Dr. Berne’s Interview with “The Sports Doctor”– On Holistic Eye Care

The Berne Podcast with Dr. Sam Berne

Keywords

vision, eyesight, holistic eye care, diet, concussions, protective eyewear, eye exercises, brain plasticity, sports vision, eye health

Summary

In this conversation, Dr. Sam Berne discusses the holistic approach to eye care, emphasizing the distinction between eyesight and vision. He highlights the importance of diet, the impact of screen time on eye health, and the connection between concussions and vision. Dr. Berne advocates for protective eyewear in sports and shares insights on the plasticity of the eyes and brain, suggesting that vision training can enhance athletic performance.

Takeaways

Vision is a holistic process involving the eyes, brain, and body.
Diet plays a crucial role in maintaining eye health.
Screen time has detrimental effects on children’s vision.
Artificial blue light disrupts sleep patterns and eye health.
Concussions can lead to significant visual system issues.
Protective eyewear is vital for athletes in contact sports.
Eye exercises can improve vision and brain function.
The eyes and brain can adapt and improve with training.
Nutrition and functional medicine are gaining attention in eye care.
Sports vision training can enhance performance in athletes.

Sound Bites

“Eyesight is only one part of vision.”
“People get older and their eyes get better.”
“The eyes have one of the highest metabolic needs.”

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Vision vs. Eyesight
03:08 The Impact of Diet on Eye Health
06:09 The Connection Between Concussions and Vision
09:02 The Importance of Protective Eyewear
12:09 The Plasticity of the Eyes and Brain
15:00 Enhancing Performance Through Vision Training

Dr. Sam Berne, welcome to the fourth doctor. Thanks, Dr. Bob. Great to be here.

Sounds good. So when you go for an eye exam, you know, the doctor has you read the eye chart and you get the reading 2020. That’s a measurement of your eyesight. But vision is how the eyes in the brain and the body work together. So eyesight is only one part of vision. So as a holistic eye doctor, I look at the eyes as an interrelated interconnected part of the body and there are things that you can do to improve your vision even as you get older.

And that’s kind of the difference between the regular eye care. They just say your eyes get worse as you get older. my practice, people get older and their eyes get better.

Well, exactly because the eyes have one of the highest metabolic needs of the body highly concentrated with those tiny blood vessels. So it’s one of the entryways into the body like the foot and you can pick up disease very early. And of course in diabetes, this is a real vulnerable area. I’m talking about the retina. So, you know, if you have glucose levels that are off the charts or your pre-diabetic

You’re going to see it in the eyes. It’s going to be one of the first places and then you can treat it by doing some holistic things if you want to.

big emphasis on prevention.

You know, it’s being proactive, you know, just with diet alone, the eyes and the brain make up about 2 % of the body weight and use 25 % of the food intake. So if you cut out processed foods and sugar and mostly gluten and you eat, you know, the colorful vegetables and berries get enough healthy fats in your diet that in itself.

can keep your eyesight healthy and well as you get older.

Well, when you get glasses as a child, what it’s doing is it’s reinforcing the problem that’s causing the need for glasses to begin with. So, you know, again, back to the holistic perspective, I find the cause and treat that and we know that the eyes originate from the brain. And so if you do eye exercises, not only are you changing the brain, but you’re also changing the eyes. And of course, the other thing that’s going on with kids is screen time.

So the more screen time they have, this is really wreaking havoc. And then with COVID, where schools were just online, I got so many complaints from parents and kids about eye strain, eye fatigue, red eyes, blurred vision, dry eye, and so on. So I think the screens are another factor that we have to look at in terms of helping kids improve their vision.

Well, more more research is coming out about the damaging effects of the artificial blue light. It’s a chaotic frequency. And first of all, it messes with our circadian rhythm. If we’re staring at a screen after 6 p.m. suppresses the melatonin, as you know, but it also can dry the eye tissue out. And, you know, in severe cases, it can start to cause things like macular degeneration and cataracts. So we need to protect our eyes.

Mm-hmm.

magazine. A lot of excitement.

get from Twitter and LinkedIn over the years. We’re speaking with Dr. Sam Bernie, the holistic

Again, behavioral eye health. I wanted to ask you Sam again about your thoughts with the world of concussions and the whole eye connection. So I’ve done research and published on traumatic brain injury and vision. I’ve also worked in hospitals, written articles. It’s a huge problem today in sports. I mean, it’s not just the NFL, but

What happens is when we get hit in the head, it reverberates into the nerves and muscles in the eyes. Now, the problem is we don’t pick these up on an MRI. So you’ve got these soft symptoms like blurred vision, double vision, memory issues, balance issues. You know, something’s wrong, but the traditional eye exam misses it. So when you go to somebody like me, we’re testing things like visual tracking, visual focusing.

visual reaction time, peripheral vision, depth perception. And we’re looking at how the visual system has been impacted. And then once we get the diagnosis, we can do physical therapy on the eyes to repair the damage that’s occurs from these traumas, concussions, so on.

at and again this idea of the whole eye effect.

on UU.

DrSamByrne.com I have thousands of videos that are free on there also written blogs. You can also find me on Facebook and Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. I do tons of…

You

I totally agree. mean, I think when you get hit in the eye, it really causes a lot of problems, know, circulation issues and double vision, blurred vision. You’ve got to use protective eyewear, especially with kids and they’re playing in contact sports. It’s a no brainer. You know, we recommend it all the time for people.

I think a little bit, you know, especially in sports like lacrosse and squash and racquetball, but you know, in basketball or football or baseball. No, I don’t think we’re making enough inroads there. You’re right. It takes education and being proactive and you know, we need to do a better job of PR getting that stuff out there.

safe to go back and come along.

You know, this starts another protocol. We already have the concussion protocol. Now we need to bring the vision piece into it. And that could actually be part of the baseline and whether or not, you know, when an athlete can actually go back into competition.

Ahem.

You know, we don’t we don’t really emphasize it in school. But you know, in my own vision, I had very bad vision when I was a child. I was very myopic and I met a doctor who did this physical therapy and I completely reversed my myopia. I don’t wear any glasses 30 years later. So I’m a living example that you can do it and the eyes and brain have a plasticity. That’s the thing. And if you offer them new experiences, new pathways,

you can improve your vision. And I think it’s coming more into things like occupational therapy, physical therapy, in some of the private schools, in sports. But I think in regular eye care, we’re so geared towards looking for disease and using pharmaceuticals and drugs and surgery that there’s no place for exercises. God bless America.

Well, I think it’s slowly changing because in the grassroots the patients are asking for it and because there’s so much emerging in the area of nutrition functional medicine acupuncture as you say by the way many of the meridians in the body go to the eyes and so liver gallbladder, you know those affect the eyes quite profoundly. Yes emotional tapping that.

Yes?

that.

And again, in the area of high performance, I think again, this is something that seems to be paid more more attention. You know, thinking about that guy in the batting box or whoever’s hitting a ball or moving in different directions. The whole eye acuity, these are things that can really be improved, can’t they? my God. I’ve worked with baseball players, golfers, volleyball players, wide receivers. You know, it’s all about reaction time, keeping your balance.

tracking the ball while you’re up in the air. So there’s no question that sports vision is a huge, it’s a huge support for athletes that wanna play at a higher level.