your health
Id like to leave this here, good summary with multitude of options: https://green-club.eu/wp-content/uploads/CET-51114-Investigating-and-managing-heterophoria-.pdf
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martin Thanks for the info.
"If decompensation occurs in childhood, the child will develop a manifest strabismus, suppression will occur to overcome diplopia and binocular single vision will be lost." This is me.
I have had these issues all my life due to premature birth, and have alternating esotropia. I have had multiple surgeries to try to correct my squint however even within the last year when speaking to my surgeon, he stated that it could improve my eyes cosmetically, however binocular vision will not be possible, and there is always the risk of over correction, which would look even worse.
On top of this due to my premature birth my eyes are irregularly shaped, which will change how light enters and hits the retina. (Astigmatism?) Also pretty short sighted (approx -8 left eye -12 right eye).
Just saying as somebody who has always had these issues, and used all screens OK until >2012, it's not my eyesight that is causing the problem.
However I agree that everybody on this forum should get a thorough check-up with a specialist.
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diop Well its quite obviously both, otherwise everyone would have an issue when new tech was introduced. When someone figures out a tech solution, Ill be happy to pay them for it. I dont see that happening anytime soon and the eye therapy helps, so Im going that route. I want to get to a point where I dont see a difference in comfort, be it tech solution or health solution.
@KM how is the progress with you farsightness correction?
I have the same "hidden" +2 farsightness diagnosted when my eyes where on special eye drops, and currently starting to correct it with +1 contact lenses. I did feel an instant effect while wearing these and using a "bad" screen - it definately felt differrent, a lot easier to eyes, although my eyes were still getting tired, but without severve eye strain.
I also have similar to @martin's esophoria problem and finished treatment course on synoptophore recently.
coach789 The glasses don't help much so far, sadly. And I still get that "eye strain within seconds" from certain displays or lamps. I noticed the eyes have relaxed and there appears to be more prism diopters now. I probably should make another appointment soon. But I have no idea where this leads to.
__528491__ I noticed my symptoms about 2 years ago in 2017. I wan to multiple PCPs (primary care physicians), optometrists and ophthalmologist with no luck. During one of my PCP visits I mentioned how my ears feel like they are always clogged. He suggested going to an ENT to get checked out I had seen a few users here say they had sinus issues and after getting surgery their eye strain greatly improved (reduced?). I had tubes in my ears when I was really young but never had sinus issues, only the typical seasonal allergies. During my first visit to the ENT he said my sinuses were so clogged and swollen that he couldn't even look at them. He sprayed some medicine in to reduce the swelling and was finally able to see. Turns out I also have a deviated septum and the wider side is being blocked by bon. He was surprised I didn't realize I wasn't breathing right. I told him I'd like to avoid surgery and try all other possible solutions first. He prescribed a nasal spray meant for allergies which I use twice a day as well as take zyrtec. It hasn't fixed my eye strain and I'm honestly not even sure if it's reduced it but I continue to use it just in case. I try to avoid "bad" devices as much as possible
I did do a test and took afrin (which I heard is pretty much just steroids and shouldn't be used long term) and used my wife's computer which is a known bad machine (latest windows 10 build with a gtx 1060) and I was able to use it longer than usual before the strain kicked in. I think I made it about 30 minutes before I really felt the strain.
I don't know if this helps but I noticed we all have a lot of different triggers. For example most people on this site can't use the latest macbook pros. I can use a 2019 macbook pro (no dedicated gpu) for hours. It's not as comfortable as my old windows 7 laptop but it's no where near the pain I get from windows 10. One thing I did notice with the macbook pro is if I plug in 1 external monitor I don't have an issue but if I plug in 2 external monitors I start getting strain. I'm not sure if this is because the 2nd monitor is plugged in via a 3rd party usb-c to hdmi adaptor or because the 8th gen i5 integrated gpu has to work harder causing the strain.
