Strabismus

information on diet, nutrition, & self-help

Strabismus is the general term for any misalignment of the eyes regardless of type, cause or age of onset. Esotropia "crossed eyes" and exotropia "wandering eyes" are examples of this. It can be due to either a paralytic (due to a weak or paralytic muscle or nerve) or non-paralytic (due to congenital imbalance or focus problems) this affects approximately 2 to 4 per cent of the population. The most frequent age for strabismus to occur is between 18 months and five years, with a large number of cases occurring between ages two and a half and three and a half.

Vision therapy may be very effective in the treatment of strabismus.

The Vision Workout series may be very helpful.
See a video on Strabismus.

Symptoms

For strabismus, common symptoms include:

Decreased vision
Misaligned eyes

The symptoms described above may not necessarily mean that your child has strabismus. However, if you observe one or more of these symptoms, contact your child's eye doctor for a complete exam.

Exercise Your Eyes Total Vision Workout System

The Exercise Your Eyes Total Vision Workout System is the first electronic vision trainer that is patented, and clinically proven to improve overall visual performance in less than 10 minutes a day.

What makes the program unique and effective is its patented use of alternating red and blue lights. Because of a phenomenon called chromatic aberration, your eyes automatically over-focus looking at red and relax their focus looking at blue. This combined with movement exercises the eyes in a new way.

Estropia

If you have esotropia the following are some of the symptoms you may experience:

suppression (turning off ) of one image
headaches
eye strain
problems with depth perception
slight head tilt

Exotropia

If you have exotropia the following are some of the symptoms you may experience:

double vision
suppression (turning off) of one image
people with intermittent exotropia often develop adaptations that allow them to suppress or ignore the image from the wandering eye and therefore they will not notice the double vision. During the time the eyes are straight, the suppression is absent and both eyes see normally as a team. If the eye turn is constant a lazy eye may develop.
Light sensitivity is also a common complaint.

Nutritional Support for Strabismus and Vision Health

This is the most important recommendation.

Shopping Tips

Essential: Exercise Your Eyes Total Vision Workout System - The Exercise Your Eyes Total Vision Workout System is the first electronic vision trainer that is patented, & clinically proven to improve overall visual performance in less than 10 minutes a day.

Causes

Most often strabismus is the result of an interference in learning how to use the two eyes. Binocular vision is a learned skill. There appears to be an inborn program and schedule for its development. Sometimes factors such as head injury, a cataract, a droopy eye lid can disrupt the development of binocular vision, usually it comes from an interference in the neural control centers or the ability to attend to and absorb information from both eyes.

Disturbances in the neural control centers occur with high fevers and childhood illnesses. Sometimes the neural interference occurs for other reasons. This is probably the reason that studies show a relationship between the development of strabismus and the delay in a child's learning to sit, walk, talk, and control elimination functions.

It seems that the mind pays attention more fully to the workings of the visual system between the ages of four months and six years (or most critically between four months and three and a half years). After that period the mind is more critically involved in other learning skills. A delay in neural growth or the protective covering of nerves may put binocular development out of phase with the concentrated attention necessary to convert the eye coordination skills into conditioned habit patterns. If visual habits are not firmly fixed they are then more vulnerable to loss.

Conventional Treatment

For esotropia or exotropia, depending on the type and severity either surgery, glasses and/or visual training can be done.

Self Help

Here are some tips on protecting one's general vision:

Manage chronic stress in your life. Chronic, long-term stress has been shown in numerous studies to contribute to serious disease, and is suspected to cause such eye diseases as glaucoma. Managing this stress would go a long way towards helping preserve one's health and vision. There are a number of great techniques including biofeedback, meditation, yoga and tai chi.
Eat healthy. Many peer review studies have confirmed that a regular diet that includes green, leafy vegetables and grains, can significantly lower one's likelihood of getting eye disease.
Exercise Maintain a regular, aerobic exercise routine. Fast walking 4-5 times a week is excellent.

Research

See a discussion of the research and organizational statements on the efficacy of vision therapy.