Two Ways of Healing Glaucoma

This post was inspired by a conversation taking place on our email discussion list.

For context, here is just one of the many posts in that thread about vitamin C:

I developed an inter ocular pressure of 27.  I started reading about  the
eye and how it has such a high concentration of Vitamin C.  I wondered  as I
age does the eye become deficient in this Vitamin and if so could it cause 
the tissue in the drainage canals to become less supple and impede the
drainage  of liquid causing higher eye pressure.  Vitamin C in 3000 mg dosages is  usually harmless so I thought I'd try it.  May be the drops were effective
 but I continue taking my Vitamin C.  My doctor told me it has no  affect. 
My eye pressure went down.

And here is the last email (so far) in that long and interesting discussion

I know this is off thread a bit and long term dosing of high levels of vitamin C on IOP would be interesting to see but I.have to say that Dr. Lanes approach (which includes C but also chromium, raw vegetarian protein, other supplements based on your bloodwork etc) is the most wholistic approach that I have come across and also gave me the confidence and understanding that using a multi-pronged personalized nutritional approach can improve the outcome of my particular glaucoma. I think sometimes with tonometry we try too hard to focus on 1 element or supplement like you would with a single medication but you miss out on the synergistic effects of what a combination of factors (supplements, herbs, nutritional & lifestyle changes) can do for the (glaucomatous) eyes.

I'm going to start my post with a caveat.

[Caveat - when I write replies like this one, I often get myself into trouble ;)
I'm not replying to any one person. I read this entire thread and I got inspired to write a general reply to everyone who might read FitEyes. Please don't take my reply personally. And I'm not totally against the use of supplements! I'm actually in favor of using them wisely. Now I will proceed to share my thoughts]

Marketing messages teach us to look for solutions in the form of a pill or an easy fix. Glaucoma taught me that this brand of alternative medicine is fundamentally equal to allopathic medicine. In fact, the business model is identical and many of the same pharmaceutical companies are behind the "natural" supplements and the allopathic drugs. (The mindset is also nearly identical -- it is the mindset of looking for a solution without fundamentally changing ourselves.)

I carefully tested high levels of vitamin C over a number of years. Vitamin C was actually the first thing I focused on after being diagnosed with glaucoma. I used it before beginning self-tonometry and I continued for several years after starting self-tonometry.

In those first two years (before self-tonometry) the vitamin C did not prevent my glaucoma from progressing. And I found out after I got a tonometer that it did not reduce my IOP.  I used 30 grams per day while testing its effect on my IOP. My IOP is lower today on zero vitamin C (as a result of the knowledge I gained from self-tonometry).

The reason it is important to focus on IOP is because it is the only treatable risk factor for glaucoma. And it is very important to have metrics. No matter what we are doing (vitamins, diet, etc.), we need to have some way to measure the results.

And the wisely empirical approach advocated by FitEyes does often involve testing one element at a time. That's the way we make discoveries and progress past ignorance. Unlike almost any other patient support group in the world, FitEyes has a track record of discovering new knowledge. (We discovered and documented white coat ocular hypertension, for example.) That's why this is a research community at its core.

Vitamin pills and all other supplements are very surface-level treatments. That's not really wholistic in my book. And getting good data on all potential treatments, one treatment at a time, does not imply that we miss synergistic effects. It simply implies that we gain facts. Research is different from application. We do both.

As much as we might wish there were already a proven successful alternative treatment for glaucoma, there is not. FitEyes came into existence because of the need to discover alternatives that would really work. That's the research part.

But we also focus on treatments that involve synergies built of individual things that each work. Focusing on foods and lifestyle (rather than supplements) gets to a more fundamental level where more powerful synergies can happen. But what really makes any approach wholistic is when we involve our entire being: our state of mind, our emotions, our spirit and our body.

Self-tonometry, as I practice it, is the most wholistic approach to glaucoma that I can imagine. I connect intraocular pressure -- a physiological parameter that is the most well-established and critical piece of data in the management of glaucoma -- directly to my state of mind and emotions and follow that connection to deep spiritual insights through my practice of Serene Impulse.

The ability to instantly and easily measure the effect of my mind and emotions on my body has revolutionized my health in so many ways. I have overcome many minor health problems that had been with me for decades as a result of the total approach to health that comes out of practicing self-tonometry.

Throwing a handful of vitamins down my throat seems so antiquated to me now. I did that for years, under the guidance of some nationally famous alternative medicine doctors, and I had little (or no) success against all my prior persistence minor health problems. But the insights that came from self-tonometry put me on the path to solving all those issues in a few short years.

The eye is a window into deep, deep aspects of ourselves. For those of us with glaucoma, this is especially true. The most powerful synergy in glaucoma treatment, in my opinion, is the synergy between the quantitative physical measurements (such as IOP), our mind, our emotions, and our diet and lifestyle.

• We are what we think.
• We are what we feel.
• We are what we eat.
• And we are the result of how we live.

Supplements do not belong to this class of items. We are not the pills we take. The very most supplements can do is supplement all the bigger more fundamental things in the list above.

I was spending $500 per month on supplements for many years. I spend very little now. I put just a small part of that money into a tonometer and everything changed for the better. I went from guessing to knowing. And I went from not feeling all that good to feeling great.

I'll continue to take supplements, but only as a supplemental part of my comprehensive, wholistic, synergistic program that creates health from the fundamental source of health -- consciousness.