Protocols to Improve Vision & Eyesight | Huberman Lab Essentials

00:00:00.000 | Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials,

00:00:02.260 | where we revisit past episodes

00:00:04.080 | for the most potent and actionable science-based tools

00:00:07.260 | for mental health, physical health, and performance.

00:00:09.940 | I'm Andrew Huberman,

00:00:12.600 | and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology

00:00:15.380 | at Stanford School of Medicine.

00:00:16.940 | This podcast is separate from my teaching

00:00:19.240 | and research roles at Stanford.

00:00:20.540 | It is, however, part of my desire and effort

00:00:23.100 | to bring zero cost to consumer information

00:00:25.140 | about science and science-related tools

00:00:27.460 | to the general public.

00:00:28.580 | Today's episode is going to be all about vision and eyesight,

00:00:32.240 | a topic that's very near and dear to my heart

00:00:34.260 | because it's the one that I've been focusing on

00:00:36.200 | for well over 25 years of my career.

00:00:38.700 | When we hear the word vision,

00:00:40.480 | we most often think about eyesight

00:00:42.820 | or our ability to perceive shapes and objects

00:00:46.320 | and faces and colors.

00:00:47.660 | However, our eyes are responsible for much more than that,

00:00:52.860 | including our mood, our level of alertness,

00:00:56.820 | and all of that is included in what we call vision.

00:01:00.180 | What is vision?

00:01:02.240 | Well, vision starts with the eyes.

00:01:04.520 | We have no what's called extraocular light perception.

00:01:09.620 | While it feels good to have light on our skin,

00:01:11.920 | while it feels good to be outside in the sunlight

00:01:14.680 | for most people,

00:01:15.780 | the only way that light information

00:01:18.180 | can get to the cells of your body

00:01:19.880 | is through these two little goodies

00:01:21.900 | on the front of your face.

00:01:22.840 | And for those of you listening,

00:01:23.680 | I'm just pointing to my eyes.

00:01:25.160 | As many of you have heard me say before

00:01:27.920 | on this and other podcasts,

00:01:29.120 | your eyes, in particular,

00:01:30.500 | your neural retinas are part of your central nervous system.

00:01:33.500 | They are part of your brain.

00:01:34.840 | They're the only part of your brain

00:01:37.080 | that sits outside the cranial vault.

00:01:39.120 | In other words,

00:01:39.960 | you have two pieces of your brain

00:01:41.720 | that deliberately got squeezed out of the skull

00:01:44.300 | during development

00:01:45.020 | and placed in these things we call eye sockets.

00:01:47.800 | Now the eyes have a lot of other goodies in them

00:01:49.720 | that are very important.

00:01:50.760 | And those are the goodies

00:01:51.580 | that we're going to focus on a lot today.

00:01:54.180 | There's a lens to focus light precisely to the retina.

00:01:58.180 | There are also other pieces of the eye

00:02:00.740 | that are designed to keep the eye lubricated.

00:02:02.500 | You also have these things that we call eyelashes.

00:02:05.160 | Most people don't know this,

00:02:06.520 | but eyelashes are there to trigger the blink reflex.

00:02:10.520 | They aren't just aesthetically nice.

00:02:12.120 | Eyelashes are there

00:02:13.420 | so that if a piece of dust or something

00:02:15.060 | starts to head towards the cornea,

00:02:17.040 | the eye blinks very, very fast.

00:02:18.860 | It's the fastest reflex you own.

00:02:20.960 | We also have these things called eyelids.

00:02:23.180 | Now eyelids might seem like the most boring topic of all,

00:02:26.320 | but they are incredibly fascinating.

00:02:27.980 | Today, we're going to talk about

00:02:29.280 | how you can actually use your visual system

00:02:32.340 | to increase your levels of alertness

00:02:34.400 | based on the neural circuits

00:02:36.880 | that link your brainstem with your eyelids.

00:02:39.420 | So let's talk about what the eyes do for vision.

00:02:44.920 | Basically, the entire job of the eyes

00:02:47.440 | is to collect light information

00:02:49.040 | and send it off to the rest of the brain

00:02:52.140 | in a form that the brain can understand.

00:02:54.280 | Remember, no light actually gets in past those neural retinas.

00:02:58.020 | It gets to the neural retina

00:02:59.520 | and we have specific cells in the eye called photoreceptors.

00:03:04.000 | They come in two different types, rods and cones.

00:03:06.800 | Cones are mainly responsible for daytime vision

00:03:11.360 | and the rods are mainly responsible for vision at night

00:03:15.700 | or under low light conditions.

00:03:17.140 | Generally speaking, these photoreceptors,

00:03:20.660 | the rods and cones have chemical reactions inside them

00:03:24.300 | that involve things like vitamin A

00:03:26.160 | and that chemical reaction converts the light into electricity.

00:03:32.380 | Within the eye, within the retina,

00:03:35.440 | there are then a series of stages of processing

00:03:38.560 | and that information eventually gets sent into the brain

00:03:42.740 | by a very specific class of neurons.

00:03:45.380 | They're called retinal ganglion cells.

00:03:47.020 | Now, here's what's incredible.

00:03:49.340 | I just want you to ponder this for a second.

00:03:51.160 | This still blows my mind.

00:03:52.480 | Everything you see around you,

00:03:55.920 | you're not actually seeing those objects directly.

00:03:59.760 | What you're doing is you're making a best guess

00:04:03.120 | about what's there based on the pattern of electricity

00:04:05.980 | that arrives in your brain.

00:04:08.000 | Now, that might just seem totally wild

00:04:10.000 | and hard to wrap your head around,

00:04:11.760 | but think about it this way

00:04:14.040 | because this is the way it actually works.

00:04:15.960 | Let's take an example of a color like green or blue.

00:04:20.920 | You have cones in your eye that respond best

00:04:25.860 | to the wavelength of light that is reflected off,

00:04:30.240 | say, a green apple.

00:04:31.460 | So you don't actually see the green apple.

