9 ms·

Exercising for Healthier Eyes

90 points by boh 13y ago

127 13y ago
Requires registration to read the article. No thanks.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago
  Worked for me. I think they have a weekly limit you can read for free. Try incognito/private browsing mode.
- th0br0 13y ago
  As always, just google the link so that you've got the proper referrer.
- graedus 13y ago
  Open in new incognito window works for me.
- jobu 13y ago
  It does seem pretty stupid to put it behind a paywall though - this is just a blog post, it's not even part of the newspaper
- nu2ycombinator 13y ago
  Use Safari browser. It does not ask for subscription. Probably because they want all iPhone traffic
- izzydata 13y ago
  Agreed, not worth the effort.
- quantumpotato_ 13y ago
  I just clicked "no thanks"
GvS 13y ago
Most important part: "But obviously, mice are not people, so whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate macular degeneration in human eyes is “impossible to know, based on the data we have now,” said Machelle Pardue, a research career scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, who is the senior author of the study. She and her colleagues are trying to find ways to determine the impact of exercise on human eyes. But such experiments will take years to return results."
abledon 13y ago
This sounds crazy, But i started doing a chinese yoga called 'Qi Gong' and my eye sight has improved from -1.75, -1.50, to -0.5ish, -0.5ish exercise works! especially martial art based ones
- CanSpice 13y ago
  It worked for you, but at this time there's nothing saying it will work for everybody.
  - abledon 13y ago
    hah, true! Buyer beware i guess :)
  - gress 13y ago
    Nothing works for everybody.
- dsirijus 13y ago
  I did many types of eye exercises. Improvements were remarkable. But none were permanent.
  - Dewie 13y ago
    Kinda like regular exercise... ;)
    - dsirijus 13y ago
      Exactly like regular exercise. :) We're presuming here actual corneal deformation which muscles can modify (that's why some squint to see better), and not any of other potential vision-related issues.
- harshreality 13y ago
  Where in the article does it mention or speculate about BDNF having an effect on nearsightedness? And what would be a theoretical basis for that, given that it relates to the shape of the eye and not the health of sensory neurons? Exercise doesn't work, broadly speaking, or millions who are nearsighted and who exercise a lot would notice their vision improve. Assuming you're not simply trolling, did you start eating or drinking something new shortly before your eyesight improved? Did something change in your environment? Although I think it's more likely that a dramatic improvement in eyesight is the result of a rare chemical signalling fluke (possibly genetic), if you changed habits beforehand that's worth investigating as a possible cause. Exercise [alone], however, even Qi Gong/Tai Chi, is not worth investigating. Plenty of people practice those arts and other Oriental physiological philosophies, not to mention other things like yoga and meditation, and don't see improvement in their eyesight.
jobu 13y ago
"These growth factors, especially one called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or B.D.N.F., are known to contribute to the health and well-being of neurons and consequently, it is thought, to improvements in brain health and cognition after regular exercise." That's interesting, and it sounds great, but like nearly any study of the brain there is conflicting information from other studies: "Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) overexpression in the forebrain results in learning and memory impairments." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19095063* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19095063*
- a_c_s 13y ago
  Where's the conflict? Plenty of chemicals/hormones/etc. in the body follow the pattern of: too little = bad enough = good too much = bad A study showing the chronic, high levels of something are bad doesn't generalize to mean that increasing levels is always (or even usually) a bad thing.
avdempsey 13y ago
Glad I'm not a mouse: "After two weeks, half of the mice in each group were exposed to a searingly bright light for four hours. The other animals stayed in dimly lit cages. This light exposure is a widely used and accepted means of inducing retinal degeneration in animals." This sounds like torture to me. I love you scientific method, but sometimes you bum me out.
- mason240 13y ago
  >half of the mice in each group were exposed to a searingly bright light for four hours. That hits a little to close to home for me. Sure, a monitor isn't searing, but it is still bright.
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  The real kicker to this is: "But obviously, mice are not people, so whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate macular degeneration in human eyes is “impossible to know, based on the data we have now,”" I have a fairly complex view of animal testing where I think it may be justified in some situations, but this type of testing in situations where you self-admit you didn't learn anything knowingly human-applicable when you could have done a more long term study just observing the eye health of multiple sets of older humans (one set which lives an active lifestyle and one which does not) is pretty fucked up.
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    Animal testing is horrible. There are some cases where it may be necessary, but this is just excessive. There was one guy who exploded hundreds of dogs in a vacuum, basically just to see what would happen. And I bet there are probably worse things being done even today.
nolok 13y ago
I'm genuinely interested in what steps do other people on HN who spend their work day on a computer take to "protect" their vision ? I took on the habit of looking a distant wall every half hour or so for a couple minute or go drink a coffee, but while it helps with the "always looking close" vision I still have a very tired feel in my eyes at the end of a long day. I do have good vision and have it checked every year, but I worry I'm doing some long term damage anyway, and the white of my eyes does look more bloodshot than they do in average people my ages (and gets a lot worse after big long hours release/bugfix days). Do you guys have any tips to help the eyes rest ?
