Cataract Surgery 101: How to Prepare and Steps for Recovery

I wanted to share this session with you where I’m giving some advice to a patient facing cataract surgery. We talk about how to prepare for the surgery, the effects of blue light on the new intraocular lens that’s put into the eye, how to manage the cataract post surgery, and then some other things that you can do in terms of physical therapy for the eyes after the surgery. Enjoy the show.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

eye, lens, surgery, cataract surgery, blue, supplement, called, prescription, cataract, light, doctor, cranial, nearsighted, macular degeneration, eyedrops, lenses, exercise, dryness, gallbladder, hum

Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberne.com.

Hey everybody, its Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. So today I’m giving some advice to a patient facing cataract surgery, how to prepare for the surgery, what are the effects of blue light on the new interocular lens that’s put into the eye, how to manage the cataract surgery post surgically. And then some other things that you can do terms of physical therapy for the eyes after the surgery, and also some other tidbits. So I hope you enjoy the show. Thanks so much for tuning in. So in terms of preparing for the surgery, there’s a couple of things that you can do to prepare yourself the first thing and this is being recorded for you, so you can go back and listen to it. Okay, is that when you meet with the surgeon, what you want is as follows This is what you want, not what he wants to do to you. You want to get a simple lens to put into the right eye that is going to match your left eye to be able to see well in the distance. So that the prescription that he’s going to put in there, as soon as he puts it in, it’s now working with the left eye. So some some things that they might want to do is say, well, let’s correct the right eye for reading.

Don’t do that.

Let your brain Yeah, you’re gonna regret that. Also, I wouldn’t get in a stigmatism prescription in the right eye, I wouldn’t get they have these fancy lenses, which they charge you a lot more for. So the thing is, is that you just want to match the right eye to the left eye for distance.

Yeah. Okay.

Now in terms of getting ready for preparation, using some hydrating eyedrops a couple of days before you go into the surgery would be helpful. So whatever eyedrops you have not the ocular Med, but you can do

terribly.

It’s actually got a preservative in it that some of my patients don’t like, and I’ve stopped recommending it, you know, there’s a real connection between the mind body and your eyes, you know, there’s a real mental, I know, right? So visualizing is great, you know, meditating. So you want to get yourself in a calm space. You know, I call that the parasympathetic nervous system, because the more you can be in that, you know, that theta brainwave, like I’m chilling, however you get there and be in that for you know, three days before the surgery, whether cranial work whether you get some acupuncture or whatever, you know, it’s less about the modality and more about the practitioner supporting your nervous system. And so and again, you know, I nutrients are helpful whether you do you know, colorful vegetables and the berry family, you know, the fats and oils, omega threes, you know, all you’ve been following this, whether you whether you do ice supplements, or you know, whatever you do, and, and so you get yourself into a state of consciousness that you can go in there, and because your system is so relaxed, you’re just gonna fly right through it.

And then after the surgery, you can use the MSM drops, you know, I wouldn’t use your phone intensely right after the surgery, and but you’ll find after about two or three days, and you’ll I mean, you’ll within an hour, when you walk out of there, you’ll go Oh, my God, you’re seeing like a jet pilot, because your right eye is no longer going to be cloudy. And I agree with Mayor Snyder, that with this amount of cataract, you will have a transformation and the healing right away and for you the healing is to do the surgery. You know for some people the drops work, but for you, the healing is I go through the surgery, I get this new lens in. And then once you’ve got that you’ll probably need To go to the drugstore and get yourself a pair of readers, maybe I don’t know, but the you might lose a little bit of your near vision from that, and blues. Well, in other words, it depends on if, if the doctor makes you farsighted it distance or keeps you nearsighted. So if you’re nearsighted, you have good near vision. So let me jump in here for a second.

