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!

27:22But this crystalline lens is actually about the size of an M &M by put these together. It's kind of that shape. When you're born, this lens is clear and thin. And so the muscle inside the eye actually pulls on this lens to change its shape. And that's what helps you as a little kid see all the way toward the front of your nose. As you get older, this lens gains an extra layer, basically every year of your life. And so, as you get older, if you ever look up on images online, you can actually see rings. Or these little lines. And it's like looking at the rings of a tree. So you can basically count those and be like, look how old this person is.

28:04So by the time everybody's about in their early 40s, there's algorithms that predict this with high accuracy. And in school, I had memorized them. I don't really need to use them as much anymore. So I haven't thought about it for a while. But these, as this lens gets thicker, it basically gets thicker every year. It gets to a point where the lens starts to, the crystals within that lens start to change shape. They become more crystallized, rigid. And so even though the muscle inside the eye is still pulling on this lens, it's like pulling on a hard stiff marble. It doesn't want to change shape anymore.

28:45And so that's why people can gradually like, I can't quite keep things as clear anymore. And so it's gradually getting worse and worse. Okay. Eventually, once you get closer to the ages of 50, 60, 70, 80, this lens continues to get thicker, harder. But then the crystals start to change color. They go from being clear to being more of a faint yellow color, to a darker yellow, whitish color. And that's what we call a cataract. And so people lose vision because that cataract is so such a dense color, that light is not filtering, it's not passing through to getting to the retina in the back of the eye anymore.

29:29So what you do, cut it out. So there is, thankfully, cataract surgery is an amazing surgery. I think it's probably one of the more fascinating surgeries that's out there. They, what modern cataract surgery does, they either use a laser or they physically have to open up parts of the eye, but they use a procedure called feco emulsification. It's basically using ultrasound to shatter the lens into dust. And then they have a small vacuum tube that sucks up all the particles out of the eye. But then a new plastic lens is inserted into the eye into that place, and that new plastic lens can be made to account for any glasses prescription that you need.

30:15Okay. And what's fascinating for you and I is that, so this form of cataract surgery has been evolving and getting better and better over generations, but the new lens implants that they've been engineering are just outstanding, even right now, because now they can make multifocal lenses. They can have lenses that change shape based on how you are using your eyes. And then it's basically not needing bifocals, not needing glasses as much, in some cases, if at all. And so I keep on thinking like, wow, where this technology is right now, where is it going to be in 30, 40 years when you and I are getting to that point where we might need to think about it?

30:56Who knows what we're going to have. I reckon we'll have cameras. I hope so. Are people working on that kind of thing? I bet someone's working on some kind of camera electric eyeball. You know, I did hear of some research maybe about five, six years ago, somebody talking about it, but since then, the things have kind of gone quiet. They are probably in the last year, one of the last few years, there's been interest and research into making like augmented reality contact lenses that are quite fascinating. And then there is the kind of one of the newest things is the first whole eye transplant. That was one of the kind of the coolest things that have come up recently.

31:39There was an eye transplant. So a gentleman was injured in the, he was a US military, but something happened on the job, electrical damage to his face, his eye. He ended up having partial face transplant, and then a whole eye transplant. And at this time, it was the first one ever done. The eye is so unique and so complex. That when they finally do this transplant, it's sort of shaken the eye care role a little bit. I just read like a one year publication in JAMA that was basically summarizing what it's been like after this last year. And it's amazing because the eye did connect to the optic nerve, because the eye again is so complex.

32:26So they had to not only connect muscles to the eyeball, but they had to connect the optic nerve from the donor tissue to the host. And keeping that the right amount of blood supply, having it so it didn't reject, is a really tough feat. And what they have now, they find that the last paper I just read, that the eye is still doing well. It's still got blood flow. It's making aqueous humor, the kind of the clear blood within the eye. And through functional MRIs and electro -retinograms that we can do in the clinic, they have been able to show that there is electrical activity going to the patient's brain.

33:09Unfortunately, he does not have any eyesight, or he cannot detect light with it. But I think just this is the first step of showing like, wow, we actually can try this. We can get it so it actually is safe. So it's pretty fascinating. God, it's going to be a matter of time, isn't it? You said that the eye is complex. I was reading some stats around the eye, that blew my mind. The eye contains over two million working parts and is considered the second most complex organ in the body. I guess the brain is the first. And the eyeball is really an extension of the brain. Right. The retina in the back of the eye communicates directly through the optic nerve to many parts of the brain.

33:54Your eyes are capable of processing 36 ,000 pieces of information and hour. Your eyes will process 24 million images throughout your lifetime, contributing to 85 % of your total knowledge. And there's a comment saying that the eye is a window to your soul, showing how the eyes are so expressive that they can reveal a lot of our persons in a state, which we talked about a second ago. That's just crazy. That particular stat around 85 % of my total knowledge will basically come from my eye. When you say it, I kind of understand it because I can't read it. I'm learning through my eyeballs, but it is cause for protecting our eyes.

34:31And the things you've described there, cataracts, and these are the sort of eye conditions. Cataracts in particular, is that something that I can stave off by making better choices with my life? So people who do smoke, people who drink more, that increases their oxidation. So the cataract formation mostly occurs due to oxidative stress within the eye. In fact, the most vitamin C in the body is within the eye, and it's in a solution that bays around that lens and helps prevent it from oxidizing. So best things is try not to smoke, drinking, not to do too much. The sunlight does play a role in aging of the lens.

35:21And so there's epidemiological studies on age -related eye diseases that have found that people who spend more time outdoors without sunlight protection, without wide -brim hats, without sunglasses, they are more likely to develop conditions like cataracts. There's different types of cataracts. There's one specific type of cataract called a cortical cataract. That kind of looks like bicycle spokes. If you're looking in the eye, like I do in the exam room, you can see these bicycle spokes. And those have been found to be more related to UV light exposure. And then, as far as taking supplements, vitamins, those sort of things, because things like vitamin C are a water -soluble vitamin, once you have enough vitamin C in your body, you just urinate out everything else.

36:06So there have been studies on people who are malnourished and don't get enough vitamin C, that giving them vitamin C can help slower delay the onset of cataracts. But if you already are getting proper nutrition, taking additional vitamin C's, probably not going to delay your onset of cataract specifically. I learned something from you, actually, from your Instagram, which I think is really going to do me a lot of favors, because I'm someone that spends a lot of time on my phone in recently. And you alerted me to the fact that there's actually a feature in the iPhone, which will help me stave off my myopia potentially.

