your health
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?
xelaos What was your progress?
Before I couldn’t find any screen newer than 2011 that didn’t gave me tension and red eyes. Now I can use all screens without tension. But by eyes hurts a bit in the evenings and I have to take my sinus-medicine.
xelaos How often did you increase the duration and what was your max duration with one eye per day?
I think this is very individual. Even if we have the same or almost the same trigger, we all have different levels of problems.
In the beginning I trained one hour a day, both eye open, one eye covered. You have to find out for yourself what gives results and keep on doing it.
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bkdo 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?
@martin wrote on this forum that it worked better for him when he took photos, with one eye. So the night after Black Friday 2018 I decided to try. It worked much better with one eye. I was so happy. So I kept on for three weeks, one hour a day. And then it was time for a board meeting and just for the fun of it I tested the screen with both eyes and it worked without tension. But a bit red burning eyes after long usage.
I have wrote several posts about my progress on this forum last weeks, so look at my posts and if you have some more questions I am happy to answer them.
mike 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 can't say I seriously tried. I did it for ten minutes one time a year ago, after reading your posts and Martin's, and found it at least extremely challenging. I got strong headache and I did not pursue it further. I will see what the specialists who are following me think about it. We never discussed this exercise, because, if I remember correctly, the orthoptist had judged that my binocular vision was okay, but I had issues holding convergence at near. However, I have been under a lot of stress the last eight months and it has been really hard to cope with everything in this condition, and I confess that I listened to what the specialists told me and executed, without trying to understand about numbers, prisms etc etc. Hopefully, I will soon get out of this stressful period and I will try to gain a better understanding of diagnosis and prognosis.
Thanks for the tip!
AGI I can't say I seriously tried. I did it for ten minutes one time a year ago
I tested to cover one eye back in early 2012, it was a short test and I couldn’t feel any difference and what I remember it didn’t feel good in my head. Now I regret that I waited 6,5 year for my next test, because it was the solution for me.
AGI I will see what the specialists who are following me think about it.
The specialists I have visit have told me that it doesn’t work on adults, only children. And when I told them I have been doing it, and it have given great results they said, keep on doing it if it works for you.
Keep in mind, our problem isn’t something that even the specialists knows about. Most of them give eye advises. But this is more about how the brain controls the eyes. Maybe a orthoptist can help, but I think that a professor that researches how the brain controls the eyes is the right person to meet.
AGI Hopefully, I will soon get out of this stressful period
I keep my fingers crossed!
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Quick question I did not think of before. Which eye shall I cover? Or shall I rotate? The left side of my body is weaker including the eye. The left eye is smaller and slightly astigmatic, and I do feel more muscular tension around that eye. Thanks.
Also, as anyone tried this stuff?
I regularly just use my smartphone for 30min-90min hour a day and just close my right eye. So i have close to zero problems with the device compared to severe issues when i use both. However, this doesn't help me with binocular vision later on.
I also used specific monitors with one i covered - compared to the closed eye with the smartphone - for 30min-180min with similar results once a week.
For me one eye is far better than the other. I would just test it. I feel which one relativ fast especially if you try to work or do something where you need to concentrate.
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I want to add my experience.
Two years ago I started to have a burning sensation in my eyes even with good devices that did not give me problems. The optometrist given me glasses to correct astigmatism (0.5) and with those, I was perfect again.
In June 2020 I tried W10 2004 and I was sick for two weeks (vertigo, headache, nausea..) .. since that day I have not recovered at 100%. Currently, if I don't use glasses for astigmatism, I'm fine (apart from burning sensation) and I can also using W11 / W10 21H1. instead, If I use glasses I have a very strong feeling of confusion and after a while, I start to have eye ache/tension.
It may be that without glasses my brain suppresses the right eye (the one that has exophoria and in my opinion I see even worse than the left one...) and therefore I am fine! Instead with glasses the right eye also comes into play and I can't manage exophoria which causes me confusion/inability to stay focused?
AGI Which eye shall I cover?
For the most I cover my right non-dominant lazy eye.
AGI Or shall I rotate?
For me it wasn’t necessary, even if I tried it a few times.
I think you have to test what is working for you and keep on doing it.
AGI Also, as anyone tried this stuff?
Looks interesting, I want to try it.
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I have not provided information about the exercises without prisms, that can easily be carried out by everyone, although I recommend you see a specialist.
One is the cat stereogram. After some practice I learnt first to maintain the three cats even after removing the pen, and next to make the three cats appear from scratch without using the pen at all. I also made the exercise more complicated by moving the sheet to the far left, then to the far right, up and down, and finally in circles.
I was also shown a variant of this exercise that does not contemplate the use of the pen at the start. You hold the sheet with the two cats at arm distance straight in front of you. You focus on a well defined object far away, for instance something 2-3 meters away at a similar height of the sheet. If you truly focus on that far away object which is on the same line of sight of the cats, the third cat will appear. You hold.
The cat stereogram can become fun. I can now see three well defined cats for as along as I want, like 3-5 minutes. Then I stop because it gets boring and stressful. One of the issues I encountered and I got better at is that sometimes one of the two outer cats would fade for a split second. I am not sure what this is due to, because the cat in the middle would stay, so it may not be simple suppression of one eye.
The other exercise is a sort of Brock string exercise but aimed at enhancing convergence at near. Therefore, no cord needed. Just a print out such as the one below (the length of the line is circa 20 cm).
The "nose" side is indicated. You keep the sheet inclined downwards, for instance, by 30 degrees, and you focus on the farthest away square. You do not jump immediately to the next square inwards. You first need to make sure that the square you are looking at is neatly defined and two lines depart from it towards your nose. You hold for a while, I typically do it for 15-30 sec. If you can see "the right pattern" of square and lines, then you move on to the next square. This time the line on the sheet will become a sort of X. You hold and try to control both the shape of the square and the X, and move on. Depending on where you are at, it may take you a while to reach the square near the NOSE label.
I was recommended to not overdo. 4 minutes a day are enough at the start.
I confess that at the beginning I was underwhelmed by the exercises I was given and I did not take them very seriously. I got more excited when I started using prisms and then when I noticed that I could take the pen out of the equation in the cat stereogram exercise. These exercises are also a way to find some relief in the presence of extreme eyestrain and neck tension.