- chadgeidel 13y ago
  I feel that modern LCD monitors are too bright. Typically I have mine set at 50% brightness. Adjusting environmental/ambient light is important too if you can. I try to adjust my desk/chair orientation that overhead lights are behind my head instead of in front of me (no line-of-sight light sources other than my monitors). I also use f.Lux (http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/). I'm not sure what combination of this list of things does the most good, but I rarely get eyestrain and I look at screens for 12+ hours per day. Not sure if this matters, but I had LASIK surgery 7 years ago and ever since my eyes have been pretty sensitive to light (night vision FTW), so this is something I've been working on for a while now. Edit: I am 40 years old, and have been looking at screens for long hours at least 10-15 years now.
  - ColonelPanic001 13y ago
    Similar here - my cube is as dark as I can get it (which really just means the lights directly overhead are off), and my monitors are at the minimum brightness setting. My screens glow, guys. I don't need to light them up externally.
    - enscr 13y ago
      Any reference on working with lights on vs off? I've seen 1 or 2 people do that in office. I've been told that lack of ambient light might cause more strain. Is there any study supporting what you've said?
nu2ycombinator 13y ago
Interesting. They need subscription to read this article, but not if you are using Safari browser.
- Pwntastic 13y ago
  It might just be cookies or some kind of tracking. I got the login requirement in chrome (my default browser) but don't see it in IE (which I rarely use)
  - adambard 13y ago
    Seems to be cookies, private browsing mode works to get around them too.
ffghhse 13y ago
Yup, exercise your eye muscle does wonders.
djb_hackernews 13y ago
Let this be a tale of warning. In February of 2011 I was a 28 year old, healthy (perfect vision, etc) software developer working for a small software company. I was working on some cool stuff, was getting the extra responsibilities I wanted and putting in at least 10 hour days every day. I was learning, and hacking and building at an awesome pace. Until, like a switch, my eyes dried up and I could barely keep them open. Literally in the span of an hour or so I was happily hacking away to driving myself home opening one eye at a time. Since then it's been more of the same. Avoiding bad lighting, no more TV, limited computer use. I've seen 3 Opthamologists, some name brand ones, some research clinics. They all tell me I have Blepharitis, which I disagree with (which I know sounds crazy). I wake up with tired, dry eyes and it's a battle all day long. I've tried lots of things, low light, low contrast, fish oil pills, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, cold compresses, hot compresses, drops of all kinds, special computer glasses, restasis, books, meditation, etc. To be honest, it's been hell. I worry about my future career and it's negatively affected relationships. It's gotten somewhat better, but it is still a constant discomfort. I just try to keep my eyes relaxed, eye drops nearby, and massage them frequently. So, give your eyes a break once in a while and be more mindful of them. I bet if I listened to my body at the time it would have told me my eyes were strained and I should give it a break. If anyone else suffers similarly, please reach out would really appreciate chatting with people in similar situations.
- dmd 13y ago
  Can you elaborate on why you disagree with them on the diagnosis?
  - djb_hackernews 13y ago
    Blepharitis is basically a catch all for any issues related to lipid production by the eye lid. Basically what happens in your eye is you produce tears and you also have glands that produce oil. The oil becomes a coating over the tears so they don't evaporate. Blepharitis essentially means your glands aren't producing enough/any oil and so the tears dry up really fast. I disagree with the diagnosis because it doesn't fit with the symptoms. My eyes actually don't feel all that dry like real dry eye suffers describe the sensation. The discomfort is a definite strain. My eyes are relatively discomfort free when I am not looking at a computer screen or in "bad" lighting. But as soon as I look at a computer screen or TV, it's an immediate discomfort. Through out the day I can feel the muscles in my eyes becoming weaker and weaker to the point where they feel almost useless. It is difficult to describe but imagine you do bicep curls until failure, for 3 years every day. You can feel the bicep, but it just doesn't work. In fact I can sense muscles in my entire face reaching back to my ears and down to my cheek bone. Muscles I never even noticed. Also one eye is definitely weaker than the other and if I completely relaxing them it closes about 50% more than the other and feels like there is a weight hanging off of my eye brow. So I really think it is muscular and tear production or oil production is a side effect. If I fix the strain, I fix the dry eyes.
xbonez 13y ago
I spend 10-16 hours in front a monitor too (work + come back home, watch movies etc.). After getting flux[0], I immediately noticed a marked difference in how much lesser my eyes were tired by the end of the day. It takes a day or two to get used to the yellow tint that flux adds, but it makes the screen so much easier to look at. After using flux for a while, you'll be surprised how much a monitor not running flux hurts your eyes - it just feels jarringly bright. [0] http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/
billioncents 13y ago
Need a beverage that deceives the mind into thinking the body has just finished exercising to release "growth factors" such as "B.D.N.F". This way, we can stay at home and keep on reading hacker news, as apose to, you know... exercising.
enscr 13y ago
Some good comments here that I feel like implementing @ColonelPanic001 : dark cube, overhead lights off, monitor at minimum brightness @jisaacstone : large monitor, big font, keep it far away. Relax instead of leaning in toward the screen. I am often mentally tired at the end of day but no eye strain. @a8da6b0c91d : get sunlight @xbonez : try http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/ @djb_hackernews : Personal experience on why taking timely care is important

