Is your child having difficulty at school? Does he or she find it hard to copy what's written on the blackboard? Does your child have trouble concentrating?
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If so, he or she may have a vision problem and vision therapists claim they can solve that easily. Through a series of eye exercises designed to strengthen the eye muscles and the use of eyeglasses, vision therapists say they can improve your child's eyesight and his school performance.
"Promoters say this regimen will improve scholastic and athletic performance, will increase a student's IQ, and may help keep youngsters from juvenile delinquency. They also claim that it can help with the problem of dyslexia (inability to interpret written language)," according to Dr. David E. Larson, editor-in-chief of the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book.
The program offered by vision therapists is different from that of conventional optometrists and ophthalmologists. It includes exercises in hand-eye coordination, watching a series of blinking lights, focusing on certain objects, and sleeping in different positions. All these, they said, can eliminate your child's vision problems.
But other doctors disagree. They say the evidence supporting vision therapy is thin and eye exercises have limited uses in vision correction. Although most vision therapists belong to a group called behavioral optometrists, ophthalmologists and even some optometrists said that doesn't make their practice scientific.
Relying on eye exercises for potentially serious eye disorders can spell disaster for the patient. What's more, the unsubstantiated promises offered by vision therapists increase the patient's risk of delaying medical treatment that could save that person's sight.
"Vision training sessions are time-consuming - often once or twice a week - over the course of a year and expensive. There is no evidence that such training has any benefit," Larson said.
To protect yourself from quacks and other unlicensed practitioners, it pays to consult the right person. For help with vision problems, see an optometrist or an ophthalmologist.
An optometrist is one who measures the range and accuracy of vision and prescribes eyeglasses, contact lenses or other optical aids to preserve or restore eyesight. While that person is trained in ocular anatomy and pathology to detect eye diseases, he is not a medical doctor and cannot treat eye diseases or injuries.
Ophthalmologists, on the other hand, are physicians who specialize in eye diseases and vision disorders. They diagnose and treat eye defects and can also prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses.
"Typically, this eye specialist completes four years of medical school, one year of general medical training as a hospital intern, and at least three years in a hospital-based ophthalmology residency program. Some physicians train for an additional year or two to learn sub specialty, such as cornea, and external diseases, vitreous and retinal diseases, glaucoma, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, uveitis or neuro-ophthalmology. An ophthalmologist can diagnose and treat eye disease with medicine and surgery and can prescribe glasses and contact lenses, "said Dr. Mark Speaker of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and Karyn Feiden in The Well-Informed Patient's Guide to Cataract and other Eye Surgery.
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If your eye problems are getting worse and you get tired of buying new pair glasses year after year and further more eye surgery is not your option, you may want to try taking other alternatives to have better eyesight. It is reported that many people have benefited good results by following series of programs designed by eye experts and therapists to treat many eye problems such as near-sightedness (myopia), lazy eye (amblyopia), eyestrain, far-sightedness (hyperopia), presbyopia (old-age sight), light sensitivity, poor night vision and many more. The keys of success are simply daily eye relaxation and exercises, good nutrients for your eyes and eliminating stress. Let your mind control at what you see, because everything you see whether it is clear or blurry depends on the work of your brain.
Here are five simple and easy steps that you have to follow:
Relaxing your eyes with palming
"Palming" was originally a yoga technique which is then incorporated by Bates into his system of vision improvement. Better eyesight program is usually started by doing relaxing therapy. Palming is beneficial in calming the visual system. The warmth from your hands can help relaxing the tense of eyeballs.
Here's how to do:
Rub your hands to get them warm, then slightly cup your palms over the eyeballs (do not press your eyelids), fingers crossed over at your forehead. Feel the warmth of the hands, close your eyes, stay relaxed and try to think the most peaceful scene that you can imagine. Make sure that your palms block the lights coming to your eyes as much as possible.
The advantage of this therapy are physical and mental relaxation and eyestrain relief. At the beginning you may see swirling grey patches. As you relax, you will see darker and darker visual field. This is a signal that both your mind and body are totally relaxed and your visual system is working well. Practice this daily to achieve clarity to your vision.
Take your eyes for a good sleep
Sleep is essential for the body and the mind. We have different and various ways to help us prepare for sleep. We may stretch, drink a cup of relaxing tea, read something soothing or pray. It is important to know how we treat and take care our eyes before we go to rest. While our body and mind are taking rest, make sure our eyes can enjoy the peaceful relaxation. Even if they are not that exhausted, remember that our eye muscles have been working all day long and if we value our vision, we will want to help our eyes relax before we actually fall asleep. I often tell friends how to help relax eyes at night by looking in the distance for a minute before turning out the light. In this way, you can feel your eye muscles stretching. Making sure your eyes are completely relaxed as you fall asleep will allow them feel shiny and bright in the morning. Ending the day with beautiful thoughts will also quiet your mind and assist you in sleeping peacefully. Relaxing the optic nerve relaxes helps to promote better eyesight.
Train your eye muscles
Many of us spend hours in a cubicle working at the computer or studying, making our vision field cut off and the chance to look around are reduced. When the range of motion of our eye muscles shrinks, our vision can stiffen gradually and the eye's ability to see will decrease. To eye exercises avoid this we certainly have to train eye's muscles. Here's a simple practice based on yoga eye stretches.
First, remove your glasses or contacts. Sit with your spine upright. Slowly move you eyes toward the top of your head as far as you can. Stay calm and relax, inhale and exhale slowly for ten seconds. Then return to the straight position, then close your eyes and rest. Repeat the stretches with the same manner in other direction by looking from side to side, up-right and down-left and up-left and down-right. Do the movement slowly and keep breathing and relaxing. Then conclude the exercise by palming.
Reducing mental stress
Mental stress can cause us tense in our body and mind, one of the best ways to reduce your stress is to relax, calm and feel at peace. Your body will reacts when you relax, so are your eyes. In achieving better eyesight, you must help to make your eye muscles less tense and more flexible. So how can you get rid of your stress?
First, learn and understand ways to manage your time by planning your daily schedule and chores. Think which things are the most important things to do, make priority. Get plenty of rest, eat well, reduce alcohol intake, caffeine and quit smoking. Learn to say "no" and try new ways of positive thinking. Speak up your mind. Develop good communications with others to help you express on how you feel. Find new friends and allow your self to unwind to a quiet place.
Eating healthy food
Nutrition is a key factor in keeping a healthy visual system throughout life. The eyes and brain contain millions of highly specialized cells, such as the rods and cones, which have specific nutritional requirements. You can have better eyesight and help prevent eye diseases and promote healthy, clear vision by making wise by eating well. Here are nutrition basics for keeping healthy vision.
1. Eat a diet based on whole, fresh, organic foods. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, beans and grains, nuts and seeds.
2. Supplement your diet with a good multi-vitamin to get the minerals and vitamins you may not get from your food. As you know soil to grow fruits and vegetable might not as fertile as years ago, therefore take food necessary food supplement as source of minerals.
3. Incorporate anti-oxidants into your diet. Research shows that antioxidants can be very helpful in keeping healthy eyes to have better eyesight.
4. If you are diagnosed with an eye disease, it is advisable to consult a nutritionist or doctor who specializes in eye problems healing with nutrition and detoxification.
5. Remember that natural sunlight is also a nutrient that we need. Ideally, step outside and spend an outside to get natural light each day. Take a walk in the morning or evening, this exercises will benefit your overall health.
It does not take a lot effort to have better eyesight. All you need is good eye's trainings, choosing right food, relaxing your eyes and put away stress of your mind as well as your vision. It will allow you to have better and clearer vision in just a few weeks.