This page may be the most controversial, but these things need to be discussed. There are numerous discussion forums in several languages scattered over the world. They are full of people of all ages suffering the effects of eye floaters. They are frustrated with the lack of locally available effective treatments for their condition. They are just as frustrated with the professional attitudes and perceived lack of concern over their condition. A common experience is the reassurance by eye doctors that the eyes are indeed healthy and that there is nothing to worry about because there is no “pathology”. They are also commonly reassured that the symptoms will diminish with time in some vaguely-described way.
The Discussion Forums: Pros and Cons
People suffering floaters who are dissatisfied with their doctors (lack of ) treatment will often turn to the internet for more information and might stumble into a discussion forum. Discussion forums are typically a grassroots, democratic, unregulated, and often very minimally moderated internet phenomenon. In short, anyone can say or post just about anything. Moderators try to reduce or eliminate spam, and any particularly inflammatory posts. I can really only observe the English-language forums (Degenerative Vitreous Forum , YAHOO Health Forums , and One Clear Vision ). I believe many of the forum participants are smart and well read on the topic of floaters. They often know more about floaters than many doctors. I think they are a generally younger group of floater sufferers. Young patients are particularly frustrated with their floaters because:
- this may be the first health-related thing that has happened to them
- they are generally not good candidates or have not had success with the laser treatment for floaters
- their floaters may be microscopic and very difficult for the examining doctor to see and appreciate
- because of the relatively unimpressive mass, volume, and extent of the floaters, the retina specialists are likely very reluctant to recommend a surgical vitrectomy
- Of the various age groups of patients I see and evaluate, they are often the most frustrated, anxious, and depressed over their floaters
This is the classic setup for a frustrated patient who feels disenfranchised from the traditional medical community. This situation exists wherever traditional allopathic physicians have not treated a condition well. This exists wherever patients are frustrated such as with treatment for chronic pain, fibromyalgia, chronic gastrointestinal complaints, etc. These people, with hope and optimism, turn to the discussion forums for emotional support, information (and sometime disinformation), and the cure. Because anyone can contribute, I find many suggestions for treatment on the forums that are unsupported anecdotes, unscientific, and some, downright ludicrous. Interestingly enough, these suggestions for treatment are often uncritically accepted.
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, HERE ARE EXAMPLES OF FLOATERS TREATMENTS OFFERED UP THROUGHOUT THE INTERNET FOLLOWED BY DR. JOHNSON’S COMMENTS
Supplements
There is a common sentiment that floaters are caused by a lack of something or a toxic accumulation of something. It is all over the internet. One of the most egregious examples is on a website called eyecarebasics (dot) com. They have suggested in no particular order: antioxidants, serrapeptase enzyme, taurine, magneium, vitamin A, selenium, lutein, zeaxanthine, gingko, lysine, bilberry, bupleurum, white peony, tree peony, Dong Guai, Poria, Atractylodes, Ginger, Gardenia, Licorice, Coleus, Milk Thistle, Dandelion, Eyebright and Hoelen. On this site, they state that all of these are “associated with promoting eye health and healing vision conditions including eye floaters“. There are no cited references or explanations as to how these supplements may work other than vague statements about eye health.
In another unsupported article on eHOW (dot) com titled “How to Treat Floaters in the Eye”, the author states:
“Follow an antioxidant-rich diet to promote eye health. The National Eye Institute’s Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) found that people who took vitamins C and E and the minerals zinc and copper had less risk of developing advanced macular degeneration, a form of eye disease. Though the AREDS formulation of nutritional supplements was not specifically designed to treat floaters in the eye, taking vitamins to keep your eyes and vitreous fluid healthy may be beneficial to your overall well-being.”
While this is quite true for macular degeneration of the retina, there is no evidence or suggestion that it will have any affect on the current state or natural course of eye floaters. These grassroots, democratic, easy access online publishing venues do little, in my opinion to improve access to facts about eye floaters, and could in some cases be harmful.
Homeopathy. All Homeopathy.
As early as the 16th century, Paracelsus declared small doses of “what makes a man ill also cures him.” around 1796, Samuel Hahnemann, a physician in Philadelphia began outlining his theories of “medical similars” or the “doctrine of specifics” in a series of articles and monographs. Homeopathy is a vitalist philosophy that interprets diseases and sickness as caused by disturbances in a hypothetical vital force or life force. Remember, this was developed as the current state of medicine recommended blood-lettings and well before the cells, bacteria, or viruses were known. Homeopathy uses many animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic substances in its remedies. Some modern homeopaths have considered more esoteric bases for remedies, known as imponderables because they do not originate from a material but from electromagnetic energy presumed to have been “captured” by alcohol or lactose. In producing remedies for diseases, homeopaths use a process called dynamisation or potentisation whereby a substance is diluted with alcohol or distilled water and then vigorously shaken by ten hard strikes against an elastic body in a process called succussion. The preparation would then be diluted, usually with water, and then the succussion would be repeated. Hahnemann believed that the succussion activated the vital energy of the diluted substance and made it stronger. By this logic, the more it is diluted, the stronger the effect! The end product is often so diluted that it is indistinguishable from the dilutant (pure water, sugar or alcohol). Homeopathic pills are just a variation and are made from an inert substance (often sugars, typically lactose), upon which a drop of liquid homeopathic preparation is placed. The extreme dilutions used in homeopathic preparations usually leave none of the original material in the final product. The proposed rationale for these extreme dilutions by homeopaths – that the water contains the “memory” or “vibration” from the diluted ingredient – is counter to the laws of chemistry and physics, such as the law of mass action. In 2010, the British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded (in part) that:
- that the evidence base shows that homeopathy is not efficacious (that is, it does not work beyond the placebo effect) and that explanations for why homeopathy would work are scientifically implausible.
- homeopathy is a placebo treatment
- prescribing pure placebos is bad medicine. Their effect is unreliable and unpredictable and cannot form the sole basis of any treatment
Our conclusion is that all forms of Homeopathy can only be as effective as placebo. Unfortunately, placebos can only effective if the patient is not aware of the placebo effect. Unlike physical symptoms like pain, or gastrointestinal problems which can be significantly modified by neurological and psychological factors, the perception of the vitreous condensations that cast shadows onto the retina are not so easily modified. We can not recommend homeopathic remedies for any floater treatment.
If it is old, it must be good
This may apply to occasional references to ancient Chinese or other older folk remedies for various medical conditions. Again, from Eyecarebasics(dot)com, “ancient Chinese solutions such as acupuncture and accupressure have been found to have some benefits for the treatment of eye floaters”. That’s it. That’s all it says. No pesky or bothersome references on this statement either.
Vibrational Energy Cure & other forms of Pseudoscientific Magical Thinking
Here is a portion of a post from the Degenerative Vitreous Community discussion forum:
“…she told me about a gifted healer living in Colorado who, given the fact that everything vibrates at its own specific frequency and working along the same principle as an opera singer shattering a glass by singing specific pitch, developed very precise formulas that counter the frequencies of many diseases and symptomologies. So, your floaters and what causes them vibrate, a vibrational energy that counters this can destroy the vibration of the floaters. Same as the singer, the glass vibrates at a specific frequency, the note that is sung causes the glass to shatter. The frequency of the remedy dissolves the floaters. If you tend towards conventional remedies, this may require some suspension of disbelief. It all physics, it’s fact.”(source).
There are unreasonable assumptions and conclusions all throughout this statement. The first is perpetuating of the myth of the high-pitched opera singer being able to shatter glass. The obvious lesson here is that if you say something confidently enough, throw in some pseudoscience, it is bound to find a harmonic resonance with somebody susceptible enough to receive it.