90 points by boh 13y ago

127 13y ago

Requires registration to read the article. No thanks.

k-mcgrady 13y ago
Worked for me. I think they have a weekly limit you can read for free. Try incognito/private browsing mode.
th0br0 13y ago
As always, just google the link so that you've got the proper referrer.
graedus 13y ago
Open in new incognito window works for me.
jobu 13y ago
It does seem pretty stupid to put it behind a paywall though - this is just a blog post, it's not even part of the newspaper
nu2ycombinator 13y ago
Use Safari browser. It does not ask for subscription. Probably because they want all iPhone traffic
izzydata 13y ago
Agreed, not worth the effort.
quantumpotato_ 13y ago
I just clicked "no thanks"

GvS 13y ago

Most important part: "But obviously, mice are not people, so whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate macular degeneration in human eyes is “impossible to know, based on the data we have now,” said Machelle Pardue, a research career scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, who is the senior author of the study. She and her colleagues are trying to find ways to determine the impact of exercise on human eyes. But such experiments will take years to return results."

abledon 13y ago

This sounds crazy, But i started doing a chinese yoga called 'Qi Gong' and my eye sight has improved from -1.75, -1.50, to -0.5ish, -0.5ish exercise works! especially martial art based ones

CanSpice 13y ago
It worked for you, but at this time there's nothing saying it will work for everybody.
- abledon 13y ago
  hah, true! Buyer beware i guess :)
- gress 13y ago
  Nothing works for everybody.
dsirijus 13y ago
I did many types of eye exercises. Improvements were remarkable. But none were permanent.
- Dewie 13y ago
  Kinda like regular exercise... ;)
  - dsirijus 13y ago
    Exactly like regular exercise. :) We're presuming here actual corneal deformation which muscles can modify (that's why some squint to see better), and not any of other potential vision-related issues.
harshreality 13y ago
Where in the article does it mention or speculate about BDNF having an effect on nearsightedness? And what would be a theoretical basis for that, given that it relates to the shape of the eye and not the health of sensory neurons? Exercise doesn't work, broadly speaking, or millions who are nearsighted and who exercise a lot would notice their vision improve. Assuming you're not simply trolling, did you start eating or drinking something new shortly before your eyesight improved? Did something change in your environment? Although I think it's more likely that a dramatic improvement in eyesight is the result of a rare chemical signalling fluke (possibly genetic), if you changed habits beforehand that's worth investigating as a possible cause. Exercise [alone], however, even Qi Gong/Tai Chi, is not worth investigating. Plenty of people practice those arts and other Oriental physiological philosophies, not to mention other things like yoga and meditation, and don't see improvement in their eyesight.