Harrison a permanent activated immune system (doctors told me that) - the body is fighting against something
I'm coming back to this older post because I've recently read some research that shows that light flicker causes neuroinflammation. Visible 40 Hz strobe light flicker causes neuroinflammation in mice. Researchers thought this was potentially good because, when done for a relatively short period of time, it could cause immune cells in the brain to clear away abnormal proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease. This review article has a well-written discussion of that research and other research on noninvasive strategies for changing brain waves.
Another recent paper shows that different kinds of visible light flicker (40 Hz, 20 Hz, irregular flicker averaging at 40 Hz) very rapidly caused immune system system signaling molecules to be activated in the mouse brain's visual cortex, and the collection of immune molecules that was activated varied based on the type of flicker. A conclusion of the paper was that light flicker could potentially be used in therapies where it was desirable to cause an immune response (inflammation) in the brain.
I haven't seen any research of this kind studying "invisible" flicker of the ≥100 Hz or ≥120 Hz kind that we experience from LED lights, so there's no way to know if it, too, could trigger inflammation in the brain. However, I wonder if for some of us, this could possibly be the case. Additionally, it's hard to say what kind of flicker frequency or pattern we're getting from the numerous ways that LED screens can flicker. The amount of time that people are being exposed to LED flicker is also, of course, much longer than in the mouse studies.
Too much neuroinflammation is definitely bad. For example, concussion causes neuroinflammation, and lingering neuroinflammation is thought to be a cause of long-term negative consequences of concussion in the brain.
Having neuroinflammation could possibly explain some of the memory and sleep problems that some of us have. For me at least, my memory and lingering sleep issues (I can't stay asleep for more than a few hours for many days/weeks following LED exposure) seem similar to what some people experience for long periods of time after a concussion.
I really hope neuroinflammation isn't part of what we're dealing with, but if it is, it can be tricky to detect with a blood test. @Harrison do you happen to know what kind of immune system marker your doctors detected?
Random DC inversion flickering happening at half refresh rate, so with 60-75 hz monitor we have to deal with 30-37 Hz flicker.
That is very interesting! I really wonder if some kind of inflammation could be part of what's going on for some of us. If it is, it could be a serious enough issue that people could take notice - if we have more than supposition. It's hard to figure out, though, because there's almost no way to test for it - most of the studies are post-mortem. Analyzing symptoms will be a key starting place.
I just set up this survey in its own discussion. It's thorough - it will take somewhere between 10 min and an hour to complete, depending on how many sections have symptoms relevant to you. Even though it will take a while, I really encourage everyone to take it - the more responses we get, the more seriously we'll be taken when we try to present the data to outside people. I'm hoping to more systematically collect data on the scope of everyone's experiences with the goal of being able to push for research and awareness.
And a big thank you to everyone in this discussion and others!! I used info from many many posts to try to make the survey as inclusive as possible of others' experiences.
Hi, sorry for my late reply.
unfortunately not anymore. There were signs of a Hashimoto or something similar, however these markers were not very specific and was viewed as a rather minor matter. In other words, the signs of this come more from physical stress and lack of sleep than the other way around - so the doctor.
Currently I am focusing on breathing exercises. Especially learning to breathe through the nose and also I am doing some resonance breathing patterns. Has anyone else tried this?
I did several years of biofeedback and nuerofeedback training designed to minimize stress reactions. It did eliminate one of my triggers, certain credit card terminal screens that used to trigger me are 100% pain free now, but otherwise no real change sin symptoms.
However when I am stressed I am much more susceptible to symptoms, so I know stress is related
I haven't gone over this whole thread, but I can comment on the importance of sleep. If I haven't slept enough, I'm much more susceptible to eye strain. Many people wake up with alarms in the morning and then have coffee so that they can function without proper sleep. That gets them through the days, but their eyes will be more prone to strain without any doubt, and they will be more prone to headaches and other things.
Also, you ought to sleep before 10 pm for optimal HGH release.
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I have been away for quite some time, and I have not read the whole thread – guess why? Eyestrain! I will try to catch up. Meanwhile, I would like to report what I learnt in the past 6 months.
First, let me recall my symptoms, which are extreme sensitivity to modern lighting - mostly LEDs but also some fancy fluorescent overhead lights - and eyestrain using modern devices / OS.
