only one person showed an improvement in the actual refraction. The other persons did not show an improvement in their refractive error. But it seemed they got more used to the blurriness around them. In most cases the refractive error or the prescription does not change much. But sometimes an improvement can be seen also with people not performing eye exercises.
Of course, this person said it must come from eye yoga but out of the experience, I can say bigger fluctuations (which can mean an improvement or worsening) can happen when the thyroid, blood pressure changes, or diabetes comes into play. It oftentimes can be linked to this but sometimes an improvement happens and the medical doctor can not link this change in refractive error to a special cause.
In addition to the experience with my customers that tried to improve their eyesight and wanted a quick check-up in the eye test every few months I browsed the web and looked out for methods and techniques that might work. So let us find out more.
Can You Train Your Eyes to Not Need Glasses?
There is a big community on the web believing eye training works and promoting it. In the video below you can find a video basically telling you should hold something, you want to read in a distance where it is slightly blurry and your eyes should relax the muscles to increase the distance in which they can see clearly. The comments below the video are very positive.
The man in the video is Todd Becker and he was prescribed a prescription too strong for him decades ago and reversed myopia by lowering the prescription and giving his eyes the chance to relax. I have no doubt this method worked perfectly in his case. Because when the lenses are too strong muscle spasms can be the result of the muscles influencing the shape of the eye lens. It makes sense to reduce the prescription and he even recommends going the other route and read with plus lenses which also makes sense and lets the eye muscles relax.
There is a lot of truth in the things he says and in the case of a prescription that is too strong, this is the way to go to improve vision naturally. There is also a lot of information in his talk that is used in myopia care today. Those are essential guidelines to slow down the progression of myopia mostly in children.
While the optometrist or the ophthalmologist does this in a very controlled way which supports the way how both eyes play together here in the video it is recommended to simply path one eye. When this advice comes from a person that is not your eye doctor I can only speak against it.
Patching one eye depending on the age of the person can influence binocular vision. And this influence depending on how long it lasted could produce lasting changes. Not in favor of the person/child wearing the patch.
In addition, the recommendation is to reduce the prescription of your glasses in a DIY approach but a study for example showed the progression rate of myopia actually increased when the lens power is too low. I will link this study here from Kahmeng Chung. Here is a short summary of the study.
Ninety-four Myopes aged 9-14 years participated in the two-year study. The study participants were randomly divided into two groups. While the myopes in the first group underwent full correction, 47 individuals in the second group underwent an under-correction of 0.75 diopters. Undercorrection in the second group resulted in faster myopia progression and eye length growth. In contrast to animals, myopic defocus in humans accelerates myopia progression if there was preexisting myopia.
Another study indeed improved myopia slightly naturally by using special ortho k lenses. Here an overall reduction could be seen in a study with 30 children in a period over 18 months. Those findings are really interesting but at the same time, there are far from the claims of some trainers. Some of the claim you could shave several diapers off your prescription by performing certain eye exercises. Of course, this is what people want to hear. If you had success with improving your vision naturally send me an email. I would love to hear your story.
Can Eyesight Be Restored?
Eyesight can‘t be restored without professional help. There’s no quick-and-easy fix for eyesight problems. An eye care professional will look at your eyes individually. In addition with tools such as good nutrition and diet, you can still help your eyesight naturally and on your own. Please visit an eye care professional for further information.
Conclusion
Although there is a lot of good information on how to improve your eyesight naturally on the web there is also simply wrong data. Personally, I work in the eye industry and while my opinion can be biased I recommend visiting an eye care professional instead of trying the DIY approach. When you are a grown person trying out different methods is worth the shot if you believe in the methods shown in the video above. But do not try this with younger wearers of spectacles.
I wish you a great day.