36:47Perhaps. So thankfully, again, the eye care community is not the only people who are aware of these issues with using devices up close. But thankfully, whether it be Apple -specific or with your iPhone, but also the other phone manufacturers, people who are making these devices now have software that tracks, hey, you're holding this really close to your face. We want you to push it further back. So thankfully, they do have those sort of notifications that people can turn on. I'll admit that I turned mine on for a while, and I eventually got so annoyed with it. I wanted to push it further back.

37:21So I kept it on for a while. I eventually took it off. But maybe I'll have to put it back on again. Just a serving good example. So there's it was a feature release in 2023, and essentially sends you a notification whenever your phone is 12 inches or something. I don't remember exactly how close it is, but we do know that on average people hold their phones and devices around eight inches away from their face. So pretty close. And it's important to consider moving things further back. And part of that can be because certainly I strain relationships, possibly myopia, and then even blue light. I know people are getting really concerned and interested around the blue light world, especially since COVID, that really blew up at that time.

38:11But just moving your phone back twice as far, will decrease your blue light exposure by 20, like a full 75%. So if you're worried about how blue light's affecting you, it's like just move your phone back a few inches. And that's how I'm actually going to decrease your blue light exposure from that device. I don't think most people know that this feature even exists because I don't think Apple really ever announced it or did it marked in campaign around it. But in the setting section of your phone or your iPad, et cetera, it's under screen time. And in the screen time, there's a button called screen distance.

38:44And it says to reduce the eye strain and risk of myopia in children, screen distance will alert you to hold an iPhone or iPad with Face ID at a recommended distance. And in the small print, it says screen distance works by measuring the distance between the screen and your eyes. The camera is not capturing images or your face. And the data collected remains on the device. So if I click continue, it then says, this is how screen distance works. Screen distance encourages you to move your iPhone and iPad further away to support your vision health. The next section says vision distance or viewing distance.

39:18iPhone or iPad should be held at a suggested distance of 30 centimeters from your eyes. Interesting. Those are recommendations, but how many people actually follow that? No one. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you'll see people do that and it just gradually over time gets closer and closer. And kids probably are even worse because they are, Mac, we have smaller arms, right? But then they just bring it right up close. Right? They want that phone screen to take up all of their visual field. And so it is, I think it's a good habit. I think it's something. Tell me, have you, have you turned it on? Has it something that you've utilized?

39:57I turned it on when I was in preparation for you coming here today. So I, I didn't know it existed until I was researching you. And so I've had it on for about a day. Frankly, I haven't actually got the notification yet, but it's not been on long enough. I don't think for me to have an opinion on it just yet. But you said it was annoying you. So I'm, it's definitely going to annoy me if it annoy you. So my, my challenge was that in the evenings, I work contacts most of the time. And I take my contact lenses out in the evening and I go back to glasses. And sometimes I'll lay, I'll like lay down and I'll take my glasses off because I'm so news -sided, I have to see my, I want to see the screen, but I have to hold the screen just a few centimeters in front of my face.

40:37Because I'm that news -sided. And then it would just give me that warning the whole time. And it delays, it has like a few seconds of a delay once I pull it back before it actually shows me the screen again. So I was doing it so much I'm like, I know that I should pull the screen away and I should just take a break. But it was, it was delaying my productivity. So that, that's why, but again, to set a good example, I'll probably turn it back on and see how it goes. And if you have kids, you can always, you know, they're probably doing much, that's productive. You can always turn it on their devices, I guess.

41:09Yeah, I think so. I think it's also a good habit to lead by example for kids and try to be aware of how much time you're spending on your phone in front of your kids. Because your kids are going to see that and they're going to probably mimic that same behavior. I want to talk to you about bags into my eyes. It's a subject that I know a lot of people are interested in. And there's a lot of misconceptions around how we get bags into our eyes. I think most people think bags into their eyes are because they're tired or something. And is there a difference between having bags into my eyes and having sort of dark circles under my eyes?

41:44So when it comes to having dark circles under eye bags, dark circles is something that people are definitely concerned about. It's a huge topic online. I see all the time people ask about it in the eye clinic. Having dark circles under the eyes is technically different than having under eye bags. But if you have under eye bags, it'll make the appearance of dark circles worse. Okay. So dark circles in the clinic, we think first, what somebody's skin pigmentation like is the dark circle just because they have more pigmentation. And if you're somebody who spends a lot of time in the sunlight, you are more likely to develop darker skin complexion around the eyelids.

42:21The eyelids are some of the thinnest, most delicate tissue of skin on your body. And in fact, a lot of people who don't know this, but having skin cancer on your under lower eyelids actually pretty high. So it's good to be wearing either a wide room hat or sunglasses to protect the eyes from sunlight damage. The other kind of components is that if you have vascular changes, so myself, I have a really pale complexion. If I have bad allergies, that can cause the blood vessels around my eyelids to dilate. And so you'll see that color of just the blood vessels coming through the skin a lot easier.

43:02And then there's orbital shadow effects. Because some people's orbits, they have more prominent brow, it may cause kind of cast a shadow onto the lower eyelid. And that's where having under eye bags can also make the eyelids seem like they have kind of a dark circles. Because the eyelids are puffy. And you can have puffyness of the eyelids for multiple reasons. Allergies are a big one. Salt content of the cheer film. And even in your body can make some of those changes. I know for myself, if I have a cheat day and I eat a bunch of greasy, delicious pizza, the next morning, I can feel that my skin in my face is maybe a little bit more puffy.

43:48Thankfully, that goes away within a few hours. But that's why a lot of times, even just doing cold compresses. Right? You see people put cucumbers on their eyes. A lot of that is more, I have to do just the cooling temperature. Doing a cold compress for 10 at max 15 minutes can bring some of that puffiness down. And that can at least help improve the appearance. So if I have a really salty diet the night before, there's a greater probability I'll wake up with bags and demise. Possibly. Okay. I've tried to research this to find any real publications to see if it's really there. And I couldn't find anything.

44:24But I know from just my own anecdotal experience that if I eat a really high salt to diet. And I've done over the last eight years, I've really done a better job. I know you have two of like thinking about my diet, how that affects me, how my body feels after I eat something. And so I've noticed if I have a cheat day, that sort of thing can happen. And what's this sort of physiological rationale for salt playing a role? So your tear film, for example, you're tear, like I know some people will say, hey, if I have a watch a sad movie and I cry at night time, the next morning my eyes are super puffy.

45:00So your tears have salt in them. And because if you ever tried and tasted your tears, they taste salty, right? So the challenge is that when you have salt, it'll draw fluid into the tissues. And so if people cry the night before, the salt remaining in the tears, basically get into the tear ducts and sit on the surface of the eye and the eyelids. And then that can draw fluid into those tissues. The hydration play a role. That's also something that's been looked at in the research is not really conclusive. I think hydration is still something we need to, I do encourage people to at least be aware of their hydration.

