Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000155
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00:01 Most people feel very protective toward their vision,
00:04 and toward the eyes... and well, they should. 00:07 As also about the ears and the nose and the mouth 00:10 because these are very highly sensitive organs. 00:14 For the next half an hour, Don Miller and I will 00:17 talk with you about some things having to do with these 00:20 sensory organs, especially the vision. 00:23 I'm Agatha Thrash from Uchee Pines Institute 00:27 and we hope you will stay by 00:29 and hear our program. 00:51 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:53 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute. 00:56 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash. 01:01 The eye is one of the most marvelous of all the anatomical 01:05 structures in the body. 01:06 When you study the eye, you begin to see 01:09 that it has so many different kinds of structures that we 01:13 don't find elsewhere in the body. 01:16 Take the transparent cornea, 01:18 no where else do we have such a marvelous sheet of tissue 01:25 organized so that we can see through it... 01:28 And yet, it's composed of proteins and many other things 01:32 that in other parts of the body are not transparent. 01:36 And yet here, in this place, God has made this a transparent 01:40 window... A window through which we can look out, 01:43 and a window through which we can obtain information from 01:48 the outside world. 01:50 Our outside world comes to us first through the eye, 01:55 then goes to the back of the head where we have the 01:58 visual cortex. 01:59 It is back there that we begin the process of being able to see 02:03 Now, Don Miller, is one of my associates at Uchee Pines 02:08 and he and I will be discussing this topic for you... of vision. 02:13 And Don Miller will now talk with you about some aspects 02:17 of this marvelous process... the vision and how we see. 02:22 Okay... Most people, unfortunately, will develop 02:26 some type of a visual problem. 02:28 And working correctly, the light goes into the eye... 02:32 It goes through the cornea. 02:34 It goes through the pupil. 02:35 It goes through the lens. 02:36 It goes through the aqueous and vitreous humors, 02:38 right back to the retina, to the fovea centralis. 02:42 Everything is just right and we've got good vision. 02:45 And that's the ideal, and most of us, I believe, 02:47 probably were born with this good vision. 02:50 But as time goes on, that vision seems to go away 02:53 and I believe it's becoming more and more of a problem 02:56 today, than it has ever been in the past. 02:59 Now I believe one of the things today, 03:01 and I talk with people all the time now... 03:03 we're now into the computer age, 03:05 and people who spend a lot of time in front of the computer, 03:09 more time that we ever spent in front of the television, 03:12 are starting to have to get glasses changed every 03:15 couple of years. 03:16 And, one thing about watching a television, 03:20 and I'm not for television... 03:21 The television normally is 12, 15, 20 feet away. 03:25 But now we've got these computer screens sitting 03:28 RIGHT in our faces. 03:29 Back at Uchee Pines in my office, 03:32 I've got a computer desk with a hole where you put your 03:35 screen and there's nothing behind it, 03:37 and I don't have my screen sitting there. 03:40 I've got my screen sitting on a table pushed back from there 03:43 so it's far enough away that I don't have that extreme 03:47 eye strain. 03:48 The sooner we start straining our eyes as a child, 03:52 the more apt we are to develop eye problem later on. 03:56 As a matter of fact, children who, either by their choice 04:01 and normally not by their choice but by force, 04:04 or by... just the fact that this is the life we've got 04:07 you in, child... 04:09 learn to read at a very, very young age are far more likely 04:13 to develop myopia or nearsightedness 04:17 as they get older. 04:18 Now, what is nearsightedness? 04:19 Let me just sort of explain a little bit about 04:23 how we see what we see. 04:25 I want to sort of use my hand as a representation 04:29 of the retina, or the back part of my eye. 04:33 And, right there in the center of the retina, 04:36 there's a little indentation called the fovea centralis 04:40 And I'm going to make a little mark on my hand 04:42 to say that's the fovea centralis. 