Keeping the Eyes is Keeping the Spirit

Chapter 2 Be careful!Eyes are uncomfortable, the body is calling for help!
Eyes are not only related to vision, but also related to the health of the whole body. They are the earliest sirens of human health.

Myopia is the first eye disease that cannot be ignored
Traveling abroad has become popular in Japan since the 20s.

The surge of Japanese tourists in Europe and the United States has become the object of media coverage there.In their reports, the images of Japanese people are almost always wearing glasses and cameras hanging from their necks.

Everyone should have the impression that almost all the Japanese who appeared in Hollywood movies in the past wore glasses.

However, it is certainly impossible to say that the Japanese at that time were all short-sighted.

There is a more common saying that the reason why Japanese people must wear glasses in movies is because of the influence of some previous illustrations that made fun of Japanese people.

At that time, Europeans and Americans drew illustrations of "Japanese = wearing glasses" half-jokingly.But now, the content expressed by these illustrations has become a reality.

According to statistics, more than 40% of Japanese over the age of [-] suffer from myopia.

The myopia rate of the population over the age of 40 in the United States and China is only 22%, and the average myopia rate of the population over the age of 49 in Australia is only 14%.The myopia rate of the Japanese is more than double that of these countries.

In terms of the proportion of people who need to wear glasses or contact lenses, Japan is definitely far ahead of other countries.

The myopia rate of the Japanese is the highest in the world!

More than 90% of myopia has nothing to do with genetics
The myopia rate of the Japanese ranks first in the world.

That's nothing to be proud of.However, this is a situation that has only appeared in recent years, and it is by no means that the Japanese have poor eyesight or genetic problems.

另据日本文部科学省《教育白皮书》公布的数据，昭和24年（1949年）日本小学生中裸眼视力不及1.0的近视人数仅占6%。然而，据《学校保健统计调查》结果显示：到了平成18年（2006年）这一数字却增加到了28%，到平成25年（2013年）这一数字更是超过了30%。

In just over 60 years, the proportion of Japanese primary school students with myopia has increased to more than five times.

This has also caused the abnormal phenomenon in Japan that "more than [-]% of high school students suffer from myopia".

[Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology survey data in 25] If myopia is inherited, the incidence of myopia should be fixed regardless of the generation.

However, the proportion of myopia among Japanese people has increased over the past 60 years. In other words, most of myopia is caused by the environment.

Modern studies have also shown that myopia is not hereditary.Francis A. Yang, a professor at the University of Washington in the United States, tracked and investigated the changes in the vision development of three generations of Inuit (Eskimos), and learned from it:

Even if a child is born in a family with good grandparents and parents with good eyesight, 58% of the children will develop myopia rapidly due to excessive use of eyes due to reading and other reasons after school.

From the above example, we can see that myopia is an acquired disease caused by the living environment, and it is by no means inherited from parents.

However, many people are convinced that "my parents both wear glasses, so my myopia is genetic" and "my brothers are all myopic, so I will be myopic too", so they voluntarily give up the chance to restore their eyesight.Of course, there are indeed a very small number of people who belong to "hereditary myopia" caused by the shape of the eyeball, but this type of situation is extremely rare.

So it needs to be reiterated here:
More than [-]% of myopia has nothing to do with genetics.

The culprit that hurts the eyes of modern people: blue light

In Japan, people with severe myopia and other eye diseases whose visual acuity is below 0.1 are tending to be younger.About ten years ago, there were still a small number of children in a school class wearing glasses or contact lenses, but why did it become the situation today?

In addition, cataracts and glaucoma, which used to only be suffered by people over the age of 60, now frequently appear in young people aged 30 to 40, and even children in their teens suffer from these eye diseases.

And in Japan, the number of people suffering from dry eye syndrome alone has exceeded 1000 million.If patients with other eye diseases such as floaters are counted, the number will definitely be even higher.

The health problems of our eyes have increased sharply, and one of the main reasons for the continuous reduction of eye life is the long-term use of electronic products.

Computers, smart phones, portable game consoles and other electronic products use LED backlights for their screens, and the blue light emitted by these lights can cause serious damage to the eyes.

Blue light is a short-wave high-energy visible light.There is a saying that the light from the LED backlight screen can directly shine on the retina deep in the eyes, which puts a heavy burden on the eyes.Compared with reading under fluorescent lamps, the backlight of such screens is several times more irritating to the eyes and brain.

The eyes of modern people are surrounded by the strong light emitted by the monitor from morning to night, as if they are "bathed" under the water column of a fire truck, and are constantly suffering from abuse.