00:04:33.360 | What you see is the light bouncing off that green apple

00:04:35.920 | and it goes into your eye

00:04:38.640 | and you see it and perceive it as round and green,

00:04:42.720 | but not because you see anything green.

00:04:45.800 | No green light arrives in your brain.

00:04:47.760 | What happens is your brain actually compares

00:04:51.700 | the amount of green reflection coming off that apple

00:04:55.180 | to the amount of red and blue around it.

00:04:59.120 | What the brain is receiving is a series of signals,

00:05:02.940 | electrical signals,

00:05:03.960 | and it's comparing electrical signals

00:05:06.480 | in order to come up with what we call these perceptions.

00:05:08.720 | Like I see something green,

00:05:09.940 | a green apple,

00:05:10.660 | or I see red.

00:05:11.340 | So that's what I'd like you to understand

00:05:13.920 | about the way the eye communicates with the brain.

00:05:15.860 | I would also like you to understand

00:05:18.360 | that the brain itself is making these guesses

00:05:22.740 | and that those guesses are largely right.

00:05:26.880 | how do I know that?

00:05:27.920 | Well, they're right.

00:05:29.320 | Because when you reach out to grab a glass,

00:05:30.860 | most of the time you grab the glass and you don't miss,

00:05:33.080 | right?

00:05:34.100 | Most of the time when you make judgments

00:05:36.000 | about the world around you

00:05:37.220 | based on your visual impression of them,

00:05:40.020 | it allows you to move functionally through the world.

00:05:42.940 | So the brain is doing these incredible things.

00:05:46.540 | It's also creating depth, a sense of depth,

00:05:48.940 | even though what arrives from the retina

00:05:51.460 | is essentially a readout of a two-dimensional flat image.

00:05:54.580 | Your eyes are slightly offset from one another

00:05:56.960 | so that for instance,

00:05:58.520 | if I look at you,

00:05:59.260 | if you're standing right in front of me right now

00:06:00.860 | and I were to look at you,

00:06:01.740 | the image of your face,

00:06:03.320 | the light bouncing off your face to be more precise,

00:06:06.460 | lands on one eye in a slightly different location

00:06:09.360 | than it does in the other eye.

00:06:10.980 | And then the brain does math.

00:06:13.440 | It basically does the equivalent of geometry

00:06:16.100 | and trigonometry

00:06:17.240 | and essentially figures out how far away you are from me,

00:06:23.340 | which is just incredible.

00:06:24.540 | So the brain does all this very, very fast.

00:06:26.740 | And the brain uses about 40 to 50%

00:06:30.160 | of its total real estate for vision.

00:06:32.800 | That's how important vision is.

00:06:34.320 | Now I want to talk about the other aspect of vision,

00:06:38.460 | which is the stuff that you don't perceive,

00:06:41.000 | the subconscious stuff.

00:06:42.340 | And then we'll transition directly

00:06:45.020 | into how you can use light and eyesight

00:06:47.220 | to control this other stuff

00:06:49.540 | because it's very important.

00:06:51.000 | And that other stuff is mood, sleep, and appetite.

00:06:55.260 | And there are ways in which you can use

00:06:58.380 | these same protocols that I will describe

00:07:00.540 | in order to preserve and even enhance your vision,

00:07:04.860 | your ability to see things and consciously perceive them.

00:07:07.980 | So the protocols we will describe

00:07:10.340 | have a lot of carryover to both conscious eyesight

00:07:13.980 | and to these subconscious aspects of vision.

00:07:16.920 | And I just want you to understand a little bit more

00:07:19.740 | about the science of seeing of eyesight and vision,

00:07:22.240 | and then all the protocols will make perfect sense.

00:07:25.180 | So as amazing as eyesight is,

00:07:27.360 | it actually did not evolve for us to see shapes

00:07:31.480 | and colors and motion and form.

00:07:32.980 | The most ancient cells in our eyes,

00:07:37.160 | and the reason we have eyes,

00:07:39.700 | is to communicate information about time of day

00:07:43.600 | to the rest of the brain and body.

00:07:45.000 | Remember, there's no extraocular photoreception.

00:07:47.960 | There's no way for light information

00:07:49.780 | to get to all the cells of your body.

00:07:52.260 | But every cell in your body needs to know

00:07:54.400 | if it's night or day.

00:07:55.300 | Now, I talked a little bit about this

00:07:57.340 | in the episodes on sleep,

00:07:59.680 | and this episode is not about sleep,

00:08:02.160 | but I want to emphasize that there is

00:08:04.300 | a particular category of retinal ganglion cell.

00:08:07.680 | Remember the neurons that connect the retina to the brain.

00:08:10.680 | These are so-called melanopsin retinal ganglion cells,

00:08:15.500 | named after the opsin that they contain within them.

00:08:18.300 | They are essentially photoreceptors.

00:08:20.620 | Remember before I said there are photoreceptors

00:08:22.180 | and then these ganglion cells?

00:08:23.120 | Well, these melanopsin cells,

00:08:25.040 | as the name suggests, melanopsin,

00:08:27.440 | have their own photoreceptor built inside them.

00:08:30.340 | These cells, retinal ganglion cells,

00:08:33.900 | communicate to areas of the brain

00:08:35.860 | when particular qualities of light

00:08:39.160 | are present in your environment

00:08:40.460 | and signal to the brain,

00:08:43.080 | therefore, that it's early day or late in the day.

00:08:48.320 | They regulate when you'll get sleepy,

00:08:49.940 | when you'll feel awake,

00:08:50.980 | how fast your metabolism is,

00:08:53.900 | your blood sugar levels,

00:08:55.740 | your dopamine levels,

00:08:56.980 | and your pain threshold.

00:08:59.560 | These melanopsin ganglion cells

00:09:02.060 | have been shown to set the circadian clock

00:09:05.940 | and to respond best

00:09:07.220 | to the contrast between blue and yellow light

00:09:11.660 | of the light of the sort

00:09:12.440 | that lands on these cells

00:09:15.700 | when you view the sun

00:09:18.040 | when it's at so-called low solar angle,

00:09:19.960 | when it's low in the sky,

00:09:21.140 | either in the morning or in the evening.

