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The spreading of lies. Nearsightedness can be prevented and controlled. Yet the eye doctors seem to ignore anything that has to do with prevention. It is not considered profitable. There is no financial incentive to prevent myopia. When has your eye doctor ever mentioned the body of research that supports the environmental cause of myopia? Shouldn't you be made aware of this? Could it be that there is a better living to be made in selling eye exams, glasses, contact lenses and "vision training" to repeat customers at regular intervals as myopia develops? There is also money to be made by the surgeons who treat the disease and detached retinas that develop later. Here are the lies you will encounter:

1. Myopia is inherited, like a defective gene... There is no such evidence.
2. The way you use your eyes has no effect on myopia development... Myopia is caused by prolonged close work.
3. The glasses we prescribe do not increase myopia... The prescription of minus lenses leads to blindness.
4. It is best to wear your glasses all the time... Wearing them for close work increases the myopia.

The eye doctors join forces with the National Eye Institute, the media, public "education" organizations and others to feed their viewpoint to the public while ignoring the harmful effects of excessive close work. Learn more by visiting The Defenders Of "Business As Usual." They seem to have the common human failing of believing what pleases them most, and then finding reasons, however illogical, to support that belief. One hears such "reasoning" as "much more research must be done before we can say that reading causes myopia" or "wearing glasses is just a minor inconvenience." Then, too, what doctor wants to admit to a career of mistreating patients? Amazingly, this rationalization is so effective that they even destroy the vision of their own children, fully convinced that they are doing the right thing. Nothing illustrates more clearly the infinite, human capacity for self-deception. If you do not educate yourself, you can be a victim of this attitude.

When an Australian optometrist tried to speak out about the tragedy of the present-day treatment of myopia, his fellow optometrists tried every trick in the book to silence him. Read about this shameful conspiracy on Eyestrain - Its Causes, Consequences and Treatment. An attempt has been made to censor this website also. We have been threatened with legal action by eye doctors who don't want you to have the information presented here. See Legal Threats From Eye Doctors!

In the words of one consumer-oriented vision researcher, "The present treatment of myopia is a national disgrace, and it is the greed, apathy, and ignorance of the eye doctors that has allowed it to continue unchanged for the past 100 years."

Heredity or environment? Those who cling to the inherited myopia fallacy are fond of saying: "How can two children both do a similar amount of reading and yet one develops myopia and the other one doesn't? The cause must be heredity." But there are many possible factors, both known and unknown, which could account for such differences, and it would be very difficult to determine which factor is most important in any individual case. Some of these factors are:

The point to be made here is that none of these factors is the CAUSE of acquired myopia. Generally speaking, these factors can only influence the rate of progression of the myopia IF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSE IS PRESENT. If the cause is absent, virtually no one will develop myopia. The cause, of course, is an unnatural amount of accommodation. Similarly, how can two people both smoke all their lives and only one gets lung cancer? Only a fool would conclude that lung cancer must therefore be inherited and that it is not caused by smoking. It is equally foolish to apply that "reasoning" to myopia.

For an interesting check of your own reasoning in this regard, take our short Quiz.

The overuse of toxic drugs. Another thing to watch out for if you have to visit an eye doctor is the use of dangerous drugs to dilate the pupil. Before you allow this to be done, read Toxic Dilating Drugs.

The dangers of corneal surgery. The prevention of myopia would also eliminate the need for surgical alteration of the cornea, a lucrative but dangerous practice that many doctors are feverishly promoting while they make no mention of prevention. Many people have had their vision ruined for life by these procedures and deeply regret having made the decision. The media must share in the blame for this because of all the free promotion that has been given to this "cure" for refractive error while little is said about prevention. The doctors and the government call these procedures safe. There has never been a bigger LIE. For more on this, visit:

Lasik Disaster
Watchdog Healthcheck from BBC Online
Laser Surgery May Ruin Eyes
A typical letter to the sci.med.vision newsgroup
http://www.visionsurgeryrehab.org
A warning from a former FDA official

Also, such surgical intervention does nothing to prevent the abnormal elongation of the eye, which makes myopia such a serious matter. In fact, after "correcting" their vision in this manner, these people can no longer give their eyes a rest from the constant near focusing, the way others can do merely by removing their glasses when they aren't needed. Surgically flattening the cornea has the same effect as placing a minus lens in front of the eye PERMANENTLY.

The same thing is true of the Implantable Collamer Lens which has been approved by the FDA. The ICL is a lens that is permanently implanted in the eye behind the iris and in front of the natural lens. The lens is intended to correct moderate to severe nearsightedness. This type of lens is called a phakic IOL because the eye still has its natural lens. Anyone who is foolish enough to undergo such surgery is asking for trouble. The need for all of these money-making "cures" could be prevented.

Orthokeratology. Some claim that flattening the lens with hard contacts will prevent myopia. Just the opposite is true. Flattening the lens reduces the convergence of the light rays entering the eye and causes the eye to exert MORE focusing effort, leading to increasing myopia. For more on this subject, see Contact lenses and Orthokeratology.

The invention of the Myopter®. The Myopter viewer allows you to read with your eyes fully relaxed and focused for distance. This instrument can also be used by people who are already nearsighted to improve their vision. It was introduced to the optometric profession in the United States in a paper the inventor, Donald Rehm, presented at the 1973 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Optometry in San Francisco. It was introduced to optometrists of other countries in a paper he presented at the 1973 Congress of the European Society of Optometry in Copenhagen, Denmark. This paper, "The Myopter® viewer: An Instrument for Treating and Preventing Myopia," was published in the American Journal of Optometry and Physiological Optics 52, no. 5 in May, 1975. To read this paper, go to Myopter Research Paper.

The Myopter was used in the first documented, successful use of plus lenses to reverse myopia. It was done by Donald S. Rehm, working with Sidney Heller, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania optometrist in 1974. Children between the ages of 5 and 14 were used and all experienced an improvement in their vision within a few weeks. These case studies are covered in detail in The Myopia Myth and on our companion site Prevent Myopia. A ciliary spasm can represent as much as 1.25 diopters of myopia. This can be eliminated, and further deterioration prevented, by using the Myopter. Since then, no one has shown any interest in repeating this research.

However, we do sometimes get feedback from people who have used the instrument successfully. See Myopter Case Histories.

For ordering information and pictures of the various models, see Myopter Models. Before ordering, read The Myopia Myth because the chapters devoted to the Myopter will assist you in understanding its function and how to choose the proper lenses. For directions on how to change the lenses, see Myopter Directions.

To learn how a federal agency that is supported by our taxes has tried to block this device and all other attempts to prevent myopia, see The National Eye Institute. And to read our petition to the FDA asking for the public to be informed about the dangers of minus lenses, see The Food and Drug Administration.

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