I’ve needed to wear glasses since my very early childhood, but I’ve never done anything for my eyes except obediently get my yearly exam and leave with a stronger prescription than the one before. That habit abruptly stopped last year when I was visited with a serious inflammation in my left eye. The sudden redness and severe pain in my eyeball sent me to a top specialist, and after the examination he prescribed steroid drops. He also suggested I’d need them for the rest of my life, as what I had was an incurable disorder—but since steroids are damaging in the long run, I’d need to use them cautiously.
The doctor called my condition episcleritis, a benign, self-limiting inflammatory disease affecting part of the eye called the episclera. This thin layer of tissue lies between the conjuctiva and the connective tissue that forms the white of the eye, or the sclera. I used the steroids, but only until the excruciating pain and redness subsided. Not only was I baffled as to how this condition originated, but I also grew fearful of losing my eyesight. To this day I still haven’t found the cause of this eye disorder. To further complicate matters, within two weeks I felt the severe aching and redness begin in my right eye. Once again I had to pay a handsome price to visit the specialist and go back to using the steroids. Talk about depressed and fearful—this is it, my friends, as our eyes are one of the most precious parts of our body.
In a real panic, I of course called one of my favorite Standard Process mentors, Joseph Antell. He advised me to immediately start the following protocol: Iplex, a superior eye supplement; an increased intake of Cataplex C to address the connective tissue damage; Oculotrophin PMG to deter further damage; and, last but not least, Golden Seal from MediHerb to stem the inflammation.
Within a week I began to feel some relief, although for the next month I’d use a drop or two of the steroids when I sensed the pain coming back. All told, it took approximately two months on this protocol to feel a distinct difference and stop using the steroids. I haven’t needed them since, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I continue to take Iplex, Cataplex C, and Oculotrophin PMG. I intersperse Golden Seal into the ongoing protocol but don’t use it daily. I was also more judicious about taking fermented cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter daily from Green Pasture, and also ate some form of liver twice a week (calf, chicken, or goose liver) throughout the two months. However, I didn’t stop there. For healing and strengthening your eyes, please read on for more recommendations.
Knowing there had to be more I could do to help my eyes cope with the additional time I’d been spending on the computer, as well as other factors such as advancing age-related dryness and blue light from TV and computers, I looked for reading material that could point me to an ongoing eye-strengthening program. After reading through several books, I came upon 28 Days to Reading Without Glasses by Lisette Scholl, a natural vision improvement teacher, certified hypnotist, and yoga instructor. This book taught me how to properly take care of my eyes and also helped me understand the crucial eye-brain connection. Now my eyes are less tired, and hopefully in time I’ll be like one of the success stories mentioned in the book—not wearing glasses anymore and having truly healthy eyes in the future.
Allow me to quote just one paragraph that explains the connection between the eye and the brain—something I was totally unaware of:
The visual system and its little video recorders are incredibly complex. The average eye has nearly one billion working parts. A lot is going on in there! Dr. Robert-Michael Kaplan, one of the leading behavioral optometrists, notes in Seeing Without Glasses that “our eyes, for their size, have a greater blood and nerve supply than most other organ systems in the body, and there is a strong relationship between the brain and the fitness of the eyes. Approximately 49 percent of the brain’s cranial nerves, which directly feed the body’s nervous system, are just for the eyes.” In addition, retinal nerve fibers make up 40 percent of all nerve fibers going to the brain. This is impressive in and of itself, but especially when you realize that the retina amounts to one-millionth of our body weight. Proportionately speaking, the eyes’ requirements far outweigh those of our other organs.
—28 Days to Reading Without Glasses, p. 6
Before I go on to some tasty nutrient-dense recipes that support healthy eyes, I’d like to outline just a few of the techniques Scholl uses on her clients. I especially like the accompanying bookmark exercise, which can be copied and laminated. It’s large and easy to read. To strengthen your eyes, Scholl recommends this 7-step exercise after reading or typing two pages of any material. It takes less than 2–3 minutes, and it will become a habit as you continue doing it. In just a few days, you’ll truly feel the difference in your eyes.
Bookmark
- Take off your glasses!
- Yawn—at least three times.
- Stand up and stretch (or stretch while sitting).
- Stretch your eye muscles: look up, down, left, right, diagonally, and around in circles.
- Shift your focus quickly, in and out 5 times, from near to distant objects.
- Palm for at least 5 deep breaths. [Palming is cupping your hands over your eyes.]
- Put the bookmark ahead 2 pages and continue reading, first checking to see if you can read without your glasses.
Stop right now and see how relaxing this exercise can be, whether you’re reading or typing on a keyboard. This is also a good time to take a few sips of beet kvass, coconut water, or just plain water with a pinch of sea salt added to it.
Other exercises in the book include the Bates Method, an alternative therapy for improving eyesight created by William H. Bates, MD. You can learn more about his life-changing eye exercises in DVD courses, books, or online. Scholl also offers some great mental uplifting and relaxing techniques from her own clinical practice and short, simple leg, arm, and body exercises to increase circulation. Last but not least is her easy-to-follow 28-day program that allows you to pace yourself through each unique therapy while adding a new level every day, therefore keeping it simple and doable. Hopefully, I’ve now convinced you that taking the eye-brain connection seriously and finding the time to relax and pamper those eyes will help preserve your vision.
