How to Cure Astigmatism: Glasses, LASIK or Eye Exercises for Astigmatism?
Nearly everyone has some degree of astigmatism – a “squashed” cornea. But it’s only those with higher degrees that need to wear glasses for it.
Usually that means people who already suffer from nearsightedness (myopia) or farsightedness (hyperopia). These conditions put the eyeball under strain, which in turn creates a deformed shape of the lens.
If you are affected by astigmatism – fear not. It may be possible to completely cure astigmatism like I did with eye exercises. This article will explain how you may be able to improve your vision naturally and gain better vision for life.
What Causes Astigmatism?
Sometimes incorrectly called a stigmatism, it’s the result of an unevenly shaped cornea. It’s often caused by uneven tension of the extraocular muscles that surround the eyeball – in other words, prolonged eye strain.
The result is blurry vision. The uneven shape of the cornea causes rays of light to focus unevenly – some in front and some behind the retina.
There are three treatment options available for astigmatism correction:
I’ll briefly compare each option and their major benefits and drawbacks:
1. Curing Astigmatism With Glasses / Contact Lenses
Prescription glasses work by refracting the light differently into your eye and creating a sharp image on the retina, enabling you to see clearly. But glasses merely correct astigmatism on a superficial level. It’s like slapping on a band-aid to hide the wound underneath.
Actually, it’s worse than that, because a band-aid actually has a purpose in protecting the wound while it heals. In contrast, wearing glasses serves no purpose in improving your vision on a fundamental level. Indeed, corrective lenses have been scientifically documented to make eyesight worse:
And it’s not just monkeys that can demonstrate the damaging effect of glasses and contact lenses. Here are a couple more examples of real-life studies:
In my opinion, wearing glasses is not a true solution for treating astigmatism. It merely masks the problem and risks further deterioration. In later life, a third of people who wear lenses end up with one or more serious eye diseases by the time they are 70 years old, simply because their natural vision is so poor. Glasses don’t prevent this – so what does?
2. Treating Astigmatism with LASIK
Many people want a quick fix to their vision problems, and I can totally understand that. If I wasn’t so squeamish I may even have turned to LASIK myself once. But having researched laser eye surgery properly for this website I can now say: NO WAY! Not even if it was free and everyone was doing it. There are just too many potential side effects that could ruin your vision for life…
How Does Laser Eye Surgery Work?
Putting all the risk factors aside, this is what happens in a typical LASIK treatment and what you can expect if everything goes well.
Laser eye surgery can be used for astigmatism treatment on an out-patient basis. It involves the use of a suction ring to hold your eyeball still, a surgical knife to cut open a flap in your outer cornea, and a computer-controlled laser to precisely reshape your inner corneal lens. The actual procedure is not painful but it can be disturbing and is certainly not for the squeamish.
At a cost of around $3,000 and following a stringent after-care routine, you can expect to start seeing an improvement in your vision after 24 hours, with further improvement over the following days and weeks. However, even in a successful LASIK operation, there is still nothing preventing further vision loss.
3. Treating Astigmatism with Eye Exercises
Eye exercises work by stimulating integral components of the eye in a manner that is not achieved through normal daily use. Within days or weeks, you can notice first-hand improvements in your natural vision.
In my story, I explain how I improved my long distance vision using an eye exercise program called Rebuild Your Vision.
I also completely cured my astigmatism.
According to Rebuild Your Vision, most vision disorders are caused by refractive errors, caused by bad vision habits and chronic eye strain. Eye exercises teach you to undo these habits and get your eyesight back into shape, so that you can see clearly without glasses. Learn more here.
