{"id":7623,"date":"2022-05-02T09:43:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T14:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/?p=7623"},"modified":"2022-10-25T14:01:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T19:01:07","slug":"posture-and-eyesight-some-thoughts-about-natural-vision-and-myopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/posture-and-eyesight-some-thoughts-about-natural-vision-and-myopia\/","title":{"rendered":"posture and eyesight &#8212; some thoughts about natural vision and myopia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Some of you know that I wore glasses from around 7th grade to my early twenties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I started reading up on natural vision, quit wearing glasses, and gradually my eyesight improved. I went from 20\/180 in my worst eye to basically 20\/20 or 20\/40 today. (Range because I experience some degradation in vision acuity if I&#8217;m tired or have been inside\/in front of screens too much.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/seeing-is-believing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I posted about my natural vision journey several years ago.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve learned a lot about vision and natural vision over the years, and wanted to share one particular insight, because it&#8217;s important, and it may help other people who want their eyes to operate as God intended &#8211; and don&#8217;t want to be dependent on corrective lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Poor posture &#8212; the root of contemporary epidemic of vision problems?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This is based on observation, self-experimentation, and logic. Consult a medical professional please, as the disclaimers say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the head isn&#8217;t aligned, the eyes are forced to compensate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>They have to use the muscles that attach to the eyeball to rotate\/gyrate within the socket, so they can &#8220;find&#8221; the position where images are most easily and efficiently focused on the retina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diagram-of-eye-muscles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diagram-of-eye-muscles.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7624\" width=\"365\" height=\"314\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Our eyeballs are surrounded by tiny muscles that move the eyeball up, down, sideways&#8230; Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/aapos.org\/glossary\/anatomy-of-the-eye\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/aapos.org\/glossary\/anatomy-of-the-eye<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under pre-industrial &#8220;natural&#8221; conditions, these compensatory adjustments are momentary\/passing movements. The eye muscles that perform the movements quickly relax again as the head returns to its vertically &amp; horizontally aligned position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a fluid thing that our bodies are designed to do, to compensate for shifts in head, neck, trunk, hips, knees &#8212; for unevenness in terrain, gait, and for dynamically scanning the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/toddhargrove.substack.com\/p\/head-and-eye-stabilization?s=r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This is a great substack about head and neck stabilization<\/a>. Todd Hargrove is writing about balance, agility, and sports performance. He embeds some nice video showing how animals naturally stabilize their heads\/necks while moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But here&#8217;s the thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose you spend too much time fixing your eyes on a near-point object, with your head (meaning of course also your neck, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, ankles&#8230;) out of alignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe the eyes muscles that rotate\/gyrate the eyeball will become overworked and strained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe they will &#8220;tighten&#8221; into a position where it&#8217;s impossible for reflected light to fall properly on the retina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe the eyeball itself will become misshapen\/distended by the continual &#8220;pulling&#8221; of the eye muscles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a diagram of the eye muscles that do all this work. You can imagine how they coordinate, relaxing and tightening in turn to gyrate the eyeball within the socket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"587\" src=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight-1024x587.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight-1024x587.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight-300x172.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight-768x440.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight-500x287.jpg 500w, https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/schematic-of-effect-of-posture-on-eyesight.jpg 1088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>I suppose, for the slumped posture on the left, the eyes are well-aligned for staring at a computer screen. But imagine the work your eye muscles have to do to see a distant object &#8212; unless you revert to the posture on the right &#8212; if you&#8217;re trying to see a blackboard or road sign. And guess what? Many of us moderns have gotten our posture &#8220;stuck&#8221; in that slumped alignment. <br \/>Schematic based <a href=\"https:\/\/ifgfit.com\/blogs\/news\/7-workouts-to-improve-bad-posture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on image published by IFGfit<\/a>. <strong>Exercises to improve posture at the link.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Test this yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have poor sight &#8212; especially if you are a young or youngish person with myopia &#8212; take a minute, go outside, and take off your glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stretch up your posture so your head is aligned vertically and your shoulders are back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Loosen your neck. Swing or sway your body if you need to, to get everything loosened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blink a few times to relax your eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And see if your vision doesn&#8217;t momentarily become more clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Was this post useful? Do you like reading fiction?<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LENku1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Please visit my Amazon page and consider buying one of my books. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some of you know that I wore glasses from around 7th grade to my early twenties. Then I started reading up on natural vision, quit wearing glasses, and gradually my eyesight improved. I went from 20\/180 in my worst eye &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/posture-and-eyesight-some-thoughts-about-natural-vision-and-myopia\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1600,1526,1601,1602],"class_list":["post-7623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-eyesight","tag-health","tag-myopia","tag-natural-vision"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7649,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7623\/revisions\/7649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}