I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?
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Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
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Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#32I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?
Yes you can get Lasik.
My wife got lasik 7 years back in her early 20s. Now she just got diagnosed with astigmatism when she was complaining of vision issues. She is back to wearing glasses for some part of the day. Lasik can certainly help the OP but not guaranteed. It's weird how our eyes change shape as we age.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#33I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?
Aldous Huxley swore by the Bates Method (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeing). I went through a period where I tried it and it did seem to help, but YMMV, not scientifically-proven, etc. etc.
I will say that the people with the best eyes I know (one was a fighter pilot, and still has great eyesight into his 70s) spent a lot of time outside tromping through the woods and read a lot -- so had a habit of switching back and forth between close-reading and far-gazing.
Whether it helps or not (and I believe it does, when I forget for a few days, my glasses seem too weak), it isn't the worst idea to look up from the phone or laptop and focus faraway a few times an hour.
I don't know if you can fix presbyopia, though...I think that's something that just happens like clockwork at 40. :/
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#34Related: myopia is one of the most common health problem that occurs to prisoners.
Do we know if that myopia is caused while in prison, or if it is just picked up while they are in prison. Because it would be very unusual to see myopic changes from emmetropization (eye remodeling) occurring in adults.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#35I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?
Your eyes change shape as you age -- they get more "leathery". In my case, I had myopia from about 16 until I was 40, although I stopped wearing glasses a few years before I hit 40 because I found that I didn't really need them. My eyes are "rounder" now than they were when I was 16, and it will eventually go the other way and I will need bifocals / reading glasses. Your body changes a lot around the 40 year mark and…
I'm not sure if scleral remodeling the reason. My understanding was that the lens part of your eye became less elastic as you aged, you can't focus as near, and you became more farsighted as a result - a phenomenon called presbyopia. Thus, if you were nearsighted before, you'd be closer to regular vision or maybe even a little farsighted, needing reading glasses to focus closer up.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#36Its a very well studied dataset in (graduate) Stats. So many contingency tables where you correlate onset of myopia - myopia vs Asian/non-Asian, myopia verus Male/Female, with/without computer, w/wo smartphone, w/wo outdoor time, w/wo myopic parents, on & on.
If you know how to run a ChiSq, you can look at some 2x2 tables here. You can convince yourself with 1 line of R.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1771677/
Or if you want someone else to run the analysis & just skip to the interpretation of results, try this - http://astro1.panet.utoledo.edu/~terencezl/projects/myopia.h...
But honestly, there's a ton of data on this subject. Conclusion is mostly the same - if you spend more time outside, less likely to be myopic. That's the one factor you can control. The others (being Asian or male or having myopic parents etc) is luck of the draw.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#37Isn't myopia beneficial? When eyes get adapted to screens, books maybe it's bettter? I can see every single pixel on screens and it's very useful in daily life. Far sight is useful only rarely - when driving, and when hiking in mountains. And near sight worsens with age, maybe previous myopia slightly prevents that. On quora they agree https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-benefits-being-short-sigh... Thanks for remindi…
No, I have -4D and can't see a screen clearly from more than 25 cm.
I have -5.50D and to be honest, whilst my vision is pretty poor I can definitely tell that, when not wearing glasses, my close-up vision is better. Not that it's actually helpful.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#38This is a real issue in South Korea and many other Asian countries, where it's prevalent.
In these countries, having a "fair/light" skin signifies social prestige. Which is why most parents do not let their children go out to play and explore while the sun is out.
This mentality is primarily rooted from imperial times, where tan skin was associated with lower-class field or farm work. I personally experienced this, growing up in SE Asia. The population is also bombarded with ads for skin whitening soaps, creams, lotions, and even glutathione iv treatments.
It's a multibillion-dollar skin-whitening market in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea.
More on the subject:
The high prevalence of myopia in Korean children with influence of parental refractive errors:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
2008 Article:
Outdoor Activity Reduces the Prevalence of Myopia in Children:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016164200...
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#39It would be interesting to see if historically people from northern countries suffered from myopia more. You would expect a higher percentage of people from those countries to be stuck indoors due to the long nights and cold weather found in their long winters.
Re: Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
#40I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?
Yes you can get Lasik.
Lasik is destructive, if you're a candidate another option to consider would be IOL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens