Protect Your Vision in Midlife and Beyond

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Can you improve your eyesight and protect your vision in midlife? Vision health goes far beyond eyesight and the ability to see the golf ball if you hit it really well, and the small print on the supplement bottle. We're going to unpack it all in this episode. Aging Age doesn't have to mean dimming sight. It's possible to preserve and even improve vision with the right knowledge and tools. Did you know you can actually slow the effects of aging on your eyes? Stay tuned to learn how to protect your eyesight midlife. What are the worst things that you do for your eyes? And hint, by the way, we're all spending too much time doing this. Do you know what it is? My guest is Dr. Bryce Applebaum. He's a pioneer in neuro-optometry. He's passionate about unlocking life's potential through vision. His expertise includes reorganizing the visual brain post-concussion to return to learn and to return to life, remediating visual developmental delays interfering with reading and learning, and enhancing visual skills to elevate sports performance. Who's in? You may have seen him on the podcast circuit as a recent guest on Mind by the Green, Chris Kesser's Revolution Health Radio, and Cynthia Thurlow's Everyday Wellness. Cannot wait to dive into this episode with you and give you hope about your eyesight and vision. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you knew to ask them. The goal: to help accelerate your results with science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman. And it's not just about you, but the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology and industry subject matter expert expert and an international speaker to founder of the first and the only exclusively made for menopause and beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the scenes and the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality, and the energy that you want, need, and deserve. Dr. Bryce Applebaum, thank you so much for being here.

It is such a pleasure to be here. Excited to, to chat and connect.

And this is such a big topic of conversation, I think, for my audience. I remember the The first time I was like, I was so proud for so long. I was the only sibling in my family and it was the baby, but I didn't need glasses, never needed them. And many of my siblings needed them younger, you know. And then there was that tipping point when I was driving at night and or I was across the room and I'm like, I can't read that. And I think the big one that got me was I could only see my son's golf ball when I was looking through a very long lens on my camera. But I want to break this up for, for everybody and make sure that we have a right understanding of what is the difference between eyesight and vision.

Great question. And I have some follow-ups about what you noticed and what you did and what we could have done. But a crucial distinction that everyone needs to know is that eyesight and vision are separate entities. So eyesight is the ability to see letters on a chart in an eye exam, street signs when you're driving, for a child to see what the teacher writes on the board in the classroom. That's a symptom. And that's glasses. That's what glasses help support is they make something blurry clear. Vision, though, is far more complex. Vision is entirely brain and how our brain is telling our eyes how to move and focus and converge and track and process information, really how we make sense of the world around us and then direct the appropriate action. So vision is how our brain filters and processes the information that our eye sends it and then knows what to do with it. And so often, eyesight is a symptom of a vision problem. Problem. If you address the vision problem, then the symptom improves, eliminates, or stops changing. But that's kind of mind-blowing for so many people who are just used to always going in and getting glasses and trying to keep up with their siblings, like in your case.

And so is it true that once I might start using glasses, I'm just going to continue to need stronger prescription?

So most eye doctors would say, oh no, that's not true at all. And as a functional eye doctor, I would say 110%.

Really?

When we adapt to something, we often need something stronger to maintain that same clarity. And if we look at especially a change as an adult, when your eyes are not developing anymore, far away is blurry because of a near problem. And if we ignore the near problem, whether it's our focusing system or our eye coordination system, our tracking system, if we ignore the problem and then we just feed the symptom, then absolutely that becomes your new normal. You need something stronger to just keep up with that clarity and you go down this vicious cycle until you do something to draw a line in the sand to say, I'm going to, I know better so I can do better.

Wow. So it's like needing, thinking, thinking you need, thinking I need 2 cups of coffee and not just 1.

100%. And then that's all of a sudden now today, it's like, oh, am I reaching for my third? Right? Like our bodies—

Are you looking over my shoulder here?

Mine's out of the screen view. Our brains take the path of least resistance always. And if we look at vision problems as brain problems, our brains often when they're under stress have to adapt and then do things in a way to try and resolve confusion rather than eliminating the bad habits with the right type of work or mindset or active intention.

Okay, so for my audience who are going through a lot of potentially brain changes, brain fog and issues, is there a connection here with our vision?

