4 ms·

I'm in a similar situation as as you in that I wear glasses and have busted right eye due to eye muscle surgery in the early 1980s. I can "see" out of it but r

I'm in a similar situation as as you in that I wear glasses and have busted right eye due to eye muscle surgery in the early 1980s. I can "see" out of it but reading text is impossible unless it's like a foot tall. The thought of avoiding screens never occurred to me. Wouldn't any medium be it a screen, paper book, or Kindle cause eye strain on your left eye? I've seen many optometrists/ophthalmologists over the years and nobody recommended to avoid screens. One doctor advised me to avoid using contacts since eyeglasses always give you eye protection for the left eye and that was it.

longnguyen 4y ago
Oh, I didn't know that using contacts is not advisable. Thank you. Between doing a LASIK and using contacts, I was leaning toward the latter. But now probably will just wear glasses. I find computer screens cause more eye strain than Kindle. Yeah, I don't think we can avoid screens completely. I just wanted to offload some of the reading to the Kindle. So I could read outside more.
- dangus 4y ago
  Definitely don't do LASIK. Look into the rates of complications and side effects. There's a good argument that it's really not a procedure that should have ever been approved. I don't think the advice to avoid contacts as a baseline recommendation is the takeaway of the comment you replied to, that advice pertained to that person's specific medical situation. Also, personally, I don't believe it's the type of screen that's problematic for long-term eyesight. What my optometrist told me is that we weren't really evolved to be looking at things close up for long periods of time. I don't think e-ink versus backlit screen is the issue – certainly, our eyes take in a lot more ambient light from not-screens during the day compared to the weak little LED light on our screen. The real issue is spending 8+ hours a day focused on close up objects. Take frequent breaks where you are looking in the distance, go on walks, etc. Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me.
  - lolinder 4y ago
    > Definitely don't do LASIK. Look into the rates of complications and side effects. There's a good argument that it's really not a procedure that should have ever been approved. Can you provide more details on this? A cursory search doesn't turn up anything especially alarming. The only source I could find that was alarming is this[0], which I don't really trust because it reads a bit like anti-vax literature ("see what they're hiding", etc.) and is very old (all sources they cite are from 2009 or earlier). My understanding has been that the procedure has improved dramatically in that time in both cost and safety. [0] https://lasikcomplications.com/ https://lasikcomplications.com/
    - dangus 4y ago
      Perhaps I'm not as well-informed on this subject as I thought, because I had done some research months/years ago but I'm not really finding solid information reporting on the dangers as was the case with you. One of the big ones I had found was risk of chronic dry eyes being really high, but that seems to be with PRK surgery and not LASIK. Rates of long-term dry eyes after 12 months for LASIK appears to be 0.8% according to the papers I found, which you could argue is pretty low. I wouldn't discount the idea that modern practices and equipment works a lot better. A lot of the horror stories I do find are older, like you mentioned.
      - nrki 4y ago
        > Perhaps I'm not as well-informed on this subject as I thought, because I had done some research months/years ago but I'm not really finding solid information reporting on the dangers as was the case with you. Would you mind going back and adding that in your original post, as you've got pretty big unsubstantiated claims about LASIK.
        dangus 4y ago
        1. You can't edit posts after a short time 2. I still haven't changed my general opinion about LASIK: it seems too much like a "convenience surgery" to me, i.e., most people who get it have correctable vision with eyeglasses/contacts. It's also not hard to find stories from the minority of people who had complications and regret it. 3. My original comment came with this disclaimer: "Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me."
- blacksoil 4y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0 Are you aware of Todd Becker's method to reduce myopia? I've been doing it in the past 1 year and am happy to report that I've had 1.5 reduction in my glasses prescription (from 6.75). There's a PDF from a different person with a concrete guide on how much to reduce. I can share it if you're interested, feel free to email me at denny at nusantara-cloud.com :)

longnguyen 4y ago

Oh, I didn't know that using contacts is not advisable. Thank you. Between doing a LASIK and using contacts, I was leaning toward the latter. But now probably will just wear glasses. I find computer screens cause more eye strain than Kindle. Yeah, I don't think we can avoid screens completely. I just wanted to offload some of the reading to the Kindle. So I could read outside more.

dangus 4y ago
Definitely don't do LASIK. Look into the rates of complications and side effects. There's a good argument that it's really not a procedure that should have ever been approved. I don't think the advice to avoid contacts as a baseline recommendation is the takeaway of the comment you replied to, that advice pertained to that person's specific medical situation. Also, personally, I don't believe it's the type of screen that's problematic for long-term eyesight. What my optometrist told me is that we weren't really evolved to be looking at things close up for long periods of time. I don't think e-ink versus backlit screen is the issue – certainly, our eyes take in a lot more ambient light from not-screens during the day compared to the weak little LED light on our screen. The real issue is spending 8+ hours a day focused on close up objects. Take frequent breaks where you are looking in the distance, go on walks, etc. Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me.
- lolinder 4y ago
  > Definitely don't do LASIK. Look into the rates of complications and side effects. There's a good argument that it's really not a procedure that should have ever been approved. Can you provide more details on this? A cursory search doesn't turn up anything especially alarming. The only source I could find that was alarming is this[0], which I don't really trust because it reads a bit like anti-vax literature ("see what they're hiding", etc.) and is very old (all sources they cite are from 2009 or earlier). My understanding has been that the procedure has improved dramatically in that time in both cost and safety. [0] https://lasikcomplications.com/ https://lasikcomplications.com/
  - dangus 4y ago
    Perhaps I'm not as well-informed on this subject as I thought, because I had done some research months/years ago but I'm not really finding solid information reporting on the dangers as was the case with you. One of the big ones I had found was risk of chronic dry eyes being really high, but that seems to be with PRK surgery and not LASIK. Rates of long-term dry eyes after 12 months for LASIK appears to be 0.8% according to the papers I found, which you could argue is pretty low. I wouldn't discount the idea that modern practices and equipment works a lot better. A lot of the horror stories I do find are older, like you mentioned.
    - nrki 4y ago
      > Perhaps I'm not as well-informed on this subject as I thought, because I had done some research months/years ago but I'm not really finding solid information reporting on the dangers as was the case with you. Would you mind going back and adding that in your original post, as you've got pretty big unsubstantiated claims about LASIK.
      - dangus 4y ago
        1. You can't edit posts after a short time 2. I still haven't changed my general opinion about LASIK: it seems too much like a "convenience surgery" to me, i.e., most people who get it have correctable vision with eyeglasses/contacts. It's also not hard to find stories from the minority of people who had complications and regret it. 3. My original comment came with this disclaimer: "Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me."
blacksoil 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0 Are you aware of Todd Becker's method to reduce myopia? I've been doing it in the past 1 year and am happy to report that I've had 1.5 reduction in my glasses prescription (from 6.75). There's a PDF from a different person with a concrete guide on how much to reduce. I can share it if you're interested, feel free to email me at denny at nusantara-cloud.com :)