In my blog post “Relaxation: The Cure-All Vitamin,” I also talk about an easy twice-a-day technique that helps you relax not just your eyes but your whole body.
For another must-read article on eye health, see “Vitamin A Saga” from the Weston A. Price Foundation. Here’s an excerpt:
Listed below are approximate levels of vitamin A in common foods, in IUs per 100 grams:
- High-vitamin cod liver oil 230,000
- Regular cod liver oil 100,000
- Duck liver 40,000
- Beef liver 35,000
- Goose liver 31,000
- Liverwurst sausage (pork) 28,000
- Lamb liver 25,000
It should be noted that these amounts can vary according to how the animals are fed. Weston Price noted a huge variation in vitamin A content of butter according to the season. In addition, absorption of vitamin A varies according to the food. Research carried out during the 1940s indicates that vitamin A is more easily absorbed from butter than from other foods.
The US Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin A is currently 5,000 IU per day (and may possibly be lowered to 2500 IU per day). From the work of Weston Price, we can assume that the amount in primitive diets was about 50,000 IU per day, which could be achieved in a modern diet by consuming generous amounts of whole milk, cream, butter and eggs from pastured animals; beef or duck liver several times per week; and 1 tablespoon regular cod liver oil or ½ tablespoon high-vitamin cod liver oil per day.
The recipes that follow should help you get started on an eye program that may help you avoid the dreaded episcleritis while getting lots of added nutrition into your diet.
Pumpkin for Your Peepers
This is a great pumpkin mousse.
Ingredients
1 cup organic pumpkin puree (I recommend Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin)
1 cup plain full fat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon Great Lakes Gelatin
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
⅓ cup maple syrup, or to taste
Zest of one orange
½ teaspoon mixed spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger)
¼ cup whipping cream, very cold
Instructions
- Place a medium bowl in freezer. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin and yogurt with a whisk.
- Sprinkle gelatin over orange juice and let sit for about three minutes, just enough time to get maple syrup ready.
- Bring maple syrup to a boil on medium-high heat in a small saucepan, stirring constantly. Pour boiling maple syrup over orange juice and stir until gelatin has melted.
- Pour maple syrup mix into pumpkin preparation and whisk well. Add orange zest and spices. Stir to combine.
- Using the chilled bowl from freezer, whip cream to firm peaks with a hand mixer. Next, use the mixer to whip pumpkin for about 1 minute. With a spatula, gently fold whipped cream into pumpkin mix.
- Ladle into serving cups and chill in refrigerator until set, about 2–3 hours.
Turkey Burgers
High in zinc, turkey is terrific for the eyes. The orange peppers and green onion in these tasty burgers will also provide your eyes with lutein and zeaxanthin. For a lighter version, omit the whole wheat buns and enjoy your turkey burger wrapped in lettuce.
Ingredients
1 lb. ground organic turkey
1 free-range egg
½ cup green onion, chopped
¼ cup whole wheat bread crumbs or oat bran
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
For the toppings:
2 orange peppers, sautéed until limp
2 yellow onions, caramelized in olive oil (optional)
4 whole wheat buns or lettuce
3 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
Leaf lettuce
Instructions
- Mix ground turkey with remaining ingredients and form into patties.
- Prepare the orange peppers and caramelized onions and set aside in a warm toaster oven.
- Grill or broil the turkey burgers. Place on whole wheat buns or lettuce leaves and add the toppings. Enjoy!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
To choose your organically grown and fresh ingredients wisely, use the following criteria:
- chemical- and hormone-free meat
- wild-caught fish
- pasture-raised, organic eggs
- whole, unrefined grains
- virgin, unrefined, first-press organic oils
- whole-food, unrefined sweeteners
- pure, clean, spring water
- sea salt
- raw and/or cultured milk and cream products
Photo from iStock/7activestudio
Note from Maria: I am a Certified Natural Health Professional, CNHP, not a medical doctor. I do not diagnose, prescribe for, treat, or claim to prevent, mitigate, or cure any human diseases. Please see your medical doctor prior to following any recommendations I make in my blogs or on my website.
Maria Atwood is a semiretired Certified Natural Health Professional and Weston A. Price Chapter Leader in Colorado Springs, CO. Visit her website at TraditionalCook.com. Also check out Maria’s Cook Your Way to Wellness DVD (also available as an e-learning course) and be sure to follow her Tips from the Traditional Cook blog.
Products by Maria Atwood
Wonderful article! In addition to the Bates Method, I would also recommend Meier Schneider’s work, at http://self-healing.org/2015/.
Any advice for a really long floater in one eye? It looks like a parasite, but the doc said it was just a floater of protein.
Yikes, Janey! That sounds like a big one. The best advice we can give
you is to find a holistic practitioner with experience in this
condition. Good luck!