Oh my goodness. So our ability for our mind to focus is deeply embedded in our ability for our eyes to focus. And if we can't focus our eyes, we can't focus our mind the same way that we would otherwise. And for your audience who are adults, it's very different than for a child who looks like they have ants in their pants in the classroom when they're trying to do near desk work or love to be read to but have difficulty reading on their own because they can't focus their eyes, so they can't focus their mind. And then they're mislabeled as having a problem with attention like ADD or ADHD or dyslexia, when in fact there can often be hidden functional vision problems causing the exact same symptoms and behaviors. But if we're not looking into those, then they're not ruled out first. For adults, I mean, typically when our arms aren't long enough up close and we need help for reading and seeing screens and things, it's usually around 50 for most people. The first thing we do is we grab the readers from over the counter from CVS or Costco or whatever, and we say, oh my goodness, this is so much easier. I like this. I'm going to do this.

Yeah.

And so I hope there's a ton of take-homes today, but one of them should definitely be do not grab over-the-counter reading glasses the first chance you get because you're going to go down a vicious cycle.

Wow. So What do I do instead?

So you use your body, you develop the ability for your eyes to work together as a team. And one of— I mean, what I'm board certified in is something called vision therapy and rehabilitation, which is essentially brain training for eye-brain coordination, kind of like working out your eyes like you'd work out your body. So, I mean, you are the queen of working out your body and you recognize if you don't use it, you lose it. That happens with our visual system, but probably twofold. And so putting in effort to think about how to lock in and make things clear and make it and hold it at a different distance and hold stamina. I mean, there's specific exercises we could talk about that. At a minimum prolong the need for, for reading glasses, but in many cases, drastically prolong or even allow the ones you have to not be— not to be as dependent on them as you were previously.

Wow.

So you can work out your eyes like you can work out your body.

So you're talking about close. Is that a bigger problem that you see more frequently than seeing far?

Great question. So depends on the age bracket. So for all of us, as we age, anatomical changes occur to our focusing muscles in our eye and the lens in our eye that allow it to become a little more rigid and less flexible. And so the near point gets farther and farther back. So most doctors will say anybody who lives long enough is going to need reading glasses. And that's just based off of those changes. So I would say in the 45 to 85 population, absolutely up close is going to be impacting almost everybody unless they have a distance problem, which it sounds like in what you described initially, you needed help to see HD clearly in the distance in the form of glasses.

Yeah.

But that probably gave you some wiggle room up close where you were the last of your friends to need reading glasses, and maybe you don't even need reading glasses now, but That's because the balance is more— you've adapted to the visual stress of near, and so far away is where you get support. But I would say that's less common as we age. But nearsightedness or far away getting blurry has become an epidemic in countries that value education and technology because of screen time and near visual stress. And we could talk about all that for this entire episode. But kids are becoming more and more nearsighted, and it's increasing at a really alarming rate because they're not spending enough time outdoors, because they're spending too much time on screens, and because they're doing sustained near work in the dark, which we now have research to show all three of those exacerbate this problem.

Wow. Wow. Okay, so what, what could I do right now if I'm a listener to improve my eyesight and/or not, not allow it to worsen? And, and can we do that? Can we say, okay, I'm a listener and I'm 60, is it possible to improve my eyesight right now?

Any brain at any age can enhance and optimize vision. Okay, so yes, any 60-year-old listening right now can be proactive and do work to improve so many aspects of visual function and brain function. Because remember, visual function is brain function. So some of the simple things, get up and get outside and move and get your body active because vision is intended to guide our movement. And so much of how we integrate what's around us and what's in front of us at the same time can be facilitated from even just walking and taking in the world and processing all of that information simultaneously. But that's huge. But taking breaks with near concentration tasks and taking breaks with screen time, I mean, no one should be on a screen or reading or on their phone for more than 20 minutes without taking a break for 20 seconds and looking something 20 feet away. So 20, 20, 20. But that should really be like the longest by far. We should be taking as many vision breaks as possible, especially on screens.

Wow. That's— yeah, that's a lot. I'm sure, I'm sure I'm not doing that. And when I asked that question, I actually reverted, didn't I? So I asked about eyesight as opposed to asking about vision. So learning, learning moment right here.