You know, when you get cataract surgery, the deal is, is that you want to match both eyes for distance. And if you’re nearsighted before the surgery, it would be the best to be nearsighted after the surgery. So you still have some near vision, what happens sometimes is people that are nearsighted The Doctor makes them far sighted, and then they lose their near vision. And that way they would need magnification lenses. Now on the other side of the coin, if you’re farsighted and doctor makes you nearsighted, then you will be more apt to focus without lenses up close. But usually what happens is you become more farsighted. Once you’ve had cataract surgery. So the deal is, is that once you have had the surgery, you go for an eye exam. And at that point, you decide, okay, this is the prescription I need for the computer. And that one is going to be different than the prescription you might need for your phone or your reading. Now, the next issue is blue light. So I want you to listen to my comments about that. Because you can ask the surgeon is does the lens have a blue blocker in it? I asked him what he say. So let me explain. And you’ve probably seen this on my content. But yeah, our original lenses, at about age nine, develop some blue blocking capability, they can block a little bit of the blue light. But there’s definitive research now that says that blue light dries the eyes out, dries the tissue out. And in extreme cases, it can start to cause macular degeneration. So when you get the cataract lens put in, you’re vulnerable to the blue light exposure.

I’ve seen this many times with people after cataract surgery, about a year later, they start developing macular degeneration because they weren’t told to get a blue protect lens. So that is something that you want to do. And you know, it’s like after 6pm You know, the sunlight actually has blue light that’s healthy for you. And to get out in the morning light is really good. The research says if you get out in the morning light, it increases your dopamine levels. So your moods better, it helps you focus better, more concentration, it balances your circadian rhythms. And it just improves your vision. So it’s not that all blue light is bad for you. But when it comes off the screen and you’re doing a lot of it, you want to protect yourself especially at this point where that right lens is not going to have any protection. And there’s a difference between a tent and a filter. I don’t like the tent, because it dilates the pupil because it makes things dark.

So negative light is going to get in there from the screens. And it also creates a discoloration in your body. So you’re looking for a blue blocking filter. Now I’ve made one I sell them. And you know, you could contact us and you could tell us what prescription you need it in, that would be really good. And so my lens doesn’t have a tint, I put the filter on the back of the lens. It’s anti glare, UV protection. So you get very a clarity good clarity optics, but it protects you from the blue blocker. Now another thing you can do on your phone, is there’s a company that I’ve worked with called Oculus shield. I got that, okay, and that’s great to have that on your phone as well. In your case, I got on this screen too on the screen. So you’re you’re way ahead. And then the third third thing you want to make sure is that you’re getting about 16 milligrams of lutein, about four to six milligrams of xanthan, and about six to 12 milligrams of Asda Xanthine every day. Those three carotenoids protect the macula against blue light and ultraviolet. And so you can get those in your red, orange, yellow green vegetables or you can take a supplement.

You get the Astra xantham from Pink seafood. But if I were you, you know vide had cataract surgery I would be making sure I’m taking a really good ice supplement. And I would also do all the things you’re doing with the blue light protection, so that you’re protecting your retina and macula, from developing macular degeneration. So, however you want to do that now I’m going to bring something else in that I learned in functional medicine that I don’t see eye doctors talking about, and that is the liver and the gallbladder health because I’ve studied Chinese medicine.

And the liver rules the eyes, the liver produces bile, and the gallbladder stores the bile. And Bile is needed to help you absorb the fat soluble eye vitamins like vitamin A, lutein and zeaxanthin. And if you aren’t producing enough bile, you can take all those you know fat soluble vitamins but you’re not absorbing them. So you might consider taking some bile salts, that might be something if you if you feel there’s a problem with the liver and or the gallbladder. If not, then don’t worry about it, but you can kind of track it. Some other things about vitamin A, they like zinc. So make sure you’re you’ve got some zinc going on in your in your diet somewhere pumpkin seeds is a good source, or you can supplement with it. You can also do glutathione and vitamin C and that will protect your left eye you’re probably doing that already. Yeah. Then the glucose level. So there’s something that happens in the cataract formation called glycation, where a glucose molecule in the blood attaches itself to the protein molecule in the lens, and it creates a cataract. It’s called glycation. So you need to monitor your glucose levels, I actually created a supplement called Berberine which helps balance the glucose levels and I use it in my lens Health Formula. Alpha Lipoic Acid is also great for the lens and acetylcysteine and a C glutathione. Vitamin C

