Jake Steiner | Ending Myopia, The Deceptive Eye Care Industry, & Active Focus

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00:51 Which means you'll unfortunately never hear my voice again. 1930s President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation through a series of radio broadcast known as the fireside chats His aim was to reassure the common man that our society would recover from its troubled times. I'm Greg Carlwood These are the higher side chats.

01:30 Praise be, good people of the internet! How the hell are ya? From sunny San Diego I'm Greg Carlwood. And if you ask me it seems like a system built almost solely on the profit motive is a tough system to trust It leaves us guessing in a whole host of areas not knowing if various industries are providing things we actually need as much as the marketing tells us we do Sometimes its easier to tell Like when it comes to things like bamboo spatulas weighted blankets and the latest offerings from Netflix But we have hundreds of food companies that are lying about their effects on health, an explosion of college debt because the reality didn't match the promises and cell phone companies suppressing data behind their own products to uphold the almighty market share. Where this gets really concerning is in the medical space where pills shots and surgeries should only be given out when absolutely necessary but the endless hunger for more of your green paper has to make you wonder

02:26 And while there are countless microcosms of conflicted interest and profit-driven deception to explore, today we're going to hone in on the conventional thoughts around eyesight, myopia, optometry and the hundred billion dollar business that is the eyeglass industry. Because based on the work of today's guest Jake Steiner and the countless clinical trials and scientific papers he draws from, myopia doesn't seem to be genetic or an illness at all but a carefully crafted ploy to put you in the oh-so profitable pipeline of expensive glasses in designer frames. If you don't know, Jake is one of the most popular eye health activists on the world wide web who not only reversed his own nearsightedness but has synthesized the scientific data into a series of courses videos guides and more all laid out on his website nmyopia.org So let's get into it! The Eye Guy himself and LensCrafter's public enemy number 1 from the other side of the world Jake Steiner welcome to The Higher Side

03:25 Wow great thanks that's an awesome intro things for having i try and then i try and thanks for being here, i am a big fan of drilling down into one specific subject area where we see the same template applied. And that is that there are often more natural or more effective in low cost ways to deal with health problem then the expensive and inadequate options the system provides And it seems like this is one of those areas. I personally am not someone who's had problems with my eyesight or spent much time in an optometrist office, so even a term like myopia was new to me. How do you set this up for people? Of course myopia means nearsightedness but what more can you say about the condition itself?

04:13 So the truly fascinating thing to me about this is I used to have no place to be your side and the way i ended up being your side it's how most people from my generation in my forties now at some point teens you parents took you to the apartment rest, the app on which said you need a glass of this kid right like you didn't ask any questions you got glasses and then you're stuck with glasses pretty much forever. And my eyesight kept getting worse and worse and worst till eventually it was a minus five doctors which is like when you take off your glasses you can't even find new glasses again. I went to the optometrist again, they said you need strong glasses that are already so thick like my eyes look like tiny behind the lenses. And i felt like it was just enough and when asked if tomatose why is this i remember he sent me genetic

05:07 I was thinking it can't be genetic because then how come this didn't exist to the extent like fifty years ago right genetics don't mutate on a massive global human scale in a matter of decades so i started reading biology books and i started finding out that you really isn't a genetic condition at all And it was kind of shocking because the clinical science clearly explains what myopia is. But then on the retail optometry side, it's been completely denied and I'm generally not somebody who's giving easily over to conspiracy theories or just the ideas that the mainstream is somehow wrong but that was my first encounter with The world just seems messed up. Well said!

05:52 So what is it that causes me up there essentially like two causes right at least that's what i've heard you describe in the past. Yeah there's two things that happen to people one it's called pseudo me okay and i recommend the people go to scholar dot google dot com let's google, clinical science search engine, cut out all fluff and just goes to scientific peer reviewed studies type in pseudo pseudo me okay and Because of almost all known me ok worldwide is caused by close so there's a muscle in your eyes focusing muscles are circular muscle around the lens and i am tight when you look at something close to the closer you look tighter gets. And then when stop looking up close to muscle relaxes and lands flat and can see clearly distance

06:44 What happens is if you look at something up close for really long periods of time, that muscle spasms a bit. So it doesn't fully relax so you don't fully recover your distance vision temporarily. That's why it's called pseudo myopia. It's not real but if you do that every day then eventually that muscle spasm becomes kind of persistent and like you could just go out hiking for weekend or spend the week away from books and screens and stuff and you'd be fine but the optometrist doesn't tell you that it's just a muscle spasm and give you lenses the lenses move the light for the back of your eye to compensate for the muscle spasms while ignoring them also spasm, and then me up here become something called lens induce me if she put that in google scholar gonna get like.

07:28 10 thousand twenty thousand searches all very clearly understood when you put those minus lenses does that give you the distance in back from your eyes i am long gates because it has a mechanism built-in to compensate for any. refractive error basically because I don't know the glasses and i think hey i'm too short and it's a long days in the longer is up more meopic more shortsighted. And then that cycle continues every time you go back to the apartment potentially increasing that quote unquote prescription, yeah i continue elongating and that lens induce meopia is what most people have

08:07 Right on right and so you say screen addiction is a part of this as well as i guess to some degree artificial light does it are the things in our general modern society that are hurting our eyes to the degree that screen addiction and artificial light might be. There's contributing factors a screen too close up time is number one thing, If you eliminated that, most people wouldn't have myopia. Artificial eye definitely is not fantastic. Diet can play a role like if you have diabetes for example, you are very likely to also have myopia. I just talked to guy in our own little mini podcast who has been significantly lowering his blood sugar and his vision has improved dramatically but mainly mainly it's the screen time it really the worst thing. Right on right on and so we all know

08:58 No that when a paradigm is set up such as the situation with eyesight which is that testing early and often is strongly encouraged in then, when an industry controls the testing they tend to over prescribed there bound to find some reason you need their services and now your in this life long ecosystem it's very costly And doesn't address the root causes of the condition and actually makes it worse, right? I mean like you said lens induced myopia is an increasing problem as the prescription needs to strengthen. Right! Even just calling it a prescription that was lobbying heavy millions of dollars at lobbying spent on part of the lens industry To make clear curve pieces of plastic so-called prescription You can go buy over the counter

09:48 Non-prescription drugs like things that are complex chemicals, things that you can overdose on and kill you. You can buy those over the counter but clear curved pieces of plastic you can only buy from the so called eye doctor or optometrist and also those things are being sold at hugely inflated prices Right right that's something i learned from the friends of mine who do wear glasses that the internet is kinda really open the floodgates to them being able to get what they think they need at a reasonable price and i know that going these places difficult cuz if you feel like, you know what you need.