45:36For dry eye, there is some research that indicates that people who are drink more water tend to have less severe symptoms of dry eye. Well, I see some with bags into their eyes. I used to think, well, I still kind of do think that it just means that they haven't slept. That, again, I recently did a live stream, I did research first and try to look into this. And they have looked at quality of sleep, time of sleep, and both the subjective and objective appearance of dark circles under the eyes. And they find that it is, if you have not been getting good sleep, objectively your under eye dark circles do not change.

46:17But your subjective appearance of your own image will go down. So you're, they find that for both sleep and stress. So you believe that you've got bigger, sort of dark circles or matches under your eyes, but objectively in reality, you haven't. Yeah. Because they can measure the type of light being reflected off the surface of your skin so they can see how much pigment and what type of light is being reflected. And so they've been able to find, oh, that it's purely just your subjective opinion of your own self image seems worse when you're tired. What about stress? Because I'm thinking about people that I've seen that have like big bags under their eyes and like, you know, their eyes kind of dark.

47:02I always assume it's their stress and they haven't been sleeping, but you're saying that that's not accurate necessarily. So at least in the few studies that I've been able to read that were published in the last five years, don't seem to find that conclusive. There are other physiological changes that happen when people don't sleep or under stress, right? Cortisol releases inflammation in the body will change. Hormones can change. So they may all play a role there. But right now it seems to have a less effect on the true pigmentation of the eyelids. Okay. And the cucumber and the cold compress and all that kind of stuff.

47:40Does that stuff work in changing the appearance of dark circles and bags under my eyes? Because when I film Dragon's Dern at TV show in the UK, if I sometimes it's weird because like sometimes when I'm under slept, I come into the studio and the makeup artist. She won't say anything to me, but she'll just put the cucumber on. And I know what she's saying. She's saying you look like shit, but she doesn't say it. And it's always when I haven't slept. So I put two and two together and thought, okay, well, she knows that my eyes don't look great today. But is it actually doing anything? The cucumber and the...

48:17The coolness effect I believe is going to be causing constriction of blood vessels. It's going to be helping the tissue come down and swelling. Just like if you bend your knee or elbow really hard on something, it swells. There's a little bit of inflammation. And so putting cold on there can help momentarily, but I wouldn't do it longer than 15 minutes. The reason why is because if you do it longer than 15 minutes, your blood vessels that can go the opposite way and cause more inflammation. There's other things like eye creams. There's a plethora of different eye creams on the market. Some of those do work to help constriction.

48:52Some of those are to help truly remove pigmentation. And a lot of those products can have effect, but it takes months to truly remove the pigment. So you're talking, you're using that two, three times a day for like 14, 15 weeks. But outside of that, if somebody has tried all those other avenues, talked with their dermatologist or an eye care provider of any kind, and things still aren't getting better, there are some surgical procedures that can be done to help people with the appearance of under eye bags and some doctor circles. What do they say to these days? They either use various forms of light or light therapies to help remove pigmentation.

49:36You have to be careful around the eyes when it comes to those sort of therapies, but they do exist. And then there's fillers, like they'll do hyaluronic acid fillers to change the shadowing effects around the eye. And then there's forms of what are called a blepharoplasty, which are true eyelid surgeries. And for that, you would want to see an ophthalmologist who specializes in those type of therapies or those type of surgeries. So if I never want to get dark circles, bags and demise again, what is the natural, easy solution? I do still encourage good sleep, eating healthy, staying hydrated. I think all of those things are good habits to have, because we know they affect the body in so many other ways.

50:20If somebody is truly struggling with it, then you can look at those various creams. But I definitely encourage people to talk to a medical provider, or whether a dermatologist or an eye care provider who specializes in that area. What about red light therapy? So red light, there's so much in red light, and this is I'm glad you brought that up, because this is something I've been diving kind of headfirst into into the research from many things in the eyes. With the eye bags specifically, I'll say that there is some newer publications showing that red light therapy can help with depigmentation around the eyelids and giving the eyelids more of a youthful appearance.

51:01I do wage caution though, because there's a lot of products that are online that offer red light therapy for various reasons. But they're not really standardized very well. And so there are also publications showing people who've had damage to the eyes, because they've used these various forms of red light therapies, devices they bought online, because the manufacturer states isn't actually what's being measured when they do it in the research and find out, hey, what type of wavelength is this, how much energy is being produced by the device? Because it's not the specific wavelength, the wavelength is important, but the amount of energy in the red light also super important.

51:52And if you have too much energy, you can go through the eyelid and go into the eye and cause damage. And so I think it's really important. This is still a very early area of research when it comes to the eye. And so I think I just urge caution to make sure whoever's listening, if you're thinking about red light therapy, you're thinking about getting a red light device specifically for eye care. Definitely talk to a specialist who works in that area. Okay. Okay. But red light. Have you heard much about red light in different areas? I've heard a lot about it. I don't know a huge amount about it.

52:27And I have two red light panels at home, which were given to me as a gift. My partner has one. We basically got each other the same Christmas present one year. But we did ask ourselves, we sat in front of it one day and said, what is this, like what does this do in terms of our health? And are we allowed to stare at it? The devices you come that you got, do they come with goggles? No. Okay. So that is sort of the concern I have. Is again, what energy is really not just what wavelengths of light is it emitting, but what's the energy and also how far away from the device are you sitting? What's the recommendations?

53:09And specifically with the eye, there is evidence that red light therapy can help with dry eyes. That red light therapy can help with macular degeneration, which is is a so age related macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness. For older age adults, so 50 plus 50 plus. In fact, if you're over the age of 40 and somebody's legally blind, 50 % of them, it's due to macular degeneration. And so probably some of the best research on red light in the eyes is on macular degeneration. In fact, there is it's certainly it's currently approved and being used in Europe. It's not approved in the US just yet, but it is going through FDA trials.

53:54But that is a form of red light therapy. It doesn't just use red light, it uses some near infrared light and a little bit of kind of a yellow light. But they shine that in the eye in intervals and they do it for a few weeks and then a few months you do it again. And for macular degeneration, they've been able to show that not only can the protein that builds up in the back of the eye in that condition diminish, but they can slow down and slow down the progression of macular degeneration. And for some people, even restore eyesight, they can actually help people see better using red light. Using that form of red light therapy.