jobu 13y ago

"These growth factors, especially one called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or B.D.N.F., are known to contribute to the health and well-being of neurons and consequently, it is thought, to improvements in brain health and cognition after regular exercise." That's interesting, and it sounds great, but like nearly any study of the brain there is conflicting information from other studies: "Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) overexpression in the forebrain results in learning and memory impairments." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19095063* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19095063*

a_c_s 13y ago
Where's the conflict? Plenty of chemicals/hormones/etc. in the body follow the pattern of: too little = bad enough = good too much = bad A study showing the chronic, high levels of something are bad doesn't generalize to mean that increasing levels is always (or even usually) a bad thing.

avdempsey 13y ago

Glad I'm not a mouse: "After two weeks, half of the mice in each group were exposed to a searingly bright light for four hours. The other animals stayed in dimly lit cages. This light exposure is a widely used and accepted means of inducing retinal degeneration in animals." This sounds like torture to me. I love you scientific method, but sometimes you bum me out.

mason240 13y ago
>half of the mice in each group were exposed to a searingly bright light for four hours. That hits a little to close to home for me. Sure, a monitor isn't searing, but it is still bright.
georgemcbay 13y ago
The real kicker to this is: "But obviously, mice are not people, so whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate macular degeneration in human eyes is “impossible to know, based on the data we have now,”" I have a fairly complex view of animal testing where I think it may be justified in some situations, but this type of testing in situations where you self-admit you didn't learn anything knowingly human-applicable when you could have done a more long term study just observing the eye health of multiple sets of older humans (one set which lives an active lifestyle and one which does not) is pretty fucked up.
- Houshalter 13y ago
  Animal testing is horrible. There are some cases where it may be necessary, but this is just excessive. There was one guy who exploded hundreds of dogs in a vacuum, basically just to see what would happen. And I bet there are probably worse things being done even today.

nolok 13y ago

I'm genuinely interested in what steps do other people on HN who spend their work day on a computer take to "protect" their vision ? I took on the habit of looking a distant wall every half hour or so for a couple minute or go drink a coffee, but while it helps with the "always looking close" vision I still have a very tired feel in my eyes at the end of a long day. I do have good vision and have it checked every year, but I worry I'm doing some long term damage anyway, and the white of my eyes does look more bloodshot than they do in average people my ages (and gets a lot worse after big long hours release/bugfix days). Do you guys have any tips to help the eyes rest ?

chadgeidel 13y ago
I feel that modern LCD monitors are too bright. Typically I have mine set at 50% brightness. Adjusting environmental/ambient light is important too if you can. I try to adjust my desk/chair orientation that overhead lights are behind my head instead of in front of me (no line-of-sight light sources other than my monitors). I also use f.Lux (http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/). I'm not sure what combination of this list of things does the most good, but I rarely get eyestrain and I look at screens for 12+ hours per day. Not sure if this matters, but I had LASIK surgery 7 years ago and ever since my eyes have been pretty sensitive to light (night vision FTW), so this is something I've been working on for a while now. Edit: I am 40 years old, and have been looking at screens for long hours at least 10-15 years now.
- ColonelPanic001 13y ago
  Similar here - my cube is as dark as I can get it (which really just means the lights directly overhead are off), and my monitors are at the minimum brightness setting. My screens glow, guys. I don't need to light them up externally.
  - enscr 13y ago
    Any reference on working with lights on vs off? I've seen 1 or 2 people do that in office. I've been told that lack of ambient light might cause more strain. Is there any study supporting what you've said?

nu2ycombinator 13y ago

Interesting. They need subscription to read this article, but not if you are using Safari browser.

Pwntastic 13y ago
It might just be cookies or some kind of tracking. I got the login requirement in chrome (my default browser) but don't see it in IE (which I rarely use)
- adambard 13y ago
  Seems to be cookies, private browsing mode works to get around them too.

ffghhse 13y ago

Yup, exercise your eye muscle does wonders.

djb_hackernews 13y ago

Let this be a tale of warning. In February of 2011 I was a 28 year old, healthy (perfect vision, etc) software developer working for a small software company. I was working on some cool stuff, was getting the extra responsibilities I wanted and putting in at least 10 hour days every day. I was learning, and hacking and building at an awesome pace. Until, like a switch, my eyes dried up and I could barely keep them open. Literally in the span of an hour or so I was happily hacking away to driving myself home opening one eye at a time. Since then it's been more of the same. Avoiding bad lighting, no more TV, limited computer use. I've seen 3 Opthamologists, some name brand ones, some research clinics. They all tell me I have Blepharitis, which I disagree with (which I know sounds crazy). I wake up with tired, dry eyes and it's a battle all day long. I've tried lots of things, low light, low contrast, fish oil pills, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, cold compresses, hot compresses, drops of all kinds, special computer glasses, restasis, books, meditation, etc. To be honest, it's been hell. I worry about my future career and it's negatively affected relationships. It's gotten somewhat better, but it is still a constant discomfort. I just try to keep my eyes relaxed, eye drops nearby, and massage them frequently. So, give your eyes a break once in a while and be more mindful of them. I bet if I listened to my body at the time it would have told me my eyes were strained and I should give it a break. If anyone else suffers similarly, please reach out would really appreciate chatting with people in similar situations.

dmd 13y ago
Can you elaborate on why you disagree with them on the diagnosis?
- djb_hackernews 13y ago
  Blepharitis is basically a catch all for any issues related to lipid production by the eye lid. Basically what happens in your eye is you produce tears and you also have glands that produce oil. The oil becomes a coating over the tears so they don't evaporate. Blepharitis essentially means your glands aren't producing enough/any oil and so the tears dry up really fast. I disagree with the diagnosis because it doesn't fit with the symptoms. My eyes actually don't feel all that dry like real dry eye suffers describe the sensation. The discomfort is a definite strain. My eyes are relatively discomfort free when I am not looking at a computer screen or in "bad" lighting. But as soon as I look at a computer screen or TV, it's an immediate discomfort. Through out the day I can feel the muscles in my eyes becoming weaker and weaker to the point where they feel almost useless. It is difficult to describe but imagine you do bicep curls until failure, for 3 years every day. You can feel the bicep, but it just doesn't work. In fact I can sense muscles in my entire face reaching back to my ears and down to my cheek bone. Muscles I never even noticed. Also one eye is definitely weaker than the other and if I completely relaxing them it closes about 50% more than the other and feels like there is a weight hanging off of my eye brow. So I really think it is muscular and tear production or oil production is a side effect. If I fix the strain, I fix the dry eyes.

xbonez 13y ago

I spend 10-16 hours in front a monitor too (work + come back home, watch movies etc.). After getting flux[0], I immediately noticed a marked difference in how much lesser my eyes were tired by the end of the day. It takes a day or two to get used to the yellow tint that flux adds, but it makes the screen so much easier to look at. After using flux for a while, you'll be surprised how much a monitor not running flux hurts your eyes - it just feels jarringly bright. [0] http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/

billioncents 13y ago

Need a beverage that deceives the mind into thinking the body has just finished exercising to release "growth factors" such as "B.D.N.F". This way, we can stay at home and keep on reading hacker news, as apose to, you know... exercising.

enscr 13y ago

Some good comments here that I feel like implementing @ColonelPanic001 : dark cube, overhead lights off, monitor at minimum brightness @jisaacstone : large monitor, big font, keep it far away. Relax instead of leaning in toward the screen. I am often mentally tired at the end of day but no eye strain. @a8da6b0c91d : get sunlight @xbonez : try http://justgetflux.com/ http://justgetflux.com/ @djb_hackernews : Personal experience on why taking timely care is important