Something that surprised me when I started my dissertation: there's a lot of research on preventive eye care in kids and in adults over 40, and almost nothing in between. The 26 to 40 stretch is mostly a blank spot in the literature, even though it's when people age off their parents' insurance, change jobs, move, and start families, etc.

I'm trying to fill some of that in. I'm looking for US adults aged 26 to 40 to answer some open-ended questions about how you think about eye exams and what makes them easy or hard to get.

It doesn't matter whether you go regularly or haven't been in years. Both are useful!

About 10 minutes. IRB approved. Anonymous, written answers, one sitting. Your insights will help improve eye care access for young adults.

👉🏻Survey Link: https://shu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_25z6Ecgycc70yKa

Thank you to all those who have helped and for your time!! 🩷 I’m close to my recruitment goal!

I started to notice halos around lights back in March. It scared me at first because I had never noticed this in my vision at night. I went to an optometrist and he did a basic exam and said my eyes look healthy and cornea has a little wear and tear due to contact overwear but nothing crazy.

Now, I'm noticing glare in headlights l, starbursts that take over half vision field, I sometimes can even see glare in headlights during day depending on the car headlight. It makes it impossible to drive at night and emotional to be a passenger watching every car that drives by. Help! I can't get into an opthomologist for anther two weeks. I am 40.

I don't have static or afterimage but it is still debilitating.

Title. Tonight I was driving home and my residential road is quite narrow; I struggle HORRIFICALLY with LED Lights, often requiring me to pull over if I’m on narrow roads; both because of their natural brightness and my astigmatism. How does everyone else manage this?

(picture 1 is current prescription from eye test this week, picture 2 is previous prescription)

(24F, UK, no alcohol/no smoking, overweight, plethora of unrelated health and mental health issues)

How much worsening of astigmatism is normal in almost 3 years? Before the eye test I had this week, my last one was almost 3 years ago, and the prescription was the second image. Back then they recommended I come back in 2 years but I have been struggling to get out for unrelated reasons.

I have only noticed actual vision changes in the last 6 months. At the beginning of this year my previous prescription glasses worked well and I did not have any issues with blurry/double vision, whereas I feel in the last six months my eyesight has deteriorated significantly to where my glasses were not helping and I struggled to see things at a distance that I previously had no issues with.

After my eye exam this week, the optician expressed concern over how significant of a change there is to my prescription, and said she wants to next see me in one years time max to make sure that my astigmatism isn’t changing to become “irregular”. She said it’s “regular” at the minute but is concerned that usually this change happens around my age and with the amount of change in the last 6 months she said it is possible that could happen. What does this mean exactly?

I would love any insight you could provide in helping me understand my prescription and the issues I am facing. Thanks in advance!

What is the severity of this prescription? I’ve been having migraines and I think it may be stemming from the astigmatism. Last year I only had it in one eye

OD Sph -7.5 CYL +1.25 Axis 80 OS Sph -7.75 CYL +0.75 Axis 70

Astigmatism in my 2-year-old: Should we start glasses or wait for his eyes to develop?
My son is two and has never shown any obvious signs of vision problems. However, because I have astigmatism and hate wearing glasses, I wanted his eyes checked from birth.
After several checkups and a hospital referral, he has now been prescribed glasses:
Right eye: +1.00 sphere, −1.25 cylinder
Left eye: +1.75 sphere, −2.00 cylinder
Neither my husband nor my parents or siblings have astigmatism, although both our extended families have people who wear glasses.
My own experience makes me wonder whether his prescription might improve naturally. I was diagnosed with astigmatism at around 10 but rarely wore glasses until I was 18. By then, my prescription had improved considerably, reportedly to around half its previous strength.
Now I’m wondering whether my son’s eyes might also change as he grows. He’s only two, and I’m confused about whether to start glasses immediately or ask about monitoring his eyes first.
I’m particularly looking for experiences from parents whose toddlers had similar prescription values.
Did your child’s astigmatism improve as they grew? Did you start glasses immediately, or did your doctor recommend monitoring? If they wore glasses from age two, did their prescription eventually decrease?
I don’t want my dislike of glasses or my personal experience to influence a decision that could affect my son’s vision. I just want to understand my options and hear from parents who’ve been through something similar.
Thank you! ❤️

If you qualify to take DMSO - not too dose dependent medications, not too acutely toxic supplements, not too much tattoo ink, no botox, no highly toxic dental work like mercury amalgam dental implants, not too toxic residue like smoke residue in your mouth, no dissolvable medical implants, not pregnant nursing or trying to conceive, no difficulties having your blood clot, and you can get away with smelling badly sulfury while using it (and for up to 72 hours after stopping taking it) - There are some desirable effects (like reversing symptoms of glaucoma and the astigmatism-esque visual effects of insulin sensitivity, and otherwise sharpening your depth perception and visual acuity - it has for me) it could have on you.