54:32So again, very early research right now. The challenge with all these at home devices, whether it be for dry eye, whether it be for macular degeneration, there's again concern about the power density and about the potential change in temperature within the eye, because it could cause damage. There's also red light being utilized and investigated in Asia and in Australia for myopia for children. And so it's something that is really fascinating and I am looking forward to as more information comes out, but I personally, from digging into it and trying to understand it, it does make me concerned of how I think there's just not as good as standardization or understanding of really how it works and which devices are safe and which ones are more medically something that you should see a medical provider for.

55:37I read in the nature publication that a 2022 study with 20 participants receiving red light therapy twice a week for three weeks found that they had improved tear reduction, tear reduction and other dry eye symptoms compared to the placebo group tear reduction, what does that mean? So dry eye again is an area where red light therapies being utilized in right now. There's several studies on red light on its benefits for dry eye, but the two areas where it's believed to help the most is in helping you produce more of your own natural tears because the red light can shut down inflammation within the tissues and help you produce basically it helps the cell re more energized.

56:27The mitochondria within the cell can be activated by forms of red light and nitric oxide is also produced and then you have higher amounts of antioxidants. And so these cellular components in mice and then now in humans they're finding that tear production can be improved, which helps with dry eyes, which helps with dry eyes, but then also the red light can help with the mibomian glands in the eyelids. Your eyelids have about 25 to 30 glands, both the bottom and the top part of the eyelid. So it's actually on the eye lids, but the eye lids would be in front. They're in front. So my top eyelids have about 30 mibomian glands in them and my bottom eyelid has like 25 to 30.

57:15And every time you blink these glands have to release a little bit of oil that prevents your tear film from evaporating. And so there's a lot of implications that go into this, but what happens is as we get older, age is a big factor, but then you also have more we can talk about with device use and the fact that when we're staring at devices, we don't blink as often and we don't blink as completely when we're staring at the device. And so for that, along with diet and other inflammatory things, the glands stop producing oil as well. They become inflamed, the oils go from being a clear liquid to being a thick wax.

57:58They become yellow, they become cloudy, and they stop releasing oils in your tear film. And so with red light therapy, along with other therapies, but red light has been found to help with getting those oils to produce at least a little bit better. I think the research on red light and my bomingland dysfunction is still in its infancy, but we have a different form of therapy called IPL or intense pulse light, which has been even FDA approved for my bomingland dysfunction and treating dry eye. Is there any research being done on red light and myopia, a red light and short -sightedness? If I look at those red light panels I have at home, is that going to help with my progressive and short -sightedness?

58:43So there is research going into red light in myopia. It's being done in children. When it comes to the device you have at home, I have no idea what wavelength that is, I have no idea what power that is. The devices that are being researched and used in research are usually at home desk mounted device that kids will stare into for about three minutes, twice a day, morning and then night. And they are showing in those publications that they are able to slow down the rate of progression of myopia, and even for kids who haven't developed myopia, they are able to prevent them from developing myopia, which is really fascinating.

59:25There have been at least one study that looked at those devices and there is some concern that perhaps the power density is too high and could be at risk of causing damage to children's eyes. So again, it's still something heavily in research and I wouldn't recommend people go and purposely stare into a red light unless their doctor is prescribing it for something. And just because I'm an idiot, the red light is basically stimulating the mitochondria in the cell, which is kind of like the engine in the cell, and that's making it produce more of the good stuff. Specifically ATP, a denocene trifosvate, the cell uses for energy.

1:00:09What about gazing at the sun? Because I've been told so many things when I was younger, it was like never look at the sun and then I got older and people are like, no, like stare at the sun, and now I don't know what's true. Yeah, don't stare at the sun. Even for like a second? Don't. Really? So the challenge is sunlight is good for the eyes, especially early on in the day, and of course toward the end of the day, just so that you're getting the signals to your brain to, hey, the sun is coming up, the sun is going down, beta to kind of influence your melatonin production. The staring directly into the sun though, the sun is so powerful, it can very quickly burn holes inside your retina.

1:00:54And I have a patient right now who she, you know, she just comes in, her vision is not getting to 2020. We look inside the eye and she has burn holes, a burned hole in her retina that is, we diagnose as solar retinopathy. And so, and I'm like, have you been staring at the sun? She's like, yeah, I've been sun gazing since I was little. I was in Florida recently and I stared at the sun and I was doing this for how many minutes. And now she has permanent blue blind spots, where she cannot see 2020 anymore. Where in there? Is that the colored part of the eye? No, so the colored part is the iris, but the light going through the eye is magnified so strongly by the cornea and the lens inside the eye that ends up focusing on the part of the eye called the phobia or the macula, which is at the back of the, it's in the back part of the eye.

1:01:48Imagine if we were going to play darts, we're going to go to the pub, we're going to throw darts, the center bulls eye of the eye called the macula. That part is your reason you see so sharply is the reason that it's the part of the eye that you're using when you're reading words when you're studying when you're looking at your friends and family in the face, you're using that bulls eye in the back of the eye. So when someone looks at the sun, they're putting all of that light energy focused right in that area. And then just a few seconds, you can overwhelm that tissue causing chemical damage to the retina.

1:02:20Because people this phrase sun gazing, is this like a spiritual thing? I think I was in Bali and people like, no, you can, you can sun gaze, you should sun gaze because it's good for you. Sun gazing, what is this time that is usually in some sort of either religious or spiritual practice, people will gaze toward the sun. Usually from my understanding, it's people doing it in the early morning or late afternoon when the sun is largely going down the horizon. And because the light is indirectly being bent, perhaps it's not giving as much energy to cause thermochemical damage to the back of the eye, but the there is still a high risk.

1:03:04And so it's always best to not stare directly into the sun or try to look off center from it. And especially during the high UV times of the day, 10 to 4 p .m. usually, it's good to be wearing UV light protection. Not just because UV can penetrate into the eye, but because UV light damages the skin of the eyelid, it can cause changes to the front surface of the eye. People can get sunburn on the surface of the eye. That's good to know. I'm not going to look at the sun. I was being torn because I got a friend who told me that sun gazing is good for you and you should do it and stuff, but I'll take your word for it.

1:03:39You mentioned blue light a second ago, which is the light that comes off our devices. Is that harmful for my eyes? There's blue light that comes from the sun. Yeah. Really high energy. That could potentially cause aging changes inside the eye. The blue light that comes from your digital screens does not have enough power and has consistently shown in research to not increase the risk of aging eye diseases. It just impacts my sleep potentially. Impact is sleep. There's also some claims that blue light can affect your eye strain, but again, research on blue light glasses on using devices shows that blue light does not impact eye strain.

