Anatomy of the eye & myopia
In order to get a better vision and reverse your myopia, we must first understand how vision works and what myopia is. I personally find, that learning from videos with great animations is more beneficial than just reading plain text that refer to a single picture when it comes to anatomy. I have therefore collected a short list of videos that explain these topics. These are the most useful videos, that helped me understand it better
Anatomy of eye:
Anatomy zone - This one is GREAT! (pay attenton to 2:00 to 4:40 - this part is most useful in myopia)
Short overview of the eye from “Handwritten Tutorials”
Myopia:
Lens accommodation - this one is great for understanding myopia! (SHORT)
Eye accommodation - made easy
Computer animation of accommodation - great for visualisation
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If you dont want to watch them all, here is a quick overview.
Here is a drawing of the eye. A very simplified explanation is: light enters from the left, gets “bend” (refracted) a bit in the cornea, goes through the pupil, and gets “bend more” in the lens, until it is “collected” at the retina, which is where it gets sent to the brain. This bending of light can be controlled by three important anatomical structures: The lens, the zonule fibers and the ciliary muscle/body. This is what is most important when understanding myopia. (The cornea also plays a smaller role, but it is not the focus here)
The ciliary muscle is a round muscle. It is connected to the lens through the zonular fibers as shown in the two pictures below. When it contracts/tightens it comes closer to the lens (because that is how ‘round’ muscles like sphincters contract). This means that the zonular fibers relax as seen below. The result is that the lens becomes more round. This is called accommodation of the lens. So: Ciliary muscle contracts --> zonules relax --> Lens becomes more round. On the contrary, when the ciliary muscle relaxes, it becomes more dilated and goes further apart from the lens, which means that the zonular fibers connected to it and to the lens will become more tense/tight.
Go to google images and search these words for many great illustrations!
Lens accommodation
Ciliary muscle
Zonule
Myopia
Myopia:
In myopia you can see things close to you (near-sightedness), but it is blurry farther away because the lens becomes more round - and stays that way. This means, that the focal point of the light is actually collected in front of the retina, instead of on it. Because the light is refracted more. (see the picture below)
Why? Because the ciliary muscles are contracted for so many hours due to near work that they begin to spasm (being constantly contracted). This is called pseudomyopia and it is reversible. Another issue is also that the axial length of the eye becomes longer - again contributing to the focal point being in front of the retina. All glasses do here, is bend the light, so the focal point is moved farther back again, but the underlying issue still persists and even progressively worsens. Many claim, that all of this can be reversed through incorporating better habits into your daily life and doing some ‘exercises’, and I don’t see why not.
This new view sees myopia not as an illness, but as a refractive state which can be altered.