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> Pro tip: you can get very cheap (as little as $3) myopia glasses from aliexpress or a bit more expensive zenni optical. So there's really no big barrier to entry.

Pro tip: with 6 diopters, make damn sure you get your PD correct. Otherwise the headaches you get from the induced prism just won't make it worth it.

Most (all?) of the cheap online retailers allow to (some require to!) enter a PD value and also provide instructions on how to measure it. I personally use https://www.goggles4u.com/, they are cheap but not quick since they probably order from China.

I had no issues with that luckily, but if you order a custom prescription, many aliexpress sellers also ask for your pupillary distance. With zenni you always give your PD I think (I haven't tried it, but zenni is very popular in the endmyopia community).

Could be working in your favor. Most off the rack glasses are made with a 60mm PD because that's a good average. So if you have, say, a 62 mm PD and you're wearing them to use a laptop, your eyes will be converging a bit anyway.

It is much worse if you have a narrow PD, say 56. Before convergence, you already have over 2 diopters of prism wanting to spread your eyes outward.

Oh interesting, thanks for letting me know. I'll have to look into that topic a bit more :) My PD is around 64mm and I'll be receiving glasses with that PD soon. It will be interesting to see if I notice any difference to my other glasses.

You're welcome. And just to clarify, I don't have anything against your process (I've used Zenni myself), I just wanted to make the point about being careful with the PD.

Oh no worries, I didn't understand it in a negative way. I'm always happy to learn new things - especially in this case as it does sound important and I haven't really been paying attention to PD.

Can you give a summary of what the "endmyopia" process is?

The website claims the idea is based on peer reviewed research, but all the links and guides lead to what appears to be clickbait styled videos and testemonials. Overall it isn't clear and doesn't really sell the idea to me

Yea, that's sort of the founder's style. He has a very ironic and not very serious way of writing that drives a lot of people away. He does it intentionally though, as he wants people to really look into the topic and understand it, instead of just listening to "5 easy steps to fix your eyes in 1 week!" and then encountering problems.

You can find the research linked in these posts: https://endmyopia.org/category/science/

The summary is basically this: You increased your eyeball length from too much near work and lens usage. This further increases your myopia. To reverse it, use lenses appropriate to your task (reduced lenses for near work) and reduce near work in general. I can recommend the free 7 day email guide, it's probably the closest to a coherent overview about the whole topic.

Great to see another reader out in the wild. Mainstream optometry just making the problem worse to keep you as a customer instead of curing you is the same sort of issue that happens in so many industries from orthodontics to nutrition.

> With these rules I've managed to go from -5.5/-6 to -3.5/-3.75 in just these 9 months. And that's with me still spending 12h a day on my computer.

Do you mean you've gotten used to a weaker pair of glasses? Can you actually see just as well, and how have you tested that? Are you around 40 (far vision improves around that age)?

I always use weaker glasses on my computer now (around 1.5 diopters less than my full correction). I just reduce that reduced correction step by step (recommended is .25 diopter reductions, .5 worked for me too though) when it feels right (aka when I can see the screen decently well even with the new weaker glasses). So I started by using -4 glasses at the computer and now I use -2.

To check my current eyesight, I use a printed Snellen chart and the focal calculator https://endmyopia.org/focal-calculator/calc.html

The focal calculator is less accurate, but over mutliple measurements it averages out and adds up to a similar result as the Snellen chart for me.

No, I'm in my early twenties.

Yes, fully corrected, I can even see better than before to be honest. My eye doctor told me last time (before I started endmyopia) that I only have around 80% vision, even with glasses. I noticed that when playing tennis, I had trouble telling if balls were still in the opponents field because I couldn't see the back line properly. Last time I played I noticed how much better I could see it :)

When you go to the ophthalmologist and they do their thing, do they end up giving you weaker prescriptions? The skeptic in me wonders if you've simple gotten used to poor eyesight? I'm curious though and really want to hear more.

Also, seeing an ophthalmologist is still important, they check your eyes for potential problems, more than just issuing prescriptions. You say you worry about retinal detachment, they can see early warning signs of that and fix it sometimes.

