Podcast Summary

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Episode #576: How to Train Your Eyes & Rewire Your Brain for Better Eyesight, Sharper Focus, Improved Memory & Less Stress with Dr Bryce Appelbaum
Release Date: September 9, 2025
Host: Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Guest: Dr Bryce Appelbaum (Neuro-Optometrist, Founder of My Vision First & ScreenFit)

Overview

This episode dives deep into the often-overlooked world of vision—how it’s different from eyesight, why it’s crucial for brain health, learning, mood, and even how we experience stress. Dr Chatterjee is joined by Dr Bryce Appelbaum, a pioneering neuro-optometrist, to challenge conventional wisdom around glasses, myopia, and screen use, and to offer practical, hopeful guidance for improving vision at any age.

Both the science and lived experiences—most notably Dr Chatterjee's own dramatic improvements after just five days of vision performance training with Dr Appelbaum—underscore a hopeful message: Vision and the brain can be rewired for better functional sight, focus, memory, energy, and resilience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Vision vs. Eyesight: The Crucial Distinction

• [06:59] Definition: "Eyesight is how well we can see at a certain distance, but there is so much more to vision than just eyesight. Vision is how our eyes move together, converge, track, focus, process information, how we derive meaning from the world around us, and then direct the appropriate action. Eyesight is glasses or contacts. Vision is brain."
  — Dr Bryce Appelbaum
• Most eye checks only address eyesight (clarity), not vision (processing and integration).
• Vision problems are brain problems; many solutions exist beyond simply using lenses.

2. Functional Vision Problems: The Hidden Epidemic

• Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, headaches, motion sickness, trouble reading, skipping words or lines, poor focus, and avoidance of activities like driving at night or sports ([04:53], [14:43]).
• Motion sickness is frequently a visual-vestibular mismatch, treatable with vision training.
• Many learning and behavioral diagnoses in kids (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia) may have unaddressed visual processing roots ([23:41]).

3. The Evolutionary Mismatch & Modern Screens

• Our ancestors evolved visual systems to scan distance and periphery. Now, lives are “stuck up close” to screens.
• [18:30]: “This is another mismatch that needs addressing. By not addressing it, we have all kinds of downstream problems: fatigue, lack of focus, headaches, migraines, motion sickness…”
• Increased screen time, lack of outdoor light, and junk indoor lighting stress the vision-brain connection ([75:33]).

4. Personal Experience: Dramatic Change in Just 5 Days

• [32:16] Dr Chatterjee’s functional eyesight improved six- to seven-fold after five days, moving from 20/400 to 20/60–20/70 without correction, and seeing nearly 20/20 with underpowered contacts ([109:40]).
• Gains were not due to “eye exercises” but to a tailored protocol—vision performance training—that targets eye teaming, depth perception, and spatial awareness: "We literally rewired the software of your brain to change how you're using vision.” — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([33:45])

5. Vision's Role in Whole-Body Health, Learning & Emotional Wellbeing

• Vision is the “dominant sensory system”: over 80% of learning comes through visual processing ([21:24]).
• Deficits can lead to fatigue, frustration, lack of confidence, interpersonal struggles, and even anxiety ([23:41], [87:57]).
• Improved functional vision often boosts attention, memory, and resilience for both kids and adults.

6. Screens, Technology, and Human Connection

• Massive increase in myopia and vision dysfunction correlates with screen exposure—particularly among children post-COVID ([66:09], [73:26]).
• Social and emotional consequences: difficulty with eye contact, connection, and empathy—possibly contributing to online divisiveness ([59:03]).
• “Vision is the new microbiome. We're going to look back on this and realize vision is responsible, or at least influences, so many aspects of longevity, happiness, productivity…even interpersonal connection. And none of us even had a file on it.” — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([10:19])

7. Challenging the 20/20 Paradigm

• Correcting to 20/20 is situational—may not serve every person’s needs ([41:58]).
• Overcorrecting can worsen flexibility and adaptability of the visual system; “20-happy” is preferable, meaning the weakest, most balanced correction that improves performance ([41:58], [43:14]).