And I'm sure, Debra, I'm sure you hear all the time people say, oh, well, yeah, exercise doesn't work, or it's hard to get going, or it's hard for me to stay motivated. The exact same is true with our eyes. And with eye exercises, I mean, you got to— eye exercises work, but you got to do them. You got to do the right ones, and you got to be motivated and compliant. Because if you don't, absolutely, our modern lifestyle is going to allow for vision to deteriorate. We're not meant to be staring at these 2D devices with all this brightness and contrast and light and glare and do that all day long. I mean, the average American spends 7 hours and 4 minutes a day on a screen. Oh, that's average.

Oh gosh.

So, you know, if we can get up and get active and get moving and, you know, if you're at a restaurant try and read the menu without your glasses on. And if it's really dark and it's a really fancy menu and it's unique cursive, it's going to be harder. But there are certain things that, you know, we can do with less help and even with no help. But you got to really, you know, be proactive and want to make those changes because the easier move is to just grab the glasses. It's kind of like if your knee starts hurting, we don't just jump in a wheelchair, right? We figure out the reason why. And sometimes we do need crutches, sometimes we do need rehab, but we can also strengthen all the supporting systems so that we get to the root cause of why your knee hurts, and then you're active again without kind of going down that path of just giving up.

Love that. How much— for, for everybody here, they hear this over and over, probably because I know I've said it over and over— but women in midlife soon as hormones begin to change, we're more susceptible to negative effects of stress. What impact does not just physical stress of like looking at the screens and the, the contrast and the brightness, but literally emotional stressors in somebody's life— what impact do those have on vision? And is there such a thing as like temporary, you know, vision impairment based on stress?

So stress from our environment is really what we're adapting to for so many aspects of our health, but honestly, for almost all vision problems, right? And if we don't have the tools in place to meet the demands, we adapt or we avoid. And the vast majority of functional vision problems are these maladaptations or these bad habits. So, when we're under stress as humans, our autonomic nervous system, that fight or flight response starts to be tapped into and we, and, you know, ideally it's happening automatically, but in many cases, you know, we need support for that. But what happens is our pupils widen and we get this tunnel vision effect where literally our periphery collapses and we lock into what's in front of us. And evolutionarily, that's so that the saber-toothed tiger that's coming at us, we're prepared to react to, and we're not going to ignore everything else. But in life now, in 2024, when we are going around like we have tunnel vision, that can make so many aspects of just normal life so challenging. I mean, those who have anxiety or fear or just are uncomfort when they're driving, especially over a bridge. You go over a bridge, and all of a sudden, you're aware of periphery, which you weren't aware of. And what happens if I look down, or if I go off this bridge, and that makes you lock in even more centrally. And then all of a sudden, you know, the brain spirals out of control, or, you know, motion sickness, or fear of heights, we're not trusting our vision. And so when we're under stress, We can selectively train the brain to be able to activate periphery and to not go down that kind of paper towel holding view of the world. But when we don't have those tools accessible to us, or we haven't done the work to get to that place where it's automatic and unconscious and efficiently working, you know, so much can be closed off. Going to a mall or grocery store and being flooded by the lights and everything on the side, especially if you had head injury, like you lock in like this and it becomes that much harder.

Wow. Wow. Okay. So daily basis, what would you— if you could like peer into somebody's life and say these habits are probably not helping you enhance your vision and might be helping yourself deteriorate faster, what would you look at and say Here's what I'd love everybody to know.

So absolutely being active, and I know you preach this better than anybody. You know, a sedentary lifestyle, staring at screens, engaging with the 2D world and not the 3D world, you are actively creating functional vision problems that are only going to get worse unless you do something differently. So movement, Exercise, getting outside, nutrition. I mean, whatever is good for brain health and whatever is good for decreasing inflammation, you can absolutely be guaranteed that that is good for eye health. And our eyes are part of our brain. They actually emerge from our brain in utero. So inflammation and stress from our environment, which, I mean, there's no surprise this keeps coming up in so many aspects of health, right?

Yeah.