04:45 What happens when we are seeing correctly 04:48 is that the light goes through the cornea, 04:52 through the pupil, through the aqueous humor, 04:56 through the lens, through the vitreous humor 04:59 All these things are refracting the light, 05:02 and if done properly, it focuses right on the fovea centralis. 05:08 That's perfect vision. 05:09 BUT sometimes, because of the misshapen part of the lens 05:14 or the cornea, 05:15 the light and the focus is in front of the fovea centralis. 05:20 And when it's sitting out here, you are nearsighted. 05:23 Now nearsighted means that you can see things fine 05:27 up close but things far away ... you don't see quite so well 05:32 So they have to correct that with corrective lenses 05:36 which have a shape of the lens that will then project that 05:41 image back onto the fovea centralis. 05:44 Now let's say you don't have myopia... 05:47 You've got, we'll just use the term "farsightedness. " 05:50 ...easier term to remember. 05:52 That means you can see things fine out there... 05:54 but up front, it's hard to read the small print... 05:57 It's hard to read LARGE print! 05:58 What's happening there is, the focus point is behind 06:02 the fovea centralis... 06:04 Or basically, it has not come together yet... 06:06 nothing is focused behind there, 06:07 you're getting back into the brain there. 06:08 But it would really focus behind the fovea centralis. 06:12 There we have what we call "farsightedness" 06:15 We can see things good far away but up front, 06:18 we're having a problem. 06:19 What we do there is... 06:20 we have another shape of the lens which changes... 06:23 Again, this is because of the shape of the pupil 06:26 or the iris, 06:28 and if we put a certain shape of the lens in front of that eye 06:32 it will pull it back up to the fovea centralis 06:35 and we can see fine there. 06:37 Then we have people like me... 06:39 I've got what's called "astigmatism. " 06:42 That means the light is sort of going all over the place 06:44 in there and it's all hard to see. 06:46 You can usually tell a person with astigmatism 06:49 because they're always squinting... 06:51 They're squinting everywhere. 06:52 They just can't see it anymore. 06:54 And I probably suffered with my eye problem for a number 06:58 of years until finally, in my freshman year of college, 07:01 I finally had an eye test that said... 07:03 "Yes, you need some glasses. " 07:05 And so, I got my first pair of glasses in my 07:08 freshman year of college, 07:09 and I've gotten them all along the way since then. 07:12 Now I'm thankful that along the way, 07:14 that glasses have sort of changed. 07:16 Now, back when I first got them, 07:17 it was just a single sheet of glass. 07:19 And finally about, oh... 10 years ago, 07:22 I had to go to bifocals. 07:23 I mean, BIFOCALS, give me a break! 07:25 And I was only 40 years old! 07:27 But I went to bifocals and that is very hard to 07:30 get used to because you got this line there 07:33 But now they've got these things... 07:34 these graduated lenses like I have 07:36 and it makes vision a whole lot better to handle. 07:39 But there is another eye problem that we are seeing 07:43 more and more in the baby boomers... 07:45 those as we grow older about age 40... 07:47 And this eye problem is that our arms grow too short. 07:52 What basically I'm meaning is... 07:53 You see the people who have this presbyopia 07:56 holding it out further and further because 07:59 they just can't see it up close anymore. 08:01 This is basically called, "old age eye" 08:05 And, as we get older, our muscles get weaker, 08:08 they can no longer pull the lens into the proper shapes 08:11 and we have what's called, I've just mentioned, 08:14 "old age eye. " 08:15 Again, all of these things can be nicely corrected with 08:19 corrective lenses but the sooner we get them corrected, 08:22 the better... for a number of reasons... 08:24 One, without corrective lenses, we're missing some 08:27 quality in our lives. 08:28 We're going to miss the small print. 08:30 We're going to miss things that may be important, 08:32 and may be vital. 08:33 As a matter of fact, my driver's license, 08:35 and my pilot's license both say, "Must wear corrective lenses" 08:39 I have to wear these things so that I can see what 08:42 I need to see out there in my environment. 08:45 And so, especially watch the children. 08:49 First of all, don't force your child... 3, 4, or 5 years of age 08:53 to read if they do not have that propensity to read. 08:58 Let them be as free as lambs as long as possible... 