1:04:23A lot of people will claim that they will. I have a lot of patients who come in and anecdotally like, oh, my eyes feel so much better from getting the blue light glasses. And that could just be placebo effect. It could potentially be the fact that a lot of blue light glasses will have anti -glair or glare free protection put on to it. And the anti -glair is probably improving their focus and they're not having as much glare issues when staring at the deys. But right now there's still just no concrete evidence showing that. Blue light is contributing to eye strain. But then the sleep cycle, we do know that blue light can influence your sleep.

1:05:03What kind of gadgets do you have? I don't know why, but I assume as someone who isn't an eye doctor, you must have loads of gadgets around your house that you used to. Because you know all of the information about eyes and vision and stuff. Is that am I wrong? I mean, I've, yeah, we're, I have multiple computer screens open. I have my phone screen open all day. I the other day I was texting a friend and I'm like, I've got two laptops open at a coffee shop. You know, I'm like, I'm doubling down on the blue light here.

1:05:34So there's a lot going on there, but yeah, practices. Are there any practices that you've been disciplined with because you're aware of the impacts it will have on your eye? Specifically on blue light. No, all of it just overall eye health. So the biggest things for myself is diet. Okay, let's talk about diet then. Sure. What do I need to know in terms of what I'm eating and drinking to make sure that my eye health stays optimal? So they've been looking at lifestyle factors on aging eye diseases for for for a long time, many decades. The biggest one thing when it comes to diet and they even have more recent publications.

1:06:15A mentor of mine, Julie Poteet, she's a past president of the Ocula Well Initiative Nutrition Society, who I'm, who, which I'm a member of, she even brought my attention to a publication just this year from the American Journal of Nutrition. They looked at the original publication of A -REDs, the age -related eye disease study that has large cohort of people, like 4 ,000 people they watched over nine years tracking their diet, tracking their eye health and health things were changing. And they find that just eating a Mediterranean diet, green leafy vegetables, oily fish, reduces your risk of developing conditions like macular g -generation, specifically slowing down the progression of that condition.

1:06:58In that specific study, this publication that just came out, they showed that just having 2 .7 servings of green leafy vegetables in a week, not today, but just even a week, right? We're supposed to have more than more than that in a day, but just 2 .7 servings or more can slow down your risk of progression of that condition, macular g -generation, by 25 % from going from early to more of an advanced stage. And macular degeneration leads to blindness. They can, yeah. Especially as we get older. Because that condition, and we can go into it, but that condition is a lot to do with your inflammation.

1:07:36It has to do with metabolism and oxidative stress that occur within the eye. But green leafy vegetables, at least 2 .7 servings a week, that's that specific study. They find that oily fish eating 2 servings of oily fish a week slowed down by 21%. And then they found a synergistic effect for people who ate both. It was a 41 % reduced risk of progressing in that disease. So, and that's not just the only study they find that people who eat diets that have more fruits and vegetables, that have oily fish, reduced risk of developing conditions like macular g -generation, reduced risk of things like diabetit retinopathy.

1:08:16And so I try to focus on eating a good healthy diet. I mean, the thing that I had grown up was that you need to eat lots of carrots. And then carrots will help your vision. So carrots, do you know where that came from? No. That's actually a, it was propaganda started in the UK by Great Britain. From what I understand, I'm sure there's like a historian out there who's just like grumbling at me. But from what I have read and studied is that, I believe it was World War II, that Britain had was being attacked by the Germans, and they were worried about German warplanes dropping bombs on them, especially at nighttime.

1:08:55And they had already established radar to detect warplanes coming, but they didn't want Germany to know that. So they put out their own propaganda saying, Hey, our scouts can detect German warplanes better because they eat their carrots. Because carrots have beta -carotene, which your body can convert to vitamin A, which is essential for nighttime vision and retinal health. Oh, okay. Because I always also used to hear that if you ate carrots, you could see in the dark. Yeah. So it's a, I mean, it's based on some, like vitamin A is essential for photoreceptors in the back of the eye. But most people are not vibranate efficient by far.

1:09:44And so it's pretty rare that we see vibranate efficiency in the eye clinic. Unless you happen to live in a place that's pretty malnourished. You mentioned it really fish. I was on your YouTube channel and I saw that you did an experiment where you took omega -3 for 90 days. I guess because there's some kind of implications for vision with omega -3. Omega -3 does play a role in the eyes for two rays. That specific video I was really looking at omega -3s and its relationship to my own dry eye symptoms. Because there's a lot of studies looking at omega -3 and its dry eye. And the research is still a bit all over the place.

1:10:24Most eye care providers who specialize in dry eye will say that, you know, there is a role for omega -3s in helping reduce inflammation that contributes to dry eye. Because a lot of dry eye disease has to do with inflammation. And so there is a large belief that it does work. There are some publications, of course, that say, no, it doesn't. It's just the same as placebo. And so there's still some debate. But omega -3s also play a huge role in the retina in the back of the eye. The photoreceptors in the back of the eye within the retina, this kind of orange -pink tissue in the back, that picks up all the light that you see, the colors that you see, it sends those signals through the optic nerve to the brain.

1:11:04So the retina is essential. So the photoreceptors, about 50 to 60 % of the fatty acid content of the photoreceptor, is DHA omega -3. And so there have been interestingly enough research showing that diets that have more oily fish, those people are less likely to develop macular gigeneration, and they're less likely to have problems with diabetic retinopathy if they happen to be diabetic. But then a lot of the publications on using omega -3s supplements have not seen the same results when in terms of this form of retinal health. And there is some insight. They're thinking they've kind of figured this out.

1:11:53And this is still a very early research. But so there is a transporter called the MFSD2A. This transporter helps transport specific forms of DHA omega -3 through the blood brain barrier into neural tissue. And they're finding that that same transporter works with a blood retinal barrier as well. And so newer studies looking mainly at Alzheimer's disease, but they're doing it on mice, and they're formulating a specific type of DHA called Lysophospholipid DHA, that binds to that transporter and helps that get into neural tissue. And the current research is showing that with mice at least, I haven't found anything in humans, but at least with mice that the retinal health is improving.

1:12:46They're having better signals through the retina, as well as less risk of things like retinopathy. So still very early research. So the omega -3 that I've got in my cupboard at home is probably not going to help, but the new versions of omega -3 that they're working on probably will. And the reason why the current omega -3s don't seem to have that effect on the retina is because omega -3 fish oils are in the form of what is called a tricellular glycerol, which your body can convert in the liver to get to neural tissue, but it's not very efficient. Okay. There are some forms of... So if you are eating fish, fish, krill, and then like fish eggs, do you like sushi?