What instructions we give our body to function is what gives us the cheat code of how to function. And so if we're giving ourselves the right instructions, we're going to be able to have better visual clarity, mental clarity, and the ability to process information more fluidly and efficiently so we can access so much that we're all capable of.

So good. Love it. And I'm glad you said something about nutrition and anything good for your, your brain health is beneficial? Because I think, um, so if we just throw out a stereotypical, you know, are carrots really good for eyes, you know, are they better than something else or not necessarily?

So I mean, the carrots always comes up, right?

I know, right?

It's, uh, there's a really interesting story how this came into our world and talking about why carrots are good for eyes, and it's from World War II, and it's literally propaganda. And I don't even think we need to go into it, but it was, uh, fighter pilots dropping bombs, seeing clearly at— and it was at night. And there was a comment about it, well, it must be because we're eating our carrots. And that spread along with the US. Then there was a ration on, on sugar, and so there were carrot gardens created, and carrots were used to, to sweetened food. And there's— those are kind of the two main stories that when you dig deep are really around the same time frame, so they're definitely related. Carrots are not bad for the eyes. They've got beta-carotene. That's great for the eyes. But I would say there's many, many things better for our eyes than carrots.

Okay.

And, you know, some of that, like, omega-3 is so good for so many aspects of health, but for brain health, for eye health, for, for the tear film. And so I would say, you know, eating salmon and mackerel and halibut or herring, I mean, the cold water fish, I would say eat as, you know, truckloads of that before you're eating carrots.

Okay.

But then also green leafy vegetables. That's the other big one. Kale, spinach, collard beans. They have two, two things in there that are really important for eye health, lutein and zeaxanthin. And those are really important for the sweet spot of our eyesight, which allows us to see the tiny letters at any distance. And they're really protective against harmful UV light and even macular degeneration and certain things that we can absolutely be more mindful about and prevent damage from occurring. And we can go over a long list too of other stuff, but, but other things before carrots.

And I want to ask you this. What are your thoughts about exposure to sunlight? Is there too much exposure to sunlight? What are your thoughts on sunglasses?

Yeah, so light is so crucial to sustaining life and to so many aspects of function— hormonal regulation, mood, alertness, and for setting our circadian rhythms. So great to get out first thing in the morning, great to get out and see and get some sun in your eyes in the evening. You know, it's UV protection, direct exposure to sunlight we want to avoid. We don't want to be staring at the sun, and you can actually damage the retina from that. So I think if we're getting sun from our eyes indirectly, you know, depending on the time of day, then if you're getting enough of that, then yes, you having UV protection in the form of sunglasses is really helpful for not allowing cataracts to increase or macular degeneration to increase or certain preventable eye health challenges. But really, it's the light that is the high-energy short wavelength, the blue light and the green light, which is blasting us from screens all day long. That's what we want to protect for as long as possible. For not disrupting our circadian rhythms because we have these cells in the back of our eye and our retina whose sole responsibility is to respond to light, and they send the signals for the sleep-wake mechanism that secretes melatonin. If those cells are overstimulated all day long, then you're literally secreting melatonin not in the normal way that you're supposed to. So blue light protection from screens during the day is important, but definitely we want to get natural light as much as possible outside. Side, and the 10 to 2 in the afternoon is when it's the— that can be the most damaging. So that's really the best time to wear sunglasses, especially with reflection from the light from the water or from different areas that can damage the eyes.

So I want to ask you a little bit about— so I know you've got a program, ScreenFit, and I want to— I want to ask, so there are a lot of people listening who, number one, I think almost anybody who is functioning in the working world today spends some amount of their time behind a screen. For those women, but also what about for those who have retired, they're not tied to the screen for work as much, they're only casually doing it, who can benefit from ScreenFit? And can you describe, I mean, what is it like? How much time? What's the investment of time and energy in it?

