Opto mize Ebook: Introduction

Opto-mization Audiobook Introduction. Dyslexia, ADHD, Concussion, Headaches, Migraines, Prism Glasses, NeuroLens, Vision Therapy.
Want to learn more about the role of vision therapy in reading, attention, concussion and more? Join us as we share the stories of our patients and the information behind successful treatment.
Visit www.opto-mization.com to learn more.
"Early in my training, a patient said something that really shook me up. “I used to think I didn’t like to read because I was stupid,” he told me. “Now I realize it was a problem with my eyes.” The man was 50 years old. He’d had an eye movement condition since childhood. After the condition was treated, his whole life changed.
After that encounter, my life changed too. His words really woke me up to optometry’s potential. I realized that the biggest impact I could have as an optometrist was not simply to check eye health and help people see clearly, but to help them learn to use their visual system in the best way possible.
When people hear the word “optometrist,” they usually think of a letter chart at the end of the room and a new pair of glasses. Fair enough. But being able to see street signs in the distance, or the small print up close, is just one aspect of vision. A properly functioning visual system depends on so much more. My work in optometry now concentrates on the communication between the eyes and the brain, and what you can do to get the various parts working together more effectively.
Our visual skills develop throughout childhood, mostly through interac- tions with the world around us, and those skills continue to be tweaked over our lifetime. But some of us, for whatever reason, do not develop all the skills we need. Others lose some of those skills after a head injury.
Whether the skills didn’t develop properly in the first place or you had them taken away, when your visual skills are impaired, you are operating at a\
huge disadvantage. It’s as though everyone around you is riding a well-tuned bike, but yours has a bent wheel. So it’s not surprising that you’re not riding as well as the others, or that you can’t ride for as long. Maybe it causes dis- comfort, or maybe you can’t really ride the bike at all. Chances are you don’t enjoy bike riding very much.
Your visual system is extremely important. About 50 per cent of the brain is involved in processing vision. The visual system is not just about “seeing” - it also plays a major role in things like balance, attention and commu- nication. When your visual system is working poorly, it can contribute to headaches, dizziness, clumsiness and learning disabilities.
The problem is that, as an individual, you only have experience with the visual system you’ve been living with - so how can you be expected to know if it’s not working right? You can’t imagine seeing the world in any other way than the way you’ve been seeing it. (People who used to have well-func- tioning visual systems, but have had them damaged through injury, have an advantage here - they know what things should be like.) So a child who sees words moving on the page might not think to mention it, because it seems normal to her. A man who’s never been able to catch a baseball might think he’s slow. Like that 50-year-old patient, you may just assume that you’re not smart, or not coordinated, or not trying hard enough.
But what if we could straighten out that misshapen bicycle wheel? Lubri- cate the gears? Inflate the tires a bit? This is what we try to do using vision therapy and the right lenses: to get whatever bike you’re riding into the best shape possible.
I didn’t start out knowing I wanted to do vision therapy, or even that I want- ed to be an optometrist. In fact, I got all the way through optometry school and had started to practise before I realized I wasn’t content doing routine optometry. It seemed like all I did was measure people’s prescriptions and confirm that the health of the eye was still fine. I felt like a prescription gen- erator - although, to be fair, I didn’t realize at the time how powerful the right one could be.
I knew I wanted more. Maybe it was because I came to optometry via
engineering. I started a general engineering degree at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, and did two more years of science there before I found my way into optometry at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario. My strength is in applying knowledge - taking information and quickly putting it to practical, meaningful use. There was a place for an optometrist like me; it just wasn’t the regular place.
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