The myopia boom

The southern city of Guangzhou has long held the largest eye hospital in China. But about five years ago, it became clear that the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center needed to expand. More and more children were arriving with the blurry distance vision caused by myopia, and with so many needing eye tests and glasses, the hospital was bursting at the seams. So the centre began adding new testing rooms — and to make space, it relocated some of its doctors and researchers to a local shopping mall. Now during the summer and winter school holidays, when most diagnoses are made, “thousands and thousands of children” pour in every day, says ophthalmologist Nathan Congdon, who was one of those uprooted. “You literally can't walk through the halls because of all the children.”

East Asia has been gripped by an unprecedented rise in myopia, also known as short-sightedness. Sixty years ago, 10–20% of the Chinese population was short-sighted. Today, up to 90% of teenagers and young adults are. In Seoul, a whopping 96.5% of 19-year-old men are short-sighted. Other parts of the world have also seen a dramatic increase in the condition, which now affects around half of young adults in the United States and Europe — double the prevalence of half a century ago. By some estimates, one-third of the world's population — 2.5 billion people — could be affected by short-sightedness by the end of this decade. “We are going down the path of having a myopia epidemic,” says Padmaja Sankaridurg, head of the myopia programme at the Brien Holden Vision Institute in Sydney, Australia.

The condition is more than an inconvenience. Glasses, contact lenses and surgery can help to correct it, but they do not address the underlying defect: a slightly elongated eyeball, which means that the lens focuses light from far objects slightly in front of the retina, rather than directly on it. In severe cases, the deformation stretches and thins the inner parts of the eye, which increases the risk of retinal detachment, cataracts, glaucoma and even blindness. Because the eye grows throughout childhood, myopia generally develops in school-age children and adolescents. About one-fifth of university-aged people in East Asia now have this extreme form of myopia, and half of them are expected to develop irreversible vision loss. This threat has prompted a rise in research to try to understand the causes of the disorder — and scientists are beginning to find answers. They are challenging old ideas that myopia is the domain of the bookish child and are instead coalescing around a new notion: that spending too long indoors is placing children at risk. “We're really trying to give this message now that children need to spend more time outside,” says Kathryn Rose, head of orthoptics at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Vision quest

For many years, the scientific consensus held that myopia was largely down to genes. Studies in the 1960s showed that the condition was more common among genetically identical twins than non-identical ones, suggesting that susceptibility is strongly influenced by DNA¹. Gene-finding efforts have now linked more than 100 regions of the genome to short-sightedness.


http://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120

More to read on the link and I think this has merit to the reason why on children being stuck in doors to much today.

You think it could have something to do with staring too much at screens? Some kids as young as 3 are using iPads. Have to admit my 3 year old daughter goes on mine to watch music videos! Seriously! She loves The Sound Of Music at the moment and keeps watching Do Re Me and the other songs lol

eddie wrote:You think it could have something to do with staring too much at screens? Some kids as young as 3 are using iPads. Have to admit my 3 year old daughter goes on mine to watch music videos! Seriously! She loves The Sound Of Music at the moment and keeps watching Do Re Me and the other songs lol

Well I would say it is a fair bet she will follow in your footseps at being a singer or something musical.
I think its fab she loves those songs 
Come on Eddie, we all know you have the platinum limited special edition of the "Sound oif Music".
To be honesy I have to admit I do like some of the songs from the film.





Right, that was my last post, have fun Eddie.

Brasidas wrote:

eddie wrote:You think it could have something to do with staring too much at screens? Some kids as young as 3 are using iPads. Have to admit my 3 year old daughter goes on mine to watch music videos! Seriously! She loves The Sound Of Music at the moment and keeps watching Do Re Me and the other songs lol

Well I would say it is a fair bet she will follow in your footseps at being a singer or something musical.
I think its fab she loves those songs 
Come on Eddie, we all know you have the platinum limited special edition of the "Sound oif Music".
To be honesy I have to admit I do like some of the songs from the film.





Right, that was my last post, have fun Eddie.

Hahahahaha gonna get you a signed naked pic of Julie Andrews and a t-shirt saying "the hills are alive..."

ahem........Sheesh.....talk about putting me off my tacos......


Anyhoos interesting OP. I have no distance vision at all. been that way since 13. I can see but no writing. wear glasses for everything beyond cooking and reading. was told laser treatment would mean reading glasses so no thanks as I do mist of my reading in bed.

I prefer the nice fuzziness. - helped in drama clubs and not seeing the tumbleweeds of dust and pet hair rolling around the house.

since I've been that way since young screen use is out and I still go outside a lot even now. bookish yes all my life including under the covers! but my dad is exact same. mum is opposite heads reading glasses.

cant stand contacts. can not STAND anyone or things touching my eyeballs....ugh....I even hate the puff of air at eye exams. makes me queasy.

Hahahahahaha I'm going to start writing really small now


cass smells he he he he

eddie wrote:Hahahahahaha I'm going to start writing really small now


cass smells he he he he

whatever missy :p

I HAD to get prescription driving glasses for 'long sighted' vision for the first time last year ~ IF I wanted to keep my truck license..

THE degree of LONG sightedness and slight myopia (a slight distortion on the cornea..) was still OK for car driving, but not quite for an 'MR' ["Medium Rigid" lorries] license. SO now, I have to wear these anytime I drive a motor vehicle..

APPARENTLY 'long sightedness' is the #1 reason for driving glasses here in Oz, whereas Myopia/'short sightedness' is more common for people getting "reading glasses".      

eddie wrote:

Brasidas wrote:
Well I would say it is a fair bet she will follow in your footseps at being a singer or something musical.
I think its fab she loves those songs 
Come on Eddie, we all know you have the platinum limited special edition of the "Sound oif Music".
To be honesy I have to admit I do like some of the songs from the film.

Right, that was my last post, have fun Eddie.

Hahahahaha gonna get you a signed naked pic of Julie Andrews and a t-shirt saying "the hills are alive..."

I HOPE that nude photo' is from back in the 1970s...

         
AND not something more recent !?!    

Hahaha wolf she was quite an attractive lady back in the day!
When I was younger she looked old-fashioned and bland - I guess we have different versions of pretty as we grow and mature.
Now, as I watch the video clips with my daughter, she looks fresh-faced and quite attractive!