Lasik eye surgery may be more risky than you think
You need someone to argue against LASIK, so I will do it. I wouldn't quite approve the idea of Lasik eye surgery. While it does remarkable things for people, I believe it has serious flaws. I have read some history of how the optometry school got started and there are some things that are just "explained away" but not necessarily correct. For example, the assumption that eyesight cannot be reversed and that presbyopia is inevitable after turning 40 years old is a widely held belief in traditional optometry. This has its roots with a great German scientist and opthalamologist known as Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894). He attributed the mechanism of accommodation (the eye's ability to focus at different distances) primarily to the action of the ciliary muscle on the lens. There were flaws in his research but the flaws were overlooked and taught as a "fact" in the schools for optometry.
Traditional optometry still accepts Helmholtz's theory without questioning it. As a result, most eye doctors think vision cannot be reversed.
An optometrist named William H. Bates (1860-1931), founder of adrenaline, did what no other scientist did, he started from stratch to examine years of Helmholtz's work. He tried for years to prove Helmholtz CORRECT but failed and in doing so discovered where Helmholtz had erred. But since Helmholtz's theory had been widely accepted and taught in the school of optometrists it was hard to change traditional beliefs.
Since that time, the theory of accommodation has gone widely undisputed. This misleads students of optometry into thinking that the last word about problems of refraction has been spoken.
Bates also helped thousands of people regain normal vision and even the board of physicians witnessed this but as a result he was expelled from the prestigious Columbia University where he taught other optometrists and did his own research. The school of optometry feared that Bates' discovery that had also disproven Helmholtz's theory would cause insurmountable loss in profit. So they made sure Bates' discovery would not be taught in schools or to the public. They wanted people to rely on glasses.
Where does Bates differ from tradition beliefs on accommodation? He believed that accommodation had to do mostly with the six external eye muscles, which tighten or loosen (like a belt), resulting in changes in the eye's shape. I can understand this because when I am ill I feel more stressed and cannot see as well. But he said that by relaxing the eye muscles, vision could be returned to normal or better than 20/20.
After learning all this, I realized that LASIK eye surgery was not a safe procedure at all. What many people may not realize is that headaches often begin from the eyes. I made this discovery after I had been experiencing headaches nearly everyday after work, because my job required extensive use of the eyes. So as I walked around at work and everywhere I went I used my eyes differently as Bates had recommended and have not had a single headache in over half a year. My eyes started to relax more and I noticed that things began to clear up a little every day. This convinced me Bates had hit on something of great importance, because such a thing would be declared impossible by traditional doctors.
If LASIK eye surgery is taken, it only repairs accommodation from the lens. But if Bates is correct and it's the extrinstic eye muscles causing vision to decline, then the muscles are still tense and even if you have perfect vision with LASIK, you'll still get headaches and other eye diseases due to the chronic stress. And no matter what, your vision will continue to decline as you age. If you tried to relax the eye muscles after having LASIK performed, the muscles will relax but the vision will blur.
That leaves an alternative called natural vision improvement. It's better to try it before you even consider having eye surgery anyway. Unfortunately, many eye improvement sites on the Internet are commercialized and go by the wrong concept that what the eyes need are exercise. I mean, why exercise muscles that are already tense when they need to relax by using correct eye habits? Exercise may improve eyesight temporarily but it'll later revert to where it was before.
Many websites out there also come to the incorrect conclusion that the Bates Method is about eye exercises. It's about good eye habits that are used 24/7.
Anyway, I'm deaf like many of you are. We rely exclusively on our eyes, and one of my old deaf teachers is becoming blind. Soon he'll be like Helen Keller. I do not want this to happen to me. You understand.
There is a book I suggest to anyone who wants to try a safer, more natural approach before attempting any kind of eye surgery. This book is very well-written and in my opinion, seems more clear than medical textbooks I have read pertaining to the subject of eye anatomy and functions. It's called "Relearning to See--Improve your Eyesight--Naturally!" by Thomas R. Quackenbush.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...f=pd_bbs_1/102-5639632-3744165?_encoding=UTF8
LASIK may be for some people but it is not for me and I have explained here why for your own benefit as well. If you have any questions, you may ask me.