So this is going to sound a little bit hyperbolic, but literally everybody would benefit from ScreenFit. So that goes to say everybody would benefit from vision therapy, but not everybody needs vision therapy. So I think for sure the people who are tired after staring at screens all day long or have frequent eye strain, headaches, dry eyes, neck or shoulder pain or tech neck from staring at the screen too much or increased sensitivity to light or glare, especially from the screens, those are the people where this is a no-brainer. But ultimately, anybody, it's not specifically for screens, it's specifically eye exercises for near engagement and for flexibility between near and far. So anybody who reads, anybody who is active, ScreenFit is a game changer. And it's a solution to the screen pandemic that we're all in, but it's also a way to enhance and optimize the visual system in a kind of one-size-fits-all approach. So I kind of relate ScreenFit to— it's kind of like doing bodyweight work at home rather than going to the gym. And you're going to get in better shape faster if you're going to the gym and you're working with a trainer or with you, Debra, and you're doing weights and cardio and flexibility and stamina. And that's a more individualized approach. Approach, but not everybody has access to that. So the parallel with this is office-based vision therapy with a doctor board certified in vision therapy and rehab. But again, not everybody has access to that. So ScreenFit is— there's 2 different courses. Each course has 30 lessons, and each lesson is intended to be done 1 lesson a day, which takes 5 to 15 minutes depending on the lesson to do. And they're lessons that don't require equipment. That teach you, let's say, a near-far focusing activity, which is like push-ups for your eyes, or a peripheral enhancement activity, which teaches you when you're on walks how to actively open up periphery and engage with not just the mailbox on the left and the house on the right, but both simultaneously. And so there— I designed every and created every single one of these. There's videos that talk you through what to do, but then you put your phone down so that you're not on the screen or you put your tablet down and you're actually doing it in life. So many of these can be done in the bathroom, at a stoplight, you know, in between whatever you're doing during the daytime. So it's a really, really cool online vision training program where 100% of people who've gone through it have seen a reduction in symptoms. And we've had as young as 5 and as old as 89 go through it successfully. So it's literally like something that is going to help a lot of people some, But if you have an eye turn or lazy eye or suffering from a concussion or haven't developed the visual system to support reading, you're going to likely need more than that. But that's at least going to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

That is amazing. Love it. Okay. And just so if you're listening and you're thinking, okay, I need some of that, flipping50.com/screenfit, those words fit together, no spaces between screen fit. So that'll be where you go to look, but stay with us right now. Dr. Bryce, is there a question right now that knowing we're talking to women 45 to 70 on average, and if you're an outlier, by the way, we see you too. Is there a question that I should have asked you that I haven't?

Oh, that's great. I think there's some advice that I would love to give that is really what we should all be doing with our visual system and how we can take control over, um, a lot of the paths that many people listening are on. So, you know, from a healthcare model, all of eye care is very reactive and addressing a problem once it's already there, which often is needed. But what I do and what I specialize in is this proactive approach, which is like functional medicine for vision. But when you go to the eye doctor and they give you a new pair of glasses, first of all, as an adult, your glasses shouldn't change every year unless there's a functional problem. And that's like, what? I mean, that's— people's glasses change sometimes indefinitely. Yeah. And when you're getting glasses and you're putting them on and they don't seem right and the doctor's like, oh yeah, no, wear them, you're going to get used to them. Absolutely, you're going to get used to them. But glasses that don't seem right are not right. And the ideal prescription for all of us, if needed, is the weakest lens possible. That's the most balanced between each eye that gives the most improvement in terms of performance. So kind of like if somebody had high blood pressure and there's a 100mg pill to get you to your target and a 10mg pill to get you to your target. I would always say go with the 10, but more importantly, figure out why you have high blood pressure and address that, and then you don't need the medication, right? So don't jump into the deep end with over-the-counter readers the first chance you get. Don't just listen to, to any doctor. Be part of the team with the doctor. Make the decisions together. And if they're saying it's my way or the highway, no, I'm sorry, but find a new doctor. Find somebody who's going to look out for the person and the brain behind the eyes not just the eyeballs. So 20 happy is what we all want, not 20/20.

Oh my gosh, that is so good. Dr. Bryce Applebaum, thank you so much for being here. I— it's been really a pleasure and I think very hopeful for everyone here to look at. We still have the power and the ability and to make the huge distinction between your sight, your eyesight, and your vision. So listeners, in the show notes you'll find it all. You'll find the link again, and I'm going to put that in there, flipping50.com/screenfit, for those of you that want to go and check this out and look at what can you do in 30 days for yourself. Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

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