Well I can see 20/20 with my new weaker glasses on the Snellen eye chart, so I don't think I just got used to worse vision.

I will be going to the eye doctor soon again and will hopefully get a similar prescription from her as from my own measurements :)

You're right about retinal detachment. I worry less about it now that my eyes are improving and it doesn't feel like I'm on an unstoppable trajectory towards worse eyes and higher risk for retinal detachment anymore. I heard it can appear quite rapidly, which worried me even when going to routine checkups.

I couldn't believe what I just read...

What you said is basically what I read 7~8 years ago when I was in my early twenties

I searched and read about this method in a Chinese forum website, zhihu, IIRC. As lazy as I was, I just couldn't be serious with any methods to cure my eyesight

Now that I read your comment on HN, it is actually legit lmao

Yea, there's many similar strategies out there :)

Try it out, I'm sure you can change your habits and make it work!

For what its worth, I've known about endmyopia for some time as well. Snellen chart is how you can verify things for yourself, you can only lie to yourself so much. I've improved my eyesight as well but nowhere near as much as Aulig has (roughly an improvement of 1.5 diopters over 3 years). I'm also much older, mid 30's, so that might be a factor in rate of improvement. I can't even see out of the glasses that I had before I started, so I know its definitely improved.

Congrats on the improvement! Progress will most likely slow down for me too, from what I heard it's common to have quick gains in the beginning. After that it's supposed to be .75 diopters per year, so roughly what you're getting :)

What if you can't even see a screen with out glasses? I'm -8 both eyes and I have to be like 6 inches from a 27" monitor to see words clearly.

Seriously considering lens implants since my eyes are too bad for lasik.

That's very common, you use weaker glasses for near work then, so around -6 or -6.5 depending on your distance from your screen.

You can find more information on that on the endmyopia page or wiki by looking for "differential glasses"

Thanks. I'll give this a try. I don't like the feeling that if I lose my glasses or contacts I'm helpless.

You're welcome! I get that feeling too, makes me uneasy. Best of luck on your eyesight improvement journey!

Where do you buy "differential" lenses? Do you just get a lower prescription from your optometrist?

I get them from AliExpress, because it's super cheap there. Some sellers only offer very standard prescriptions (same diopters on both eyes, standard pupillary distance, no astigmatism correction). Others also offer to create glasses with custom prescriptions, just like you'd get the glasses from the optician.

Zenni Optical also offers custom prescriptions, but is more expensive (likely still a lot cheaper than your local optician).

But you can totally also get glasses with a lower prescription from your regular optician, but as you will relatively frequently need new glasses, that can get expensive (at least here in Germany it would, and I heard in the USA glasses cost up to $1000).

I buy all my glasses online so I usually end up only paying like $250 but that's still a lot to just test this stuff out. I'll give aliexpress a go since it's so cheap.

Yea, that's definitely quite a bit of money. You could also try it out by wearing one of your older glasses for near work. If you still have a pair of older glasses that are around 1.5 diopters weaker that is.

i earlier dismissed endmyopia as a pseudoscience given doctors are against it. But it does make sense that eyeballs that have elongated beyond their size and hence caused myopia can also come back to their nature size improving vision as well. Gotta try it for myself though.

Best of luck! I first heard about it 3 years or so ago, but also dismissed it until I found out I could just try it out at almost no cost with glasses from Aliexpress. One of my best decisions of the past few years :)

Understanding exactly how much of modern health systems/guidelines are based off of capitalism incentivized research which then get some form of regulatory stamps of approval is appalling.

Not griping about capitalism, I think its the best thing out there for the economy, its just that we haven't figured out a way to prevent it from creating authoritative science backed research that somehow always promotes the funding party's product.

That's exactly my thoughts. This is crazy. It is basically the wrong alignment of incentives. Wonder how we are going to protect ourselves from it right now and fix the system.

Well, in this case part of the issue is that people want a quick fix to see well again (put on the glasses and done). Changing your habits is more work, but simple education like (take off your glasses for near work) would go anlong way, yea.