1:13:29So fish eggs are often on sushi, fish row. Those types, like salmon, I've read, it has up to 1 to 1 .7 % of these phospholipid type of DHA, so not very much. But krill can be up to about 30 % fish eggs can be somewhere between 35 up to 70 % of these phospholipid DHAs. And your body is able to either turn those into tricellular glycerol, which is similar to the omega -3 fatty acid supplements, or it can turn that into this lysophospholipid DHA, which your body can transport in the neural tissue at a better biofailability. What did you discover when you started taking omega -3 for 90 days as part of that experiment?

1:14:14So that was again looking more at dry eye. And specifically, I took... First, I just looked at, hey, what's my blood level of omega -3s right now, just by diet, and it was pretty low at that time. It was like 4 .7 or something like that, what you want between 8 and 12%. Then I started taking... I also did measurements of my dry eye symptoms. My dry eye symptoms, I took dry measurements that we do in the clinic to diagnose objectively what's going on with the dry eye, the dryness components. And then I took it for 90 days, and then I also tested my blood again at the end. And I found that after taking those omega -3s, that specific formula, that ended up getting to about 9 .5 % omega -3.

1:15:01It's like more than 100 % increase. So it was a dramatic increase in the omega -3 in my blood, and my dry eye symptoms also improved. Now again, that's just an end of one. I'm just one person. There's a lot... Dry eye is really complicated too. What is dry eye? I don't think I've ever had dry eye. So dry eye disease is a disease of the eye. I think everybody can have symptoms of dry eye, just if you walk outside. You know, it's windy day, maybe you're sitting around a bonfire or something, smoke hits your eye. Your eyes can feel a little dry, you blink a few times. But dry eye disease enters a whole different state.

1:15:36And dry eye disease occurs when not only is there... It could be a reduced amount of production of tears. It could be that your tears evaporate too quickly. That's a lot of people. And then what happens is that there's little bit of damage on the surface of the eye, because the tear film has to stay stable to protect the tissue underneath. If the tears are gone, the tissue underneath gets exposed to air and salt content of your tears ends up going up, what we call hypersamilarity of the tears. That higher salt content irritates the surface of the cells and the surface of the eye here on the cornea.

1:16:16It then has little micro damage, which your body tries to heal. Inflammatory proteins come out to try and heal that. Now, again, if it's just a small episode, you're walking on the street, when it comes up, dry your body heals it. But if it's a chronic condition, you're dealing with dryness all day long, every day for weeks, months, the inflammatory proteins never go away. And the inflammatory proteins start signaling your lachmogland, stop producing as much tears. The inflammation prevents your eye from healing. And then the inflammation can cause the oil glands of the eyelids to start to... basically cause more irritation and stop producing as well.

1:16:57Is there one food in particular that is, in your view, the top food for good eye health? So, green leafy vegetables. What about sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes can certainly help you with things like vitamin A. They've got other nutrients in them, I think, are really good. Sweet potatoes technically have beta carotene, right? Same thing as carrots. If you're deficient in vitamin A, your body will convert that beta carotene to vitamin A, which is good. But mainly in green leafy vegetables, you can not only get things like beta carotene, but you can get lutein and zezanthin, which are amazing for eye health in many ways.

1:17:40Not just eye health, but also brain health. What about sugar? What impact does... You mentioned diabetes earlier, I think. If I'm having a lot of sugar in my diet, will that have an impact on my eye health? It can. For patients who don't, or for people who are diabetic or have elevated blood sugars, when you have too much sugar in your blood, it can enter into the eye, it can cause the lens inside the eye to swell. And so, with that swelling, you can see a refractive change. Your power of your glasses, contact lenses, that can shift. And so, that can sometimes be a tip off if you were to see me in the clinic, and I notice your prescription suddenly changed like two steps.

1:18:21I'm like, why is it making this big of a change? It may be a tip off that, hey, maybe the blood sugars off, we have to send you in for a diabetic workout. The people with diabetes suffer more with that vision. They can. Diabetes is devastating for the health of the eye. Because with diabetes, when your blood sugars elevated, it causes damage to the endothelium of the blood vessels, and the arteries in the back of the eye. The things in the back of those things there. Yeah, because the back of the eye is one of the most highly vascularized area of your body. See, as we can, because you have blood vessels, we get on the inside of the retina, you have blood vessels on the back side of the retina.

1:19:00And so, when people have damage to those blood vessels, the blood, the vessels can start to hemorrhage. They can start to have little aneurysms. They start to bleed in the back of the eye. And then the function of the retinal tissue is the retinal tissue is not getting the nutrients, the oxygen, and the nutrients it needs to stay alive. And so, then people's vision can deteriorate. You can have a swelling in the back of the eye, in the retinal tissue itself. We call macular edema. And ultimately, if people, unfortunately, are diabetic, they don't know it, or they're poorly controlled, they can bleed so much in the back of the eye, that fibrous scar tissue starts to form, and it can even pull on the retina and create a retinal detachment.

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1:21:41That's netsweep .com slash Bartlett. Every once in a while my eyelids starts twitching. What is that? Eyelid myocymia. Is that what it's called? That's the medical definition for it. It twitching eyelid. It twitching eyelid. I like the eyelid starting. What is that? That is your threshold of your eyelids to blink is your level of stress. You're holding really tight muscles. This is historically, even in textbooks they call it basically the Med Medical Student twitching eye. because it's usually people who are stressed out, people who are not sleeping very well, they're fatigued, and then people are drinking way too many stimulants, like drinking caffeine.

1:22:28So I have a lot of patients who come in, they're like, I'm having my eyelid twitch, and I look over on the counter, and they sure enough have an energy drink with them. And I'm like, okay. So that is largely what it is. Some people can have a true blepharose spasm where the eyelids close involuntarily, and that's more of an advanced medical condition. So I think if people are having just a little flutter on their eyelids, usually not a concern, it's just get more sleep, stop drinking so much caffeine, try to look at your stress levels. And that's a tough thing because even myself, I remember in college, I remember saying the same thing to my doctor is like, you're just too stressed.

1:23:12And I'm like, I'm not stressed, I'm doing great. Then I go home and I start making a list of everything I'm trying to control in my life. I'm trying to control this for grades, trying to do this in Excel and Athletics. I'm trying to do this at home. I'm trying to manage this with my friends. And half way through, I look at the list, I'm like, whoa, there is so much going on in my life. No wonder I actually am stressed. I've come so accustomed to it, I didn't realize it, haven't done that self -aware. Like coma. Now, like coma is something that people over 60 typically get from what I've understood.

