Saving your eyes in med school

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StevenRF

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So I started med school with 20/15 never a vision problem in my life. 20 weeks of class and 10k power point slides later I've got reading glasses, variable but prominant anisocoria, chronic head aches, and fatigue from bright places.

What have you guys done to help out your vision? My PCP said med school killed her vision as well. So far I've started using sunglasses whenever I'm outside, and I've turned my brightness down on my monitors to 0. My eyes are really killin me still. Finals are in a week and it's only going to get worse. :mad: I have this constant urge to sleep even after a full 8-10 hours rest.

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StevenRF said:
So I started med school with 20/15 never a vision problem in my life. 20 weeks of class and 10k power point slides later I've got reading glasses, variable but prominant anisocoria, chronic head aches, and fatigue from bright places.

What have you guys done to help out your vision? My PCP said med school killed her vision as well. So far I've started using sunglasses whenever I'm outside, and I've turned my brightness down on my monitors to 0. My eyes are really killin me still. Finals are in a week and it's only going to get worse. :mad: I have this constant urge to sleep even after a full 8-10 hours rest.

Back to lung physio....
Click to expand...

it's funny you wrote this thread b/c i'll be a first year next fall and a pathologist i work with has warned me about this! he said he had to start wearing glasses in med school from all the reading you have to do. i've got perfect vision right now and never had a problem..i have a feelin that will change next year! i hope your eyes feel better! :)
 
Wth. I wanted to get lasik before med school. Should I like wait til after then?
 
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Excedrin works well for me followed by a couple of naproxen for my aching neck. Goodluck i'm in the same boat
 
i'm an MS2, and for the first time in my life i felt i needed an eye exam last week. sure enough: nasty astigmatism. i get my glasses tomorrow.

i've always had great vision.

although its humbling, i am looking forward to having more endurance with my reading. my eyes just go berserk after about an hour, and the subsequent effort just makes everything worse. my eyes get tired, my neck gets sore from leaning down into my books for prolonged periods, and i get sleepy as.

but who cares? a doctor with glasses is not exactly a rarity . . .
 
Welcome new glasses-wearers. I'm vain and have contacts too, but the amount of time I'd have contacts in is not good, so I have given in to just wearing glasses everywhere.

Absolutely hold off on any thoughts of LASIK; there's an optho guy in my area that is refusing to do them on medical students because of the changes the eyes go thru due to reading so fu*king much.

Good luck in school, and hey, four eyes are better than two.

dc
 
I recently asked an eye doc if there was any correlation between poor eye sight and eye fatigue. His answer was no, and said it has to do with dry eyes... he says eye drops will do the job. I too, feel tired after 8-10 hours of sleep and I think it has to do with straining my eyes reading, etc.
 
I think it's all due to genetics and luck. My eyesight has gone from 20/10 in college to 20/12 now. And I abuse the heck out of my eyes.
 
StevenRF said:
So I started med school with 20/15 never a vision problem in my life. 20 weeks of class and 10k power point slides later I've got reading glasses, variable but prominant anisocoria, chronic head aches, and fatigue from bright places.

What have you guys done to help out your vision? My PCP said med school killed her vision as well. So far I've started using sunglasses whenever I'm outside, and I've turned my brightness down on my monitors to 0. My eyes are really killin me still. Finals are in a week and it's only going to get worse. :mad: I have this constant urge to sleep even after a full 8-10 hours rest.

Back to lung physio....
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ME TOO, ME TOO, on all counts.
I can't even study in the library anymore, it's so freakin bright. And even when I'm driving, I can barely read signs...it's awful.

The scary thing is, my contacts prescription is already in the -6.00s. It's not like my vision needs to deteriorate any more :eek: !!
 
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On the plus side, ...

[edit] Education, intelligence, and IQ
A number of studies have shown that the prevalence of myopia increases with level of education.[32][28]

Many studies have shown a relationship between myopia and IQ. According to Arthur Jensen, myopes average 7-8 IQ points higher than non-myopes. The relationship also holds within families, and siblings with a higher degree of refraction error average higher IQs than siblings with less refraction error. Jensen believes that this indicates myopia and IQ are pleiotropically related (both myopia and IQ are caused by the same genes). The mechanism that has caused a relationship between myopia and IQ is not yet known with certainty (Jensen, 1998).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia
 
OncoCaP said:
On the plus side, ...