10:24 They're like well you can't get any new glasses and must sit down for a consultation and then once you're in the desk wants to do in the testing now they gotcha mean this is a business people forget this isn't for the common good it's a business. That's right and its fascinating to me how much we accept things how condition your accepting because you go to have tom trist in most cases it clearly are retail store A lot of times in a shopping mall right like it's next to the shoe store and when you walk in there its all fashion frames and brand names and two for one sales and then somehow you still being sold this medical condition thing i'm like what are the medical conditions are you being prescribed when our shopping mall. It's amazing setup it really is that had locked down for awhile

11:13 Man so i totally see how you put these lenses in front your eyes your eyes are trying to adjust to this thing that's not natural that's right in front of them all the time and this increases, the problem exacerbates the issue and it. Last year whole life needs stronger stronger glasses but if we go back to like that first fundamental issue that the optometrist are picking up on before you have any glasses i mean are you saying that there's zero genetic myopia i see babies with glasses before they even had time to develop close-up screen habits and what is the deal there is just lies no not necessarily of course exist medical conditions with me i can't happen but it says rare as a lot of other things that

12:05 i mean we're talking single percentages right with babies but baby's interesting thing is babies are hyper optic it's the opposite of me up here where the baby can't see clearly up close to short basically when you're bored and from environmental stimulus eyeball elongates to the right leg. Does that through your whole life about always shortening and long getting trying to find a perfect middle ground for the best vision But as a baby, you can't see clearly up close. So it can happen and I've seen it happen where babies are being quote unquote diagnosed and they're being found to be hyperhopic and they're getting glasses for that where that's completely normal. Now it can happen the babies are myopic and that's outside of my range right like there's not any one thing always has the same cause but in most cases and then cases where you remember in your childhood there was a point we could see fine at a distance

13:02 Then it's not right on the larger point here is the building an industry there's always a little truth their that things are built on but they go way overboard blow out of proportion and then over prescribe into this as we said hundred billion dollar industry. If the damage to our eyesight is more related to the environment or habits like staring at the phone screen. The truth is that a lot of people are weak they don't want to change their patterns and what to do something different some people would rather get there stomach staple than stop eating junk food and industry's very happy to slide on in offer a quick fix and that is what we're seeing right hundred percent and i was actually about say that

13:51 Is there a supply and demand thing because what i found with doing the end of your thing for close to two decades now is most people don't even want to know. if a quick fix exist there happy so i get it from both sides because of thomas don't like me but then also the general public stay away from putting this in front of people are not looking for it because i want to hear because they have faced her screen addiction and then they have to realize that's effort involved and responsible for their own well being and people love that. Right it's like a lot of pharmaceuticals they address the symptoms not the initial cause you could say that about all out depression medication is it like are you really chemically and balance three do just hate your job in h your life and u can't find a girl, i mean do you need pills for everything not really but if they can stop me from feeling some people will add certain points in their life but.

14:45 i definitely see how screen addiction is making our eyesight worse it makes sense but that's only really been a problem for the last twenty five years or so right me my grandpa wore glasses and no kids back in the first grade with me wearing glasses, myopia seems to have been with us at least awhile longer than the screens have read yes what happens is Myopia has been with us since the time that we're doing close up and actually glasses were set to be invented sometime in the sixteenth century and they were originally made from monks. Back in those days monks for the only ones reading right now are you reading a low light conditions everything in front of candles spent a lot of time clothes developing this same issue so

15:34 As we continue to more and more people spending time on clothes back in our day it was books like, what's maybe tv maybe computer games are starting to come around the more close up the more prevalence of new york. Now we have a different issue because my email these days is parents saying my five year old has no ten years ago i used not see that at all But now the kids being raised on ipad so the thing that happens now is the prevalence increases and age decreases you still not hear about five year olds having your piano all day everyday that's all i get. No okay how much time does it could spend for my pad well you know i can't be seen in the kitchen of the apple that's

16:19 That's what moves it all back to a younger age and more of it. Right, right! And it is so sad when parents can't just say we need to take this away they're just so soft these days it seems but i guess it when i looked up its said that my opiate facts about thirty percent of the u.s population i don't know if that jives exactly with your research but in some areas of the world is much higher than that can you talk to us a little bit about geography and various rates are and the numbers that you have, yes sure the number is kind of range i get something closer to fifty percent they're not necessarily accurate there much higher in some agent populations

17:03 Develop Asian countries in particular there are some genetic markers that suggest that certain populations eyes are more predisposed to the axial elongation. So what happens is your peers not genetic but when you put glasses in front of my eyes or your eyes or some other person's eyes, our rate of actual change or the degree to which I will along gay it's gonna be different and that the genetic markers that have been found that are more prevalent asian populations along with education requirements in some countries are just insane like singapore and hong kong kids are constantly studying. Also those kinds of agent kits that seem to have a genetic marker more commonly, how can i sing a perfect example have no incidents rate school age children over ninety percent so basically in those countries

17:57 Just about every kid needs classes ninety percent and it's not going down and it's considered a major health risk issue that they're trying to figure out but they're not finding any answers to. And again there is like some combination of the genetic likelihood that you need more glasses your start wearing glasses and just spend so much time studying compared two kids in the US Very interesting and i like your website and everything you constantly emphasizing the point over and over that, your eyes are deteriorating their adjusting to what you put in front of them that's a working this is how your eyes are supposed to work. And it's a complete flip on the language that you're given from the eye care industry there saying its slow degeneration and thats why you need to increase the strength of your glasses

18:52 The diopters. Yeah, you have to increase the diopters but if your eye is making that readjustment every time you get new glasses that's a clue that your eyes are functioning okay right? Right it's...the language I don't know what extent its purposely done It certainly is convenient To create this sense of helplessness right like This is you You're weak You need our help Your just broken Your a mess When you walk into that office When i started improving my set up was really pretty excited that was not even super positive about it i would go see a doctor said hey look at this and i will shock how arrogant and rude dismissive they were about my definitive experience.

