A 58-Year-Old Doctor Uses 3 Tricks to Shield Himself From Near-and Far-Sightedness

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Farsightedness is a natural aging phenomenon—and can be an inconvenience to one’s daily life. Also known as presbyopia, its onset begins around the age of 40 for many people. Are there ways to prevent the condition?

Presbyopia is mainly caused by the decline in the strength of the ciliary muscle in the eyes. With the near-constant usage of electronic devices today, many people begin to suffer from presbyopia before the age of 40.

Self-Assessment Metrics of Your Eye Health

1. Difficulty seeing clearly when reading at close range and the need to move a certain distance away to see clearly. 2. It takes time to focus when switching between far and near views. 3. Need to take off glasses when talking at close range. 4. Poor night vision. 5. Severe eye fatigue.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, 58-year-old Wu Hongqian, director of Yisheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic in Taiwan, said that he has neither myopia (nearsightedness) nor presbyopia due to three simple practices.

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Mr. Wu is the director of Yisheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic in Taiwan. Although he uses his eyes as much as anyone—during the day as a doctor and reading copious amounts of medical publications—his eyesight has remained normal, with neither myopia nor presbyopia due to aging. In an interview with The Epoch Times, he shared his experiences with eye protection.

1. Diet Therapy

Mr. Wu said that the first key to avoiding presbyopia is diet therapy. For many, indulging more than ten hours a day on 3C products (computer, communication, and consumer electronic products) is not uncommon and can cause minor inflammation in the eyes. When the eyes are in a state of persistent inflammation, vision will deteriorate, resulting in presbyopia.

In terms of diet, Western medicine focuses on supplementing lutein, carotene, zeaxanthin, or anthocyanins, and recommends eating more carrots, blueberries, and bilberries. These nutrients all have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, can assist in eliminating free radicals, and delay aging. Free radicals are the prime factors that cause aging of the human body.

TCM believes that “the liver opens into the eyes,” and “the kidneys govern the pupils,” which means that eye problems are closely related to the health of the liver and kidneys. Accordingly, the focus is on choosing foods or herbs that can nourish the liver and kidneys, such as wolfberry (also known as goji berry), cassia seeds, Tribulus terrestris (a fruit-producing Mediterranean plant), and horsetail (Equisetum hyemale).

Mr. Wu said it may seem that on the surface, TCM has a different approach to eye protection from that of Western nutrition theory, but modern-day medicine has discovered 53 kinds of polyphenols in wolfberry—a superfood for eye care in TCM. Wolfberries have powerful antioxidant function, can fight free radicals, and have anti-inflammation and anti-aging properties, consistent with the findings of Western medicine.

Mr. Wu said that his aunt’s family ran a Chinese medicine store, and as a child, he always had sweet wolfberries as his snacks. He believes that this is the main reason he still keeps his eyes free of myopia and presbyopia at the age of 58. Today Mr. Wu continues the habit of keeping a jar of wolfberries on his desk to have as a snack. He also provides a tea recipe for eye health.

Tea for Good Eyesight

Ingredients: 15g (0.5 ounce) wolfberry, 10g (0.35 ounce) longan, 10g (0.35 ounce) astragalus
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Preparation: Boil 800cc (27 fl. ounces) water, then add the ingredients. Simmer o low heat for 10 minutes. Cool and drink.

2. Massage

There are many acupoints around the eyes:
(The Epoch Times)
The Epoch Times
  • Cuanzhu (BL2) and Yuyao (EX-HN4) on the brow bone.
  • Sizhukong (SJ23); next to the eyes.
  • Chengqi (ST1) under the eyes.
  • Tongziliao (GB1) at the end of the eyes.
  • Qingming (BL1) at the head of the eye.
  • Yangbai (GB14) and Sibai (ST2) above and below the eye.
Mr. Wu said that massaging the acupoints one by one is too hard, and instead, all the acupoints can be managed with just four movements.

1. Place four fingers on the brow bone, and do a rotating massage. This could be clockwise or counterclockwise. In that case, you reach the Cuanzhu, Yuyao, and Yangbai acupoints at the same time, which can relieve dry eyes and fatigue.

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2. Place four fingers to rotate and massage the edge of the lower brow bone, which is the acupoint of the subframe nerve, including Sibai and Chengqi. It promotes blood circulation around the eyes and removes eye sacs and dark rings under the eyes.

3. Place three fingers onto the concave socket around the eye bone, and apply rotary massage to the Sizhukong and Tongziliao acupoints, which can help supply blood to the eyeballs. Here you have the lacrimal glands distributed around, so is ideal for treating cataracts, floaters, and dry eyes.