09:02 because their eyes have not yet fully developed. 09:06 Some parts of our body aren't ready, when we are born, 09:09 to jump right into an adult life. 09:10 Our eyes need to slowly develop. 09:13 Let the child be used to looking out at nature... 09:16 spending time looking at the trees, 09:18 looking through the fields, 09:19 looking out there at the BIG world before you 09:22 bring them down into the small world. 09:24 He will learn and she will learn to read soon enough... 09:27 if you allow them to develop their eyes so that their 09:30 eyesight will be good. 09:31 Ensure that they have that good eyesight as a child 09:33 and they will normally keep it throughout their lifetime. 09:36 And so, these are some of the, if I can use the word, 09:40 "pathologies" of eyesight... farsightedness, nearsightedness 09:44 astigmatism and "old age eyes" 09:46 Don't worry about it... 09:47 One of these days, Jesus is coming and He's going to make 09:49 EVERYTHING change in the twinkling of MY EYES! 09:53 I'm going to have good eyes again, Dr. Thrash. 09:55 Yes, we can look forward to that. 09:58 Now the anatomy of the eye is something I NEVER tire 10:01 of studying. 10:03 I never tire of reading about the research done 10:06 just on the anatomy of the eye. 10:08 Let me just briefly tell you what it is... 10:11 Don Miller mentioned that we have several layers that 10:14 we must go through before we finally get back to the 10:17 fovea centralis, or that place where there is SHARP FOCUS. 10:21 But the first thing is the transparent cornea. 10:24 Then, after that, is a chamber, 10:27 that's the anterior chamber of the eye. 10:29 It is filled with a fluid. 10:31 Then after that is the lens of the eye. 10:34 The lens is suspended by enormously delicate 10:40 strands of connective tissue... 10:42 and suspended on the edges and extends outward to a muscle. 10:49 This muscle is what pulls on those little filaments 10:55 that are attached to the lens and change the shape of the lens 10:59 as long as we can. 11:01 But, the time finally comes in life, 11:04 as Don Miller says... when we contract those muscles, 11:09 that should flatten the lens and make it so that it can 11:12 focus in a different plane, 11:14 that focus can no longer occur because the lens is 11:18 now stiffened a bit... 11:20 And then, the arms get shorter, and shorter, 11:23 and we think that we need some longer arms. 11:27 When actually, what is happening is that 11:31 the focus that occurs, or the part of the focus that occurs 11:37 close up is NOT happening and the rest of the eye 11:42 is not adequate to make the focus come directly to the 11:45 fovea centralis. 11:47 The next part of the eye, after the lens with its wonderful 11:51 little ligaments and little muscle... 11:53 The next part of the eye is the vitreous humor. 11:58 The vitreous humor is somewhat gelatinous. 12:02 This body... it is an actual structure. 12:06 It is not just fluid. 12:07 This structure is attached to the retina. 12:12 Now when a person gets to be about 40, 50, or 60 years of age 12:17 it's a very common thing to have that vitreous 12:20 to turn loose its moorings on the retina. 12:24 And when they do, the person, when these moorings turn loose, 12:29 the person may see some flashes of light in the 12:35 in the peripheral vision. 12:37 Now this peripheral vision that we're seeing, 12:41 where we see this flashing light, 12:43 that peripheral vision is giving us the warning that 12:49 the retina is being indented at that area. 12:52 And so that causes a little flash of light in the 12:56 peripheral visual field... 12:58 And the person can tell that it's in this eye, or that it's 13:01 in this eye because the flash only occurs in that eye. 13:05 And usually only occurs when the person looks 13:08 from side to side. 13:09 And eventually, the release of the vitreous is complete 13:15 and now the vitreous is loose inside the eyeball. 13:21 Now being loose in there, 13:23 there are portions of the vitreous over on the side 13:28 where the density is greater... 13:31 And that now floats to a central area 13:36 where the person gets what is called, "a floater. " 13:39 These floaters are annoying to the person, 13:44 and they are permanent. 13:45 They will not be going away. 13:47 Then past the vitreous, 13:49 then there is the retina. 13:52 And the retina, itself, or the back part of the 13:56 round part of the globe of the eyeball, 13:58 is itself nowhere near simple... 