19:41 I started having a weird kind of change and how i was looking at what they were doing because it was all very authoritarian right like. You're buying glasses those things wholesale cost just two or three dollars for two hundred dollars, add i think this is kinda reaching into that can't say that this is true but i kinda feel that the authoritarian attitude that they have helps people not questions Because it's like you look at the thing and you're like, it's a piece of plastic. Like how is this thing $300? Right You know what I mean

20:17 Absolutely i see it in many different sectors that's also this simulated complexity as you say they're just pieces of plastic that are current really isn't, rocket science here but you create new language that sounds medical as you mentioned the lobbying to call a prescription and now we're in this medical realm is a whole different ballgame its like. The economy or wall street they use a lot of different terms and if you talk to real economists there like if you parse through a lot of that it's much simpler than you'd expect but they want people to be turned off from doing the deep dive into certain things they just wanted to trust the experts and speaking of the experts.

20:58 If you go to the American Optometry Association website, it's going to tell you that myopia is genetic. It's going to say that it's a common myth that glasses make the condition worse as you say they control the narrative so how do we really combat this? Okay and they're fascinating I can't believe this and I'm less into conspiracies in general or try not too because of my brain just can't handle it but Optimal g clinical journals right like the journal of that profession are what i'm citing on the website i'm citing their own. Start a peer review and they publish this same entity basically that is saying that you're is caused by minus lenses and start as soon as you get

21:48 I don't understand how this is possible right like in most cases when we're looking for something that could be conspiracy or could be far fetched a copy just deception there's a little more effort put into hiding the truth where is here it's literally go to google scholar type of lens and do small pia, can you look at who is publishing those studies its optometry and ophthalmology journals. That is that's the same people who are then saying oh no this is a myth where in your own journal says it's not a minute. Right yeah it's a funny thing and i appreciate what you're saying about general conspiracies a lot of times they can be vague or hyperbolic and when it comes to certain things especially when it comes people's health, i'd like to say look let's get into the details let's get in the research because if the point your making this alternative paradigm is true well it should.

22:45 Stand up to questioning it should be in the details that we can find the truth and. That's kind of the way you present your work you go to the peer reviewed papers in a clinical trials constantly and i think that's the way to do it this is the standard that they've set out to say this is the rigorous, Diligence you need to do to verify something so you can use their own material against them in a lot of different areas and this is one. Obviously we all know friends and family who have been lifetime glasses where's, but they're gonna be skeptical when i try to approach him with this idea that the eye care industry is lying to them and making correct their vision problems

23:29 potentially without the medical system, you talk a lot about the evidence. And I'm just curious what studies or research do you find most convincing? Is there certain data that you go to first when you know you're getting into it with someone on the other side? Well, I try not argue with people in general because my focus is...I want people who want answers about their eyesight to find answers and skepticism is 100% i require basically you're on the internet you need to be skeptical open-minded and skeptical is a best start so we can look at the research in general the first thing i like to say though for people who are not sure it's pseudo me up your lens into school type that in google scholar because i believe lens induced meal last time i checked had like forty or fifty thousand search results. That are just clinical quoted clinical science right that says. You'll be as caused by the lenses

24:27 It's one of those things where it's like, it's really difficult to argue that that's not at least a very strong scientific position. If not the very much dominant scientific position when that's the thing that you find when you look at it right? Like it is caused by the lenses now The question is, the clinical science says your myopia is caused by your lens work right and if only people say that's not true other people are selling you $2 glasses for $200 Only people were saying this is not true they have a serious profit motive and on the other side you have a huge pile of easily accessible clinical science that says it is the latest, it's kind of a simple thing if you look at that what you got to go making a five thousand percent markup say no no it's not my lenses. And everybody was now involved in making money send ya it is kinda lenses and

25:22 That's a starting point but the thing that i really like this is science to me came second is if you start measuring your eyesight you start realizing how simple it is because we are complicated thing that they do have to talk just as just how far can you see before it gets blurry. All the auto refractor and the machines in the lab code in a dark room and all that stuff is just how far can you see before this book. That's all it is and you can do that at home, you can do that with measuring tape into minutes again figure out your own doctors and order those things online by yourself And that's kind of where i think it starts off for people like if you measure yourself and you realize hey i don't need somebody to do this for me. Can you get curious because i can measure different light red like you can measure in natural outdoor life and your distance original sun is better but you can see further can measure for the. If you're not darker room you dont see as far and what is the start like the self experimenting how much vision berries,

26:18 You end up asking more questions and you end up trying more stuff and you end up realizing in a matter of weeks you can noticeably improve your eyesight. Right and that's what i wanted to get you next so if we were gonna section this out a bit we pretty much hammered home the idea that. The lenses make the situation worse and industry obviously has incentive to sell more glasses but then it's other side of it is that we can actually self correct, Our vision at home no tools really required and that's obviously a whole separate thing what data would you give to people or should they look at, do bring them on board with this idea that u can self correct with i don't know practice is the right word but where the tension okay so. I'm not getting worse your eyes are adopted

27:14 There's two things that are happening when you're straining your eyes to much closer which is a thing people don't like to hear because we all have a bit of the screen addiction. So this train that keeping your muscle locked up is one issue and you can address step for example by using your phone last, and moving more close up to like laptop just as simple example If you remember the muscle is close to look at something that i don't get so if you're holding a phone, holding it much closer than you would be sitting in front of laptop for example if you move some of your clothes up time to laptop reducing the celery straight. Another example using distance glasses for closeup which is causing most of your progression