1:23:46Is that preventable at all, or is that just a consequence of aging? And what is glycoma? So, glaucoma is where the nerve, the nerve in the back here that connects the eyeball to the brain. So this thing here? Yes. So, the nerve that all of the retinal cells converge onto the ganglion cells, which are essentially sending the information from the eye to the brain. And so, glaucoma, there's different types of glaucoma, but the nerves die for some reason. So, the nerves at the back here, okay. Those nerves go, send the information back toward the brain, see that you can see. The challenge is that that nerve, if it gets damaged, the nerves die off.

1:24:34And when they die, you can't get them back. So, glaucoma, there's the other different types of them. The most common one that people think about is what's called primary open angle glaucoma. And this is where pressure inside of the eye builds up. And if you think of a bike tire, if you fill that full of air, and it gets to a point where it's so filled, the weakest part of the bike tire blows out. And that basically happens with the eye, but the weakest part of the eye is the nerve in the back. So, that increased pressure pushes on the nerve and slowly pinches it each of the ganglion cells to a point where it starts to die off.

1:25:16That's not reversible, is it? Unfortunately, no. When you lose the ganglion cells, they die. We know that pressure plays a role in it, the internal pressure of the eye. And so, most treatments right now for glaucoma are focused on treating the pressure. But more publications and research right now are also going into how do we better support the health of the nerve in the back, whether that be through blood flow, is it better for us to have some sort of nutrients getting to the optic nerve to give it more of a robust health and structure to withstand the pressure? So there's more research going into it.

1:25:55And the other thing that I heard about when I was researching your work is this term eye flotus. I've never heard about this before. What is an eye flota? So flotus inside the eye are, so many people have these issues. And do you see them at all? Do you see little black specks when you look left and right? Do you see little things? Probably, I'm going to say that maybe sometimes, but I can't recall the time. As we get older, flotus do naturally start to occur. These are the gel inside the eye called the vitrius, vitrius humor. So opening up the eye again, this large area that holds the shape of the eye, this is the vitrius humor.

1:26:38And it's mostly water, collagen, and a little bit of hyaluronic acid, but it's like a jelly. But as we get older, this gel starts to break down, and the collagen begins to clump, and it sits there suspended in whatever's gel or fluids left. And so when people go outside, it's a bright sunny day. They look at the computer screen, it's a bright backlight. They'll see these little specks floating around, and they'll shift their eyes, left and right, and you'll see it continue to drift. And it gets really annoying. It's like looking at a net or a little bug flying around. And really what's happening is the light is just hitting those collagen clumps, it's casting a shadow on the retina, and you see those floating spots.

1:27:19The concern is that some people develop suddenly a whole bunch of floaters. And if you have a whole bunch of floaters, that could be because the gel, which is attached to the retina in the back of the eye, that gel can tug on the retina, and create a small tear, or it can create a full detachment of the retina. It can pull the retina off in the back of the eye. Usually though, if you have or have symptoms of a flash of light, like a lightning bolt, is going off somewhere in your vision, that no one else saw, or you're having a dark shadow coming down from the top of your vision, or rising up from the floor or from the side, that would be an indication that perhaps a sudden change has happened and you should see a doctor assume it's possible.

1:28:09But otherwise the development of a small little floating spots, those gradually occur with age. And is there a way to treat them? So there are two surgical procedures to try to get rid of them. However, most surgeons won't want to do them. Because there's always a higher risk of causing damage or other complications in the eye. How many people are likely to experience these eye floaters in their lifetime? Basically every decade of life, you gain another 10 % chance of having these floaters. So a lot of times when you're... Yeah, by the time you're 80 years old, you have an 80 % chance of having these floaters.

1:28:46Most people that I see coming in because of a complaint of floaters are usually in their 40s, 50s. I've heard you talk about pineapple helping to cure floaters. So there is a study that came out several years ago that looked at using a type of supplement called bromelain and that's found in pineapple. And that was a study that looked to see if people eating pineapple could reduce their floaters. That study was not the best study I've ever done. They did. It was kind of a... I think it makes me excited that at least there's researchers looking into, hey, how... Is there a way we can get rid of these floaters?

1:29:28Because they can be really annoying. If they're really large, they can obstruct people's vision. A more recent publication from 2021 looked at a different formulation of different enzymes and vitamin supplements that include vitamin C, lysine, zinc. These can help preventing the glycation of collagen and specifically within the vitreous of the eye. And they did find after six months of supplementation that people's symptoms of floaters reduced. It's only one study and I want to see more. But that right now is probably the only supplement on the market that has probably the best research find it being it was a placebo control trial.

1:30:14The Pineapple Study was in 2019 in the Journal of American Science. No. The study said that people who had three slices of pineapple a day had a 75 % eye floater improvement. Be it saying that that study was not super robust. The medical community, the eye care community, we don't look at that with having the most scientific validity. We do want to see more research in that area. And it totally have had people certainly message me on email and on YouTube and Instagram saying that it did help them but it's hard to say if it's truly placebo or not. It's helpful. I get it. I just want to know. One of them.

1:30:55Yeah. I just want to know what they saw it. What do you need to do? Can you get on the pineapple? Yeah. What is it that you have it constantly? I mean, one day, I really forgot to know what it was. Yeah. I saw I was getting some sort of disease or something. When I'm lying, it was quite normal. But yeah, I came over to come and I got a shit around. I can look at it and like, shit around. I'm looking at the direction. It's not there over the time. This will suddenly just drift into my side. I think if somebody even, especially for anybody who's having floaters or seeing a spot like that, I think it's still really important to have it evaluated because there is a chance.

1:31:36It's not a huge chance, but it's like a 5 % that you could have a small tear or a hole in the far edge of the eye when the gel separated. And in those cases, then if it's needed, they can use a laser to just zap it and tack it down so that you don't develop a retinal detachment. Because if you get a retinal detachment, it's an urgent procedure where they need to repair the retina and get it back into place because it can otherwise lead to permanent additional loss. You know, when you get something in your eye and it gets annoying, I had it the other day when I was in bed in L .A. I was, I had something in my eye and I could just feel it and you know, you look in the mirror and you can't see it and you, someone tries to blow in your eye and get it out and that doesn't work either.

1:32:20And you just feel it for maybe like 30 minutes and hour. What's the best thing to do in that situation to get rid of that feeling in your opinion? And is it like a hallucination because I can't see anything there. So the eyeball, it has some of the most nerve endings on your body. So even just something small, a piece of dust gets on your tear film, you can feel that and it can really irritate the eyes. Some of the easiest things to do are using eye drops. You know, get the person, get even just over the counter eye drops using those to rinse the eye. If somebody gets a chemical in the eye, then you really want to rinse the eye really good with just even tap water.