Therefore, "anti-blue light glasses" have also appeared on the market, but unfortunately, their effect is not great.Because those products can only resist 100% to [-]% of Blu-ray at most, and cannot achieve [-]% protection.

The most frightening thing is that many people think that everything will be fine if they wear anti-blue light glasses. If they continue to stare at the screen for a long time, it will increase the burden on the eyes.

It is better not to use anti-blue light glasses. After all, solving the root cause of eye problems is far more effective than using glasses for protection.

action!extend the exercise to the eyes

We seem to be living in a small box, staring at things within a radius of 1 meter centered on ourselves all day long.

Every day, we only look at the screen of our mobile phone, the tools in our hands or our feet.Even if we look from a distance, we can only look at the traffic lights or the timetable of tram arrivals at most.

Blindly staring at the near, the muscles used for hyperopia will not be used and exercised, so what will happen?

Muscles will stiffen and decline!

For example, if the foot is broken, even if it is only put on a plaster cast and cannot move for a week, the muscles of the foot will atrophy and become weak.In order to walk normally as before, we must carry out rehabilitation training.The same thing happens with the eye muscles, and generally, when the eye muscles become stiff, the eyes lose focus.

So, can all eye problems be solved by just keeping your eyes on the distance without using any electronics?It's not that simple.

There are more than just causes of eye problems, there are bigger "real causes".

Regarding the biggest cause of eye problems, I will tell you in detail in Chapter 2.Before that, let me briefly explain the background of frequent eye problems and the makeup of our bodies.

If there is something wrong with the eyes, there must be something wrong with the body
The human body relies on the skillful cooperation of all its organs to function properly.

This is how the human body relies on the close cooperation of several organs to maintain its functioning.Under this system, whenever one part of the organ weakens, others compensate by working harder.

However, once this situation lasts for a long time, a chain reaction will occur, and the impact will gradually expand, leading to general weakness.

Take a bicycle as an example.If you continue to use the bicycle without repairing the broken front brake, you must use the rear brake (commonly known as "brake") in normal times.

That is to say, if the front wheel brakes cannot be used, the burden on the rear wheel brakes will increase.

If you forcefully use the rear wheel brakes for a long time, the wear of the rear wheels will be worse than that of the front wheels, and the inner tube may also become fragile and easy to be punctured.

Therefore, if a damaged component is left alone, it will not take long to cause abnormalities in the overall operation.

The same is true for our bodies.

The wealth and life of the eyes are tied to the liver
The various organs in our body rely on mutual cooperation to maintain normal function-and this is not limited to internal organs.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the meridian, the channel for transporting energy in the human body, connects the five internal organs (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney) with the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc. of the human body.

For example, the ears correspond to the kidneys, the nose to the lungs, and the eyes are deeply connected to the liver.

According to this rule, if the ears cannot hear clearly, it can be considered that the kidneys are tired; if there are problems with the eyes, it means that the liver is weak.

Therefore, we not only need to treat the problematic eyes and ears, but also the internal organs that are deeply connected with them, in order to achieve the effect of recovery.

Many theories in this book are based on the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine.Therefore, some of the exercises recommended in the book may seem to stimulate the parts that have nothing to do with the eyes at first glance, but in fact they all have deep meaning.

The eyes are the most delicate part of the body

In addition to decomposing and storing the nutrients absorbed by the small intestine, the liver also has the functions necessary to maintain life, such as responsible for the production and secretion of bile, as well as detoxification and excretion.Therefore, in daily life, the liver is also an organ that is prone to problems.

From the word "heart and liver" we often hear, we can see that both the heart and the liver are very important organs, and they are the basis for supporting the operation of all other organs and maintaining life activities.

That is, if organs such as the lungs and stomach become weak, the liver must work beyond its capacity to support these organs.As a result, the eyes, which are closely connected with the liver, will also weaken and cause problems.

Metaphorically speaking, the liver is like the foundation of a house.

If the pillars, walls, and roofs built on the foundation are damaged and crooked, the burden on the foundation will be increased.

And the foundation is unstable, even if it is tilted, the windows that seem to have nothing to do with the foundation will also be skewed, resulting in failure to close.In other words, if there is a problem with the liver, the eyes will also appear abnormal.

The eyes are "model workers" like the heart

The muscles around our eyes move more than 10 times a day.

Let's think about it, besides the eyes, are there any body organs that repeat more than 10 times a day?

Even if you have a cold and sniff your nose frequently, you can't move dozens of times a day at most.Even if it is walking, although many people aim to "walk 1 steps a day", very few people can really achieve it.

Apart from the eyes, the only organ in the body that moves 10 times a day is the heart.