27:57 Like the glasses are made for distance vision and now you sit in front of a computer that sixty centimeters away from you what they're intended for so if you reduce. How much are you using for close up those two things alone will have a noticeable impact that you can see in a matter of weeks and i think the theory when people argue with me like this and science let's study and not studying my cookie. Are you doing this because we want to have a debate or actually wanting to reduce how dependent your classes, if u wanna make that reduction look at the signs and you see ok there is enough evidence there that i is not

28:35 defective and it's simply adjusted right like there is enough biological evidence so you go okay, so this is probably the case. And there is enough biological evidence that says my close up is bad for me its straining my eye and the lenses are causing my eyes to elongate So it's reasonable to say if I reduce a strain and if I reduce impact of those lenses and if my eyes indeed are this biological thing that adjusts I should see change Right so if you genuinely care if you're not just having this argument for the sake of an argument. Then should be able to take a theory that's pretty solid and try it out like actually go case i'm gonna use less get away from the phone a bit more measure my site, i'm gonna reduce my doctor dependence when i close up and im going to measure and see if that makes any difference in a matter of weeks and if you see improvement then it's like okay that's not definitive

29:31 This must be working but it's a strong enough clue to where you might be tempted. Right on right on so i'm the subject of improvement let's break that down a bit more for people because you say we shouldn't just throw off our glasses and start our new life is a bit of a gradual process what are some of those first steps for people who do want actually test the waters and give this self repair thing a shot So the very first thing is that when does this class is doing close up is terrible you are just to focal plates right like the closer look. Does it move a blend and i continue adjusting what the glasses are fixed for their sixteen century technology, incredibly on sophisticated only work from one distance they're only work for where u can see clearly at a distance so when you put those things on

30:27 They're meant to correct distance vision now when you sit in front of the computer the reason your eyes got worse in the first place if we get into that detail it's a thing called hyper optic focus you can also look up on google scholar it's where the lenses move the light for the back and die because using glasses at a closer distance than you should, add master main stimulus like continues the elongated so. The first thing to do is basically get weaker classes for close-up like about a one diopter to 1.5 diopters less and fortunately now you can just buy glasses online and I'm not giving you diopter recommendations, I am not making medical recommendations here, I'm just saying hypothetically speaking you would reduce the risk of hyperopic defocus if you were wearing glasses that were about one to 1.5 diopters less strong for your close-up in a matter of a week or two of doing that if you never wear the distance glasses for close up again If you put them on

31:27 and look at something up close, you're going to start feeling dizzy and get headaches that feel quite uncomfortable because your eye will have readjusted to not have that overcorrection for close-ups. The main first step is not wearing distance glasses for close ups Makes sense i mean practically speaking you put on a pair of glasses and you're basically wearing them for everything but that probably isn't best for our eyes it's not necessarily natural. And you talk about the snellen test in a few your videos which is this eye chart test everyone has seen, testing protocols are always interesting to me many of them are deceptive many of them are skewed to give more false positives or

32:08 require you know more assistance from whoever's administering the test then you really need one example is a big scandal in prostate cancer of the test screens your PSA levels and now there's a lot of science saying those antigens are natural make up and they go down as they do yet Thousands of men got tested at the wrong time when the levels happen to be high and they got a surgery based on that. Now there's a lot of science that says maybe there was a lot of false positives or we roped in way more people than really were necessary, and I'm curious about the protocols when you go into an optometrist is there a lot of over diagnosis baked into just how we test the eyes at a base level with this Snellen tests in particular?

32:54 Okay, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and since i have a lot of friends. I say they don't have any bad intentions what happens in that test is there usually put you in a dark room and the chart is illuminated by some kind of crappy artificial light and then they They put different lenses in front of the eyes just to see which lens is you see most clearly with and this is simulating. The worst possible case scenario because it any kind of dark environment you see less clearly to begin with that single point of illumination, i mean its basically like driving a car so it's relevant right but then on top of it they don't tell u

33:38 You might be at minus three dollars but then they put in my three point two five like a dial it up one more notch and ask you if it's any clear. And if it is unclear even though its on naturally clear i call it anson space vision just like wow that's totally unnecessary then i'll dial it up to three point five like is that still clear, i don't think they're doing it out of any level of intent just trying to give me the best possible correction do what they learning school But what you walk out with is a pair of lenses that are correcting your eyesight to driving in the blizzard at night. Whereas, you're probably in the middle of the day sitting in your office looking at your laptop screen that's like an arm length away from me. So, in that moment, you're seriously overcorrected and when you look at the website and see I've got so many improvement reports and initially usually the improvements are pretty dramatic

34:35 in the first 90 days you might improve a whole diopter which is four reductions basically. And I always say that's not really real improvement necessarily, that's just getting rid of the overcorrection so basically to answer your question is they probably don't have bad intentions but when you go to an optometrist the diopters you get are probably an unnatural amount of correction Yeah fair to say it is good to be precise with the sort of stuff and what you're saying make sense. Maybe start with a less is more mindset rather than getting over corrected, that's also true that most employees are out tomato sarge doing what they've been trained to do they trust the experts like everyone else in there no other way even get that all mighty certification anyway

35:20 So if there's anything the various going on it with the standards and protocols in the testing set up at the top of the monopoly pyramid where it's all about revenue as we've said several times. But going back to the steps, so for someone who is ready to take the leap step one don't wear your distance glasses for close-up. Maybe even sit down and do your own measurements and make sure you're not grossly over correcting already but rather than taking them off entirely maybe work backwards through weaker prescriptions similarly to how they gave them to you? Is that how we should be thinking

35:58 Yeah just a little bit lower like instead of seeing you can print out an eye chart. You can get it free online or just buy the cheap ichart and hang up in your house to measure the distance to stand from there and see how you see the ichart 2030 is fine You're legal to drive a twenty forty in most places you want to see it better than that like you wanna be safe but, 2030 will still give me little bit of challenge and the main thing about improving eyesight is a little bit of challenge. People make the mistake they listen this crazy baits method internet iExercise stuff and just throw away their glasses which can't do, we can slowly dial it back The same way your myopia increased over time or your glasses crushed increase overtime you can also slowly decrease

36:43 And I say usually for people that are doing it right, every three to four months you can generally make a reduction. Fair and to elaborate on the science of the data that says you can correct this problem without the medical system cuz it is so crucial to the overall argument. There are a lot of claims out there i'm sure summer too good to be true but what is the realistic real deal what sort of work are we looking at how long is the process what sort of results are realistic So anybody who says get your eyes back in a weekend 30 days to perfect vision that is highly possible because.