they get like many many bottles or no

you can get him through like with glutathione you can get that through your cruciferous vegetables, sulfur based foods, onions, garlic leeks, no, no, no, you don’t have to do all kinds of supplements. But you know vitamin C, you can get it through your citrus fruits, your berry family, very good for the retina. So in I would rather get get see you get it through your diet. And then supplements are just that they supplement. In these next segments I talk about some of the side effects that can occur from cataract surgery, the value of red light therapy, then I have a cool story, how I give a lecture to a group of optometry students. And they share with me what their professors have taught them. And it’s just an interesting juxtaposition to what I am sharing with them and where they’re at. And then I bring in the modality cranio sacral therapy, what is it? How do I use it and how does it work? So enjoy these next few segments.

One of the side effects of cataract surgery can be dryness. So if you got my castor oil eyedrop you can use it like an ointment in the evening where you put it lightly over the eyelids and it will seep into the eyes and they will moisturize and it won’t it has no negative effect to the lens. Since you’re used to castor oil I made this organic castor oil I drop which is wonderful for dryness. And the other side effect could be floaters. And if you start getting those then you want to just up your MSM eyedrops, I would get my 15% because they work well with reducing floaters or having some pineapple every day. Bro. Mylene helps improving your lymphatic situation also helps doing the liver detox also help. And then the last thing and you’ve probably seen me talk about this is the value of red light and how it improves the mitochondria in the retina. Have you seen my posts on red light? Do you know but I thought

you had designed these new red grid glasses. Yeah.

And what they do is they stimulate the mitochondria in the eye. So what is mitochondria? These are small organelles that produce ATP that get rid of toxins. Oxidative stress is and in the studies they took people who had no degeneration issues in the eyes, and they looked at the red in the morning for about 12 weeks and they improve their ability to read the eye chart by over 20%. It’s a huge improvement. So after about age 3540, we start to lose a little bit of our mitochondria function.

And, you know, once we hit, you know, 6070, we’re having some eye issues, this red light is a great rejuvenator, so to speak, in the blue light research, the manufacturers have not caught up yet to put the blue light. In other, there’s maybe one or two companies that are putting the blue light into it, but it’s not mainstream. And this is what happens in you know, the AI research is very, very slow. And so you have to be proactive. And, you know, this is what’s happening more and more in health, is you have to take more responsibility for your eye health, because the information you’re gonna get is, okay, kid, you got this situation, we’ll watch it.

Ya know, and

that’s insane. You know, I remember giving a lecture to a group of optometry students. And they were all in their white coats, you know? And I said, Okay, everybody, ladies and gentlemen. I and I went through case histories of all the eye diseases and how I reversed them. And I said, Okay, who here? What happens when you get a an eye diagnosis in your office? And they raise their hands and say, Well, we were taught to watch it. Well, would you like a more proactive way? Well not know, you know, our professors have said, we just watch it. And then when it gets bad enough, we just do surgery. That’s it. That was their mindset. Well, I wasn’t certainly going to try to talk them into something. But I did all this research on acupuncture. Oh, my God, Chinese medicine is great for the eyes, group of osteopaths got together. And they started to take a look at the circulation. Now the brain is made up of over 50% fat, but it’s swimming in cerebral spinal fluid. And that cerebral spinal fluid actually travels up and down the spine all the way to the tailbone.