And it was like, really bad, painful tear-jerkingly large amount of intraocular pressure and blurry astigmatism vision - Especially bad for hours after coffee or carby meals.

First, how to take it precautiously - Take it with a clean mouth, brush floss rinse and thoroughly water rinse, maybe try and wait 30 minutes before taking it and 30 minutes after taking it to eat or drink anything that isn't water.

Take it in a clean glass cup with purified water, as it can dissolve plastic, glaze, and impurities and convey that directly into your bloodstream.

DMSO is the same solvent used in things like nicotine patches and medical fentanyl patches to convey the stuff into your bloodstream through your skin.

Chug it, chase it with a bunch of purified water. DMSO in extended contact with tissues can make those tissues more permeable to contaminants for more than an hour.

The most I've ever taken is 5 mL (99.9% pure) a day for 7 days in a row - No apparent toxic effects. Now just 5 mL after work each Friday.

Excessive amounts can dissolve and destroy your tissues and cells and organs but lower amounts can have a therapeutic effect. If your urine starts turning brown that means you've taken such a high concentration of DMSO that it is dissolving your red blood cells and shutting down your liver, which is a medical emergency and you need to go to an emergency room and tell them how much you took and when.

I think it's solvent properties can remove or at least dissolve excessive waste like calcium/cholesterol in the arteries and junk like amyloid plaque in the brain, as it crosses the blood brain barrier. The AI chatbot says DMSO readily dissolves cholesterol and lipids. "DMSO is an effective solvent for lipids and many organic compounds." - This may also accidentally break off a piece of cholesterol/calcium causing a clot somewhere else and thus a heart attack or stroke so be aware.

It's known to have blood thinning effects and to otherwise mix into and decrease the viscosity and therefore increase the flow and drainage of bodily fluids like lymph - I think this can help women with PCOS and period problems.

I think DMSO can dissolve the built up monosodium urate crystals responsible for gout alongside meticulous hydration and reduced alcohol consumption. The AI chatbots indicate that monosodium urate is soluble in DMSO.

DMSO is excreted through the kidneys and I think it may help dissolve certain waste in the kidneys and in the nephron filter cells of the kidneys. However the AI chatbot believes DMSO would not be able to dissolve most kidney stones.

It's known to help reverse symptoms of diabetes and has reversed symptoms of prediabetes in me.

It can be used as eye drops on clean contaminant free eyes, 30% DMSO 70% hexane-free castor oil. It can be used as a topical rub or soak on clean contaminant free skin, outright or in the aforementioned formulation or diluted with contaminant free DI water for muscle aches and pains. I have used it as eye drops and would prefer a lower concentration if ever I were to again and do not plan to use it as eye drops again. It stings like hell and may have made the vision of my left eye worse.

I would be willing to try DMSO as eye drops again at a 20% concentration, especially with n acetyl carnosine and/or bpc 157, both molecules dissolve in DMSO and are readily transported across cell membranes by DMSO, with bpc 157 being a regenerative peptide of utmost importance and n acetyl carnosine being an antioxidant of particular importance to eyesight.

I've used it to cure a years long regenerating finger wart, I believe by dissolving the virus particles in the cells causing the wart (pictured, me soaking my finger wart in it, clean hands, clean inverted glass cup, 99.9% pure pharmaceutical grade DMSO, hand thoroughly rinsed and finger kept isolated for an hour afterwards and then hand thoroughly washed and rinsed with a no fragrance no residue soap for all washings and cleanings) - human cells and virus particles inside of them have very different resistance mechanisms for a solvent like DMSO - virus particles are incredibly structurally unstable.

DMSO can help remove fat from the liver and can protect the liver to a certain extent. I believe DMSO help with kidney disease by dissolving things clogging nephrons, the kidneys filter cells, and by vasodilation improving blood flow to the kidneys. DMSO may even help dissolve gall stones and gall sludge. The AI chatbot seems to believe it can dissolve gall cholesterol sludge

Taking DMSO has greatly improved my NALFD liver blood labs (pictured).

"DMSO is an effective solvent for lipids and many organic compounds. Because approximately 80% of gallstones are composed primarily of cholesterol, DMSO can physically dissolve or soften these stones in a controlled laboratory environment."

DMSO is a powerful antioxidant and can help prevent oxidative stress.

I've read that schizophrenics have parts of their brains liquefied, or at least appearing to be less dense and less solid on imaging scans, and some rare medical cases of people with liquefied brains as per imaging - I am curious if orally ingested DMSO would induce brain flow and brain drain in these cases or be paradoxically healthful.

I read about some dude in Germany who took a huge amount of DMSO (maybe they said like a whole liter of it) as a 'miracle cure' and it destroyed his liver and other organs and killed him - That is a huge amount, as the human blood volume is only 4.5 to 5.7 L depending on sex, age, height and weight - buddy didn't solve his health, he dissolved his health.

On the other hand, I also read testimony by some guy claiming he drank .5 mL a day for 2 weeks in a row and it got rid of his eye floaters (presumably by reconstituting his vitreous humors) - I have had no such luck with my own eye floaters.

Since soaking my finger in pure 99.9% pure pharmaceutical grade DMSO was able to dissolve the virus particles causing my wart and cure my wart, might also soaking a freshly washed small cut in the same be able to dissolve bacteria such as causing necrotizing fasciitis, tetanus, and the like?

Ich hatte im April eine implantierte Linse bekommen. Im Juni hatte ich dann durchgehend ein Schwindelgefühl, Benommenheitsgefühl. Habe alles abklären lassen (Neurologie, MRt, Gleichgewichtsorgan, HWS,..). Jetzt hat man entdeckt das die Linse im rechten Auge auch verschoben hat um 15 Grad, wodurch ich mit +2,5 Hornhautverkrümmung gesehen habe am rechten Auge. Das wurde jetzt letzten Montag mit einer OP korrigiert. Mein Schwindel ist seither leider sogar leicht mehr geworden. Und ist bis jetzt noch nicht verschwunden. Ist das normal das das Gehirn länger braucht sich auf die neue Sehleistung einzustellen? Kann man das irgendwie unterstützen?

I’m new to wearing toric contacts. What’s the best rewetting eye drops you guys think? I love my contacts but my eyes do feel dry within an hour or two.

In total despair, regularly driven to tears as a normal life became impossible.
The last two years got increasingly worse. Getting check ups and alterations every other month or so by multiple eye doctors across multiple countries. The prescriptions vary every time but instead of working towards a solution we seem to drift further away from one. Can’t go back to previous prescriptions that gave some relief, they too result in migraines and optic defects.

I don’t know where to go with this anymore. What sort of doctor to consult anymore.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

First pic: astigmatism, second pic: normal

For you guys out here, is it accurate?

When I look at those bright white street lights at night this is what I see. I’m trying to figure out if this is a astigmatism or something else.

It's my first time wearing glasses after finding out I have astigmatism.

Is it normal to not see the light strips that people with astigmatism are seeing? All I see are regular round lights but my CYL on both eyes are -2.75. AXS on the left is 0°, AXS on the right is 175°.

And I also have to ask, is it normal for my right eye to still be blurry even with the glasses on? My left eye's SPH is 0.0 while on my right is +0.50. I was told it just takes time for my eyes to adjust since it's my first time wearing glasses. Does it get clearer over time wearing the glasses? How long does it usually take?

For anyone that wants to strengthen their eyes

as i remember both of my sph is +2.00 , my cyl is 4.00 in the left and 3.45 in the right, so for now i got strong astigmatism and farsightedness, how do i basically get rid of astigmatism

I’m 18; both my myopia and astigmatism are insanely high ( 7SPH-5CYL left, 5SPH-4CYL right). I’ve suffered from wearing heavy glasses for years, which causes me so much stress and insecurity.
I'm thinking of ICLs ( downsides are early cataract formation and possible rotation), and scleral lenses ( they're uncommon and too expensive, costing months of salary in my country)
I have a few questions: Is there any chance these lenses will become cheaper in the future? Are there any better alternatives now, or in the future?
I would also love to hear about your experience coping with high astigmatism.

About 5 years ago, I was 18 and I had extremely bad eyesight. My prescription was around -4.75 (if I remember correctly), and without glasses I could barely see anything. I hated wearing my thick glasses and i was blind without them, so I started contacting different eye clinics in Germany about getting laser surgery. Most of them rejected me because my prescription was too high.

Eventually, a big eye clinic in Stuttgart accepted my case and recommended ICL instead. I was told that laser wasn't suitable for me and that ICL would essentially give me my normal vision without having to wear glasses.

It cost around €7,000. I was convinced this would be life-changing so we were ok with it. After the ICL operation i still had kind of blurry vision and something wasn't right. I was told to give my eyes to heal but few months went by and i still had blurry vision on the right eye. They examined it and told that they will do laser because probably the lense didn't sit perfectly in the middle. So they performed lasik and i went home. We months went by everything was alright but here and there i would notice something is not right. When i watched the movie i could see like the edge of the tv being extended like doubling or like water in the eyes kind of effect. I told the doctor's that and they checked the eyes and they said i had extremely dry eyes and i should just use eye drops and hydrate them hourly and all is going to be well. Multiple doctors told me essentially the same thing. So for the past several years, I assumed that was the problem. I've been spending about €50–100 a month on eye drops, mostly using hylo eye drops and spending €20 per 10ml bottle. I have been doing this for years and convinced myself that dry eyes were the issue. Carrying bottles with me everywhere and putting them in my eyes hourly for the past 5 years.

Then I went to Thailand recently. I happened to see a free/basic eye examination in a shopping mall and thought, why not? The woman doing the test told me I had astigmatism (I believe that's what she called it). She explained that the light wasn't focusing properly on my retina, which was causing the blurry/shadow effect I had been describing for years. I honestly didn't take it seriously at first. I thought: How could someone doing an eye test in a shopping mall in Thailand figure out something that multiple doctors and specialists in Germany apparently didn't?

Then she put a pair of glasses on me specifically correcting the astigmatism. Everything became crystal clear. Everything looked like how it was supposed to. Like if I had 4k vision or something. The shadowing disappeared. Distance became clear. The blurriness disappeared. She told me the glasses weren't correcting my original prescription or anything else and that they were simply correcting the astigmatism.

And that's when I just stood there thinking:

What the fuck?

For years I've been thinking my vision problems were caused by dry eyes. I've spent thousands on the original ICL procedure, additional laser treatment, medications and eye drops. I even had laser treatment on one eye afterward, which cost me another roughly €500–1,000 in medications, and I thought that had fixed the blurriness temporarily. But now a simple pair of astigmatism-correcting glasses seems to demonstrate that there was another issue. I'm obviously not assuming the mall employee has somehow diagnosed me better than an ophthalmologist. Maybe there's something I'm misunderstanding about astigmatism, ICL, dry eye, or my particular situation. But I genuinely don't understand why none of my doctors ever mentioned or investigated this, despite me describing the same blurry/shadowy vision to them for years.

So I'm really unsure what to do next.

Should I go back to the Eye clinic in Stuttgart and ask them to investigate this? Should I get a completely independent ophthalmologist to examine me first? Is there some specific testing I should ask for?

And if I really do have significant astigmatism that can be corrected with glasses, what does that mean for my ICL? Is there another treatment that could correct it without going back to wearing glasses?

I'm also wondering whether I have any reasonable grounds to complain to the Eye clinic in Stuttgart, considering how much money I spent and how long I've been dealing with this.

I'm not looking for someone to tell me the mall employee is definitely right. I mainly want to understand what my next step should be and what I should have checked.

Has anyone here had a similar experience? I'm kind of flabbergasted but also clueless.

Two months ago I got my first astigmatic glasses (before that I was wearing simple spherical glasses) with the following params:

Left: Sph -4.00, Cyl -1.00, Axis 135
Right: Sph -3.50, Cyl -1.75, Axis 85

I was wearing them 2.5 days and then gave up because of distortions (rectangular objects looked like trapezoids etc). After I returned to my old spherical glasses, I started seeing reverse trapezoids. This effect faded in the first two days, but I still see some smaller distortions: some fishbowl effect on screens and also text and straight lines look wavy on close distances. Character of distortions can change from time to time, but my brain still can't revert back to the normal state, which was before I tried the new glasses (my OCT of macula looks good, just in case).

What can be the reason?
Is there any way to fix that?