3 Unconventional Ways to Improve Your Vision

If you’re not interested in wearing glasses, contacts, or getting surgery, you aren’t alone. Sometimes, it seems like those are the only options for improving your vision. What they don’t tell you is there are many natural and sometimes unconventional things to try first. Here are three unconventional steps toward improving your vision that you may not have heard of.

Step 1: Cue the Classical Music

You’ve probably heard that listening to classical music can improve your academic or work performance. It’s often recommended to college students who want to step up their studying habits. Listening to Mozart while pregnant also, apparently, helps your infant develop better than without Mozart exposure. If you think those claims are far-fetched, there’s more. Can listening to Mozart improve your vision?

According to a Brazilian study, the answer is possibly. Researchers divided 60 participants into two groups. The groups then took a test that helped identify whether someone suffered from peripheral vision abnormalities or blind spots. The first group listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos for 10 minutes before the test; the second group sat quietly.

If you guessed that the Mozart-listening group scored better then you are correct!

However, conclusive these tests are not. It’s unclear whether the results related to Mozart’s music directly or just the fact that researchers stimulated the senses of participants. But, the tests are intriguing and suggest that there is more to visual acuity than, ahem, meets the eye. If you’re looking for ways to improve your vision, consider listening to classical music more often.

Practically speaking, this doesn’t mean you have to only listen to classical music from here on out. Just make it a habit to turn on some Mozart while you drink your morning cup of coffee, or maybe turn some on to relax for ten minutes before you go to sleep at night.

Step 2: Incorporate Video Games into Your Weekly Regimen

Next time you tell your kids (or your husband) to stop playing video games, you might think twice. In a widely publicized study, researchers at McMaster University in Canada showed that playing video games for 40 hours over one month can improve visual acuity by 30 percent. However, the study specified that the video games must be first-person shooter games. This is because action games, like Halo, force the player to focus on fast-moving objects. The eyes are constantly moving and exercising when playing action games like these. The test at the end of the study measured the participants’ ability to identify letters within a crowd of other distracting symbols. This is similar to a standard eye chart.

“When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing,” says Daphne Bavelier, one of the study’s researchers and a professor of brain and cognitive sciences. “These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it. That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life.”

It may be an unconventional way to improve eyesight, but the research confirms its success. Just remember that getting outside and spending time away from devices is also good for your vision.

So, to implement this step into your (or your child’s) routine, keep in mind that this study limited gameplay to 40 hours over one month. That’s about 1.5 hours per day. Set a timer when you or your child starts their game, and rest a little easier knowing that there are actually benefits to playing video games.

Step 3: Belly Up to the Oxygen Bar

It’s well-known that diabetics must control their sugar intake. It’s also well known that diabetes can have a myriad of negative effects on vision. However, a recent clinical trial published in the National Library of Medicine shows that diabetics can take in as much oxygen as they want.  According to the study, patients treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy showed improvement or stabilization of conditions like diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic macular edema affects up to 10 percent of all patients with diabetes. It results when high blood sugar causes damage in normal retinal blood vessels and a decrease in the supply of oxygen and nutrients. The oxygen reduced the buildup of fluids and swelling in the macula. Some patients even showed improved visual acuity, with the ability to see two lines higher on a standard eye chart.

What does this mean? If you suffer from macular edema due to diabetes, consider supplemental oxygen. These days, some cities even have oxygen bars where you can do this recreationally. Discuss this option with your doctor to see if it would be a useful way for you to improve your vision!

Unconventional Ways to Improve Your Vision

Sometimes, natural methods and medicines are considered unconventional. This is because they aren’t backed by pharmaceutical companies or pushed by doctors. However, many of these natural and unconventional methods are successful ways to improve your vision.

One natural method is doing eye exercises every day. Often, we spend our days at work or school on the computer. Then, we leave the desk and stare at our phones, televisions, or tablets. Constant up-close vision causes eye strain and leads to myopia. If you’re starting to notice difficulty in seeing objects in the distance, start doing eye exercises. Spend more time outside where your eyes must adjust to objects at varying distances. Take frequent breaks from the screen to palm your eyes and relax them. Over time, these unconventional methods can lead to an improvement in your vision.

Another natural method to improve your vision is to improve your diet. Our eyes rely on a specific group of nutrients to function optimally. These nutrients include antioxidants, omega-3s, zinc, and many more. Try to get the correct dose of each of these nutrients in your daily diet. Or, take a natural supplement for eye health, like the Ocu-Plus Formula. It contains 17 of the essential nutrients your eyes need to function well. That takes a large burden off your meal-planning and prepping routine!

We’re all about finding ways to improve your vision naturally. And these unconventional ways to improve your vision are just that. Natural and unconventional. There’s no need to resort to glasses, contacts, or surgery! Make sure you get consistent eye exams to track your vision’s progress and improvement. We hope these three steps to improving your vision unconventionally will give you a useful alternative to surgery or glasses.