Eye fatigue is actually fatigue in the muscles around the eyes.Because the eyes are constantly in constant motion, they are prone to fatigue.If we do not pay attention to this point, eye problems will easily occur.

What's more, the energy required to maintain normal eye function is more than you think.

Tears are as precious as blood

In today's society, the number of people working in office buildings has increased, and the number of patients with dry eye syndrome has also increased.

Dry eye syndrome does not simply make the eyes dry, it is also a signal that tells us that our lives are in danger.It is different from simply dehydrated skin.

Originally, the average humidity for humans to feel comfortable was 40% to 60%.But in today's high-rise buildings, the windows are usually closed, and the central air conditioner is turned on 24 hours a day.If the people working inside look at the hygrometer, they will find that the humidity value is only about 12% to 16%.

If your office is also in a building with closed windows and air conditioning to manage the temperature, the humidity in the office will only be 16% at most.

It's like throwing people into a dryer for a long time to work, and the eyes will naturally become dry.

In such a harsh environment, the body will constantly secrete tears to protect the important eyes.If things go on like this, the lacrimal gland will eventually exhaust its energy, and then dry eye syndrome will appear.

This can be said to be a serious symptom related to life.Why do you say that?

The outermost layer of the eye is the cornea, but the cornea is not in direct contact with the air.Tears coat the cornea to keep dust and fine particles out of the eye.You know, even if a tiny dust gets into the eyes, the eyes will feel stinging and hard to open, which makes people unable to concentrate.

If you had dry eye syndrome in the primitive era of hunting, it meant that you might be targeted by dangerous animals at any time, and your life would be in jeopardy.

In modern times, severe dry eye naturally means that you can no longer work with a computer, resulting in unemployment.Such examples often appear in reality.It can be said that dry eye disease will put people's life into crisis.

More importantly, without tears, oxygen and nutrients cannot be delivered to the eyes.

In fact, the role of tears is not only to clean and protect the eyes, it is also responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrients to the cornea, just like blood transports nutrients to cells throughout the body.

In addition to vitamins and glucose, tears also contain lactoferrin, IgA (immunoglobulin A), growth factors (stimulating cell growth activity), EGF (epidermal growth factor) and other components, which are almost the same as blood components.

Moreover, both tears and blood contain the material components of the primitive ocean.

It is generally believed that the lacrimal gland that secretes tears contains the same material composition as the primitive ocean.

Tears are like the primordial ocean that breeds life, and its depletion is tantamount to saying that there is a major crisis in the blood that is the source of life.It is like a signal light, warning people that the nutrients and oxygen in the body cannot be transmitted throughout the body.

Also, if you use eye drops frequently, it will aggravate dry eye syndrome.

Because using eye drops is similar to washing hands with soap, it will wash away important nutrients and ingredients that protect the eyes.

Think about it, if you wash your hands frequently with soap throughout the day, the skin on your hands will be dry and cracked, right?

Eliminating the real cause and allowing the body to restore normal function to produce tears is much more useful than eye drops.

The secret of old age does not necessarily have presbyopia
Presbyopia makes it difficult to see nearby objects clearly because the eye's ability to focus has declined.

For presbyopia, many people mistakenly think that as long as they get old, they will get it.In fact, presbyopia is by no means the aging of the eyes.

If you will get presbyopia when you get older, then I should also have presbyopia at the age of 61.However, in reality my vision remains at 1.0 and there are no signs of presbyopia at the moment.In my clinic, none of the staff over the age of 50 has presbyopia.

Presbyopia is not a "helpless disease" that people will get as long as they get old.

In addition, there is a saying that people who are nearsighted rarely get presbyopia.Unfortunately, this is a wrong view.

Presbyopia is just covered up by myopia and discovered later.

When you get myopia, your eyes are already weakened. Once you get presbyopia, your eyes will decline faster than usual. You must pay attention to this.

Once many people find that they have the symptoms of presbyopia, they will feel lost and think that they have gradually stepped into the ranks of the elderly, so they lose their energy and even become much older all of a sudden.

Once people do not challenge new things, the brain will not be stimulated.Taken to the extreme, the risk of developing dementia is also elevated at this time.

Therefore, we should try our best to prevent this situation, which is also good for mental health.

Let's get back to the topic. Since the cause of presbyopia is not eye aging, what is it?
The real cause of presbyopia will be explained in the next chapter 2.

You just need to remember one thing now: as long as the nutrients needed by the eyes can be supplied normally, the symptoms of presbyopia will be obviously improved soon.

Everyone must have hope!

(End of this chapter)