00:09:23.680 | What does all this mean?

00:09:25.060 | The most central and important aspect

00:09:27.380 | of our biology,

00:09:28.320 | and perhaps our psychology as well,

00:09:30.840 | is to anchor ourselves in time,

00:09:35.220 | to know when we exist.

00:09:37.160 | We know time at a biological level

00:09:39.820 | based on where the sun is.

00:09:42.460 | What does this mean for a protocol?

00:09:43.600 | It means see,

00:09:44.720 | get that light in your eyes early in the day

00:09:47.100 | and anytime you want to be awake.

00:09:49.520 | So try and get as much sunlight in your eyes

00:09:51.240 | during the day as you safely can.

00:09:52.520 | You need a lot of this light

00:09:53.520 | in order to trigger these melanopsin cells,

00:09:55.720 | which will then trigger your circadian clock,

00:09:57.960 | which sits above the roof of your mouth,

00:09:59.280 | which will signal every cell in your body,

00:10:01.400 | including temperature rhythms, et cetera.

00:10:03.200 | So first things first,

00:10:04.740 | your visual system was not for seeing faces,

00:10:08.200 | motion, et cetera.

00:10:09.540 | The most ancient cells in your eye,

00:10:12.480 | which are there right now as we speak,

00:10:15.020 | are there to inform your body and brain

00:10:18.420 | about time of day.

00:10:20.420 | So you want to get that bright light early in the day.

00:10:22.980 | Absolutely essential.

00:10:23.860 | Two to 10 minutes.

00:10:24.660 | Now, here's another reason to do this.

00:10:27.100 | Getting two hours a day of outdoor time

00:10:30.580 | without sunglasses has a significant effect

00:10:33.780 | on reducing the probability that you will get myopia.

00:10:38.080 | Now, myopia or nearsightedness has to do

00:10:41.120 | with the way that the lens focuses light onto the retina.

00:10:45.580 | So remember your eye is an optical device.

00:10:48.880 | You have lenses in your eyes

00:10:50.500 | and those lenses need to move.

00:10:52.160 | It's not a rigid lens like a glass lens.

00:10:54.840 | It's a dynamic lens.

00:10:56.160 | The eye can dynamically adjust where light lands

00:11:00.440 | by moving the lens and changing the shape

00:11:02.800 | of the lens in your eye

00:11:03.900 | through a process called accommodation.

00:11:05.820 | And if you understand this process of accommodation,

00:11:08.980 | you not only can enhance the health of your eyes

00:11:12.860 | in the immediate and long-term,

00:11:14.320 | but you also can work better.

00:11:16.720 | You'll be able to focus better

00:11:18.260 | on physical and mental work.

00:11:19.960 | You will be able to concentrate for longer.

00:11:22.120 | So much of our mental focus,

00:11:24.360 | whether or not it's for cognitive endeavors

00:11:26.220 | or physical endeavors,

00:11:27.340 | is grounded in where we place our visual focus.

00:11:31.720 | Okay?

00:11:32.720 | What we look at

00:11:33.680 | and our ability to hold our concentration there

00:11:36.040 | is critically determining how we think.

00:11:41.300 | Now, accommodation is our ability to accommodate

00:11:44.920 | to things that are up close here or further away.

00:11:47.940 | And the way this works is that the iris

00:11:51.080 | and the musculature

00:11:52.520 | and a structure called the ciliary body move the lens.

00:11:55.140 | So when you look far away, okay?

00:11:57.520 | When you see things far away,

00:11:58.900 | your lens actually relaxes.

00:12:02.840 | It can flatten out.

00:12:04.100 | And you'll notice that it actually is relaxing

00:12:06.360 | to look at a horizon.

00:12:07.720 | Whereas if I look at something up close to me,

00:12:09.780 | like this pen or my phone or a computer screen

00:12:12.360 | or this microphone,

00:12:13.420 | it takes effort.

00:12:15.680 | You'll sense the effort.

00:12:17.060 | Now, some of that effort is actually eye movements

00:12:19.420 | because you have muscles that can move your eyes

00:12:21.260 | within their sockets.

00:12:22.140 | But a lot of the work, quote unquote,

00:12:25.280 | is neural work of the muscles having to move

00:12:29.080 | and contract such that the lens actually gets thicker

00:12:32.660 | in order to bring the light to the retina

00:12:36.220 | and not to a location in front of it or behind it.

00:12:38.780 | So-called accommodation.

00:12:40.380 | Now, you might say,

00:12:42.980 | why are you telling me about accommodation?

00:12:44.420 | Well, these days we're spending a lot of time

00:12:47.900 | looking at things,

00:12:48.720 | mainly our phones up close and computers up close

00:12:51.180 | and we are indoors.

00:12:52.000 | In other words,

00:12:52.980 | you are not giving your lens the opportunity to flatten out

00:12:56.160 | and for these muscles to relieve themselves of this work.

00:12:59.720 | but you are also training your eyes

00:13:04.220 | to be good at looking at things up close and not far away.

00:13:10.040 | And as a consequence,

00:13:10.960 | you are reshaping the neural circuitry in your brain

00:13:14.160 | and it is not good.

00:13:15.760 | You want to get outside,

00:13:17.600 | not just to lighten the load on your mind

00:13:21.120 | or to think about other things,

00:13:22.340 | but to maintain the health of your visual system.

00:13:25.680 | In other words,

00:13:27.340 | you want to exercise these muscles

00:13:30.320 | and that involves both the lens moving

00:13:34.500 | and getting kind of thicker

00:13:36.160 | and relaxing that lens.

00:13:38.040 | And the relaxation of the lens

00:13:39.320 | is actually one of the best things you can do

00:13:40.980 | for the musculature of the inner eye.

00:13:42.900 | So what's the protocol?

