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Eye Floaters

Overlooked Causes and a Possible Treatment

I've had floaters in both eyes, especially my left eye, for most of my life. Eye floaters are common conditions for many people in the general population, and especially common for people with connective tissue disorders. They are little specs that float around in your field of vision.

Sometimes the floaters in my eyes would increase in number and get very bothersome. I've had them checked out on numerous occasions by different opthamologists, but I was always told that otherwise my eyes seemed fine and that the floaters were nothing to worry about. If you have floaters, you should always have them checked out by a doctor as they can be signs of more serious conditions.

An Old Home Remedy for Eye Floaters....

"I have found the juice of one lemon taken in a little hot water remove dizzy feelings in the head, accompanied by specks and lights dancing before the eyes, consequent upon the liver being out of order, in half an hour."

From Food Remedies: Fact About Foods and Their Medical Uses, Florence Daniel, C. W. Daniel, 11 Cursitor Street, London. Published 1908.

I stumbled across how greatly reduce the number of my eye floaters by accident one day when I was using trigger point therapy to relieve a tension headache. I used to get many tension headaches just on the left side of my head -- the same side I saw most of my floaters on. I have mild scoliosis, my left shoulder is a bit higher and more forward than it ideally should be. It is also tighter than my right shoulder, and that general area around my left shoulder has more tension than other parts of my body.*

When I used trigger point therapy to massage the tension points on the left side of my head, my left eye floaters also decreased. I noticed after that that my floaters would increase whenever I was on the computer a lot and my left shoulder, arm and neck would get tight. They would decrease when I did yoga and trigger point therapy.

One of the reasons my left shoulder gets tight is that over time my torso tend to slightly twist to the right. This creates a tight muscles in my front left shoulder and back right shoulder. To reverse this problem I do yoga poses that twist my torso to the left. This helps to relieve the tightness in my left shoulder, reduce my floaters, reduce the pain in the back of my neck and it even helps my occasional vertigo. For more on the specific yoga poses that helped me, see my section on yoga poses for eye floaters.

Adding more magnesium rich foods to my diet also seemed to help, as magnesium is the main nutrient responsible for muscle relaxation. I didn't realize it for many years, but I suspect now that tight muscles constricting nerve pathways and/or blood flow to the eye may contribute to seeing floaters.

I've notice that I see more floaters if I drink even a half a cup of coffee or more. I don't know if this is because the coffee tightens up my muscles, because coffee tends to deplete magnesium levels or there is some other reason. However, I have tracked my floaters on a number of occasions after drinking coffee and each time they have increased.

Sine this site has been up I've had at least several emails from people who developed floaters after taking up weightlifting. One weightlifter also reported symptoms of a connective tissue disorder, including scoliosis. He said that when he eased up on the weight lifting, his floaters decreased. In his case he saw the floaters on the side where his shoulder was lower due to scoliosis.

Update April 18th, 2005: Yesterday I made a lot of progress getting the persistent knotted muscles relaxed in my left shoulder. I spent some time resting face down on my pillow with my face turned to the right, which stretched out the muscles in my neck and shoulder on the left side. I had avoided doing this in the past because it was uncomfortable because the muscles were so tight I had a hard time turning my face to the right. I also spent quite a bit of time on general yoga stretches to relieve tension in my shoulders and under arms and I was not on the computer at all.

Today when I woke up was the first time in a long time that I didn't see any floaters when I looked at the white ceiling in my bedroom. However, they started coming back again, very faintly, when I spent a lot of time on the computer in the morning. So I do suspect that at least in my case the floaters are caused by tight neck and shoulder muscles, since they went away when the muscles were lengthened and relaxed and came back after doing PC work.

Since this page has been up, one of my web site readers wrote to me who said he developed both floaters and scoliosis after receiving chiropractic treatment. He reported that his floaters disappeared when his spinal curvature was successfully corrected. Interestingly, a number of other people have emailed that they first started seeing floaters after having a back, neck, or repetitive strain injury in their upper body.

Interesting Links: Eye floaters have been linked to glaucoma, glaucoma is linked to increased pressure in the eye, and a recent study linked glaucoma to extensive computer usage. A recent article on Yahoo! News noted that glaucoma has also been linked to weightlifting: researchers found that eye pressure increased during the breath-holding that was performed as a part of the training routine.

If you put all of these together, I suspect that muscular tension in the upper body from activities such as repetitive stress injuries from too much computer use or an activity like weight training that also tighten muscles puts pressure on nerves, veins and arteries leading to and from the eye, causing increased eye pressure, which in turn may be a factor in both floaters and glaucoma.

Here is my eye floater theory laid out -

Various combinations of factors such as computer usage / lifting weights / magnesium deficiency / coffee consumption / (which causes the body to lose magnesium and constricts blood vessels ) factor into

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Muscular tension in the neck and shoulder area which in turn

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Puts pressure on the veins, nerves and arteries leading to and from the eye, which puts pressure like a thumb pressing down and restricting the flow of water in a garden hose, and in turn may be a factor in

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Eye floaters, Glaucoma + possibly other related eye disorders

The good news is that in my personal experience I have been able to reduce the number of floaters in my eyes by having a magnesium rich diet, avoiding coffee and other magnesium antagonists, limiting computer use, and practicing yoga and trigger point therapy to reduce tension in my upper body.

Most doctor web sites claim that seeing a few floaters from time to time is normal and is not a matter for concern. However, I suspect that doctors are confusing what is common with what is desirable. It is normal for many people in the U.S. to be overweight, however that does not mean being overweight is either normal or desirable. I suspect the same is true for floaters--they may be a common condition, but probably not a sign of ideal health.

While I don't know the exact cause of floaters, I do suspect based on my experience and that of the readers who emailed me about their floaters that muscular tension putting pressure on the veins, nerves (perhaps the optic nerve) and/or arteries that connect to the eye may play a causative role in at least some cases of floaters.

Recommended Books:

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies. While I still have one or two floaters from time to time in my left eye, the trigger point exercises in this book helped me to reduce my floaters by about 70%.

In my case I found the scalp muscle information on page 69 and the orbicularis oculi section on page 66 the most helpful. According to the author, orbicularis oculi trigger points cause pain immediately above the eye and to the bridge and side of the nose.

Structural Yoga Therapy: Adapting to the Individual by Mukunda Stiles. This book has a section of shoulder joint freeing exercises. I noticed that when I would reduce the tension in my shoulder with yoga, my floaters would decrease, too.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much,
we would have found the safest way to health.

Hippocrates c. 460 - 377 B.C.

* I also have problems with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) on my left side. (Click here for a good description and diagram of TOS.) I also have problems with my left shoulder joint popping.

Related Web Pages:

Yoga for Eye Floaters - some poses I found helpful.

Scoliosis - diet and exercise treatments.

Scoliosis Exercise: How Balancing my Muscles
Helped My Spinal Curvature

Alternative health treatments for frozen shoulders

Chronic neck pain Treatment

Migraine Headaches

Connective tissue disorders

Popping joints

Nystagmus