European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 10, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                V Baltimore Oriole Brady Anderson whose batting average improved after sessions with an optometrist keeps his Eye on the Ball As it Heads for the Outfield. A a r _ or a a a a a file helping create a Good Eye for sports by William Mccall the associated press he difference Between a hit and a strike in professional baseball could be the Width of a Batter s nose something it took a football player turned Eye doctor to  reichow played football for Montana state before he became an optometrist. Now he is president of the american optometric association and one of the leaders in the Field of sports vision science. Reichow and colleague Brad Coffey say they have compiled the largest database in the nation that Cata logs the visual skills of professional and olympic level athletes. Their work is part of an increasingly important training program for elite athletes that was  ignored when reichow was playing bail. Quot i think it was just a tack of awareness Quot reichow said. Quot everybody got a physical to make sure a team was in top condition but nobody Ever checked their eyes. V. People just did t recognize the. Problem . During his optometric studies reichow began to notice that some athletes had trouble focusing or. Tracking objects even though their vision was 20-20 or better. A Quot the Bridge of the nose can actually Block one Eye causing the brain to suppress the image from the other Eye in some batters Quot reichow said. Quot we were studying one major a league team and we predicted exactly what would happen with one Batter that he d be late to the left. The Guy stepped up to the plate and sure enough he was late to the left. The general manager could t believe  one of reichow s Success stories is Jake Reed a Grambling state receiver picked by the Minnesota Vikings in the third round of the 1991 nil draft Reed was sent to reichow and Coffey at the Pacific University family vision Center in Portland ore., after he began missing catches in the pros that he had handled with ease in College. A Battery of tests showed that Reed simply lost the ability to track the Ball when it got close to him a problem that was also causing severe headaches during Reading. Quot he had clarity but no tracking. System Quot reichow said. Quot looking ahead he was of but left or right and he lost it. It was a serious problem. He was even having trouble. Reading the playbooks after undergoing a series of visual exercises designed by reichow and Quot Coffey Reed began snatching just about every pass thrown his Way his. Former Vikings coach said. Quot he had gotten to the Point to where he did t know when the Ball was going to get to him Quot said Tom Moore now an assistant coach at Detroit. Quot Alan had to do a series of tests to get him to focus on fluid movement so his eyes would focus on things As it approached him. I saw the results. It was  Coffey said the sports vision specially has been developing since the mid-1970s he and reichow. Earned a reputation in the Field after developing one of the first format. Assessment programs. Quot we were approached by the  Olympic committee in the 19fl0s to standardize testing so we developed a standardized assessment Battery that has been adopted in the ., Canada and parts of Europe Quot Coffey said. Many of the tests appear simple such As reacting to rows or patterns of flashing lights tracking balls tethered on strings or recognizing strings of random numbers flashed on a screen. But Coffey and another Pioneer in the sports vision Field William Harrison an optometrist in Laguna Beach Calif say the exercises have a measurable effect on the intricate link Between the eyes brain and hands Harrison who works mostly with major league baseball teams also has.  1971 with pro football players golfers Tennis and water Polo. Players a just about every kind of athlete who wants an Edge. A his patient include former los Angeles rams linebacker Mel Owens Chris Duplanti of the  olympic water Polo team golfer Billy Casper. And Brady Anderson of the Baltimore orioles. Anderson the orioles Lead off Flitter. Improved his batting average and Home run total after working with Hamsun. Who is modest about his role. Quot i Start out with the simple. Perspective that every athlete in the world wants the Best equipment Quot Harrison said Quot ranging from skis to. Boots boats. But they also want the Best physiology they can get and vision is a crucial part of sports physiology. "1 Point them in the right direction  Quot. Science shorts doctors quit smoking Many doctors and nurses have taken their own advice and have either quit smoking Over the past two decades or have stayed away from cigarettes in the first place according to a new Survey. A a a a a a the number of american physicians who smoked declined from about 52,000 in the mid-1970s to Only 18,000 by 1991, despite a twofold increase in the number of doctors said or. David e. Nelson of the centers for disease control and prevention in Atlanta in a recent Issue of the journal of the american medical association. The study looked at National health interview Survey data from 1974 through 1991 during that period cigarette smoking among physicians declined from 18.8 percent to 3.3 percent. The smoking rate among registered nurses fell from 31.7 percent to 18.3, and that of licensed practical nurses from 37.1 percent to 27.2 percent during the same period. \. Day care centers Safe one of the biggest worries that nags parents when they drop off their children a Day care centers is How Safe will the kids be a nationwide study by the Federal centers for disease control and prevention in Atlanta finds that Quot Overall injury rates were relatively lows in licensed child Day care centers said Peter a. Briss Leader of the study. The study involved More than 138,000 preschoolers in nearly 1,800 centers and considered injuries that required care from a health professional. It found approximately 1.5 injuries per 100,000 hours spent in Day care Briss said fewer than the number that happen to youngsters of the same age at Home. Too much Apple juice drinking too much Apple juice can cause slow growth in Young children says a report in a recent Issue of the journal paediatrics. Nutritionist Melanie m. Smith and physician Fima Lifshutz of Maimonides medical. Center in Brooklyn reported that they had studied eight cases in which children from 14 to 27 months had a a failure to thai vol a abnormally slow growth. The children had no disease but did have the habit of filling up on Apple juice instead of eating nutritious  study found a different reason for the juice consumption but the principal problem of All the children was that they were not getting enough fat protein minerals and other nutrients. The children were Given diets that included less than 4 ounces of Apple juice a Day and Only after meals and snacks and started to grow normally again. A from wire reports tuesday May 10, 1994 the stars and stripes