I visited a few specialists, coordinated by a neuro-ophthalmologist and an orthoptist.
The neuro-ophthalmologist did not find anything anomalous in my eyes and prescribed electrophysiology tests to try address my sensitivity / intolerance to LEDs and bright lights. Electrophysiology tests check to see how well the visual nerve pathway sends the electrical signals needed for vision. These tests measure electrical activity that occurs in the eye when looking at something (I pretty much copy-pasted this, as I am not an expert). The tests lasted a couple of hours and consisted in following lights of different colours, brightness and flicker moving left to right and vice versa within a half-sphere slightly larger than my head. The tests were carried out in both daylight and dark conditions. The response was that my eyes (retina – if I recall correctly) work fine in daylight conditions but are not great in the dark. This may be the reason why I suffer of poor balance at night-time. I was recommended to try to increase the intake of vitamin A and I am due to re-take these tests in a year time. These tests ruled out the need for an EEG under trigger, according to the neuro-ophthalmologist.
The orthoptist assessment was fatigable convergence and slightly reduced positive relative vergence range at near. For the first month, I carried out jump convergence exercises and positive relative vergence exercises (cat stereogram). Next, maintaining the previous exercises, I began using a 35^ prism for vergence training. I made quick progress and became more serious with my routine. About 2 months into visual training, my eyes were assessed orthophoric at distance with a 4^ esophoria at near, and normal ocular movements. My fusional amplitudes were found much improved (1^ BI to 45^ BO for distance, and 1^ BI to 45^ BO for near) with respect to when I first saw the orthoptist (sorry, I have no notes of what the initial state was). I kept pushing with the exercises, training my convergence with a 45^ BO prism (instead of a 35^ one) and my divergence with 4^ BI prism. A month later (in total three months of training), I was judged “in spec”. I was invited to stop using prisms but keep doing the other exercises. I should have a new assessment in 6 months to see if I have maintained my achievements without doing further prism exercises.
Both the neuro-ophthalmologist and the orthoptist said that my symptoms are typical of people who undergo a concussion. They warned me that visual training would not solve my problem entirely. That sounds accurate. After the initial horrible symptoms that developed upon returning to a Windows laptop, I feel better. I am not saying that I am happy of the situation, but I can handle long days at the display. Unfortunately, I am still terribly hurt by LEDs. Looking at a display under directional LED overhead lighting is devastating and makes the display feel an almost unusable device.
I am currently seeing a specialist on dry eyes as well to see if using artificial tears helps. Work is in progress. I would like to report one detail. Following meibography test to inspect the meibomian glands in the eyelids, I was recommended to use a hot band around my eyes for 5-10 minutes once or twice a day. After about 5 days of treatment, my eyestrain and neck pain skyrocketed, and I was unable to do any computer work. Actually, I could hardly do anything as the general discomfort was extreme. It took me a while to figure out that the hot band was to blame. I also had to stop using a naturopathic sleeping pill (opiate ingredient likely to blame) because after a couple of days my eyes became extremely dry and my vision very blurry. These to give an example of how sensitive my eyes are.
I am also working on improving my posture and I am doing neurorehabilitation (a typical exercise consists of wearing a band with a narrow LED beam on my head, pointing the beam to the centre of a dart target, closing my eyes, turning my head to one side and trying to hit back the centre of the target while keeping my eyes closed - this is super-challenging). Long-term I would like to return using a monitor (I have been on a laptop since 2010!). Everything seems to help just a little, so the idea is to approach the problem from all possible sides.
The summary is that I am trying to do all I can and I am hanging in here, because the alternative is quitting my job and I do not want to imagine the other consequences.
Have you tried cover one eye and look at a screen that doesn’t work for you? Is it the same symptoms or better?
I ask because training with one eye has changed everything for me, now I can look a all screen with both eyes. There are several people on this forum that have tried the same thing with good results.
Thank you for sharing your experience, it's really valuable to have as much data as possible. Seems like you're doing everything you can, hope it ends up working out for you.
That's interesting, would you mind sharing a little more detail on that? How long did you have to train with one eye? Do you have any remaining symptoms at this point while using "bad" screens?