Page 469 - Total War on PTSD

Optometry alone isn’t enough for all patient cases; for severe cases, the optometric interventions can synchronize sensory systems such as eye/ear connections and calm the nervous system, but it takes a village of various types of practitioners to address multiple imbalances. The Institute now consists of separate divisions including one section for research, another for creating clinical centers and training new doctors, a third on visual rehabilitation, and a fourth area focused on the development and acquisition of advanced patented technology.
Soldiers often have to deal with various levels of stress, grief, anger and fear, which each take a toll on the overall body and mind. If some of these systems remain in a chronic hyper-sensitized mode due to a traumatic event or chronic exposure to severe discomfort or environmental stressors, a patient may develop PTSD.
Despite all the recent research and new understanding of the critical role of the retina, 20/20 central eyesight is still considered as the criteria for prescribing an eyeglass. Testing blocks off peripheral receptors, even though the heart rate and other body functions are connected to peripheral processing. Looking at an object clearly and directly is the slowest pathway for information processing and only activated when conscious attention is placed on a specific target. This classic, image-forming eyesight pathway is not even present in newborn infants; it develops later, within a few months of age, after other retinal pathways are already in place. Most eye examinations evaluate 20/20 eyesight capability by having a patient sit in a darkened room, looking straight ahead at a lighted, non-moving target. This testing method was developed in the 1862 as a way of standardizing eye exams. The 20/20 measurement isn’t taking into account the relationship between attention and awareness, which are different and used as a team. When we are driving, we are subconsciously “aware” of vehicles
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