14:01 It's not JUST the retina, but it is several coats 14:05 and that's beyond the scope of our study without 14:08 visual aids, but be aware that the anatomy 14:13 of the eye proves beyond ALL shadow of doubt 14:17 that we have a Divine Designer. 14:20 And that this Divine Designer is a genius at engineering 14:24 He especially is a Genius of Light, 14:28 and understands light quite well. 14:30 Now vision would not occur if we only had the eyeball. 14:36 We must have more than the eye itself. 14:40 The eye is connected to the optic nerve. 14:44 The optic nerve from each eye goes backward 14:49 behind the eye and then crosses. 14:52 Again, this is a masterpiece of Divine engineering 14:56 to make this cross... 14:58 It is called the "optic chiasm" or the optic cross. 15:01 And then, part of the fibers from one eye 15:05 will go to the same side, 15:07 but part of the fibers will cross and go to the 15:11 opposite side. 15:12 And it is this thing that enables us to have the most 15:16 excellent vision. 15:17 We also do a lot of fill-in with the eye. 15:21 Not everything is perceived in the eye. 15:24 A lot of what we see as vision, 15:26 occurs actually in the brain itself. 15:30 Now, I don't know if you've ever done this, 15:32 but if you've ever seen a solid brick wall, 15:34 you do not know it, but there is a place 15:38 in that brick wall, where you have a blind spot. 15:42 That blind spot is just perfectly filled in by your mind 15:46 Because the mind has accepted the fact that 15:49 there is a blind spot there and that it should make up 15:53 what is there with what is around it. 15:55 So if it's a tree you're looking at, 15:57 the blind spot is in the tree, 15:59 the mind simply makes up leaves and puts them there. 16:03 Makes up bricks and mortar and puts it there. 16:06 A marvelous instrument is the eye. 16:10 It is positively fascinating to study the subject of vision. 16:14 We also have a number of things that go wrong 16:18 with the vision and with the eye that are annoying, 16:22 or that interfere with our vision. 16:24 One of those things is conjunctivitis. 16:27 Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of 16:31 this outside part of the eye. 16:33 You pull down the lower eyelid, 16:35 you will see that there is a cup there in the bottom 16:38 of the eyelid. 16:39 That cup is the conjunctival sac, or the 16:43 conjunctival cup. 16:44 And it's a very good place for us to put medicine if 16:47 we have to treat the eye with some kind of medicine. 16:49 Just drop it in that little cup made there by 16:52 pulling the lower eyelid down. 16:54 We can also irrigate by pulling the lower eyelid 16:58 down and with a bulb syringe, 17:01 we can inject water into this sac and 17:06 irrigate the eye very nicely. 17:08 Now by having the person look all around, up and down 17:11 and around, they can get all parts of the eye 17:16 or the conjunctiva bathed in the water 17:19 or the saline that you have instilled in this lower eyelid. 17:24 How do you make up saline? 17:26 Very simple... it's 1 teaspoonful of salt 17:28 to 1 pint of water... 17:31 and then it will not burn the eye. 17:33 Plain water will burn the eye, 17:34 but 1 teaspoonful of salt to a pint of water will not 17:37 burn the eye. 17:39 And then you can irrigate the eye if it gets something in it 17:42 and that will be a great help. 17:45 Now let us say that something got in the eye and it is 17:49 sort of imbedded in the tissues of the conjunctiva 17:52 and you can't get it out. 17:53 You irrigate, you wipe with a tissue and you aren't able 17:59 to get it out. 18:00 A neat little trick that has been recommended 18:03 by some physicians who study the eye, 18:06 is just to put a flaxseed... a tiny, little, brown flaxseed 18:12 which has this material on the outside 18:15 that becomes gelatinous once it gets moist. 18:19 So you just lay that... if you can see the speck of trash 18:23 that's imbedded in the conjunctiva... 18:25 you can just put the little flaxseed right there against it 18:29 and hold it there until the gel forms on the outside 18:35 of the flaxseed... 18:37 And often that bit of trash will become trapped in the 18:41 gelatinous part of the flaxseed 18:43 and you can very easily take it out in that way. 18:47 Now often when you've had some kind of trauma 18:49 to the conjunctiva, 18:51 you will also have a source or a portal 18:56 where germs can get into the eye and cause an infection 19:00 and then you have conjunctivitis. 