00:13:45.100 | You might be surprised,

00:13:46.340 | but for every 30 minutes of focused work,

00:13:48.900 | you probably want to look up every once in a while

00:13:51.720 | and just try and relax your face and eye muscles,

00:13:53.740 | including your jaw muscles,

00:13:54.980 | because all these things are closely linked in the brainstem

00:13:57.640 | and allow your eyes to go into a so-called panoramic vision

00:14:01.140 | where you're just not really focusing on anything

00:14:02.800 | and then refocus on your work.

00:14:04.500 | If you are feeling tired,

00:14:07.040 | it actually can be beneficial

00:14:09.720 | to the wakefulness systems of the brain,

00:14:11.480 | including the locus coeruleus

00:14:12.880 | and these areas that release norepinephrine

00:14:14.620 | to actually look up,

00:14:16.520 | to actually look up toward the ceiling.

00:14:18.720 | you don't want your chin all the way back,

00:14:20.340 | but to look up

00:14:21.180 | and to raise your eyes toward the ceiling

00:14:23.420 | and to look up

00:14:24.180 | and try and hold that for 10 to 15 seconds.

00:14:26.420 | It actually triggers

00:14:27.720 | some of the areas of the brain

00:14:29.140 | that are involved in wakefulness.

00:14:30.460 | So if you're somebody

00:14:31.420 | who's falling asleep at your work,

00:14:32.960 | this can be very beneficial.

00:14:34.720 | When things are up,

00:14:35.700 | we tend to be alert.

00:14:36.360 | When everything's focused down,

00:14:37.840 | including our eyes,

00:14:38.500 | it tends to have a more suppressive

00:14:40.200 | or sedative type signaling

00:14:41.900 | to the deeper centers of the brain.

00:14:43.300 | How can you improve your vision?

00:14:46.180 | How can you get better at seeing things?

00:14:48.740 | Well, one way is to make sure

00:14:50.840 | that you spend at least 10 minutes a day total,

00:14:53.640 | at least,

00:14:54.840 | viewing things off in the distance.

00:14:57.140 | So that would be well over half a mile or more.

00:15:00.040 | Try and see a horizon.

00:15:01.520 | Try and get your vision out

00:15:03.560 | to a location that's beyond

00:15:05.640 | the four walls of your house or apartment

00:15:07.640 | or the doors of your car

00:15:10.020 | and the windshield of your car.

00:15:11.440 | I know that can be hard to do,

00:15:12.620 | but it's very valuable.

00:15:13.640 | So try and see at a distance

00:15:15.500 | because it's good for your eyesight.

00:15:16.960 | It'll keep this lens nice and elastic

00:15:19.580 | and the muscles nice and strong

00:15:21.200 | that move the lens.

00:15:22.000 | And it has this relaxing component to it.

00:15:25.520 | Now, our visual system

00:15:27.440 | is exquisitely tuned to motion,

00:15:30.060 | not just our self-generated motion,

00:15:32.520 | but the motion of things around us.

00:15:34.440 | And one of the things that it does

00:15:36.460 | is something called smooth pursuit.

00:15:38.580 | Smooth pursuit is our ability

00:15:41.680 | to track individual objects moving,

00:15:44.740 | as the name suggests,

00:15:45.600 | smoothly through space

00:15:46.800 | in various trajectories.

00:15:49.200 | You can actually train

00:15:52.280 | or improve your vision

00:15:54.600 | by looking at smooth pursuit stimuli.

00:15:58.380 | And that sounds really boring.

00:15:59.420 | Remember, the brain follows the eye.

00:16:01.480 | It follows the movements of the eye.

00:16:03.500 | it has to deal with that.

00:16:04.820 | And the neural circuits within the brain

00:16:06.560 | have to cope with changes in smooth pursuit.

00:16:09.500 | So if you're doing a lot of reading up close,

00:16:11.520 | you're not viewing horizons,

00:16:12.640 | you're not getting a lot of smooth pursuit

00:16:14.100 | type stimulation from your life,

00:16:16.660 | or you're just getting it

00:16:19.180 | within the confines of a little box on your phone,

00:16:21.300 | your vision will get worse.

00:16:22.180 | The idea is that

00:16:24.240 | you want to use the visual system regularly

00:16:26.860 | for what it was designed for.

00:16:28.020 | And smooth pursuit is a great way

00:16:30.380 | to keep the visual and motion tracking systems

00:16:33.360 | of the brain and the eye

00:16:34.420 | and the extraocular muscles

00:16:35.580 | working in a really nice coordinate fashion.

00:16:38.000 | So what does this mean?

00:16:39.180 | The tool is spend two to three minutes

00:16:42.480 | doing smooth pursuit.

00:16:43.760 | There's some programs on YouTube.

00:16:45.260 | You can just look up smooth pursuit stimulus,

00:16:47.940 | practice accommodation for a few minutes,

00:16:49.840 | maybe every other day.

00:16:51.260 | just bringing something in close.

00:16:52.900 | You'll feel the strain of your eyes doing that.

00:16:54.820 | Move it out.

00:16:55.440 | You'll feel a relaxation point.

00:16:57.720 | Move it past that relaxation point

00:16:59.420 | where you will have to do

00:17:00.300 | what's called a virgin side movement

00:17:01.440 | to maintain focus on that location

00:17:03.080 | as it moves out.

00:17:03.700 | Bring it back in.

00:17:04.720 | Practice that.

00:17:05.580 | Practice accommodation

00:17:06.360 | and then be sure to give your eyes some rest.

00:17:08.660 | Get outside,

00:17:09.780 | look at a horizon or do nothing.

00:17:11.640 | Just kind of let your eyes go soft.

00:17:13.240 | I guess what the yogis would call soft gaze.

00:17:15.280 | Practice a little bit of smooth pursuit.

00:17:16.980 | You don't have to be neurotic about this,

00:17:19.040 | but if you do this often enough,

00:17:20.440 | meaning every other day,

00:17:22.580 | every third day or so,

00:17:23.700 | you can be the strange person on the plane

00:17:25.620 | or in the classroom doing this.