1:32:55You want to get water to flush it out. You know, if some, you know, obviously you're at a workplace, they have wash stations for those sort of things. So that's going to be the most important. If the eye remains red, irritated, the body will produce more mucus to try and fix the problem. And so a lot of people, if you get a little irritation, it just never seems to go away. It's because somehow there's inflammation developing on the surface. Your body's producing more mucus. Things, your body can sense that there's more swelling there. So the best thing to do is rinse it out and go see the eye doctor, especially if it's not getting better.

1:33:31So how often do you think I should get my eyes tested yearly every year? You should. I say that because they've had multi -disciplinary, of different eye care professionals, not just eye care, but different medical professionals in different fields. Look at the statistics. And again, it's the fact that it is one of the easiest, least invasive, medical procedures you can do to detect the most medical conditions that can potentially prevent you from having more serious comorbidities later in life. Dr. Joseph, what's the most important thing we didn't talk about that maybe we should have talked about today?

1:34:13I think probably one of the biggest things that I personally really like to reflect on, we've touched on diet a little bit, but I think diet and lifestyle, paying attention to how much, not only what you eat, how much you eat, exercise, sleep, hydration, focusing on these sort of things can have a ripple effect on the eyeball, but so many other parts of the body, and that the eyes are an extension of your brain. And what's good for the eyes is also good for the heart. It's also good for your brain. And so I think we need to be really aware of that and how important the eyes are for your learning, for your development, for your risk.

1:35:01If you have poor vision, your risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's in later years is greater. That vision and eyesight is really important for the development for children and their minds. And so we need to be aware of how all of that is connected and how our lifestyles on devices all the time and being indoors so much can also have an impact. So seeing an eye doctor on a regular basis is really important. Even if you feel like your vision is great and you see fine. You don't want to lose that. We have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for.

1:35:44And the question that has been left for you is, what is your most important early memory that you've ever had ever? One that does impact me on a regular basis is just making friends. When I was a kid, I didn't have many friends. And I remember finally making friends from sports and just having people over to play, have sleepovers. And finally feeling like I had companionship of some kind. I think it kind of proved that I was, that I mattered. That I had value. Was just or being seen, being that I had a role in this world beyond just me being on my own. Did you try to tell you otherwise? I have a memory that I've shared mainly with my therapist.

1:37:00Where I was in trouble, I was grounded to my bedroom. I didn't feel safe leaving my bedroom because my older brother bullied me at that age. And I felt that I did not matter, that I was not wanted, that I was only in the way.

1:37:28And I think over the course of my life, that feeling that I needed to perform, excel, was the only way for me to get attention to prove that I had value and worth.

1:37:52And so I think that's driven me to excel in academics, to excel in extracurriculars. It was a very subconscious thing, something I was not aware of. And I only recently in the last year have come more to terms with those early experiences in my life and how they maybe have driven me. And it goes through a lot of work to reflect on those experiences and make friends with that part of your life and come to terms that like, no, I've grown up, I do matter. I do bring value. I am worthy of friendship and love.

1:38:37Those are tough, real things that I think internally we battle and sometimes don't even realize.

1:38:48How much of that early experience inspired you to pursue the line of work that you do? Now I know that you said it pushed you to excel but specifically focusing on the eyes. Somewhat connected. And when I was a kid, again I was lonely. I was an indoors kid. I played a lot of video games, watch movies. My brother, he was the fisherman outdoors kid. When I turned 13 entering into junior high, my mother wanted me to pick a sport. And so I did the manly thing. I want to play football. American football, I'm going to tackle people. It's hard to play tackle football with thick glasses on. You're thick glasses.

1:39:32I was a nerdy kid sat inside all day again. I was inside thick glasses because I was myopic. I went to the eye doctor, got fit for contacts. And being fit in contacts changed me because suddenly I could play sports, making friends. For the first time in a long time, to having self -confidence because of that. And having that level of self -confidence, I started to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Girls start paying attention to me. And at age of 13 that was like the most important thing in the world. And so continuing to grow up, I was always fascinated with eyes, with contact lenses.

1:40:21And I knew in later high school when people were like, hey, what are you going to do when you grow up? What are you going to do for college? I'm like, I don't really know. But when I see the dentist, I don't like that guy. He pokes and prods and makes my gums bleed. But when I see the eye doctor, that guy's cool. Every part of the eye exam is like black magic. That thought, you know what? I could be that guy. And so that definitely influenced my, that amazing experience influenced me. And I think most eye doctors have some experience like that where their life was changed by what an amazing eye doctor they had before.

1:40:59And they just want to pass that on. I want to help people have an amazing experience with their eyesight and experience, the world, and have more freedom in their life to pursue education. To experience and see just the beauty of color, nature, really to experience the world. And so I really wanted to just give that as a gift to as many people as I can. And I guess the confidence that it gives those people as well as it did for you at a young age isn't to be underrated. Well, thank God you did because you know, you've helped many millions of people with a wide variety of eye related issues and conditions.

1:41:41And helping them understand both the more superficial elements of their eyes, but also the more sort of deeper, progressive diseases that might risk taking away their freedom in the way that you've described just there. But I just want to say a big thank you for. Let me think of a nice eye related pun. Allowing me to see more clearly as it relates to the subject of eye health and vision and everything that's interconnected. So thank you so much, Joseph. Thank you, Stephen. Appreciate you, man. This is great.

1:42:16I don't know how to say this in a way that you're going to understand, but perfect Ted is banging. I'm an investor in the company. I drink it every day. The whole team drinks perfect Ted every day. We have a perfect Ted fridge in the office. Here's why I like perfect Ted. Typical energy drinks used to give me these crashes. And as a podcaster, the last thing you want to do is be crashing in a conversation. The founders of perfect Ted wanted to create an energy drink that wouldn't create that horrible crash cycle that many of us go through. So they used to match it as the energy source. And somehow they also made it really, really delicious.

1:42:43They've just come out with this new flavor called juicy peach. And it is banging. If you try perfect Ted's juicy peach and it's not banging, feel free to get in my DMs and cuss me out. You can pick it up at Tesco's All -Way Tows or you can get it online. And here's a secret that you've got to keep yourself. I'm going to give you 40 % off perfect Ted. Just so you can try juicy peach yourself. Go to perfect Ted .com and at checkout, put in the code diary40. I'm going to leave that up for some time, not forever. That's perfect Ted .com and then use code diary40 at checkout. When you try it, make sure you tag me on Instagram.

1:43:14And say, Steve, you're right, it's banging.

1:43:24And then you can get it online. And then you can get it online. And then you can get it online.

1:43:34And then you can get it online.

1:43:40Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learnt just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is NetSuite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place. Their technology has been a real game changer, especially for my team at Flight Studio. As over the last year, we've moved out of startup mode and into scale at mode.

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