dave's blog

Recently here on FitEyes, readers have asked about the relationship between intraocular pressure about meditation. That prompted me to write this post about some of the broader spiritual aspects of what I do as well as how I view intraocular pressure in my own life and in my work as a Serene Impulse teacher.

Meditation and spirituality are often perceived as soft, delicate, wishy-washy, "New Agie", etc. My own approach is hard-core and scientific. It is also great fun. The path is filled with bliss and love -- and lots of IOP data!

For those of you who have been thinking about joining our self-tonometry program and purchasing a tonometer, I want to let you know that we can help you purchase your tonometer. This is done through an exclusive arrangement supported by a glaucoma patient who has been a benefactor to the FitEyes community from the earliest days. His company has arranged for our self-tonometry group to receive large discounts on tonometers (through an exclusive arrangement with a top tonometer manufacturer).

From MDLinx Ophthal Newsletter. See number 27 on the list.

Top-Read Clinical Articles of 2009 in Ophthal/Glaucoma

Most read articles from 64 contributor journals (see the list)

For many glaucoma patients, a vacation can present an opportunity to do some good thinking, maybe reflect on our direction in life or mentally solve some important questions that have been in the back of our mind but ignored because of our busy schedules.

On my own recent vacation I started thinking about new career directions. And yesterday I received a phone call from a good friend of mine who was vacationing on a tropical island. He told me all about swimming in the ocean, jogging on the beach and eating healthy food. All of it sounded fun, relaxing and healthy. But he was perplexed by one thing -- his intraocular pressure was going up in spite of being on a relaxing vacation in a tropical paradise.

The following post is adapted from "A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing" By JOHN MARKOFF, published: December 14, 2009 in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15books.html?_r=1&pagewanted=p...

Top computer scientists say we have entered the age of data-intensive scientific discovery. Dr. Gray, who was a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher,  called the shift a “fourth paradigm.” The first three paradigms were experimental, theoretical and, more recently, computational science.

I love responding to questions about self-tonometry. I prefer this to writing blog posts in a vacuum. If you have been a long time reader of FitEyes.com, you have probably noticed that the trend lately is that my detailed responses are coming in the form of replies to posts that other people have made. I prefer it this way. I want to thank everyone who is making posts and asking questions. Please continue to do so!

The only disadvantage of this form of posting is that if you are trying to follow my latest commentary on self-tonometry, you will have to dig down a couple levels in the website content structure to find it.

http://www.facebook.com/fiteyes

Let me know what you think. What is the best way to share content on Facebook?

It has been a long time since I shared a recipe on FitEyes.com. My last recipe was Ayurvedic Pizza. Today I made cornbread for the first time in my adult life. As usual, I created my own recipe and gave it an Ayurvedic slant.

Ingredients:

There is a New York Times article entitled "Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel" By GINA KOLATA published on May 16, 2006. I just read it today. The article is about recent discoveries in exercise physiology. It turns out that the accepted scientific understanding of a fundamental aspect of exercise was wrong for more than 80 years. It ends with a quote by Dr. Brooks: "The scientists were stuck in 1920." He's talking about the entire field of exercise physiology!

Even when the mistake was shown by good research, the entire field continued to fight against Dr. Brooks's discoveries for decades. In some ways it reminds me of the fight against new tonometers such as the Ocular Response Analyzer and the Pascal Dynamic Contour tonometer that we see in ophthalmology now.

In my experience, science (as typically practiced) is wrong so much that I think people who maintain a predominantly scientific (i.e., materialistic) world view are disadvantaged. For example, the article says, "Coaches have understood things the scientists didn't." That is almost always the case in almost every field at all times.

The people who are "in the trenches" understand things scientists don't. Now this isn't to say that the scientific method is bad or that data-driven methodology should be discarded. Good coaches rely on a ton of data and they have excellent observation skills. They do have a scientific approach. The difference is they are not limited by a dogmatic scientific materialism.

Furthermore, the practice of science in today's world is so wrapped up with ego, power, career advancement and money that the altruistic aims of science get pushed aside. And new discoveries get trampled by established scientists who want to hold on to their positions of power and prestige.

I think the following list represents some of the most informative and useful articles on FitEyes.com. There are thousands of articles on FitEyes.com, so many good ones will not be on this list. But this list is a good place to start reading if you are new to FitEyes.com. If you are not new to our site, please make sure you have seen these articles.

Please feel welcome to add comments to this post to mention your own favorite articles on FitEyes.com.

For dry eyes, here are some things to consider:

1. Take flaxseed and/or fatty acid supplements. I use Neptune Krill Oil, Cod Liver Oil and DHA supplements. Here are a couple links to more info:
   http://fiteyes.com/Krill-Oil-Benefits-for-Vision-Better-Than-Fish-Oil
   http://fiteyes.com/fish-oils-for-vision
2. 