19:01 You can treat conjunctivitis by hot compresses 19:05 and one good way to do that is simply to take a 19:08 towel, a facial towel will do well... 19:12 fold it and put it under the hot water in the sink 19:17 and while you bend over the hot water, 19:19 you simply hold it to your eyes like this. 19:22 Now you should also have a second towel 19:25 in the sink and let it be getting hot while you're 19:29 holding this one there. 19:30 As soon as this one cools, which will be in a minute or so, 19:33 then you can drop this one under the hot water, 19:36 pick up the one that's now hot, squeeze it a little bit 19:38 and put your face on that one too. 19:42 Keep it as hot as you can tolerate it. 19:44 And this kind of treatment to a conjunctivitis will often be 19:50 very curative for it. 19:52 At least it will help it and sometimes that's almost 19:54 instantaneous. 19:56 As with any home remedy, you should get busy 19:59 with the treatment just as soon as you recognize there 20:01 is an affliction. 20:02 Now a sty on the eyelid can cause a visual problem too 20:08 because often it secretes a little bit of secretion into 20:11 the conjunctival sac and that makes it so that one 20:14 cannot focus nicely because the conjunctiva 20:18 needs to be transparent, along with the cornea, 20:21 and all those other structures, so that you can easily see. 20:26 So if you begin to get a cloudiness over the vision 20:29 then you can suspect that you might have some kind of 20:32 problem with the eyelids, and irrigation with 20:35 saline is quite good. 20:36 Every hour or so, you can irrigate, and after a 20:40 short while, this will be helpful to you. 20:43 Now once in a while, someone will get metal imbedded 20:47 in the eye. 20:50 Of course you need the very best of skilled help 20:54 that you can get when something goes wrong with the eye. 20:57 But let us say you're in some kind of field situation 21:00 and you have no physician available. 21:03 If this is the case, then you may be successful 21:06 when taking a metal sliver out of the eye 21:08 by a very strong magnet. 21:11 Now if you attempt to use this kind of treatment, 21:14 you will probably need 2 or 3 people to help you hold the 21:18 individual because once the metal gets in the eye, 21:22 the eye immediately becomes sensitive, 21:24 and the person can hardly hold the eyes open 21:27 even when no one is threatening to put something in it 21:30 But the very thought that someone is going to try to touch 21:34 the sensitive eye, causes the individual who has something 21:37 in the eye, to begin to squint very tightly. 21:41 So with the individuals who are helping you, 21:45 you must hold the eye open for the patient. 21:49 And then, very carefully support your hand that has 21:53 the magnet in it, and bring it close to the metal sliver... 21:57 And if you're very fortunate, the metal sliver will be 22:01 attracted to the magnet just as it begins to touch it. 22:05 But be careful that you do not push the metal object farther 22:09 into the eye. 22:10 Better that you travel several hundred miles with the patient, 22:15 than that you make the situation worse. 22:18 But someone who has as steady hand can very easily 22:21 help that situation with the magnet. 22:24 And usually, you can get it out with a strong magnet. 22:29 Now another thing is trauma to the eye in which the 22:33 conjunctiva is torn and you can see a flap is just flapping 22:38 inside the eyelid. 22:39 You can irrigate it to make certain that it's clean, 22:42 and especially if there is trash in the eye, 22:45 be sure to get all the trash out and then 22:47 by the stream of the irrigation, you can cause the little torn 22:52 flap of the conjunctiva to get back in place... 22:55 then you carefully pull the eyelid down over it 22:59 and bandage the eyelid shut. 23:01 And that will hold the conjunctiva in place 23:06 and usually that's all you need to do for a torn conjunctiva. 23:10 I like irrigation very much. 23:13 And, there are many things that one can do for the eye and 23:16 Don Miller is going to talk with you now about 23:19 another aspect of care of the eyes... Don Miller. 23:22 One thing that's very important when you are dealing 23:25 with your eyes is that you protect them. 23:28 Now God has given us protective measures for our eyes. 23:31 One of the nicest protective measures He has given us 23:34 are things called "tears" 23:35 And, we need to make sure that we keep our tear ducts 23:40 full of tears and one good way to do that is 23:42 make sure we're drinking plenty of water because tears 23:44 are coming from water. 