8. A Proactive vs. Reactive Model

• Current practice is reactive: symptom (blurry vision) → stronger prescription → repeat.
• Instead, ask “why” eyesight is changing, look upstream at vision-brain environmental and lifestyle influences ([12:34], [43:14]).
• “It is the band aid approach...rather than a proactive model.” — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([12:12])

9. Movement, Peripheral Awareness & Neuroplasticity

• Visual training affects everything from sports performance to balance and confidence ([46:04]).
• Movement and vision are interconnected; improvements in visual processing can directly enhance movement, spinal rotation, and body awareness ([98:34]).
• “Periphery…is the key to everything. Accessing periphery and looking soft and taking in the world…gives you drastically better accuracy of what's in front of you.” — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([100:28])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the overlooked power of vision:
  "Vision is, I would argue, the most overlooked, underutilized tool for improving how we feel, think, and function." — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([04:53])

• On the difference between vision and eyesight:
  "Eyesight is a symptom. Eyesight is glasses or contacts. Vision is brain." — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([06:59])

• On the reactive medical model:
  "No one’s differentiating between vision and eyesight. You come in, get corrective lenses. See you in a year. That’s the reactive model." — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([10:42]–[11:16])

• On children's diagnoses:
  "ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, learning disabilities—all have a visual component. Labels are slapped on behaviors without looking at the root cause." — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([23:41])

• On Dr Chatterjee’s personal progress:
  "I have massively improved...I’ve gone from 20/400 to 20/60 or 20/70." — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([32:16]–[33:45])

• On flexibility and adaptation:
  "Correcting to 20/20 isn’t a truth—it’s a belief." — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([41:58])

• Flow state & high performance:
  "Flow state is a heightened sense of central and peripheral processing...the world is in slow motion—we can measure that and help people access it." — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([52:35])

• On the systemic stress of digital life:
  "An average adult spends 7 hours a day on a screen. That’s 7 hours locked in tunnel vision, keeping us in fight-or-flight." — Dr Bryce Appelbaum ([55:53])

• On practicing empathy through vision:
  "We all see the world differently. Even I am not seeing the world the same as I was a few days ago—my visual system is working differently and better." — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([111:02])

Practical Takeaways & Exercises

Dr Appelbaum emphasizes four levels of intervention and underscores simple daily habits that everyone can start immediately ([79:35], [89:50]):

1. The 20-20-20 Rule

Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something at least 20 feet away ([80:21]).
This reduces eye strain and helps reset focus. Especially crucial for students and office workers.

2. Eye Push-Ups

• Cover one eye.
• Hold your thumb at arm’s length, slowly bring it toward your nose until it blurs, then back off to clear focus.
• Alternate focusing between your thumb and a distant object, holding each for ~5 seconds ([89:50]).
  Improves focusing flexibility and may delay or reduce need for reading glasses.

3. Eye Stretches

• One eye at a time, look up, down, left, right, and into the diagonals, holding each for 5 seconds ([104:34]).
• Boosts flexibility and calms the nervous system; good pre-work or pre-game routine.

4. Peripheral Pointing

• Stare straight ahead, pick an object in your periphery, and point to it without looking.
• Then move your eyes to check accuracy.
• Repeat in all directions ([104:34]). This expands peripheral awareness and counteracts tunnel vision.

5. General Guidance

• Read books, not screens, when possible ([76:49]); tactile feedback and less flicker/stress.
• Move and go outside—natural light supports healthy vision ([73:26]).
• Be intentional with your visual environment—reduce junk (LED) lighting where possible.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [06:59] Vision vs. Eyesight: Definitions, why they matter
• [14:43] Symptoms reflecting functional vision issues
• [18:30] Evolutionary mismatch: The modern eye-brain crisis
• [23:41] Learning, behavioral diagnoses & vision
• [32:16] Dr Chatterjee’s 5-day progress
• [52:35] Vision, flow, and high-performance sport
• [55:32] Stress, tunnel vision, and the nervous system
• [66:09] The screen time epidemic in children (COVID)
• [75:33] Why books are different from screens
• [79:35] Four levels of intervention; practical exercises
• [89:50] Eye push-ups: Step-by-step
• [104:34] Eye stretches & peripheral pointing instructions
• [111:02] Everyone sees the world differently

Conclusion

This episode reframes vision as an integrated brain function with profound impacts on cognition, resilience, mood, and quality of life. The knowledge shared—born from both research and remarkable clinical/personal results—breaks through the “myopia” (pun intended!) of mainstream eye care, revealing both the risks of screen-heavy modern life and the potential for revitalization through proactive vision training.

In Dr Chatterjee's words:
"If your interest has been piqued, experiment with these simple exercises. You’ll be amazed at what your brain—and your eyes—can do." ([110:18])

Resources:

• ScreenFit: Online Vision Training
• Dr Chatterjee’s Weekly Friday 5 newsletter for more deep dives into health topics

“You are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle change is always worth it because when you feel better, you live more.” — Dr Rangan Chatterjee ([114:25])