[edit] Education, intelligence, and IQ
A number of studies have shown that the prevalence of myopia increases with level of education.[32][28]

Many studies have shown a relationship between myopia and IQ. According to Arthur Jensen, myopes average 7-8 IQ points higher than non-myopes. The relationship also holds within families, and siblings with a higher degree of refraction error average higher IQs than siblings with less refraction error. Jensen believes that this indicates myopia and IQ are pleiotropically related (both myopia and IQ are caused by the same genes). The mechanism that has caused a relationship between myopia and IQ is not yet known with certainty (Jensen, 1998).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia
Click to expand...

Dude, I think I would do a little research into Arthur Jensen before you quote that guy. He's done some pretty nutty stuff....

On a completely different note: my eyesight sucks. I am very left-eye dominant, and histology lab kills me. I never have been able to look through the scope with two eyes. People constantly tell me I am doing it wrong, etc. It doesn't matter if I take my glasses off or leave them on. It also never matters how much I adjust the microscope, etc. I've been trying for years with no success. And since I am so left-eye dominant, I always use my left eye. I took my histo final today. It took me three solid hours. There were times when I just sat there trying to let my eye recover. Med school is definitely an eye killer, especially for people that already can't see!
 
UTpremed said:
Dude, I think I would do a little research into Arthur Jensen before you quote that guy. He's done some pretty nutty stuff....
Click to expand...

He's controversial. I'm not sure if "nutty" is the word I would have used to describe him. From what I can find, he's very pretty far up the academic / intellectual food chain (something like 400 refereed papers?) ... farther than anyone I have met recently, anyway. At the same time, I only have a vague knowledge of him and haven't read his work beyond a few popular snippets.
 
OncoCaP said:
He's controversial. I'm not sure if "nutty" is the word I would have used to describe him. From what I can find, he's very pretty far up the academic / intellectual food chain (something like 400 refereed papers?) ... farther than anyone I have met recently, anyway. At the same time, I only have a vague knowledge of him and haven't read his work beyond a few popular snippets.
Click to expand...

You know, now that I think about it, the only reason I know about some of his "nuttier" ideas is from research projects I did as an undergrad. It's not fair of me to expect other people to know about them too.
 
UTpremed said:
You know, now that I think about it, the only reason I know about some of his "nuttier" ideas is from research projects I did as an undergrad. It's not fair of me to expect other people to know about them too.
Click to expand...

Ah, OK. I'm sure we've all done a few nutty projects ourselves ... my personal favorite is when I was about 1 or 2 years old, my mom made the big mistake of not watching me for a few minutes, so I undertook a project. I painted a wall ...(not too unusual up to this point) ... with the contents of my diaper ... I was budding artist full of poop even back then :laugh: . Thank God that so far my kids have not paid me back! :eek:
 
Law2Doc said:
I don't know about that -- professional schools take their toll on vision. In law school, about 20% of my class started out with glasses and about 90% graduated with them. Med school is comparable. Probably worse.
Click to expand...

Couldn't this also mean people without glasses drop out before they graduate?

Either way this news is mindboggleing!!!! =\ ahhhhh
 
OncoCaP said:
I undertook a project. I painted a wall ...(not too unusual up to this point) ... with the contents of my diaper ... I was budding artist full of poop even back then :laugh: .
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Ay Carajo.

[Vader] Impressive. [/Vader]
 
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=277699&highlight=vision

i too started med school with perfect vision. My vision exam in december of MS1 was 20/20. October of MS2, I found out my correction was -1.5d. There has been research on this. My optometrist friend told me that there have been studies done on navy seamen. Apparently, because they do not have anything far away to look at for months at a time, a lot of them come back from sea needing glasses.

I would be willing to bet it's a combination of being genetically susceptible to myopia combined with the reading stress that med school puts on the eyes that causes a lot of people's vision to worsen.
 
My eyes actually have gotten better. I came in with 20:15 and now they're 20:13. I understand the blurriness and fatigue though. I use drops and make a point to look away from my book/monitor to focus on solid objects rather frequently.
 
UTpremed said:
I never have been able to look through the scope with two eyes. People constantly tell me I am doing it wrong, etc. It doesn't matter if I take my glasses off or leave them on. It also never matters how much I adjust the microscope, etc.
Click to expand...

Not sure ifyou have tried this already. To me it sounds like your oculars are mis-aligned. Try grabbing them and moving them in and out until what you are looking at comes into one field (do not close one eye to try and visualize the field!). Remember people eyes are spaced differently, so everytime you grab the scope you'll have to re-adjust them. It took me about 1 mo of pathology to figure out that those things moved around. G' luck.
 
How do blind people and people with severe eye ailments get through medical school? Anyone know?
 
UTpremed said:
..