And what they developed was a form of treatment, where you would lie down, and the doctor or the therapist would hold your head, and very lightly, they can start to feel the cerebral spinal fluid movement or lack of movement. Now the bones are part of that the fascia that connective tissue. And so the doctor could diagnose where there’s restrictions in that fluid body where the flow is not flowing. And so they would work with the patient to help them remove the restriction of the, of the flow, whether it’s, again, cerebral spinal fluid, or just what’s in the fascia, connective tissue, the bone movement. And it’s kind of like a respiration, like when you feel your butt, it’s called the cranial rhythm. But it’s a very subtle, kind of, if you look at my hands, this is the movement that your cranial system is making. So it’s the nerves, it’s the muscles, it’s the fluid. So you could go study it, and bow 25 years ago, I was working with an occupational therapist, they do a lot of work with autistic kids. And all these kids had birth trauma.

And she said, You know, I think it’d be good for you to go back to massage school, and learn cranial sacral therapy, you could help release the birth traumas. So I did and I went through an intensive training for many years. And then what I started to do with people, they would come in for their eye exam, and I would measure their eyes and then I would do an hour of cranial sacral on them. And then I would measure their eyes again, and their prescription was reduced by 3040 50%. And that’s what I would give them. They loved it. They loved those reduced prescriptions because their system had come back into balance. Then I started to work with people with astigmatism.

Now what that is, is it’s a twist in the body that shows up in the eyes and the eye doctors give you an astigmatism lens in the eye will logs the twist into the body. So what I did is I started to unwind the body, and then I wouldn’t give the astigmatism in the eye and guess what the astigmatism in the eye would go away. So a question I get a lot when people have had cataract surgery, do exercises help and If so what do they do? Well, yes, you know, when you get any kind of surgery, doing physical therapy afterwards helps you integrate the surgery. And in the eye care field, that’s not really recommended. And I find that after cataract surgery, the brain needs some integration with the new prescription. And so in this segment, I talked about the best eye exercises to do to integrate the eyes and the brain in the body after cataract surgery after the surgery, and it’s gonna go great.

Once you get that, and you know, you get the lenses, the glasses for reading if you need it, and don’t strain if you need a little bit of magnification, and you’re not sure then contact me. Okay. But the thing is, is that then, you know, you may need to hydrate your eyes, take a little better care of them, you know, post surgically if you have a little dryness, and then there’s an exercise on my website called the Yin. So it’s why I N young yng in yin yang peripheral vision exercise. And that is a good focusing exercise for you that makes you use your two eyes together. So it’s going to help your muscles have more flexibility. I did a video on it, there’s a chart you download and you print out. I would do that about three times a day as a physical therapy. So like you go into physical therapy after surgery, you’re going to do two exercises. The first is the Yin Yang, peripheral vision focusing exercise. And the second one is called the palm hum exercise. Now that palm hum exercise, I actually develop that from continual movement. And what it is, is that I took mer Schneider’s palming exercise, and I said, What if I put sound into the eye tissue. And so you rub your hands together, you cup it over the eyes, the eyes are closed, you breathe in through the nose. On the exhale, you make a humming sound, you make a sound, and your hands are like tuning forks. And the sound is going to go into your eyes and it’s gonna clean up any of the residue that’s there. And you do like eight hums. You know each cycle, inhale, exhale, do the hum. So you can really hear it.

So you feel the light in your face. And after those eight hums and you’re you let your hands come down and you slowly open your eyes, you will see things much more clearly. And your eyes will feel much more relaxed. So I’d like you to do that one three times a day as well. So in all it’s gonna take you maybe five minutes to do the Yin Yang peripheral vision exercise, and then the palm hum. And you do that for a month. And that will solidify the right eye, integrating with the left eye at a distance, it will relax your two eyes and your eyesight will be really, really clear on an end note here. If you have a ripe cataract, my suggestion is get it taken out. And you will have a great result. You know the success rate of cataract surgery is so high because they’ve done so many of them. So my suggestion is get the surgery, do these physical therapy things afterwards. Talk to the surgeon about the kind of prescription you want to have post surgically and you’re good to go. So that’s our show for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Take good care.

Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.