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Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

economist.com

401–410 of 424 posts

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#401

I noticed my eyesight gets better after many hours outside not looking at any screen. And worsen after many hours in front of a screen. Is there a name for that?

You are getting muscle spasm on top of myopia. Unlike the changing physiology of the eye, this is reversible.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I strongly suspect the amount of light outdoors is NOT really the issue. If you're always focused on things close at hand (as the above mentioned folks on wall street), you never allow the eyes to focus on the far horizon for an appreciable fraction of the time. Then you need to read more on the matter. Studies on chicks, tree shrews and rhesus monkeys show that simply increasing the amount of indoor light intensit…

All of the experiments you mentioned happened indoors. How can you have far field (> 100 meters distant) objects inside a laboratory? None of those experiments rule out my hypothesis.

Your hypothesis is that myopia is primarily caused by the lack of focus on far-field objects.

In a lab environment, wherein there is a lack of focus on far-field objects, myopia does not occur when there is sufficient light intensity. On the other hand, it occurs with insufficient light intensity.

If your hypothesis were correct, then myopia would occur regardless of light intensity, because all of the subjects have a lack of focus on far-field objects. But it doesn't. It only occurs with insufficient light intensity.

That's damning.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#403
post #233

The different usage of words and their meanings in English is interesting and makes me think this weird miscommunication is why we have so many arguments. In my everyday, the article would be referring to nearsightedness, short sighted would be when someone doesn’t think through all the possible things, lacking foresight. By definition it’s both but in every day use it’s not.

I'm in the same boat; I was expecting to read an article about managers/CEOs taking short-sighted decisions.

To be noted, I'm French, English is not my native language so when I realized my mistake I thought that was because in the case of this title it was obvious that it is about eyes but I just didn't knew how to catch the clues.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I strongly suspect the amount of light outdoors is NOT really the issue. If you're always focused on things close at hand (as the above mentioned folks on wall street), you never allow the eyes to focus on the far horizon for an appreciable fraction of the time. Then you need to read more on the matter. Studies on chicks, tree shrews and rhesus monkeys show that simply increasing the amount of indoor light intensit…

Does it? This isn’t a scientific journal, nor is this a hard science forum. So the expectations that a layman conform to the standards of a field to have a conversation about a fairly esoteric subject is asinine. I can’t know the top science in every field, so that bars me from discussion, lest I be slammed for having a thought. This isn’t just anti-science, it’s ignorant of social interactions, and the conversations…

I guess the spirit of what you're saying is that I reacted with excessive condemnation. Yeah, you're right. Truth is important and I don't regret the information I gave out, but I agree that I should have taken it easier.

On that note, I guess it's a little fun that you ending with "you aren’t nearly as smart as you think you are" seems to be participating in the same unnecessary meanness that you just called out. Ahhhh man, aren't we all so brutally human...

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata, but I lived in a low light environment for most of my life (North UK), then spend the last ~15 years in a much brighter environment (NZ). My prescription has dropped from a mid -5 to a low -4 in that time, which is a fairly large and uncommon improvement for someone middle aged. The optician put it down to where I've been living.

Decreased myopia is very common in middle-aged people. Mine went from -2 to 0 in my 40s. I did not move to New Zealand.

I know that it's common to stabilize in middle age once you stop growing, but can't find any info about it being common to reverse. Regardless, congratulations! That's a great outcome.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#407
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No evidence for what? Almost everything related to endmyopia is proven, aside from the whole thing put together. The main thing, axial length reduction through undercorrection, has been shown in plenty of animals and humans.

Come on, it hasn't been proven on humans.

Here are 3 studies that have shown axial length change in humans:

https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2772368

https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2126435

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjourn...

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#408
post #325

Honestly, myopia is not complicated (Kepler pretty much had it right in 1604 already). There's countless studies showing that axial length (eyeball length) changes in both directions, where elongation increases myopia. How do you change it? You get defocus (blur) which makes the eye adjust in the direction to reduce the blur. Practically: use weaker (around 1.5 diopters) or no glasses during close-up work (reading, c…

That's outdated advice popular among doctors like 30 years ago. No credible specialist would tell you to wear weaker glasses in 2022.

I agree that most optometrist won't advise you to do this. However, I don't see that as a good thing: "Contrarily, academics felt failure to discuss myopia control or refer a progressive myope for myopia control treatment was verging on negligent..."

https://hrbopenresearch.org/articles/2-30

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#409

I wore glasses for a few years in high school because I had trouble seeing the blackboard from anywhere but the front row. I started hiking and kayaking every day, especially in places where I could see for many miles. I also migrated from CRT to LCD to LED screens, and more recently to e-ink devices when possible. Very fine print in a dark space is hard to read, but I can read a moving US license plate from six bloc…

I am able to differentiate a bald eagle from an osprey at two miles based on the shape of the wings I wonder how you judge the distances? I'm a helicopter pilot and I don't even bother looking for traffic farther than 2 miles out unless it's an airliner. I have radar telling me how far away they are so I know the distances are accurate.

I know the estuarine river very well in my part of the world and the approximate distances between various landmarks and aids to navigation. Places I don't know as well, I use nearby features: cars, houses, aids to navigation, etc., to approximate. Exact accuracy isn't critical as normal cruising speed is around four knots. I know the distance from the George Washington Bridge to the Statue of Liberty is about 12 miles, and about ten miles from the GWB to the Battery. It is about six miles from World's End to Anthony's Nose and the Bear Mountain Bridge. It is about 1.5 miles from Little Stony Point to Pollepel Island and another 1.5 to Denning Point.

I also know about how large the various adult birds appear at various distances, recognizing that there is some variability. If it really mattered, I could carry a range finder.

Navigating in the open ocean, with no landmarks, is a little different. I have two compasses: one on my deck and one in my life jacket with my marine radio. I keep a charged phone with GPS and local marine charts in a dry box in a dry bag in a dry hatch in my boat, but have yet to rely on it. I look up the velocity and direction of the predicted currents and keep a chart of that on the deck along with my navigational chart. I plot my course on the chart and note the headings to my next waypoint. I keep a duplicate of the predicted currents and headings in a waterproof notebook on my body in case the chart gets separated from my boat. I note my departure time and calculate my velocity based on my normal cruising speed, adjust that for conditions – wind, current, company – and go for it.

I practice this on my local waters because I've been enveloped by fog off the coast of Maine. In September 2019 at low tide in the morning, three of us in a line with about twelve inches between stern and bow, we were unable to see the other paddlers in their cockpits, which means visibility was no more than seventeen feet. We navigated by instruments, ocean swell, and wind direction for two hours before the fog burned off.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is rough if both parents are working. Lining up all the schedules and breastfeeding and whatnot is harder than it sounds, especially in northern (and southern) areas with less daylight hours. Just cooking and feeding and cleaning up after a picky toddler and baby learning how to eat can kill an evening. And then at least one is bound to be sick every other week if they are in day care…the list goes on for why plan…

It has been pretty easy on our end. We live walking distance to work and daycare. so it’s no problem to even have both of us pick the kids up, walk home to eat lunch, walk kids back to daycare, and go back to work.

You can pick your kids up in the middle of the day and then bring them back after?

I can pick them up any time I want, but after that they have to stay home :P

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