On a completely different note: my eyesight sucks. I am very left-eye dominant, and histology lab kills me. I never have been able to look through the scope with two eyes. People constantly tell me I am doing it wrong, etc. It doesn't matter if I take my glasses off or leave them on. It also never matters how much I adjust the microscope, etc. I've been trying for years with no success. And since I am so left-eye dominant, I always use my left eye. I took my histo final today. It took me three solid hours. There were times when I just sat there trying to let my eye recover. Med school is definitely an eye killer, especially for people that already can't see!
Click to expand...

I have the same issue, even with moving the oculars! I just am more comfortable just using my left eye (right eye has slight astigmatism). If I'm using a nice $50K+ scope its not as big of a problem but with the rinky dinky stuff outside the research lab it sucks.

The taking breaks and focusing on objects that are away from you every few times an hour really does help, also dry eye bit is true. I used to get it staring at a computer screen like 15 hrs a day.
 
mshhead:

Holy ****. You have a lot of posts. Are you the all-time leader?

others:

Sorry for the brief thread detour.

dc
 
fun8stuff said:
I would be willing to bet it's a combination of being genetically susceptible to myopia combined with the reading stress that med school puts on the eyes that causes a lot of people's vision to worsen.
Click to expand...

Exactly right. The accommodation system in our eyes is not intended for 5-10+ hour marathon study sessions. Reading at a good working distance (don't put your nose in your books), with adequate lighting, and giving your eyes frequent breaks (look 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes) might help relieve some of the strain.

If not... glasses are sexy!!!
 
really interesting. my eyesight actually started to deteriorate in sophomore year (i'm a senior now). i never needed eyeglasses, then one day i noticed how i couldn't make out the blackboard sitting in the back of the room. I would have to squint and glare and still it was all blurry. I went to the doctor and they told me I was nearsighted and gave me a prescription.

I still remember the first time I put on the glasses I felt as if everything around me was in 3D. I thought I was born again that everything around me looked so vivid. Anyway so its been 2 yrs now and I am pretty much dependent on my glasses. Can't walk down the street without them.

Anyways, I thought abt it and here were the causes I figured out, the things that changed drastically between HS and college.

1)Massive sleep deprivation;

As opposed to in HS, pulling an all-nighter once a semester, in college, I found myself going several days each month for 30-35 hours straight without sleep

2) Vitamin deficiency

Since I moved away for college, I was living (and eating by myself). And its hard to eat healthy. Even now, I notice how its been so many months since I haven't eaten an apple or a banana. Just because of the junk-food lifestyles we get as students. Especially carrots though, I think its not hard to imagine spending years in college w/o ever eating a carrot

3) Crazy hours staring at computer screens

Its not hard to say that its routine for me to spend 6-8 hours staring at a monitor, and this happens at least a few times each month. Whether its for writing a long paper, or just wasting time surfing, this was certainly not the case in HS.

Combined these were the 3 reasons I blamed for my vision loss in college. From what you guys say, med school will probably exponentiate each of these factors to the nth power.

It really sucks having poor vision. I remember going with some friends to the woods in the middle of the night and staring at the stars. It felt so unnatural through my glasses but without them it was all a blur to me.

Bottom line: If you have good vision, cherish it and do everything you can to keep it that way.
 
Yeah this is my second year in grad/med school....and my totally went bad since starting med school :(
 
StevenRF said:
So I started med school with 20/15 never a vision problem in my life. 20 weeks of class and 10k power point slides later I've got reading glasses, variable but prominant anisocoria, chronic head aches, and fatigue from bright places.

What have you guys done to help out your vision? My PCP said med school killed her vision as well. So far I've started using sunglasses whenever I'm outside, and I've turned my brightness down on my monitors to 0. My eyes are really killin me still. Finals are in a week and it's only going to get worse. :mad: I have this constant urge to sleep even after a full 8-10 hours rest.

Back to lung physio....
Click to expand...

Sorry about your problems with eyes. Vision prolems are the worst :( I hope you'll feel better.

I just want to add some comments about keeping a good vision. Somehow I managed to get though my undergrad and 6 years of graduate school with a 20/20 vision. What I did differently? I have never read anything under the fluorescent lights. Well, maybe occasionally, but I certainly did not study for any significant amount of time under the fluorescent lighting, especially the poor one in the library. Instead, I used a table lamp with an incandesect bulb. Okay, I was a dork who carried a lamp around (did not always like to study at home), but my vision was more important to me than what I may have looked like to others. I heard that incandescet lights are better for reading because fluorescent ones flicker and thus cause more strain on your eyes. At least in my case, it seems to be true.

As far as computer work, taking breaks every 15 min and staring at something in the distance (or better yet, doing a few simple eye exercises) helps a lot. I think the point is to take notice when your eyes are getting tired and take a break.

More recently, I have also started taking supplement for the eyes. It is basically an extract of carrot, blueberry and some other herbal stuff. Oh, and speaking of diet, eat a lot of carrots! No, I am serious: it is great for the eyes. Plus, it is a healthy snack.
 
Remember boys that masturbation makes you blind.
 
My eyes are starting to hurt just reading this thread. And, it's freaking me out, man. No more SDN for me tonight. Gotta save my eyes!
 
From an evolutionary standpoint, our eyes were meant to be able to see far and wide across a landscape so we could run away from sabre-tooth tigers and scout out our next meal, not so we could sit chained to a desk for ten hours a day reading Harrison's 8-point font. Maybe by the year 3000, we will have evolved again.
 
A couple things I have found that help a bit:

1) Take breaks and look at something in the distance. This gives your ciliary muscles a chance to relax.
2) Use natural light, or invest in some "color corrected" bulbs. This makes a big difference. Normal incandescent bulbs give off a very yellow light which reduces the contrast of a black and white page.
3)Take a break and, close your eyes, and cup your palms over your eyes so they are in complete darkness. This seems a lot more relaxing than just closing them.

I've been bespectacled since third grade, so you can tell how well this has worked for me.;)
 
I thought I'd go get my eyes checked a couple of days ago, "just in case".

I have right eye myopia and need glasses. Great.
 
Dang, I thought i was just imagining this, but seeing this thread has definitely opened my 'eyes'....:laugh:

I know my right eye has gotten significantly bad over this first semester, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need some2 specs here shortly. I had fine vision coming in, but it has deteriorated significantly. Excellent suggestions on the eye exercises, i'm sure this is probably some of my problems as well.
 
yes, i have also noticed my right eye has gotten bad. before med school, i would need glasses to see far while driving only at night. now, i feel like i need to wear them all the time, day or night, with my left eye seeing everything clearly, and my right eye getting worse.

i do try to use natural light whenever studying, so hopefully that will slow the progression of things. i'm going to start taking more breaks to rest my eyes and see if that helps, too.
 
I've always had crappy eyesight, but I needed READING glasses for the first time after my first year of medical school - I got a combo lens with my rx and a magnification that works well. :)
 
oh my god.. my current vision is -10 (left) and -12 (right)

I haven't seen anyone with worse numbers than me..

And I was thinking about LASIK this year.

....:eek:
 
jae,
my prescription is near urs. my eye doc said that some places would refuse to do lasik on me because the complication rate is higher with such a high prescription.
 
Doh...I am looking into Lasik before Matriculating this fall. Would it just be a waste of money?
 
jae9970 said:
oh my god.. my current vision is -10 (left) and -12 (right)

I haven't seen anyone with worse numbers than me..

And I was thinking about LASIK this year.

....:eek:
Click to expand...

My vision was -10 and -11 before I got surgery 3 years ago. The procedure was cool. They actually map your cornea to see if you are eligible for LASIK, or if you have to have another procedure done. I didn't qualify for LASIK (my corneas were too thin for them to cut the flap properly), but had something called RPK ( I think that's what its called) done instead, the difference being that the laser "cuts" are done right on the surface of the cornea, and not under the flap that they make for LASIK. Its actually safer (ie fewer potential complications), but hurts a h#ll of a lot more (imagine huge corneal abrasions being lasered onto the surface of your eye, then having to wait for them to heal. Not fun.). Recovery time for me was 4-6 weeks (my eyes were actually swollen shut for 4 days with no vision whatsoever), not 3 days like LASIK. Worked, though. My vision after the procedure was 20/20 for the first time in my life! Nice to be able to see the clock in the AM without having to pull it to your nose! Would I recommend it? Depends on your level of pain tolerance, and how desperately you wnat to get out of your glasses. For me, I felt bait-and-switched (as the pain aspects were *severely* downplayed) and if I had to do it over again would probably take a pass. As it is, though, my vision was great until I started studying really hard again every night, and now I'm back to wearing glasses for book-work and computer stuff (still have a slight astigmatism, evidently). Pay your money, take your chances, I guess!
 
Only 6 months into med school and my visual acuity has definitely gone downhill. Wouldn't be surprised if I need bifocals soon. Of course I'm older than most of you...
 
I bet I have all of you beat. I was 20/20 going into undergraduate and was >20/400 a year later (genetic cause.... so the literature thinks). A cornea transplant and 13 stiches later I am now 20/50 with my vision getting better every day. Next year I will get the other eye done. Yay for anatomy and histology lab with one eye!!! Yay for a crappy exhaust system in my anatomy lab that makes me have to leave many times after five minutes due to my eye becoming red!
 
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