00:17:26.860 | You know,

00:17:27.620 | that people might chuckle

00:17:28.780 | or look at you funny or tease you,

00:17:30.740 | but that's okay

00:17:31.320 | because you'll be able to see

00:17:33.120 | when they are losing their vision.

00:17:34.780 | So you'll get the last laugh.

00:17:36.500 | Let's talk about binocular vision and lazy eye.

00:17:39.840 | The young brain up until about age seven,

00:17:42.940 | but maybe even extending out

00:17:45.140 | until about age 12

00:17:46.340 | is extremely vulnerable

00:17:49.240 | to differences in ocular input

00:17:51.480 | between the two eyes.

00:17:52.460 | My scientific great-grandparents

00:17:54.640 | won the Nobel Prize

00:17:55.760 | for discovering so-called critical periods,

00:17:57.720 | periods of time

00:17:58.580 | in which the brain is more plastic,

00:18:00.240 | more able to change.

00:18:01.340 | Those two guys,

00:18:02.660 | David Hubel and Torsten Weasel,

00:18:04.180 | thank you,

00:18:04.620 | David and Torsten,

00:18:05.280 | forever changed the face

00:18:06.760 | of visual neuroscience

00:18:07.620 | and forever changed

00:18:08.980 | the way we think about

00:18:10.000 | treatment of the young brain.

00:18:13.000 | It used to be thought

00:18:13.840 | that you wouldn't want

00:18:14.500 | to do a surgery on a young kid

00:18:16.480 | because of risk of anesthesia

00:18:18.380 | in young individuals,

00:18:19.780 | but we now know

00:18:20.960 | that you need to repair

00:18:21.840 | these imbalances

00:18:22.740 | that even a few hours

00:18:24.820 | of occluding one eye

00:18:26.240 | early in life

00:18:27.100 | can lead to permanent,

00:18:29.060 | unless something's done,

00:18:30.480 | permanent changes

00:18:31.400 | in the way that the brain

00:18:32.500 | perceives the outside world

00:18:33.980 | such that when that eye

00:18:35.360 | is opened up again,

00:18:36.220 | the brain actually can't make sense

00:18:38.300 | of anything that's coming through it.

00:18:39.280 | It shuts down

00:18:40.100 | that visual pathway somehow.

00:18:41.760 | So what does this all mean

00:18:42.700 | in terms of protocols?

00:18:43.460 | If you're a young person,

00:18:44.420 | do your best

00:18:45.100 | to get really good binocular vision,

00:18:47.180 | not just at level of your phone

00:18:49.380 | or your tablet,

00:18:50.020 | but also at distance.

00:18:51.180 | You will build strong binocular

00:18:53.840 | visual machinery in the brain

00:18:55.520 | and at the level of the eyes

00:18:57.260 | and the eye musculature.

00:18:58.160 | Now, if you're somebody

00:19:00.340 | who did have an occlusion,

00:19:01.520 | what's needed is to cover up

00:19:03.800 | the other eye

00:19:04.320 | to create an imbalance

00:19:05.280 | so that the weak eye,

00:19:06.200 | the so-called lazy eye,

00:19:07.280 | that's sometimes referred to

00:19:08.120 | as amblyopia,

00:19:09.000 | that eye has to work harder.

00:19:11.420 | Now, you might ask,

00:19:12.900 | what happens if you cover

00:19:14.000 | both eyes early in life?

00:19:15.400 | There are some like retreats

00:19:17.660 | and stuff where people go

00:19:18.380 | into caves with absolutely

00:19:19.500 | no vision.

00:19:20.120 | It creates hallucinations.

00:19:22.040 | We'll talk about why that is

00:19:23.140 | in just a moment.

00:19:23.800 | But here's my suggestion.

00:19:25.720 | Try and get balanced visual input

00:19:27.400 | through the two eyes.

00:19:28.180 | Almost everybody has a dominant eye.

00:19:30.420 | It usually doesn't relate

00:19:31.980 | to your dominant hand,

00:19:33.100 | although it can.

00:19:34.320 | And so for me,

00:19:35.220 | if I cover up my right eye,

00:19:36.660 | I see much less well,

00:19:38.480 | much more poorly.

00:19:39.480 | It's a little bit fuzzy

00:19:40.960 | and I have to work harder

00:19:42.200 | in order to see the camera,

00:19:43.500 | for instance,

00:19:44.020 | than if I cover up my left eye.

00:19:45.980 | And if you do have strong imbalances

00:19:47.620 | between the two eyes,

00:19:48.540 | which can be caused by cataract

00:19:51.900 | and lens issues,

00:19:52.940 | can be caused by neuromuscular issues,

00:19:55.260 | et cetera,

00:19:55.600 | to try and get those dealt with

00:19:57.180 | as early as possible

00:19:58.400 | by contacting a really good ophthalmologist

00:20:01.020 | and ideally a neuro-ophthalmologist.

00:20:03.040 | It's very common

00:20:04.420 | for young children,

00:20:05.780 | babies,

00:20:06.280 | to have an eye

00:20:07.700 | with strabismus

00:20:08.980 | that either deviates out

00:20:10.280 | or that deviates in.

00:20:11.300 | It is important to correct that

00:20:13.540 | if you would like to have

00:20:15.700 | balanced vision

00:20:16.880 | between the two eyes

00:20:17.760 | and for the brain to respond

00:20:18.940 | equally to the two eyes

00:20:21.120 | and to have,

00:20:21.660 | I would say,

00:20:22.700 | high-fidelity quality vision.

00:20:24.200 | Hallucinations are a property

00:20:27.120 | of the visual system

00:20:28.060 | and it was always thought

00:20:29.160 | that hallucinations arise

00:20:31.280 | because of over-activation

00:20:33.120 | or activation of certain aspects

00:20:34.620 | of the visual system.

00:20:35.400 | I just briefly want to mention

00:20:36.720 | a paper that was published

00:20:37.600 | by my good friend

00:20:38.400 | and phenomenal scientist

00:20:40.800 | and physicist for that matter,

00:20:42.080 | Chris Neal,

00:20:43.340 | who's up at the University of Oregon

00:20:44.680 | in Eugene.

00:20:45.480 | They studied LSD-like compounds

00:20:48.500 | and discovered

00:20:49.180 | that hallucinations actually occur

00:20:51.880 | because portions of your brain

00:20:54.300 | become underactive.

00:20:55.800 | The visual portions of your brain

00:20:57.140 | hallucinations are under-stimulated.

00:20:58.380 | This is probably why

00:21:00.140 | when people go into these cave retreats,

00:21:02.280 | something I've never done,

00:21:03.260 | I don't think I ever will do,

00:21:04.700 | where it's completely black,

00:21:06.000 | pretty soon,

00:21:07.140 | they start hallucinating.

00:21:08.520 | They start seeing things

00:21:09.940 | even though there's nothing there.

00:21:11.240 | The visual system

00:21:12.520 | is desperate to make guesses

00:21:14.480 | about what's out in the world.

00:21:15.640 | It's like the eager beaver

00:21:16.700 | of your brain.

00:21:17.200 | It's like,

00:21:17.420 | what's out there?

00:21:17.840 | What's out there?

00:21:18.280 | What's out there?

00:21:19.600 | So it turns out

00:21:21.240 | that hallucinations

00:21:22.020 | are an under-activation

00:21:23.720 | of the visual system

00:21:24.560 | and then a compensatory,

00:21:25.940 | a compensation

00:21:26.880 | by which the visual system

00:21:28.380 | creates activity

00:21:30.140 | and hallucinations.

00:21:31.180 | So if you're in the dark

00:21:32.180 | long enough,

00:21:33.040 | you start to hallucinate

00:21:33.980 | and see things.

00:21:34.700 | So that's a little note

00:21:36.100 | about hallucinations.

00:21:37.380 | One of the things

00:21:38.860 | that you can do

00:21:39.380 | to improve your vision,

00:21:40.340 | and it's also kind of fun,

00:21:41.620 | is to put a Snellen chart

00:21:44.020 | in your home.

00:21:44.820 | A Snellen chart

00:21:46.320 | is that list of letters.

00:21:47.420 | If you go to the dreaded

00:21:49.100 | Department of Motor Vehicles,

00:21:50.200 | have you cover up an eye,

00:21:51.640 | read the letters on the chart.

00:21:54.080 | The letters, of course,

00:21:55.600 | get smaller and smaller.

00:21:56.520 | They're trying to figure out

00:21:57.640 | roughly what your vision is.

00:21:58.860 | Cover up the other eye.

00:22:00.260 | You'll do that.

00:22:01.360 | This is something

00:22:02.180 | that's not often mentioned,

00:22:03.180 | but your performance

00:22:04.060 | on the Snellen chart

00:22:05.000 | will vary depending on time of day

00:22:07.800 | because your level of fatigue

00:22:09.980 | and your ability

00:22:10.560 | to control that accommodation

00:22:11.800 | and other mechanisms

00:22:12.680 | of the eye muscles will vary.

00:22:14.240 | So you can take it

00:22:15.340 | as an average.

00:22:16.760 | It's also a good thing

00:22:18.440 | if you're going to get

00:22:18.920 | your vision tested

00:22:19.720 | for corrective lenses

00:22:21.460 | or maybe you're going to do

00:22:22.860 | laser surgery

00:22:23.500 | or something of that sort.

00:22:24.380 | If you're thinking about any of that,

00:22:25.600 | to really get it measured

00:22:26.840 | by a professional,

00:22:27.560 | get your vision tested

00:22:28.840 | by somebody

00:22:29.300 | who really understands vision,

00:22:30.780 | like an ophthalmologist

00:22:31.880 | or a really good optometrist.

00:22:33.240 | If you put a Snellen chart

00:22:35.820 | in your home,

00:22:37.000 | you can do that

00:22:38.480 | as part of your visual training.

00:22:39.960 | Now, this might seem

00:22:41.080 | excessively nerdy,

00:22:42.160 | but what is more important

00:22:44.020 | than your eyesight?

00:22:45.380 | Eyesight is so vital.

00:22:46.800 | It's right up there

00:22:47.560 | with movement

00:22:48.160 | and our ability

00:22:48.900 | to move,

00:22:49.500 | to generate,

00:22:50.080 | to get up out of chairs

00:22:51.140 | and to walk and to run

00:22:52.180 | and to take care of ourselves.

00:22:53.880 | Eyesight and movement

00:22:55.240 | are the main ways

00:22:56.680 | that we are able

00:22:57.540 | to take care of ourselves

00:22:59.360 | and take care of others.

00:23:00.480 | When you start

00:23:01.200 | having compromised eyesight

00:23:02.700 | or compromised movement,

00:23:03.780 | people need to take care of us

00:23:05.460 | and we become

00:23:06.100 | much more challenged

00:23:07.440 | in moving through

00:23:08.240 | our daily life.

00:23:08.980 | So while it might seem nerdy

00:23:10.180 | to have a Snellen chart

00:23:11.120 | in your home

00:23:11.760 | or to do a smooth pursuit exercise

00:23:14.500 | a couple times a week

00:23:15.340 | or to get outside

00:23:16.100 | for a few hours a day

00:23:16.940 | and do your reading

00:23:17.560 | or your laptop work there,

00:23:18.840 | preserving your eyesight

00:23:20.600 | and preserving your vision

00:23:21.640 | is one of the most

00:23:22.980 | life-enhancing

00:23:24.020 | or quality of life-enhancing

00:23:25.860 | things that you can do.

00:23:26.780 | Now, of course,

00:23:27.280 | there are genetic factors

00:23:28.380 | and there are injury-related factors

00:23:30.620 | that can compromise eyesight

00:23:32.240 | and our ability to see.