37:24 your eyesight is worse because the axial length of the eyeball has increased. It's about one millimeter of axial length increase for every three diopters and that takes a notable amount of time for the axial length to decrease that much so it's impossible to reverse multiple doctors have me up in a really short period of time, it's just it is biologically possible when people ask me like how fast can I do it resetting expectations to look at habit changes and living a more realistic lifestyle when it comes to protecting eyesight it's almost like diet right. If you want to lose fifty pounds this is not about just losing fifty pounds, anyone read because you wanna dress your die in the way that you lose the fifty pounds and then you're still happy after you've done so you can probably reduce by adopt a year realistically

38:19 And for a lot of people that means three four five ten years but it's not really about the process is a one time learning how to change habits and want you to donate its just kind of autopilot. But from there your working on okay how much my life am i spending sitting in front of the screen vs doing something meaningful, how much of my life is wasted and my meal is just a symptom of the larger problem I don't want to get too far into that in general with people because i'm not the lifestyle coach but it really becomes one of those things where you will continue improving but right now you just have to think about, you put yourself in a not so great place and you wanna get out.

39:02 And as you say in your starter video, a lot of people just say give me the steps. And of course we wanted to make sure that we talked about the proper context and understand myopia itself but let me ask you about the steps I'm sure it's sounding a little vague to people and we talked about how you get started You address your screen addiction Reduce your close-up strain in general Don't wear those distance glasses close up maybe read further away, measure your eyesight. And of course this is a long process so it's useful to keep a log so you aren't being vague about if you're making progress or not. You don't have the guess look at the stuff you write down but then you say the next step is learning active focus what is active focus? So what I sort of touched on a little bit earlier is the idea of challenging your eyesight

39:54 If you're wearing 20 glasses that correct you to 2015, like you put on your glasses and look at the eye chart and see the smallest line on the thing. You can never tell you i said cuz it's just too awesome right apparently also the glasses but if you go to like twenty thirty that so much bigger line that means you can't really read the small lines. At least not easily, the idea being that if you got side you can recognize your friends and drive safely everything is fine but if he see that license plate down the street if you see that street sign any just can't quite read it You can't blink at it and it will clear up but this is kind of one of those things what takes people a little bit time to discover something that you have naturally. If you don't wear glasses even if you don't need classes nobody's vision is perfect or at least most people's vision isn't perfect like in low light situation or something far enough away can i have to blink edit

40:49 And i refocus is always that little bit of wiggle room for the it increase the focus if you've been wearing really over correct the glass from up here to time you forget about that ability. But once you find it again go outside your glasses like twenty thirty vision this car cross street license plate and like man is that an a or f i can't tell blink at it just kind of realign your seats in a bad activity Making that into a habit wearing glasses give you only enough correction to where the becomes an easy habit to get into, that is the main stimulus that improves your eyesight.

41:27 Man this is kind of a difficult one cuz as you say i got an allergy for active focus people who can raise one eyebrow if you can do it its very easy but try to explain how u do it someone who cant and that's not, as easy everything to do have your phone the right language overtime tell people how to do it if they're confused if they're just not feeling that it's working for them. i've got a page on the side that has a bunch of links in a bunch of ways but other people describe their active focus experience of how they found it because there is no.

42:06 Exact language to describe that ability it takes people a little bit of trial and error and hearing in different ways i think most people are figuring out the amount of confusion over the years is less than greatly. And i think its apart because it's not just me trying explain it you have a bunch of different people that heard me explain it and then i couldn't connect the dots but one time that looked at something and bam it cleared up and they remember what context, was in and then they write a down of a explain there's some videos from others who've done this and somewhere in that. Library of experiences there's something that will give you the moment and it's really not that difficult just want to do it like well that was easy. Because its just like a light link and adjust every time blink close your eyes when you open again you're asked to refocus right so when u look at the thing in your clothes are you reopened i need looking at the same thing can i start focus on it again if it wasn't too blurry in the first place most times it'll just clear

43:09 Yeah it's a curious thing maybe i've been doing that and not even know when you know i had jacob leiberman doctor jacob leiberman here now long ago who is expertise is really red light therapy and white. What he kinda discovered this on his own with his own eyesight and, when we talk to us more bad but he wanted to discuss any basically just kept saying you will it you just will it and the I mean, that's the only way he could express it. And I've heard other people say that too and that might be fair You're doing it you're absolutely doing it You're not even realizing that you're doing it because you never had eyesight problems. You said your eyesight is fine Your eyesight isn't perfect Because like low-light conditions or artificial light conditions Or if you haven't slept well you party to much or smoked too much for you? You've been eating a giant pizza there will be situations where your eye sight is affected

44:03 But you don't even realize it because you have this mechanism already programmed and not even consciously thinking about it but being that your where are they i'm sure you're gonna catch a moment when you sitting somewhere and like movie subtitles or. The barista menu order something were just blink at me like out there is a new realize that you've been doing all along Right on yeah i got ninety nine problems but my eyes aren't one i've been blinking at stuff all week trying to play with this now that you know it's been on my mind. I guess i would ask how you discovered this cuz obviously your website wasn't there too layout the breadcrumbs in the template for ya this had to be a lot of trial and error clearly you had an issue with that but, i guess why were glasses enough for ui even go down this rabbit hole

44:53 This is not a brilliant story is purely just vanity. I can't mention this in the beginning i was single dude and i want to use glasses that my eyes look tiny behind the strong glasses there's smaller things look behind it, i had like little tiny pig eyes as a single dude and then they told me i need even stronger ones are just like this isn't enough of this and Because of my profession i'm a stock trader my brain always goes to i don't believe what i hear the hype is always just hi let's look at the facts it just turned into research project and as soon as i started researching it almost immediately found huge discrepancy from what i was being told by people versus when i was reading okay this is clearly not right. And because professionally i used to seeing a lot of lies and a lot of deception like ok so

