How To Improve Your Vision The Bomber Command Way

[Screamadelica]

According to several stories from crews serving with Bomber Command, due to the shortage of food supplies during the war, the crews used to eat sandwiches made with Bilberry jam whilst on flights. After a month or two they reported a marked improvement in their night vision and their ability to spot incoming enemy aircraft at greater distances.
This had been backed up by testimonies from several people I know recently who have stated it has reduced eyestrain from sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time.
Could be a way to help spot those pesky 109s. Bilberry tea anyone?

[zapatista]

i hadnt heard of this before, but you are right about some of the know properties of the plant

there have been trials of this plant conducted on air traffic controllers , pilots and automobile drivers, and some of these trials have concluded that Bilberry may improve night vision

googled the berry to see what makes it different from the blueberry, looks very similar to me in shape and color, but seems to be a different plant

[Bearcat]

Hmmm I'll have to try this because I am definitely there with the eyesight.. and I am drinking more tea of late..

[Art-J]

Well, all diet supplements I've been told to eat since being a kid (I became shortsighted pretty early) had bilberry extract as a main ingredient. Check it yourself while visiting a pharmacy. Not sure whether they helped me, but there's certainly some story behind it.

[raaaid]

my mom loves those and we always have them at home ill try them

i have 8 dioptries of shortightedness and on sunlight i see decently, at times perfect, without glasses thanks to training but my night vision glasses off is terrible

well thanks for mentioning time to take my glasses off and go on with my training

im trying to learn to control the cilliary muscles farther(focusing) and plan to start with miosis(pupil dilation)

edit:

also i have to say when i see a kid with glasses it brakes my heart:

the optometrist that dealed me in my childhood, not the one who put me glasses, explained me than glasses make shortsightedness worse, she would therefore underprescribe my glasses

so really if a kid just had a small shortsightedness putting glasses will make it worse while if he didnt use ithem as my niece she didnt need them farther and kept the just samll shortsightedness

but bisness is business yoou know even for kids health

edit

not to mention the good stuuf is not viable economically

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZX7plYLy4A

[swiss]

Depends on what caused your debility of sight, if it's just the lens then she's right.

[raaaid]

when i was a kid i would wake up seeing a geometric pattern like this on the wall:



i could at will zoom in or zoom out the wall which made me think i had powers for i had not heard of television

later i would think of an stereogram effect but theres much much more to it

if you stare at it for a while you may notice a swithc in perception, lateral sight increases and depth perception augments

i can control it at will now thanks to my high control of eye convergence so i know why staring at that gives you a stoned effect

you just tend while looking at that to see it double but your brain conpensates and overimposes the images your eyes see double

i can do that at will i can converge my eyes while looking at that and i can tell how my brain corrects overimposing images which changes perception

i think we use our sight wrong, as a matter of fact i think we are in an animalized state due to a damped perception, we have a dual cpu witha single chip operating system

[tk471138]

Originally Posted by Screamadelica

According to several stories from crews serving with Bomber Command, due to the shortage of food supplies during the war, the crews used to eat sandwiches made with Bilberry jam whilst on flights. After a month or two they reported a marked improvement in their night vision and their ability to spot incoming enemy aircraft at greater distances.
This had been backed up by testimonies from several people I know recently who have stated it has reduced eyestrain from sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time.
Could be a way to help spot those pesky 109s. Bilberry tea anyone?

wiki said this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry


Often associated with improvement of night vision, bilberries are mentioned in a popular story of World War II RAF pilots consuming bilberry jam to sharpen vision for night missions. However, a recent study[5] by the U.S. Navy found no such effect and origins of the RAF story cannot be found.[6] After the introduction of radar, RAF bombing became more accurately targeted, but to confuse the enemy, the story was leaked that it "was something in the pilots' diet" that improved their targeting - that something, however, was carrots, not bilberries, and the story was concocted merely to keep the Germans from knowing the real reason for improved accuracy.

Although the effect of bilberry on night vision is unfounded, laboratory studies in rats have provided preliminary evidence that bilberry consumption may inhibit or reverse eye disorders such as macular degeneration.[7]

Bilberries are recognized as a good source of flavonoids, some of which have antioxidant activity.[8]

As a deep purple fruit, bilberries contain anthocyanin pigments.



in my opinion it most likely does something to improve eye sight or the eye and related organs, one of these improvements MAY manifest it self as making the individual perception at night better, but like most things regarding humans it will effect everyone differently and many factors including environment may factor in to this....

[arthursmedley]

Bilberries? Lol. Never come across this before in relation to aircrew and the idea they were given Bilberry Jam sarnies to supplement a poor diet is completely apocryphal! Bomber Command aircrew were amongst the most well-nourished and well fed people in Great Britain during the war. Much in the same way as the condemned man is offered a choice of last meal.

Although it's quite possible Bilberries can be good for maintaining healthy eye-sight bombing accuracy increased during the very latter stages of the war due to more sophisticated target-marking techniques and the decline in the LW night-fighter force.

However, I do think the origin of this story can be found in wartime food shortages. Great Britain has had to import foodstuffs since around the mid-eighteenth century. The difficulty in maintaining food supplies to the general population in the face of the early successes of Doenitz U-Boat campaign led to a drive to encourage the British people to grow and eat all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff they were not familiar with.

The Wiki quote is hilarious and shows how this source has to be treated with extreme caution. I love the statement it wasn't Bilberries but infact Carrots that improved accuracy!!! Complete bollox

This story originated from a guy called John "Catseyes" Cunningham - the RAF's first night-fighter ace. He was built up by the Press as a morale-boosting hero for hacking down quite a few night-bombers during the LW blitz of British cities following the Battle of Britain in the winter of '40-'41. His success was due to the successful introduction of airborne radar into twin-engined night fighters. This certainly was a very big secret so the Air Ministry put out the story that his success was due to improved night-vision from eating a great deal of Carrots!

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by arthursmedley

The Wiki quote is hilarious and shows how this source has to be treated with extreme caution. I love the statement it wasn't Bilberries but infact Carrots that improved accuracy!!! Complete bollox

This story originated from a guy called John "Catseyes" Cunningham - the RAF's first night-fighter ace. He was built up by the Press as a morale-boosting hero for hacking down quite a few night-bombers during the LW blitz of British cities following the Battle of Britain in the winter of '40-'41. His success was due to the successful introduction of airborne radar into twin-engined night fighters. This certainly was a very big secret so the Air Ministry put out the story that his success was due to improved night-vision from eating a great deal of Carrots!

Well, while that story may be true carrots do in fact improve eyesight. Beta-carotene contained in carrots is important for good eyesight.