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Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#301
post #14
post #7

I have a lot of questions, but I'd definitely pay if it worked. I've very slowly been getting more nearsighted, but I mainly avoid wearing glasses. My optometrist said that wearing glasses would speed the slide, although I'd eventually end up at the same level of myopia. I'd much rather wear glasses that fix the problem than make it worse.

I was in the "slowing going nearsighted and avoiding glasses" phase for quite some time and the result was regular "ice-pick" headaches and migraines. Getting glasses fully cured all of that. My prescription also hasn't changed in 10 years, so (for me, at least) glasses have only had a beneficial effect.

Me too, and then I got astigmatism

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My optometrist definitely said that I would not end up with worse vision overall, but that my vision would get worse faster. So per my optometrist, glasses do make it worse by my criteria (but not by hers).

Final outcome is identical. As noted below, your optometrists is mis-educated ( https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/will-wearing-... ). You will just figure out what your eyes really need faster by wearing eyeglasses.

That is behind a paywall. Equivalent sites I looked at did not cite studies, frequently depending on an argument from theory. For example, one quoting an optometrist: "'Your actual prescription is based on the anatomy of the eye: the front curve of the cornea, the refractive power of the intraocular lens, and the length of the eyeball.' And peering through spectacles won’t change that anatomy".

But this study shows that at least the kind of glasses one wears can change the progression of myopia, so arguments from theory are unconvincing to me: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22161388/

I have no idea what the actual truth is here. It seems like a variety of opinions abound, although everybody seems to agree the phenomenon of feeling like things are worse when you've recently worn glasses is real. So in this case I'll continue go with what works for me: generally not wearing glasses except when driving, which is the only place it makes a practical difference for me.

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#303
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my family (n=basically_none), it seems that myopia correlates strongly with habits. The most bookish, indoors-y kids ended up in glasses - and the more so, the thicker the glasses - while folks who spent their childhoods running around outside tend to have 20/20 vision. Assuming such an effect really exists, I expect it would be very difficult to statistically distinguish from straight heredity. Kids' early childh…

OTOH, perhaps those who are starting to have myopia aren't going to want to do outdoorsy things because they tend to require far-seeing. If I can't see what's going on far away, I'm not going to have a fun time with most sports, and I'd rather read a book.

Just read a book outside with reading glasses

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding of the parent's post was that someone with -2 vision may expect roughly perfect vision as their eyes age. I couldn't find a study with data, but there are anecdotal guides online (for picking reading glasses) which state that by 60 years old, it's estimated that a person would need about +2.25 diopters in correction. So someone who is around -2 diopters may expect to have roughly perfect vision as th…

This is a misunderstanding of what happens to your eyes as you age. Your eyes lose the ability to change focus. People with normal vision will have their focus stuck near infinity and will need reading glasses for close up things. People with mild myopia will have their focus stuck at close range and therefore won't need reading glasses. They will still need glasses to see clearly far away, but they always did, so it…

Thanks for taking the time to reply and explain; I didn't understand how it works.

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#305
post #83
post #4

now if only they had something for astigmatism. There's surprising lack of progress

Ugh. I had fairly stable myopia and was content. Recently developed astigmatism in my strong eye and so my overall vision is substantially worse. Anyone know what can cause sudden onset of astigmatism in adulthood? It appeared a couple years ago and seems stable. Not sure over what period it appeared, probably in 3-12 months.

Me too. It is really bad. Myopia is no issue when I work at the computer, since I can move closer, but with astigmatism I cannot read at all without glasses. It has recently increased to 3.5 diopter cylinder according to the measurement device. At those values it is even difficult to buy glasses.

>Anyone know what can cause sudden onset of astigmatism in adulthood? It appeared a couple years ago and seems stable. Not sure over what period it appeared, probably in 3-12 months.

If it was unstable, it could be keratokonus

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#306
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a tough nut to crack as everyones axis to the astigmatism is custom, nevermind the combination of powers to compensate for the actual focal issues. And all of those details shift over time, too.

I wonder if there is a way to "read" how elongated your eyeball is, detect imperfections on the surface level and create a smart glass that adjusts what you see based on these "customizations". Imagine training the brain to see properly, I doubt it will change in adults however. Even wearing light sunglasses helps tremendously but because of the socially frowned upon nature of wearing shades indoors and the long term…

There are such measurement devices: wavefront aberrometers

There are also corresponding glasses, but no smart glasses

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#308
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So wear slightly weaker glasses? Yep.

I don't think this has been conclusively demonstrated yet.

There was one famous study that discovered wearing weaker glasses made myopia worse, and then everyone was too afraid to make further studies

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do research on myopia progression. It's not unknown. This entire thread is full of people guessing at things they don't have any experience in.

A brief look at citations on Wikipedia seems to contradict everything you've said. Maybe you'd like to link some research?

Your reply is a good example. I haven't seen anyone in this HN post's comments talk about how myopia works. I legitimately do not understand why so few people know even the basics of myopia progression. All of these comments are, pun intended, the blind leading the blind. I especially don't understand it given how common myopia is and how important it is for parents to understand it for their children.

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1. Glasses that blur what's on peripheral vision https://abc11.com/amp/4176773/

> too much time spent in front of a screen confuses the eye, since everything is in focus. The eye keeps growing, leading to myopia.

2. Glasses to stop myopia are successful in multi-site trial https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/glasses-stop-myopia-are-success...

Glasses with fogged edges prevent over focus:

> What’s supposed to happen as your eye grows, is that things should begin to go out of focus in the periphery of your vision. That’s a signal for the eyes to stop growing.

3. Multifocal contact lenses slow myopia progression in children https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/multifo...

> Animal studies have shown that focusing light in front of the retina cues the eye to slow growth.

4. Putting contact lenses on monkeys _causes_ myopia and removing them slows myopia growth https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48009-3

5. "How Atropine Eye Drops Can Slow Myopia Progression" https://www.myopiainstitute.com/eye-care/how-atropine-eye-dr...

> Applying atropine eye drops dilates the pupils and temporarily paralyzes the focusing muscle inside the eye. It also relaxes the eyes’ focusing mechanisms.

Your eye grows without your brain's involvement. Sharp focus on the back of the eye, especially in the periphery, tells the eye to grow longer because it's overfocusing. This leads to the worsening of myopia. Things that cause sharp focus on the retina and fovea: contacts, glasses, and holding things close to your face that keep everything in focus. This may be why being outside is correlated with slowing myopia progression, because you wont have things constantly in focus in your peripheral vision from it being close to you.

I have a serious question: did you not come across any of this research? No one seems to have familiarity with these concepts in this HN thread. Did you see articles like these and skip over them? Or, maybe, were you only googling for myopia and sunlight, which is unlikely to return results like these?

Re: Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia

#310
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a misunderstanding of what happens to your eyes as you age. Your eyes lose the ability to change focus. People with normal vision will have their focus stuck near infinity and will need reading glasses for close up things. People with mild myopia will have their focus stuck at close range and therefore won't need reading glasses. They will still need glasses to see clearly far away, but they always did, so it…

There's hope that this won't be an issue in the future: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/news/article/eye-drop-for-... I've been following the development of this drug since before it was bought by Novartis. I was expecting the average results to get better along with the median, but perhaps the dosage just wasn't high enough in this trial.

Very interesting! Hopefully they have more success in the future. Seems like an enormous market so hopefully there will be more investment.
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