Treatments and Cure for Myopia without Glasses

There are numerous treatments to cure myopia that will completely remove your glasses. It can range from doing surgery such as LASIK Surgery to natural means such as active focusing method and Print Pushing technique. Here is the list of the possible treatments for myopia to get rid of your glasses.

Treatments	Type
Atropine Drops	Slows Progression
CRT (Corneal Refractive Therapy) lenses	Contact Lens Treatment
Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)	Contact Lens Treatment
Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK)	Laser Surgery
Active Focusing Method	Natural/ Hormesis
Eye Yoga	Eye Relaxation
Bates Method	Eye Exercises
Print Pushing Method	Natural/ Hormesis
Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)	Laser Surgery
Laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (LASEK)	Laser Surgery

The one you will choose will completely be dependent on what you need. In general, surgery types are more expensive but will yield faster results while the natural way is mostly free but will take time to produce any results.

Can you cure Myopia?

Myopia can be cured as there are now lots of treatments available. You can choose from invasive ones such as LASIK, LASEK, or PRK surgery where they will treat Myopia fast. While there are natural methods such as hormesis but some of them are not yet scientifically proven.

	Natural Methods	Invasive/Surgery Methods
Price	Cheap or Sometimes Free	Expensive
Speed	Will take months or years to return back to 20/20	**Can return back to 20/20 after surgery
Side Effects	*Eye Strain/None	May Develop Complications

The table shows a comparison of Natural Methods and Surgical Procedures in treating myopia. While Natural methods are usually cheaper, it will take months or even years to get results.

Invasive procedures, on the other hand, gets really fast result but there are disadvantages such as it is expensive and there is a chance for complications.

It should also be noted that complications can happen not because of surgery but because the patient is not the ideal type for the surgery as quoted by Dr. Manche of Stanford Eye Laser Center

“The Most Important Thing is to Make Sure you are a Perfect Candidate, Some people may develop complications, not because of the surgery but because they aren’t good candidates.”
– Edward E. Manche, MD, Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, Professor of Ophthalmology

Advantage vs Disadvantage of Eye Surgical Procedures

Advantages	Disadvantages
More than 90% Success Rate to 20/20 vision	Candidate based results
Instantly Improves Quality of Life	May Lead to Complications
99% chance to go back to 20/40 vision	May Lose a Line of Vision in Vision Chart

As said by experts, complications can occur because eye surgery is not ideal for the patient so you need to take note of that. Better consult a specialist before having surgery.

“The risk of that is very low. This is often due to an infection, scarring, or poor healing.”

Jennifer Ling, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (Talking about the lost of of Vision in Vision Chart after surgery)

Every type of surgery has risks involved. In fact, Dr.Ling also notes that: “You don’t want the doctor who says, ‘This is absolutely guaranteed to work. That’s a big red flag.”

That’s why if you plan on doing surgery, better get a real professional check on you first.

Is it Possible to Cure Myopia Naturally?

Myopia can be cured naturally through Active focusing, which has been proven by a paper by the American Academy of Optometry by Balamurali Vasudevan, et al on November 2009: “Accommodative training to reduce nearwork-induced transient myopia.”

The study involves ten young adults with progressing myopia. Checking up on them with two follow-up sessions at the end of the third and sixth weeks of training and as a result, participants resulted in an increase in dynamics in both laboratory and clinical measures.

The combination of active focusing and print pushing is what actually helped me, the writer of this post, in reducing my eye grade from -3.23 to now -1.25. If you are interested in this, you may check my video on YouTube on how to do this or you may check my blog article listing all the things I did to lessen my myopia. How I Reduced My Myopia

Advantages	Disadvantages
Completely Free to Do	Will Take Time
No Invasive Procedure and Almost Risk Free	Results are not Guaranteed

If you chose the natural route in curing your eye sight, take note that while it may be a lot cheaper, it will take time and results are not guaranteed with this method. With only the ones who are willing to do the work getting results.

When it comes to results, laser surgery will give you the best one.

Can Eye Exercises Cure Myopia?

There is no scientific evidence that the eyes can be cured by eye exercises. A 2016 study which tested palming, blinking, sideways viewing, front and sideways viewing, rotational viewing, up and down viewing, preliminary nose tip gazing, and near and distant viewing on students revealed that eye exercises can only help with eye fatigue but not myopia itself.

Study: “Effects of yogic eye exercises on eye fatigue in undergraduate nursing students”, Sang-Dol Kim, 28 Jun 2016.

However, active focusing on the other hand targets a different set of muscles compared to other eye exercises. While eye exercises in the study focuses on the outside of the eye, Active focusing focuses on the muscles inside your eye. Thus, it can help you get a clearer vision.

Treatments for Myopia Explained One by One

1. Atropine Drops

Atropine is a type of drop that can be used to dilate the pupil of an individual. A study conducted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology titled: “Five-Year Clinical Trial on Atropine for the Treatment of Myopia 2” Concluded that over the course of use, atropine drops(0.01%) were effective in slowing down the progression of Myopia.

2. CRT (Corneal Refractive Therapy) lenses

Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT) is a type of contact lenses that you use overnight to shape reshape the surface of your eyeballs during the night when sleeping. Thus, during the day, you can see clearly without the help of glasses or other contact lenses. It is widely prescribed for Myopia, Hyperopia and Astigmatism.

3. Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)

Ortho-K is a type of gas permeable contact lenses that you wear overnight to gently reshape the surface of your eye. Thus, you can see clearly the following day after waking up. It is usually prescribed to slow the progress of myopia and to correct refractive errors.

4. Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK)

PRK is a type of laser surgery in which a surgeon takes away a layer of your cornea to reshape your eyes. This methos will reduce or eliminate your dependency to glasses. It is often used and is most suitable for moderate degree of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.

5. Active Focusing Method

The Active Focusing method is a method where you will force your eyes to focus on a text or an object. The objective of doing active focusing is to teach your eyes how to focus and be clear again using a method called hormesis.

Active focusing is a broad topic that is also proven by a scientific paper by the American Academy of Optometry by Balamurali Vasudevan, et al in November 2009: “Accommodative training to reduce nearwork-induced transient myopia.”

6. Eye Yoga

Eye yoga is a series of practices and exercises which it claims to help in vision improvement, while no scientific paper has proven this to be helpful in making vision clearer, it is a popular option for eye relaxation.

7. Bates Method

The Bates Method is a method made by Dr. William Bates in his book “Perfect Sight Without Glasses” during the 1920s. It focuses on various eye exercises which claim to help in vision improvement. Although numerous scientific papers say otherwise.

In a study published by the Journal of Pediatric Opthalmology and Strabismus titled: “A systematic review of the applicability and efficacy of eye exercises”, they analyzed 43 research papers and concluded that: ” As yet there is no clear scientific evidence published in the mainstream literature supporting the use of eye exercises in the remainder of the areas reviewed, and their use, therefore, remains controversial.”

8. Print Pushing Method

Print Pushing is a form of active focusing in which you will focus on the text that is a bit farther away, so you can exercise or train your eyes to see things as far as you can. This method is usually done if you want to do active focusing on near work such as reading and writing.

9. Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)

LASIK is a form of refractive eye surgery that uses a laser to reshape your eyes. It is different from LASEK surgery in the sense that LASIK’s flap is thicker and also includes some stromal tissues. Thus, LASEK is preferred on patients with a thin cornea or a medical condition.

10. Laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (LASEK)

LASEK is a form of refractive surgery where a laser is used to reshape the eyes. It is different from LASIK surgery in the sense that LASEK’s flap is more superficial and epithelial thus is more suitable with patients with a thin cornea or underlying medical conditions.