45:44 This is a familiar story and i started digging into it there was no answer how to fix it but there's plenty of here's why its going the way it's going and there's not defect. So the logical thought was okay so if this is happening because of increasing once when did decrease melons where i didn't roll, i reduced weight too much in the beginning i'm still surprised that stuck with it because i just had no indication of how to make this work But eventually got on the right track and realize more of the finer points of small reductions, stimulus and close up is really no good and from that improvement came pretty well in other people who are curious about it going to it and we found. The common ground what works for all of us the rest is just more people getting into

46:33 Right on so we talked about glasses i mean our contact lenses any different either in effectiveness or risks that we are aware of is there any. Adjusted advice for people who are primarily wearing contacts contact lenses are awesome because relative to the optical quality they're much less expensive you getting a much wider field of vision because your floating and your eye Or in front of your eye, so you get peripheral vision which is one thing that you're really cutting out glasses and that's not great. So getting a peripheral vision back is great better optical quality is great contact lenses in general are just much better solution to this whole changing your refractive state than glasses are much much much better solution but because there's never anything without a price

47:26 The contact lenses have potential drawbacks. One of them is something called corneal thinning, the cornea is the front of your eye, the clear front of your eye and studies are showing that your cornea tends to get thinner with prolonged ongoing years and years of contact lens wear. And that's something you really don't want, and it appears to not be reversible. So that's not a short-term risk but that makes contact lenses not a permanent solution in my book because you're running a serious long term potential risk of thinning your cornea also contact lenses don't work well for close up

48:05 What happens when you stare at the screen, your blink rate is reduced by a factor of five or so. So you're blinking a lot less and when you're blinking less, you're getting less tear fluid. For a lot of people that don't have enough tear fluid their eyes are too dry for long-term contact lens wear especially for close ups. That's another limitation of contact lenses if it wasn't for those two things I would like contact lenses more because they are cheaper, because the optical quality is better. Because you get a better vision if you were to stay on track with making improvements for example i would not probably be here talking to right now if contact lens worked for me because they would have just solved my problems and we did not had tiny pig eyes i would be forgetting about glasses cuz once put them in there and that was just been like problem solved so the risk with for me with contact lenses if they work for you almost make it too easy to just keep wearing

48:57 They seem super inconvenient to me and i don't wanna be touching my eyeball everyday but I guess you get used to it so let's also talk about lacy a little bit i consider that to be a pretty scary procedure but i know if people who have had it done as i understand it is laser shaving off maybe that party either has been extending from wearing glasses i don't really know what are your thoughts on place. Wow if u wanna guy on the top of conspiracies, Morris waxler is the guy at the fda who headed up getting approved this man right like he was in charge at the same time now if you look him up online i mean for one moment. He is the most vocal opponent of lacy says it was a huge mistake should have never been approved this is dangerous procedure the problem is cutting a permanent lens into your eye

49:58 And there's different forms because there is also a smile and it was a different way to try to address what i think the problem is that flap never really heals. Not necessarily so you're creating potentially large ongoing risks that you can reverse if you look up the website complications nightmare of things i can go wrong but all your reversible And on top of it, LASIK is just like a contact lens basically. But instead of the contact lens floating in front of your eye its laser cut into your eye and can't be changed So if you're myopia still has been increasing it will continue increasing and the LASIK doesn't fix anything It's just cutting a new lens so if your myopia has been steadily increasing over the years and getting LASIK now You are on that same chart and your myopia continues

50:50 it's not necessarily a fix for people who still have increasing your increases or introduces serious risks of side effects that are not reversible and actually even on the FDA website there is a page well hidden away somewhere that shows the side effect risk and you want to own website those risk seem more than is worth something that basically just convenience procedure yeah Quite scary some of the procedures that people just take for granted as routine at this point i have terrible allergies not talk to several people like oh just go get the surgery where they are drill out, can those cavities a little more and i'm like thats very close to my brain thats very close to my eyes.

51:34 I don't know i think im just gonna sniffle, ill deal with it its alright but that thing you mentioned about dr morris waxler is very important actually had his quote taken from your website i wrote it down here because as you say former FDA head of LASIK clinical trials research educated guy he says The FDA does not want to admit that millions of people have now had a surgery that never should've been approved by its own rules. The FDA is now engaged in covering up a scandal and an epidemic, and its own corrupt practices." I mean holy shit! Those are bold words man he's not messing around. Yeah, he's pretty upset about it. It must suck to be that guy

52:22 you have been in that position and made those calls and now he's watching the outcome can't do anything anymore about it. This is crazy stuff going on and i talk to people sometimes and so happy when i hear somebody calling at about getting lazy but when i looked into it like, that just seems like a pretty invasive procedure for something that already have a fix for i don't want to take that risk okay some people still have some sense about them yes and As i understand LASIK does tend to wear off or you need procedures later. Does having had the procedure of LASIK affect a person's ability to use the program and protocols that you promote?

53:06 Oh not at all actually i just had a conversation with somebody louise we had a little podcast episode she had lasik. When is five to up to me appear so twenty years ago and her vision started getting worse again but it was a bit more recent and reverse that right so, The habits thing always applies it's just like when i said if you want to lose fifty pounds eat less pizza the same thing as she got into better habits awareness after focus, let's phone distance reverse that new mail be all that you had back to her previous. Lacek helps twenty. Man that's exciting news i mean i'm sure a lot of people out there are. Thinking about their own eyesight what they're gonna do after the list of this and i know it's anecdotal but you mentioned couple times the people that you've talked with senior youtube channel a lot of the recent stuff is, canada these testimonials these personal cases of what people have experience and

54:04 Obviously anecdotal stuff is not always the best go to for making a case but they do stack up how many testimonials or positive reports do you think you've heard back at this point since you started the website. Thousands and many many thousands and actually this video series i plan to be doing this kind of my own little I'm gonna do this until there's thousands of them online because i want to make the statement and agree with you hundred percent anecdotes are just anecdotes but at what point does it become statistically relevant. There is like five ten or so that now and then there's going to be a hundred i'm just gonna keep making them until so many people because i send out email every year so i sent email how's it go

