Mindshare Future of Health Award Winner: The Misdiagnosis and Missed Opportunities of Vision

Vision Problems Beyond Eyesight 0:00

So what if everything you knew about vision was wrong? I'm going to show you some things here. Motion sickness, screen fatigue, tears with homework, lazy eye, eye turns, trouble catching a ball, limited eye contact, falling asleep reading, learning differences, concussion symptoms, These are all vision problems. Hi, I'm Dr. Bryce Appelbaum. I am a neurooptometrist, board certified in vision therapy, and my work is the missing piece that many of my patients never knew they needed.

Vision Therapy and Brain-Based Vision 0:42

Healthcare has it entirely wrong about the eyes. Most doctors are solely focused on the pursuit of 2020 eyesight. Yet eyesight and vision are separate entities. Eye sight's our ability to see, whether that's letters on a letter chart or a street sign or what the teacher writes on the board in the classroom. Vision is far more complex. vision is how our eyes move together and converge and track and focus and process information and how we derive meaning from the world around us and direct

Reading and Learning Challenges 1:22

the appropriate action. Eye site is glasses. Vision is brain. And vision problems are brain problems. I'm here today to tell you that there is a fix for these brain problem and something called vision therapy. A treatment designed to rewire the software of the brain to change how somebody takes in the world around them and processes visual information. There are two areas of life that I'd like to highlight today. The first, reading, learning, and academics. Vision is our dominant sensory system.

And sadly, one in 10 kids has a vision problem significant enough to impact learning. When children haven't developed the visual skills necessary to meet the virtual demands, they'll experience symptoms like losing their place with reading, skipping words, skipping lines, words going into and out of focus and becoming blurry or sometimes even double, difficulty copying off the board in the classroom, and of course, trouble focusing. And so often in the medical world, labels like ADD, ADHD, dyslexia are just slapped on behaviors when these are hidden functional vision problems.

If you know a child who struggles in school, hates reading, or is squirmy with their desk work, chances are they have a vision problem that is treatable

Concussion and Visual Recovery 2:45

with vision therapy. The second area of life I'd like to highlight is concussion. There are more areas of our brain dedicated to processing vision than all of these senses combined. And two thirds of the neurons entering our brains actually originate from our eyes. So it's kind of impossible to have a head injury and not have vision be impacted. It's just a matter of at what level. And suddenly, normal activities of daily life, like going to the mall or grocery store, can become completely visually overwhelming because the brain can't process all of that sensory input.

Or reading or engaging with screens starts to elicit dizziness, blurred vision, and nausea. With vision therapy, we can literally rewire the mind to change how somebody is using vision and establish order from all that disorder. And with the right work, motivation, and compliance, almost every concussion can return to previous level of function and return-to-learn and returned to life. I know each and every one of you in here today has been thinking of at least one person where you now recognize vision is the missing piece to their puzzle.

Call to Recognize Hidden Vision Issues 4:05

And before today, you're excused because you didn't know that this help existed. But now that you know, everyone in here has a responsibility to act. Don't let your friends, family members, or your patients go through life unnecessarily struggling because of hidden or misdiagnosed vision problems. I'm officially lighting a fire under all of you. Go spread the word.