Eyeglass Prescriptions Are Like a Drug

The Berne Podcast with Dr. Sam Berne

Keywords

myopia, eye strain, reduced prescription, vision correction, eye health, nearsightedness, eye muscles, prescription glasses, vision therapy, eye fatigue
Summary

In this episode, Dr. Sam Berne addresses a common concern regarding myopia and the adjustment to reduced prescriptions. He explains the physiological and psychological factors contributing to eye strain and muscle tension when transitioning to a less strong prescription. Dr. Berne emphasizes the importance of understanding the habits that lead to eye strain and offers practical advice for easing into new prescriptions, ultimately highlighting the potential benefits of reduced prescriptions for improving overall eye health.
Takeaways

Reduced prescriptions can reveal underlying eye muscle tension.
Eye strain is often a result of habitual squinting and straining.
Adjusting to a reduced prescription requires patience and practice.
Wearing a less strong prescription can improve distance vision over time.
Overcorrection in eye exams can lead to unnecessary strain.
Prescription glasses can have side effects similar to medication.
Understanding your prescription is key to managing eye health.
Children may need guidance to adapt to new prescriptions.
Chronic eye issues may improve with reduced prescriptions.
Awareness of eye habits is crucial for better vision.
Sound Bites

“Any prescription that you wear is like a drug.”
Chapters

00:00 Understanding Myopia and Reduced Prescriptions
02:56 The Impact of Eye Strain and Muscle Tension
04:54 Adjusting to New Prescriptions and Habits

Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I’d like to welcome you to the podcast. So I received a question from a mom who I’m working with her son who’s got nearsightedness. This is a very interesting question. So I gave him a prescription that reduces his myopia and she said that he’s having a hard time adjusting to the prescription that is creating eye strain and his eye muscles hurt and she wants to know

Sam Berne (00:30.71)
what she can do to tell him to get used to the prescription. Well, it’s interesting because when you’re presented with a reduced prescription, your eyes should relax. Basically, any reduced prescription is saying, can I let go with my muscles and can I release and relax?

Sam Berne (00:56.694)
Now in this particular case, there’s two possible scenarios going on. The first is that and this is very common with people that start wearing reduced prescriptions. They start feeling their eye muscles more and they start feeling this area. Whereas before it was very a very unrealized area, meaning they had no awareness of it. And so when you wear something that’s less tight,

Sam Berne (01:26.402)
Guess what happens all of that tightness that you’ve absorbed over years of the strong prescription. You feel that so it’s showing you what’s already there. It’s not causing it, but the relaxation potential is showing you the tension that you’ve been carrying for a long time. The second part of this is

Sam Berne (01:54.921)
It’s not the prescription that’s causing the eye tension. It’s the attitude and habits that we bring to the prescription that creates the eye tension. So this means that we’re so used to having it clear that when we’re given a softer prescription and it’s a little on the soft blurry side, we immediately want to get rid of it by squinting and straining.

Sam Berne (02:23.595)
So we’re back to our old habits again.

Sam Berne (02:28.321)
Yeah, exactly. So the reduced prescription is going to confront the habit of you wanting to squint and strain and muscle it. So what I told the mother is just invite the child to wear this reduced prescription at near at the 14 inches, maybe maybe 20 inches at the most. But don’t try to wear it in the distance for now.

Sam Berne (02:56.171)
I mean the prescription was prescribed for near vision to begin with and it can be a big jump and kind of disorienting if you get this reduced prescription and you have the expectation that it should be clear in the distance. Now what will happen over time is that if you get used to the reduced prescription you’ll notice that your distance acuity improves and you know, you’re there when

Sam Berne (03:25.633)
You then put on the strong prescription and you start getting a headache. You start feeling the eye ache and you go, wow, this is what I used to wear all the time. And now I’m aware that it’s too tight for me. It’s too strong for me. And you know, I have to say that in my years of practice, I would reduce so many prescriptions during the exam.

Sam Berne (03:54.741)
And people actually saw more clearly because the way the eye exam is done.

Sam Berne (04:01.015)
You’re going to overcorrect people. You’re going to make the lens too strong. And you know, this really speaks to some of the adults that have chronic things like flashing lights or posterior vitreous detachment or even some, you know, retinal lattice degeneration all those retina problems. If you are nearsighted your prescription is too strong for you. And if you start wearing something less the retina

Sam Berne (04:30.959)
the flashing lights start to reduce and eventually go away so you don’t have that traction. So it’s very interesting to note that you know any prescription that you wear is like a drug. The prescription, eyeglasses and contacts have been approved by the FDA and they’re side effects.

Sam Berne (04:54.329)
And for nearsightedness, especially if you’re wearing something too strong, you’re going to pay the price and that price is going to be tension, compression, muscle pain, eye strain, eye fatigue and on and on. So I really appreciate the question and I hope that’s helpful. So that’s it for today. That’s my show. I want to thank you for tuning in until next time. Take care.