The No.1 Eye Doctor: They’re Lying To You About Blue Light! The Truth About Floaters! Turn This Phone Setting On To Save Your Eyes!

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

There's a lot of misconceptions around how we get bags under our eyes. I always assume it's that stressed and they haven't been sleeping.

Joseph Allen (0:05)

So I did research to look into this, and a lot of people don't know this, but it's actually true.

Steven Bartlett (0:09)

Really? So if I never want to get bags under my eyes again, what is the natural, easy solution?

Joseph Allen (0:15)

Try this.

SPEAKER_3 (0:16)

Dr. Joseph Allen is the board-certified eye doctor, helping millions of people understand eye health and unlocking the secrets behind achieving sharper and healthier vision.

Steven Bartlett (0:24)

I really want to talk to you about so many misconceptions because I don't know what's true.

Joseph Allen (0:28)

Sure.

Steven Bartlett (0:29)

Okay, so my vision loss being inevitable, is that true?

Joseph Allen (0:32)

Unfortunately, there are changes that occur with age that will change your eyesight and vision, but there's a lot of things that can help prevent and slow down progression and we'll go into them.

Steven Bartlett (0:41)

And then every once in a while, my eyelid starts twitching. What is that?

Joseph Allen (0:44)

Eyelid myokymia. So that is your threshold of your stress. You get more sleep and stop drinking so much caffeine.

Steven Bartlett (0:50)

What about blue light? Is that harmful?

Joseph Allen (0:52)

The blue light that comes from your digital screens has consistently shown in research to not increase the risk of aging eye diseases. And research on using blue light glasses shows that it could just be placebo effect. But if you're worried about how blue light is affecting you, just moving your phone back twice as far will decrease your blue light exposure by 75%.

Steven Bartlett (1:09)

And more people are starting to care about that eye health than ever before. But is our eye health getting better or worse?

Joseph Allen (1:13)

Worse. For example, right now, about 30% of the world's population is near sighted. But by about 2050, we will have about 50% to be near sighted because of our lifestyle.

Steven Bartlett (1:23)

So, how much screen time being indoors, reading books up close, is okay?

Joseph Allen (1:27)

It depends on age, so...

Steven Bartlett (1:35)

Who are you? What you do? And I think most importantly of all, why is it so important that you do it?

Joseph Allen (1:42)

I am a doctor of optometry. I am a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, and I am a diplomat of the American Board of Optometry. So I practice eye care here in the US, and I see patients for all sorts of eye conditions, whether that be diagnosing, managing, anything from vision problems, this simply is like nearsightedness or astigmatism, to fitting contact lenses, to diagnosing different diseases in the back of the eye, and then prescribing medications or therapy to try and prevent that from getting worse or to help treat it. On top of all of this, I also host on various social media channels a educational website about helping people learn about the eyes, their vision, and finding the best vision products. And that really falls back to my mission of just helping people see their very best today, but also keeping them see their best tomorrow.

Steven Bartlett (2:45)

And when you think about where we are as humans, as it relates to our eye health, like what's the macro picture? Like what's going on? I don't know whether it's just because I'm getting older, but I'm wondering if more people are starting to care about their eye health than ever before, and if they are, why? And is our eye health getting better or worse?

Joseph Allen (3:06)

I want to say that I think people generally are being more interested in eyes and vision. Unfortunately, part of that is probably because they're noticing more problems, right? People are starting to notice dysfunctions or more problems with their eye strain. They're noticing more problems with dry eye. Children are starting to become nearsighted, faster and to greater degrees.

And because of those factors, we're also seeing a lot more eye health conditions in the back of the eye. That also is reflected with other metabolic diseases like diabetes. Significantly causes damage and leads to potential blindness inside the eye. So there's a lot of factors to it.

Steven Bartlett (3:56)

What's changing? You know, you referred to some of the situations there as becoming more or worse, etc. That would suggest that there's something environmental or within our lifestyle that's having an impact on that.

Joseph Allen (4:08)

So again, there's many factors that go into it. But certainly, just having an aging population, our population, a lot of people are starting to move into older age groups. We also have aftermath of poor diet. A lot of people with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other conditions that cause ripple effects down the road. And then our society has changed, especially in the form of lifestyle, beyond diet. Also what we do throughout the day.