54:52 Because people are happy that usually you don't really hear from them but i get so much response to those emails and save them all and that folder is enormous. And now just started emailing some of the people going hey do you want a chat about this because it's different hearing it right like you read an email from a person versus having the conversation with them, add it not too dispelled skepticism because the skepticism is healthy But i think it's important to put those voices out there right and not just hey improve my site which great who cares but. The enthusiasm or the experience order lifestyle change what that means to you as a person because you haven't had this issue of glasses but this really affects people right and then, it may affect some people in a way thats profound enough when they talk about hey i got rid of this that might affect your where you going maybe this is worth for me to look into anecdotally speaking

55:46 Yeah yeah for sure well said and i would ask you if you ever really faced any pushback from the industry to any significant degree i mean that's not why we're doing this from hotel in bangkok is it on the way maria no actually live in a jungle in burma most of time so thats more than right there. But no i had significant pushbacks have been threatened with lawsuits and people have been pretty nasty to me on the internet in the past much less now, because the amount of evidence and the way the website's been shaped is a no small part from that kind of feedback i'm like okay so if these people are taking liberties that shouldn't be done i'm not doing a good job making my position quick. I love the benefit where the website today is from them pushing back against me when i'm saying okay so we need more science i can read more of their

56:40 clinical journals we need more people talking about the new pier reversal we need more context to put this on a perspective with more community. I don't do social media i dont do forums and any of that stuff and started in no small part because i was being threatened by industry and i'm okay so i know a lot of people are using this but i need them all can gather in one place so these people see that were not just jake on there And so this is the part i will splice back into for everyone and this is kind of a wrap up stuff so you have this website you provide a ton of free content. You do also sell more specific whittle down guide tell us about a couple things you do offer on the site for people who want to dig in further. So decide i describe as basically a collection of notes,

57:34 Every time something has come up that was worth talking about whether it's how to guide or an improvement report or what you should do with glasses Any topic that's come up that I've written about. I've just thrown in there and there's like a dozen categories So try to categorize them so it's not ridiculous to dig through but there's like over a thousand different articles at this point That most people use most people who see improvement reports from use the free stuff To prove that I said works great It's part of my thing because i'm trying to be a little bit altruistic with this one and just go hey this one is not about the money on the other hand though google start sensor anything that's alternative health related start center us we lost like eighty percent of our traffic, posting bills everything cost money and i don't wanna pay all of it out of pocket so what i've done if you want to do all of yourself.

58:25 We've organized it to where you can skip most of the work and just go straight to give me the steps basically. The reason those are not free is because i got a bunch of bills and especially as google censoring us more after putting more effort into getting the word out there which again usually isn't free if involves effort involves time and money so That's my trade offer right like you do it for free and figure it out all there or we trade some resources right like give me some resources i give you some resources and we've got various more condensed versions that will get you to the same place just maybe quicker.

59:02 I think that's fair time or money you decide and you also have not only the curated kind of information packages but, also courses some seem to be sold out some not quite what would you tell people about the particular courses or. The plans for the website going forward when it comes to maybe more detailed things that they can get involved in that maybe aren't so free Yeah, this year actually this is the first year that I'm getting more into this because my attitude's just been like here do it for free. I'm realizing that some people just don't want to have to do that so right now there are a few things like there is very cheap $7 measuring guide that gets you into whole how do you measure your eyesight? All of ways you can measure your eyesight all the ways you can replace the optometrist including printable eye charts and all that stuff

59:57 Turn a little bit more advanced things were for example are four members of put together an eleven chapter guide all the most important things on the website she can buy that and that gives you the i call the rocket because it's pretty much what is it gives you the condensed version everything. And then there is a very detailed program with like eighty some different sessions. Personal support for me which is why only do a few spots a month it's not generally available that's right may look on the website because, how many do it when i have time and then this gonna be a few more other specific ones

1:00:34 We used to run a thing for law enforcement military that need better than twenty vision. I'm not sure if it makes sense for the public because it's more ongoing effort that most people don't need crazy good eyesight, suppress be opiate stuff and more specific guys like you have astigmatism me wanna get rid of this stigmatism i'm gonna add some more guides and mainly all the stuff is intended to help us reach a bigger audience in the long term especially if you can't rely on google forever to spread the word. Well yeah cheers that's cool i thought it stigmatize my skin center that maybe one of those things that couldn't be helped like a biological thing but thats cool little bit of process for that too or some tools

1:01:16 Yeah cuz most of the team isn't real what's the team is just caused by lens use also. Oh shit so you're still list the pros and cons of your program we say the cons are of course that it takes time it takes lifestyle changes it take some discipline these aren't always easy things but also that you may never use your distance vision for anything more than driving to work and that one was just curious to me why is that this would actually cause you not really use your distance vision as much as maybe we already are. No, I'm saying a lot of people it was kind of a throwing this at the screen addiction like so many people. That's all they do right? Like as you get up in the morning, you check your phone and drive to work that's only time you need to look at a distance and sit in front of your computer all day then you drive home use a distance vision and then watch Netflix and go to bed And I'm just kinda saying like maybe its worth evaluating Do you need this because you have plans to actually see the world around you

1:02:18 Or are you just doing it because you're just doing got a little tongue and she wants to do more with your eyesight than just fix that i want you to actually enjoy it too. Yeah well if your second side all day there's really nowhere for the distance vision ago i mean you need more than the square footage of your home probably, use it effectively pusher Well, awesome man. I think this is really interesting stuff. I do love topics and information that speaks to taking your health into your own hands rather than getting caught up in a deceptive system and this definitely qualifies. Is there anything else to tell people before we go? Any other links to give them or social media information? Anything like that? Contact stuff?