00:23:34.060 | And of course,

00:23:34.680 | the things I'm talking about today

00:23:37.180 | aren't going to solve

00:23:37.900 | all those issues,

00:23:38.780 | but they can have

00:23:39.940 | a tremendous positive impact

00:23:42.320 | if you're willing to do

00:23:43.400 | just a little bit of work.

00:23:44.480 | So I do want to talk

00:23:46.300 | about a few other things

00:23:47.280 | that can perhaps improve vision.

00:23:49.780 | I want to dispel a few myths

00:23:51.240 | about stuff to take

00:23:52.520 | to improve vision.

00:23:53.580 | So now you understand a lot

00:23:55.680 | about the biology of vision.

00:23:57.040 | You understand that light

00:23:58.420 | has to arrive at the retina

00:23:59.480 | and get converted

00:24:00.160 | into electrical signals.

00:24:01.780 | That process requires

00:24:04.140 | things like vitamin A,

00:24:06.120 | a fat-soluble vitamin.

00:24:07.820 | It requires things

00:24:09.880 | like the carotenoids.

00:24:11.260 | That metabolic cascade,

00:24:13.880 | that biochemical cascade

00:24:15.240 | is essential for vision.

00:24:17.520 | And this is why you've been told

00:24:19.100 | that carrots help you see better

00:24:20.680 | because they're high in vitamin A.

00:24:21.900 | There are a few simple things

00:24:24.980 | you can do to support your vision.

00:24:26.240 | First of all,

00:24:27.500 | it is true

00:24:29.000 | that eating vegetables,

00:24:32.040 | the dark leafy vegetables

00:24:33.480 | and things like carrots

00:24:34.980 | that have vitamin A

00:24:35.980 | in abundance

00:24:37.280 | and eating them

00:24:38.700 | in close to their raw form.

00:24:40.420 | So naturally occurring foods

00:24:43.060 | that contain a lot of vitamin A

00:24:44.620 | in their raw form

00:24:46.780 | can help support vision.

00:24:48.820 | Now, does that mean

00:24:50.120 | that if you ingest

00:24:51.000 | super physiological amounts

00:24:52.740 | of that stuff

00:24:53.500 | that it's going to make your vision

00:24:54.520 | that much better?

00:24:55.780 | No,

00:24:56.080 | but you do need

00:24:57.440 | a threshold level

00:24:58.380 | of vitamin A

00:24:59.520 | in order to see

00:25:00.620 | and in order to see well.

00:25:03.000 | Now,

00:25:04.000 | there's a lot of excitement

00:25:05.780 | nowadays

00:25:06.280 | about supplementation

00:25:07.680 | to help support

00:25:09.040 | the health

00:25:09.700 | of the visual system.

00:25:10.540 | But I want to talk

00:25:11.820 | about a molecule

00:25:13.880 | that's in a lot of supplements

00:25:15.600 | to support vision

00:25:16.440 | and there are some

00:25:17.860 | really good data on

00:25:19.300 | and that's lutein.

00:25:20.340 | What is this lutein stuff?

00:25:22.200 | Well, lutein is in the pathway

00:25:24.040 | that relates to vitamin A

00:25:26.000 | and the formation

00:25:27.360 | of the opsin,

00:25:29.760 | the photopigment

00:25:30.580 | that captures light

00:25:31.940 | in the back of your eye,

00:25:32.680 | literally absorbs light,

00:25:34.240 | pigment in your eye

00:25:35.720 | and converts that

00:25:37.040 | into electrical signals

00:25:38.100 | and allows you to see.

00:25:39.000 | And there is some evidence.

00:25:41.120 | I spoke to our chair

00:25:42.520 | of ophthalmology.

00:25:43.140 | There is some evidence

00:25:44.740 | through quality

00:25:45.460 | peer-reviewed studies

00:25:46.440 | that supplementing

00:25:48.000 | with lutein

00:25:49.200 | can help offset

00:25:51.740 | some of the detrimental effects

00:25:55.060 | of age-related

00:25:55.900 | macular degeneration,

00:25:57.080 | but,

00:25:58.120 | I want to emphasize,

00:25:59.400 | but,

00:26:00.020 | or emphasize,

00:26:01.160 | however,

00:26:01.660 | only for individuals

00:26:04.580 | with moderate

00:26:05.480 | to severe

00:26:06.780 | macular degeneration.

00:26:07.900 | For people

00:26:09.000 | that have normal vision

00:26:10.380 | or with

00:26:10.940 | a,

00:26:12.220 | just a low degree

00:26:13.820 | of macular degeneration,

00:26:15.120 | these studies

00:26:16.200 | did not see

00:26:17.020 | a significant

00:26:17.620 | improvement of vision

00:26:18.500 | from supplementing

00:26:19.800 | with lutein.

00:26:20.380 | And the other one

00:26:21.600 | is A-S-T-A-X-A-N-T-H-I-N.

00:26:24.760 | What is aztex saxton?

00:26:27.320 | It's a really

00:26:28.480 | interesting compound.

00:26:29.420 | It's the red-pink pigment

00:26:31.700 | found in various seafoods.

00:26:33.460 | I'm not a big seafood fan,

00:26:35.320 | but like certain fish,

00:26:36.500 | like the,

00:26:37.060 | you'll see at the fish market,

00:26:38.580 | will have that red-pink pigment.

00:26:40.220 | And it's also

00:26:41.600 | in the feathers

00:26:42.140 | of flamingos.

00:26:43.260 | It's structurally

00:26:43.900 | similar to beta-carotene,

00:26:45.360 | so it's very

00:26:45.900 | pro-vitamin A,

00:26:47.180 | but it has

00:26:48.300 | some chemical differences

00:26:49.180 | which may make it

00:26:50.480 | safer than vitamin A.

