Evening star., 1915-11-14
Does Eye Strain Cause
Headaches?
By EDWIN F. BOWERS, MID.

j hSuuuSiCo dIC CuuScu ny cNe Sltull,
and how they may be avoided?
Notwithstanding its small size and the
extreme delicacy of it's structure and
mechanism, the eye is probably the most
fool-proof organ we own.
None would be so foolish as to hold an
arm at right angles to the body for five
minutes at time. Yet the same indi-
vidual will persist with train-jiggled
. newspaper or magazine for hours He will
sit bareheaded an entire forenoon, with
the bright CLINT of the water sptefully
slapping his eyes. He will pucker up his
lids and screw his eyes to white stretch
of beach, or to the wahbly road ahead of
his machine, without the least idea or
care for eye-consequences.
He will sit facing the cleaning sun. and
squint at the antics of twenty men and a
little leather-covered sphere hours on end
He will read with the garing electric
lights pouring full stream into his pupils,
instead of on his page.
And then he will wonder why his head
aches, why he sometimes feels na,lseatel.
and why he should be fatigued! Natur-
ally, all eye abuses are not accorded iden-
tical punishment. Strong, vigorous ind-
viduals may, by an effort, overcome the
fatigue and reflex action from extra slim
ulation of the cliary nerves and muscles,
which, by pulling the lenses and thereby
slightly changing the shape of the eye
balls, alter the focus.
Yet, nervous school girl, or a neuras-
thenic woman might, for much slghter
lapses, suffer agonizing headaches, dys-
pepsa, loss of appetite insomnia, and an
aggravation of the million and one symp-
toms characteristic of nervous instability. T
In fact, the complex and apparently
dissociated symptoms that may arise from
eye abuse, or from ocular unbalance. are
a source of never-ending wonder, even to
physicians, whose bump of wonder is pop
ularly supposed to be atrophied. {.
On reflection, however, the reason for
these disagreeable refeXes is clear The
centers of vision--in other words, those
areas in the brain which control the func-
tion of sight-are closely connected with
many other most important centers
Thus, strain and fatigue of the eye
muscles are communicated to the centers
governing the pneumogastric nerve
which has a very great deal of influence
over the stomachs state of mind SO
when, for instance, we look at a watery
its pitching and tossing, is constantly
changing our focus of vision, the eye-cen-
ters convey this irritation to the stomach
centers, and they do the rest.
Indeed so intimate is the relation be-
tween eve strain, headache, and stomach
trouble, that so eminent an authority as
DIR. George M. Gould contends that every
case of migraine, or sick headache, has its
origin in eye strain, and can be pcrma-
nently cured only by correcting this con-
dition.
To avoid headaches, sick stomachS.
muscular weaknesses, nervous exhaustion.
and all the protean ailments arising from
eye strain is simplicity itself. Merely
: prevent the strain. The most important
aid to this noble and praiseworthy end
tafter correcting retroactive errors is the
wearing of amber colored glasses.
These eliminate the "white lights or
"glares, and permit only 1.-The mellow and
more natural yellow light to visit ,the
retina aid optic nerves. Amber lenses
are to tired eyes what food, rest, and
K recreation are to tired bodies