1:03:02 On the website we have a link to our youtube channel and facebook group in a forum that's probably three destinations were checking out like you listen to stuff rather than read. I put a fair amount of videos out there just listen to also and then it will be pretty big facebook group in a pretty big form if u wanna dive into this while having a community around right on good to know well You are no doubt dedicated and I salute you for it. This has been a lot of fun, I appreciate your time and your work! Keep it up man! Thanks Greg for having me on, I really appreciate it. Well braise BTHC open your eyes and see people A brick by brick dismantling of the multi-billion dollar eye care industry...I like it

1:03:53 This actually came from a plus member recommendation right at the time when Jake's PR people inquired about getting him on. Real double whammy, and I need some PR people by the way... But regardless, I looked over his stuff thought he was a good speaker who knew his material and had a good microphone! And maybe there was a slight pinch of spite stirred into the mix for my previous employer? It happens. And I do think we actually do a pretty good job of beating up all my previous employers, actually GameStop clearly contributes to the problem but why kick a company when they're almost bankrupt anyway? Today we poked at the profit margin of the biggest eye care corporation on the planet that i used to work for He who shall not be named Apparently Jake feels like they can be quite litigious and the big ones usually are

1:04:47 And taking it right back to the beginning, we've never really beat up The Great American Cookie Company directly. But sugar and sweets have definitely taken a bashing from time to time though if you do need a cookie cake decorated despite our warnings I would be happy to bring out the old icing bags and see how i'd do a decade later What's sad stoner drop out resume aside from time to time the jacob leiberman episode comes to mind and he would talk about how we took off his glasses. And just sort of weld is i site to work and it did, you would equate it to seen with a third eye that's what he would say but i always wanted a little bit more than that and i think active focus is what we were looking for

1:05:34 And I'm sure there are glasses wearers who maybe think the solution here is a bit vague or sounds almost too simple, but if you look at Jake's End Myopia reviews and testimonials it's pretty overwhelmingly positive. It's weird right? Because your eyesight seems like such a big part of life and a very complex mechanism the eye is to say the least But step one is dismantling the solution for what it is. It's just curved glass with a little magnification baked in, no pills or surgeries just curved glass so then you give people the solution which is just simply active focus and of course lifestyle changes but this active focus thing I guess its hard to describe but it's worth a try

1:06:23 And I'm sure you could become a member of Jake's site or do your own searching now that you have that term and you can just start the process of working off the glasses. Seems like the eye is similar to any muscle, and self-healing applies in this realm as well So as mindblowingly simple as the solution might be The system solution is pretty damn simple too right? And who's gonna tell ya there's an easier or cheaper way I am. I am good people! I'm half kidding, but i do also like that Jake was familiar with the free show plus show model and once we got into the inner circle he was way more willing to talk about the controversial stuff or maybe the unseen aspects of wearing glasses that could have an effect on a person but might sound a bit paranoid or extreme not to me

1:07:22 But I could understand why he'd be more comfortable behind closed doors so to speak with some of that stuff. And it also never fails that when we do talk to an open-minded anti-establishment person who lives out in the jungle among the indigenous people, they see some wild and crazy stuff! And i love when we have someone who can share those sorts of anecdotes Because they were always there but few english speakers are really embedding themselves in that environment and even fewer are reporting back so. That paralysis story that he told in the plus show was pretty incredible shamans what you gonna do some other plush stuff was that we talked about lacy can dr morris waxler,

1:08:11 We talked about the red herring solutions for myopia that Jake had tried along his journey, figured we'd save you some time. Tips for getting children to go through this process and of course we got into how much the industry really knows and how much it suppresses the conspiratorial side which is another thing that jake would probably rather tone down than amp up but you know this is where you're at so we have to do it But I was pretty into it. Just a very unexpected topic, and maybe it did help some people We all have friends and family that wear glasses Maybe we have children that we can help to keep from getting wrapped up in this system How often do you go to any grocery store and see a fucking three-year old on an iPad? It's really the cognitive effects And the brain chemistry alteration That bothers me most about that but this eyesight thing is just

1:09:09 icing on the proverbial cookie cake, you know? Of course there are real eye issues but basic myopia does not have to be one. This seems somewhat manufactured But okay In higher side news The joint session this month will be on the 20th I have a very busy week recording three different shows Two of them are quite complex But we're pushing through. Join me for a drink and smoke in a friendly conversation about all things weird and conspiratorial, 7pm Pacific on February 20th And that's really it! Everything is running smoothly for the most part I am pretty proud of recent shows Trying to keep things fresh and diverse Some amazing stuff is coming up too

1:09:57 Again, big thanks to Jake for today. Go to endmyopia.org to really dig in Share this interview with people you care about the financial screws of life are tightening all the time Let's get one unnecessary expense off our plate if we can And with that, I'm getting out of here. I am so so grateful that people listen please share the show when you can i am largely a one man operation plus an editor plus a new IT guy but I'm going up against some podcasts that are pretty big machines and we're just over here doing a simple word-of-mouth thing

1:10:38 I recently spent some money on digital marketing and it's gotten me almost nowhere compared to just putting out good shows and hoping that people spread the word. That's it, so thank you a million times over! I have the best life in the world and wouldn't take this situation for granted. I can get lazy in all other aspects of life but not on The Money Maker right ladies? Alright, clearly time to go. So take care of you and yours! Your move, EyeSight's secret keepers corporate cornea covers and the money-making myopia machine... your fucking move. Have a drink in the smoke Listen to the cast We shine a shiny spotlight Put criminals on blast

1:11:31 The pinstripe men of mourning And families of finance DuPont, Windsor and Rothschild The kids don't stand a chance. I said the kids don't, the kids don't stand, the kids don't stand a chance We're looking for the answers to questions never asked So we come to The Carlwood for the higher side chats The pinstripe men of mourning and families of finance DuPont, Windsor and Rothschild. The kids don't stand a chance

1:12:26 The kids don't, the kids don't stand The kids don't stand a chance I said the kids don't, the kids don't stand The kids don't stand a chance Involved in shady business We try to get a glance We're working on the numbers

1:13:04 Resistance must advance The pinstripe men of mourning And families of finance DuPont, Windsor and Rothschild The kids don't stand a chance The kids don't, the kids don't stand. The kids don't stand a chance I said the kids don't, the kids don't stand. The kids don't stand a chance