   Consume more Omega-3 fatty acids (and less Omega-6 fatty acids). Ideally the ratio between these two types of fatty acids in your diet should be around 1:1. In the typical western diet, people consume 20 times more Omega-6 fatty acids.The Omega-3 fatty acids can decrease the viscosity of tears and normalize the function of the tear glands. Sources of Omega-3 fatty acid in your diet include walnuts and soybeans.

3. Use castor oil eye drops. An old folk remedy for dry eyes, castor oil can be found in many commercial eye drops. I simply can add one drop of organic castor oil to my eyes at bedtime, but you can do it twice daily. Use an eye dropper.
4. Look into the supplement N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Some researchers believe this amino acid stabilizes tear production. The usual does is 100 mg three times a day. I don't personally use this, but there has also been discussion that it would be helpful for glaucoma and other eye conditions.
5. Check out Taran's advice about coconut oil here: http://fiteyes.com/coconut-oil

You will need three items to get started:

1. glass eye cups (quantity two) [product choices: here and here]

2. empty tea bags [product choices here and here and here]

3. triphala powder [here]

I put about 1/4 tsp of the triphala powder in a tea bag and steep in about a half a cup of boiling water. I let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Twitter #IranElection

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23iranelection

With the recent website upgrade to FitEyes.com, I decided to send an email to all registered member. While writing the email I was inspired to discuss more of my experiences with self-tonometry, the process of monitoring my own eye pressure. After I wrote and sent the email, I realized that we have a lot of visitors to FitEyes.com who are not registered and who would not be able to see the experiences and thoughts I shared with the registered members. Therefore, because I feel very passionate about the benefits of self-tonometry, I decided to post the entire email on my blog. Here it is (and now it is updated to reflect recent events such as my grandmother's most recent birthday).

Hi Everyone - I just upgraded the FitEyes.com website. It has been a long, long time since I have sent an email to all members. FitEyes has continued to grow and flourish in recent months. I want to take this opportunity to invite you to visit the new website and let me know what you think. Not only will you see a new design and new features, you will find lots of new content (some of it potentially controversial).

New Website Features

You will see that FitEyes.com has many new features. It is running on open source software now. (For you techies, the operating system is open source too: Ubuntu Linux.) You can form friendships and communicate privately with other FitEyes members. There are lots of other new features, so please explore and try them out.

Self-Monitoring Eye Pressure

It is my strong belief that almost every glaucoma patient or glaucoma suspect (or anyone with elevated intraocular pressure) will benefit greatly from self-tonometry. The practice of frequently monitoring your own eye pressure in your daily life will be universal in the future -- just as monitoring blood sugar is a normal part of managing diabetes today.

This year the World Glaucoma Congress (WGC) is taking place in the United States (Boston, MA) from July 8th to 11th. Dr. Ritch will be there, as will Marcel and I.

I believe all of you know, or know of, Dr. Ritch. Marcel is a key founder of the International Society for Self-Tonometry (ISST), of which Dr. Ritch is Honorary Chairman. Marcel is a driving force behind getting me and several other self-tonometrists together in Boston.

This is the new iCare ONE tonometer designed for home eye pressure monitoring (self-tonometry). Click the image for a larger view.

In order to come to a fuller use of the senses, the organism has to be in a state of balance, in a state of rest. At the same time, the organism has to be in a state of alertness. So these two necessary things seem to contradict each other: restfulness and alertness. Restfulness is a state of quiet. Alertness is a state of dynamism, aliveness and receptivity. Restfulness allows the impressions to reach us; alertness allows the impressions to be sensed.

Restful alertness is a natural quality of healthy states of consciousness. These states of consciousness are characterized by absense of strain. This is called effortless being.

Correct instillation of eye drops is crucial for successful treatment of eye disease. Many patients have difficulties instilling eye drops, especially patients with loss of fixation, who cannot see the tip of the bottle. These patients may turn to harmful techniques, such as touching the dropper tip to the eye, or wasteful ones, such as feeling the sensation of drops hitting the eye or lower lid.¹ Non-compliance may become an issue as well, resulting from a combination of poor drop administration and frustration. The frustration stems from an inability to see the bottle tip.

We describe a new method of drop instillation which increases the accuracy with which eye drops are dispensed, thereby decreasing the incidence of harmful techniques, and possibly increasing compliance.

FitEyes.com is now running on a new website platform that is open source and that offers lots of enhanced features. We have invested a very large number of hours, for several months, in this upgrade so that you, the reader, can get more from your FitEyes.com experience.

However, even with all the time we have invested, there may still be some pages of pre-existing content that are less than 100% correct after the upgrade. If you notice any missing links or other issues, please let us know.