4. Massage the Qingming acupoint at the inner corner of the eyes with two index fingers. Mr. Wu said that the Qingming is his beloved acupoint for treating dry eye syndrome. As more youth use 3C products for longer periods, dry eye syndrome is likely to start at a younger age. Therefore, learning to massage this acupoint earlier can help reduce eye damage.

(The Epoch Times)
The Epoch Times
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3. Eye Exercises

Eyeball movement exercising the six muscles in the eyes is the third practice to prevent presbyopia. Through proper training, blood supply to the eyes can become more sufficient, and it also prevents premature aging of the ciliary muscles. These movements are like training your biceps with dumbbells every day to build healthy, strong arms.

Rotations

  • Look up, down, left, and right for 3–5 seconds each direction. Then slowly rotate the eyes three times clockwise then counterclockwise. Try to stretch the eyeballs to reach all far corners.

Follow a Pen

To train the eyeballs for distance and near vision exercises, you can use a pen as a baton.
  • Start from the center near the tip of your nose, keep your eyes on the tip of the pen, slowly push the pen from near to far, and then pull it back to the tip of your nose from the far end, back and forth 3-5 times.
  • If you have time, you can follow the strokes of the Chinese character for rice “米,” to the right, to the left, up, down, up to the right, down to the left, up to the left, and finally down to the right, moving the pen to the far end and then pulling it back to the tip of the nose. Repeat this exercise 3-5 times.
Mr. Wu suggested that this set of eyeball exercises plus acupoint massage should be done once in the morning, noon, and evening. If you are too busy, do it once before going to bed at night, or before taking a nap at noon. People who don’t nap can do it after lunch. Resting the eyes after the exercises can alleviate inflammation, fatigue, and accumulated lactic acid.

Mr. Wu said that this set of exercises works best for people who have just started to see the onset of presbyopia (within half a year). If they have had presbyopia for 1–2 years already, it may take more than 6 months to recover. For those with presbyopia of more than two years, the effect is less obvious.

This set of exercises is effective for presbyopia and also has a therapeutic effect on cataracts caused by aging. In addition, Mr. Wu said that to delay cataracts, one not only needs to prevent sunlight damage to the crystalline lens but also to avoid the more considerable damage caused by blue light and LED light. Therefore, he suggested that people have two types of glasses on hand: one pair of sunglasses, and another pair to protect the eyes from the blue light of electronic devices.

Other Options Available for Treating Presbyopia

Is wearing glasses mandatory for presbyopia? Dr. Wang Xinhui, an ophthalmologist at EyePlus in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times that whether you wear glasses or not, presbyopia will still worsen because it is an aging process. However, without a properly calibrated pair of glasses, people might experience eye fatigue and soreness easier, and sometimes even symptoms such as shoulder and neck pain, headache, dizziness, or nausea. So, it is still advised to don a pair of proper reading glasses.
Choosing reading glasses is no different from choosing ordinary glasses. The right frame, high-quality lenses, and accurate prescription are especially important.

Treatments:

Currently, there are five treatments available for presbyopia:

1. Presbyopia Glasses

Choose between two lenses with different degrees, or multi-focal lenses, which can manage myopia and presbyopia at the same time.

2. Soft Multifocal Contact Lenses

People who do not like traditional glasses can choose multi-focal contact lenses. Unlike single-focal lenses, it takes some time for wearers to get used to them.

3. Multifocal Intraocular Lens (IOL) Surgery

Some eye patients have presbyopia and cataracts at the same time. During cataract surgery, the multifocal IOL can be directly replaced. However, surgery is not suitable for everyone, and it is not suitable for patients with retinal or optic neuropathy. Moreover, some people will experience nighttime glare after surgery, so it is not suitable for people who need to drive for a long time at night.

4. Laser Treatment

This is a relatively recent and popular treatment for presbyopia. In principle, it uses the diopter difference between the two eyes to solve the problem of seeing both distant and close-up objects. In general, one eye will be set to zero diopter to see the distance and the other eye will be set between 75 to 150 diopters to see the near objects, creating a parallax between the two eyes. Laser treatment should be evaluated and discussed with an ophthalmologist.

5. Laser Plus

An advanced presbyopia laser surgery, Laser Plus is similar to the myopia laser treatment of the past. In the process of cutting the cornea, a unique shape is created, resulting in an extended depth of field for seeing things, narrowing the parallax between the two eyes. But because it involves a special cutting technique, there is an adaptation period post-surgery.
Note: Some of the Chinese herbs mentioned above may sound unfamiliar, but many can be found in health food stores, and Asian grocery stores.
Amber Yang
Amber Yang
Amber Yang is a certified personal trainer. She met all the requirements of the American Council on Exercise to develop and implement personalized exercise programs. She worked as a marketing manager for natural skin care products for years and as a health and beauty reporter and editor for ten years. She is also the host and producer of the YouTube programs "Amber Running Green" and "Amber Health Interview."
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