23:45 We don't drink enough water. 23:48 Our eyes... Dr. Thrash has mentioned the term 23:50 "vitreous humor" and "aqueous humor".. this is liquid 23:54 And we find that since our brains are 85% water, 23:58 and our eyes are but an extension of our brains, 24:01 as we don't drink enough water, 24:02 first things to go and one of the first things to suffer 24:06 will be our brains and our eyes. 24:08 And we start having dried eyes and we can't see as well. 24:11 So I'm thankful for this thing called "tears" 24:13 ALSO, for the eyelashes that we have in our eyes. 24:17 And we should keep the eyelashes as natural as possible 24:21 I know some people have a habit of plucking 24:24 their eyelashes out. 24:25 Well, they are hurting their eyes in a very positive way 24:28 because they're made to sit there and sweep things away. 24:31 Another thing that some people do is... 24:34 they sit there and they paste them all up with things 24:36 like mascara. 24:38 They don't work quite as well when you do that. 24:39 Another nice thing about the eyes that God has built in 24:42 is the "blink response" 24:44 And if we cannot blink, and some people do not blink... 24:47 And basically blinking is caused mostly by an irritation. 24:51 It's amazing how many times we get our eyes irritated. 24:54 But also, it's just a process that God has built into us 24:57 to sweep the eyes, sweep the eyes, sweep the eyes. 25:02 Now if we didn't have tears, we'd have this flap of skin 25:04 all the time rubbing across our eyes... 25:06 It could give us a real problem. 25:08 Another thing we need to do to take care of our eyes is... 25:11 If we are working in any type of construction, any type of 25:15 equipment, we should wear some type of eye protection. 25:18 Some good plastic... some good nonshatter plastic... like these 25:23 or other types, which will protect our eyes. 25:26 And sometimes we think... 25:27 "Well, it's not going to happen to me" 25:29 and we're out there with our lawn mower 25:31 and we hit that one little, tiny thing... 25:33 and Dr. Thrash has talked about a piece of metal in your eye 25:36 ...you send a small piece of metal into your eye from a 25:39 lawn mower, and you may lose your eye. 25:42 A weed eater... those little pieces of monofilament, 25:44 flying off all the time... flying off 25:46 Whenever you're doing anything with machinery, 25:50 hammering a nail, whatever, we need to protect our eyes. 25:53 And one other thing we need to do to protect our eyes is... 25:57 when we're out in the sunshine, 25:58 we should be wearing some type of eye protection that has 26:02 something to protect ourselves from the harmful rays of the sun 26:05 Now the rays of the sun are good for the eyes. 26:08 We should not wear the sunglasses all the time. 26:11 But between the dangerous hours of 10 in the morning 26:14 and 3 in the afternoon... very important to have some type of 26:16 eye protection to keep from damaging the back of the eyes. 26:21 And, of course, we learned as children... 26:22 never look into the sun. 26:24 Well, that's a no brainer... don't look into the sun. 26:27 And you don't look into someone over there doing some 26:30 arc welding because that too can cause some serious 26:32 and permanent damage to the eyes. 26:37 Eyesight! What a blessing! 26:38 I am so thankful for my eyesight! 26:40 And we need to do everything that we can do, Dr. Thrash, 26:43 to take good care of our eyes. 26:44 Yes, we do. 26:45 And another one of the marvels of the eye... 26:49 is the structure in the retina called the cones. 26:53 We also have rods in the retinas. 26:58 The eyes can see color but they can also see shape. 27:02 If we can see both... both shape and color, 27:05 then we are indeed quite well blessed... 27:08 And God has made us so that we can do that. 27:11 Now some people are color blind and cannot 27:14 see colors or certain colors 27:16 and for these individuals, 27:18 they are handicapped to some degree 27:20 but by certain corrections that they can do 27:23 and certain learned behavior that they have, 27:25 they can learn to handle the color blindness that they have. 27:30 But with the rods, we have night vision with them principally, 27:36 and the cones are not so active at that time. 27:40 The next time that you begin to thank the Lord for anything, 27:44 let me encourage you to THANK THE LORD FOR YOUR VISION! 27:48 And especially, thank the Lord that you have spiritual eyesight 27:53 and know some things about Him. |
Revised 2014-12-17