00:26:51.740 | Remember,

00:26:52.060 | vitamin A

00:26:52.520 | is a lipid-soluble

00:26:53.720 | vitamin,

00:26:54.920 | so it can be stored

00:26:56.220 | in our body

00:26:56.720 | for long periods

00:26:57.300 | of time.

00:26:57.700 | What is the deal

00:26:59.260 | with this aztexin?

00:27:00.540 | You know,

00:27:01.440 | what are its drawbacks?

00:27:02.280 | Well,

00:27:02.580 | it has a number

00:27:04.220 | of different effects,

00:27:04.880 | but the most notable

00:27:06.100 | for sake of this episode

00:27:07.120 | is the one

00:27:07.680 | on ocular blood flow.

00:27:09.140 | It does seem

00:27:10.200 | to increase

00:27:10.920 | the amount

00:27:11.340 | of ocular blood flow,

00:27:12.380 | so the blood supply

00:27:13.360 | to the eyes.

00:27:14.000 | So that makes it

00:27:14.680 | an interesting compound.

00:27:15.660 | It's also been shown

00:27:17.740 | to have positive effects

00:27:19.440 | on things like skin elasticity,

00:27:20.860 | skin moisture,

00:27:21.820 | skin quality,

00:27:22.900 | et cetera,

00:27:23.320 | probably due to its effects

00:27:24.880 | on blood flow.

00:27:25.960 | So lutein,

00:27:27.500 | aztexin,

00:27:28.580 | A-S-T-A-X-A-N-T-H-I-N.

00:27:31.400 | So everything

00:27:32.520 | I've talked about today

00:27:33.540 | relates to studies

00:27:35.100 | that were done

00:27:35.740 | and published

00:27:36.460 | in quality,

00:27:37.100 | peer-reviewed journals.

00:27:38.000 | that doesn't necessarily

00:27:38.840 | mean you want

00:27:39.280 | to run out

00:27:39.940 | and start taking

00:27:40.460 | the stuff

00:27:40.880 | that I've described

00:27:42.000 | or even doing

00:27:42.660 | the protocols

00:27:43.140 | I've described.

00:27:43.700 | I've given you

00:27:44.260 | an array,

00:27:44.820 | a palette,

00:27:45.400 | a buffet,

00:27:45.980 | if you will,

00:27:46.480 | of things

00:27:47.200 | that you could do

00:27:47.760 | to try and enhance

00:27:48.840 | or support your vision

00:27:49.820 | depending on

00:27:51.220 | how good your vision is,

00:27:52.220 | your family history

00:27:53.860 | of vision

00:27:54.520 | and vision loss,

00:27:55.180 | your occupational hazards.

00:27:56.860 | You know,

00:27:57.480 | people that work

00:27:58.780 | with metal filings

00:28:00.160 | that are flying

00:28:00.740 | out of machines

00:28:01.460 | are going to have

00:28:02.240 | a higher degree

00:28:03.580 | risk to their visual system

00:28:07.400 | than will people

00:28:08.180 | who just do office work.

00:28:09.220 | Although,

00:28:09.480 | if you're doing

00:28:10.000 | a lot of office work,

00:28:10.920 | chances are

00:28:11.620 | you're not getting

00:28:12.120 | a lot of long-view vision.

00:28:13.540 | Your accommodation mechanisms

00:28:14.980 | are going to start

00:28:15.620 | to suffer over time.

00:28:16.620 | I think we can reliably

00:28:17.680 | predict that.

00:28:18.520 | So I've tried to give you

00:28:19.500 | an array of behavioral tools

00:28:20.960 | and we did touch upon

00:28:23.320 | some supplementation tools.

00:28:24.680 | I'd be remiss

00:28:25.800 | if I didn't say

00:28:26.480 | that because blood flow

00:28:28.120 | is so critical

00:28:28.980 | for the neurons of the eye.

00:28:30.280 | Remember,

00:28:30.500 | these are the most

00:28:31.000 | metabolically active cells

00:28:32.240 | in your entire body.

00:28:33.340 | the cells within your retina

00:28:34.560 | because blood flow

00:28:35.720 | is required to get them

00:28:36.780 | the energy and nutrients

00:28:37.720 | they need.

00:28:38.200 | Having a healthy

00:28:39.280 | cardiovascular system,

00:28:40.600 | right?

00:28:41.460 | Doing endurance work,

00:28:42.520 | doing strength training work

00:28:44.080 | regularly is going to support

00:28:46.500 | your eyes and your brain

00:28:47.920 | and your vision.

00:28:48.400 | It's indirect,

00:28:49.120 | but it's essential,

00:28:50.120 | right?

00:28:50.660 | It's necessary,

00:28:52.060 | but it's not going

00:28:53.080 | to be sufficient.

00:28:53.740 | You're going to have

00:28:54.360 | to do other things

00:28:55.220 | to support your eyesight as well.

00:28:56.700 | But having a healthy

00:28:57.820 | cardiovascular system

00:28:58.840 | because it's going

00:28:59.420 | to deliver blood

00:29:00.860 | and oxygen and nutrients

00:29:02.120 | to this incredible

00:29:03.380 | apparati on the front

00:29:05.120 | of your face,

00:29:05.720 | these two pieces of brain

00:29:07.520 | is going to support

00:29:09.140 | your overall brain health

00:29:10.400 | and vision over time.

00:29:11.960 | Last but not least,

00:29:13.180 | I want to thank you

00:29:14.000 | for your time

00:29:14.460 | and attention today,

00:29:15.280 | your willingness

00:29:15.860 | to learn about vision

00:29:16.920 | in the visual system

00:29:17.780 | and the various things

00:29:18.680 | that you can do

00:29:19.260 | to help support

00:29:20.320 | the health and functioning

00:29:21.220 | of your visual system.

00:29:22.180 | And of course,

00:29:23.160 | I want to thank you

00:29:23.880 | for your interest

00:29:24.460 | in science.

00:29:24.960 | Thank you.

00:29:25.120 | Music by Ben Thede.

Protocols to Improve Vision & Eyesight | Huberman Lab Essentials

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