Subject: The safety of the plus — for true prevention.
In the discussion below, an optometrist states that his father (also
an OD) INSISTED that the child wear the plus in a preventive role.
The result was that this ODs refractive STATE remained postive and he
had no “refractive” problem during the school years.
There are people who ask me about the “safety” of the plus. There can
hardly be a more powerful statement about the safety of a plus — when
and OD provides it to his own child.
Paul’s father insisted he use a strong plus. His refractive
STATE moved positive — which is an effective PREVENTIVE
FOR MYOPIA.
I STRONGLY OBJECT to calling a natural and very valuable
POSTIVE REFRACTIVE STATE a “disaster”, a “bad thing”, “defective”
and such things.
If you want true PREVENTION, then you MUST maintain a positive
state (measure with Snellen and trial-lens), and the protective
refractive STATE should be at least 1/2 diopters.
Stop calling what is normal and essential “bad” — and we
could understand what we are doing.
Otis
=================
Question >> Also, is there such a thing as a progressive hyperope?
Harris>Yes.
Stacy> Well that’s news to me. Every moderate to high hyperope (~
+2 D. and up) I ever ran into was about as stable as the
Rock of Gibraltar.
Progressive hyperopia???
Maybe it’s just semantics, but I don’t think so…
William Stacy, O.D.
++++++++++
This plus was used on Paul by his father in the “William Ludlam”
study.
Question>>> Also, is there such a thing as a progressive hyperope?
Harris>> Yes.
Stacy >Well that’s news to me. Every moderate to high hyperope (~
+2 D. and up) I ever ran into was about as stable as the
Rock of Gibraltar.
Question>Progressive hyperopia???
Harris> Yes… This is the development of adverse hyperopia. The
cause most often is as a secondary iatrogenic disease caused
by the overzealous prescribing of plus.
I know you and others will say if a good cycloplegic were
done…. and things like ….latent hyperopia…..
I was a subject in a longitudinal study for 5 years as a
child. All this plus, A-Scans, Purkinje images measures of radius
of curvature of front cornea, rear cornea, front lens, rear lens,
anthropomophic measures, IOP, wet and dry refractions, full 21
point analytical and more were done every 6 months for 5 years. I
have the data on myself.
At no point did I ever show hyperopia more than +1.00 to
+1.25.
After the study at age 15 I started wearing single vision
plus to play chess and this was upped and upped.
NOTE: I was measured with a 14 to 1 ACA ratio. 16 eso at
near through whatever distance lens of the time and 2 eso with
+1.00 add over that.
The standard theory was “push plus”. This was done and I
ended up at one point wearing +2.25 OD/ +2.50 OS with a +1.50 add
for 10 years. I measured well up in +3.00 range when my father
(my optometrist then) was done with me.
There was no latent hyperopia over the +1.00. The additional
amounts were built up slowly over time in response to my
optometric care.
Once I did VT 13 years ago I now wear just some plus for near
and nothing for distance. My subjective now is +1.25 OU which I
choose not to wear and do great.
In fact I now see better than ever. ***
I hope this explains a bit a very big subject which I am
fully aware of there will be little agreement on from the
conventional eye-care establishment. Please give me some other
alternative to understand the above findings over time. I also
have basic optometric data on me from the age of 6 months.
Paul Harris, O.D., F.C.O.V.D., F.A.C.B.O.
Director, Baltimore Academy for Behavioral Optometry
*** There is no doubt that through this period of “plus use” and
“hyperopia improvement” Paul was at 20/20 for distance.
Further the “range of accommodation” (at least 6 diopters)
would take care of ALL NEAR WORK WITH NO PLUS ON. OSB
==========
Harris> I hope this explains a bit a very big subject which I am
fully aware of there will be little agreement on from the
conventional eye-care establishment. Please give me some
other alternative to understand the above findings over time.
I also have basic optometric data on me from the age of 6
months.
Stacy> Very interesting data. Very interesting study (Was it
published?).
I can believe you went from +1 to +2.5 or so (the 3 was
likely over-zealous plus pushing), although I’d call it unusual,
and certainly not like anything I’ve observed in young hyperopes
over the years.
It’s still a far cry from the 8 or 10 D. or more of change
in the progressive (aka pathologic) myopes. I’d choose a
different name, if you must have a name for such an occurrence,
for consistency.
Maybe “hyperopia creep”? “Far-sighted slip”?
I can’t resist: “the incredible shrinking eye”?? ###
Bill
William Stacy
### I would call it VERY VALUABLE CHANGE IN REFRACTIVE STATE — TO
PROTECT YOUR DISTANT VISION FOR LIFE. OSB
((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Stacy> Very interesting data. Very interesting study (Was it
published?).
Harris> Yes in several places. Chief investigator was Bill
Ludlum. The study was so large that it was reported in
sections. Most appeared in the academy journal and others in
the Journal of the AOA. I don’t have the references handy
but could look them up if you wish. My case was lumped into
the 500 or so subjects that were followed.
Stacy> I can believe you went from +1 to +2.5 or so (the 3 was
likely over-zealous plus pushing), although I’d call it
unusual, and certainly not like anything I’ve observed in
young hyperopes over the years.
Stacy> It’s still a far cry from the 8 or 10 D. or more of change
in the progressive (aka pathologic) myopes.
Harris> I agree here fully. The +8 and +10 generally occur
following a different mechanism. Most of which occurs very
early, 18-36 months usually.
Stacy> I’d choose a different name, if you must have a name for
such an occurrence, for consistency.
Stacy> Maybe “hyperopia creep”? “Far-sighted slip”?
Stacy > I can’t resist: “the incredible shrinking eye”??
Harris> We just use “adverse hyperopia”. Hope that suffices. ****
Paul Harris, O.D., F.C.O.V.D., F.A.C.B.O.
Director, Baltimore Academy for Behavioral Optometry
**** I would call is a situation of great value, having a positive
refractive STATE — which you measure yourself as Paul did.
This shows that FORCED CHANGE in the AVERAGE of accommodation
results in a positive change in the refractive STATE of the
natural eye. This is EXACTLY the results achieved by Earl
Smith in the pure-science primate eye study. Both the human
and primate eye behave the SAME WAY — for the same reason.
OSB
Harris >references handy but could look them up if you wish. My
case was lumped into the 500 or so subjects that were
followed.
Stacy> That would be great. I’m sure others on s.m.v. would like
to see it too. I do have a quick question about it.
What instrumentation was used to measure the Purkinje images,
yielding what kind of accuracy on the various radii?
Harris> We just use “adverse hyperopia”. Hope that suffices.
Stacy> Another obvious question is how many cases of adverse
hyperopic changes (increases) did the study find, and in what
amounts?
Thanks
Bill
William Stacy
=============
I hope you enjoy this discussion. It proved my point in many
ways.
Very sharp vision (20/20), and a slight postive STATE, should not be
called “adverse hyperopia”.
An optometrist can’t help the general public with true prevention.
But he can help his own son AVOID ENTRY.
Enjoy,
Otis