Presbyopia is the loss of focusing power caused by the aging process. People with good vision must hold reading material farther away and usually end up with reading glasses. People who already wear glasses usually end up with bifocals.
The problem is, reading glasses usually create dependency and make the presbyopia worse. Fortunately, eye exercises provide a natural, method of treating presbyopia by making the eyes stronger and healthier. Although eye exercises can't cure presbyopia, people who use eye exercises usually avoid reading glasses until much later in life.
Eye Exercises And Reading Glasses
In addition to eye exercises, it's important to avoid reading glasses as much as possible because they make the eyes even weaker. If your vision is just starting to go bad, try to avoid them completely or get the weakest drug store glasses you can read with. If you already wear glasses and have an old pair of weaker glasses, go back to wearing them.
There are many eye exercises for presbyopia, but the eye exercises described below will give you some improvement. Do them without glasses or use weaker glasses.
Eye Exercise #1: Flexing
Look at a near object such as pen, flower, or trinket about 6'' from the tip of your nose. Now look at a far object such as a building, tree, or something across the room.
Now change focus between the near object and the far object in time to your breathing: (inhale/near)(exhale/far). Hold the near object still and look at a detail on each object every time you change focus. Do this eye exercise for up to 5 minutes.
Eye Exercise #2: Squeeze Blinking
Firmly squeeze your eyes shut using only your eyelid muscles. Don't scrunch up the muscles around the eyes. Ask a friend to watch you and make sure you are doing it right.
Now open your eyes and look at a detail on a near object such as a flower or trinket. Alternate squeezing your eyes shut and looking at a detail on the near object. Do this eye exercise for up to 5 minutes.
Eye Exercise #3: Conducting
Make a fist and look at your thumbnail. Now slowly wave your arm in front of you like a conductor slowly waving a baton. Up, down, forward, backward, side to side, circles, figure eights, spirals, waves, and more complex patterns.
Keep you head still and slowly vary the distance from arm's length to the tip of your nose, looking at your thumbnail at all times. When your arm gets tired, use the other arm. Do this eye exercise for up to 5 minutes.
How Much Improvement To Expect
If you do these eye exercises(www.visiontherapy.net) every day, you can expect to see an improvement within a week or two. If your eyes become sore, take a break until the soreness subsides.
Author Information
Dr. Beresford is President of the American Vision Institute, which was founded in 1979 and is dedicated to research and development of vision therapy eye exercises. The American Vision Institute publishes the Power Vision Program, which was developed with Dr. Merrill J. Allen (Indiana University) and Dr. Francis A. Young (Washington State University) www.visiontherapy.net
Dr. Beresford can be contacted at visiontherapy.2020@yahoo.com
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