How to Cure Hyperopia

Update 9/21/09
I have found a doctor who had already performed research into a similar therapy to the one I've developed. Though my method might work, it could possibly cause a residual refractive error that can not be corrected. However, his research was on using plus lenses to correct myopia. In any case, I strongly recommend avoiding this therapy for now until more information comes up. I will keep updating this article.

Whenever I ask my friends the prescription of the glasses they’re wearing, they usually don’t know. Many people are unaware of what doctors prescribe them. Luckily, with the age of Wikipedia in our stead, we have more information readily available whenever a question arises. However, the problem still appears when the patient blindly accepts whatever the doctor tells them without even caring to know what is going on. It is important for the patient to realize that they too have a right to understand their health situation. In regards to the treatment of eye disorders, it is very important for the patient to be aware of what is going on. For this reason, I would like to clarify how our eyes work and reveal the potential danger of wearing "minus" lenses (glasses and contact lenses). Most importantly, I would like to present a possible cure for hyperopia that I have developed from my knowledge on the way our eyes function.

Before anything, I must distinguish the difference between hyperopia, myopia, and emmetropia. Hyperopia is when your eye is too weak or small. This translates to trouble seeing from up close, but increased ability to see far distances. Myopia, on the other hand, is the opposite disorder; you can see really well from up close, but at a distance, everything is blurry. This happens because your eye is too large or strong. Emmetropia is the midpoint between the two, and the standard state of human eyesight. Emmetropia means your vision is in the right range; you can see well from afar and up close. There are many levels of myopia and hyperopia. The most common form of indicating the degree of hyperopia or myopia is with “diopters”. Myopia uses negative numbers (-) for diopters while hyperopia uses positive (+) numbers for diopters. You could compare the eye-focusing spectrum to a number line: myopia for the negative numbers, hyperopia for the positive numbers, and zero for emmetropia (normal vision). Therefore, the closer your diopters are to zero, the better your vision is.

It is easier for your eye to grow than to shrink. When you are born, your eyes are hyperopic (+), or small. However, as you grow, your eyes get stronger/larger and they start becoming less and less hyperopic (+) until they reach emmetropia (0).

It has been proven by scientific studies on animals that wearing minus lenses that are too negative, make the eye grow and become more myopic**. For example, if a chick (a baby chicken) with emmetropia is given -4 lenses, their eyes will eventually (after a matter of months) become -4 myopic, even when the lenses are removed. This means that they will not be able to see clearly from a distance, only from up close. Similarly, if an individual is accidentally prescribed glasses that are slightly more negative than necessary, their eyes will become more myopic, and therefore stronger than they originally were. Now remember that stronger does not mean better because it comes with the price of reduced distance vision.

If many studies have been performed on animals on the power of lenses to alter the eye’s focusing power in the long term, then why haven’t practical solutions been found to cure hyperopia? Is it because of the financial losses that would result if hyperopic glasses were no longer needed? This may or may not be the case; the elderly use hyperopic glasses for an unrelated, but similar condition known as presbyopia, so plus lenses would still be sold if this therapy was implemented.

The “emmetropization therapy” I’ve devised, which for some reason is not even being researched, consists in prescribing negative lenses to a hyperopic patient to make their eyes stronger/larger until they reach the state of emmetropia. The glasses or contact lenses would have to be worn all day in order to work effectively. The progression of the eyes must be monitored by an optometrist or ophthalmologist to make sure that myopia is not reached. In any case, when an eye becomes more myopic, the newly reached myopic state is transient, and the eye can revert back to its previous state by removing whatever is stimulating the eye to become stronger/larger.  After about two months with transient myopia though, the acquired myopia becomes permanent. In regards to the therapy, this means that if the patient passed into the “minus zone” (became myopic), then the doctor would have two months to terminate the use of the lens to prevent the establishment of permanent myopia.

I hope that eye doctors involved in research begin to consider this theory and eventually implement it. If it works, then hyperopic patients would not have to subject themselves to wearing glasses or contact lenses and avoid the risks of surgery. Many could benefit as it would be relatively inexpensive and easy to implement. If you have hyperopia, send your eye doctor a link to this article, and ask them what they think.

**Schaeffel F, Glasser A, Howland HC. Accommodation, refractive error and eye growth in chicken. Vision Res. 1988;28(5):639-57

For more information, read the Myopia Manual, where many of the aforementioned studies are cited