Many years ago, when I was in my early teens, I and every kid in my town were diagnosed as myopic by a travelling optometrist and fitted out with glasses. I couldn't stand them on my face, so I only wore them when I had to. By my early 20s, my vision was back to nearly 20/20. Others kept theirs on, and they still wear them today.

About 20 years ago, I read of research showing that the eyeball, as it grows, goes through an elongated stage through the teens, which causes myopia and a bit of tunnel vision (fits teenagers symbolically too). Glasses will keep the eye from maturing back to sharper focus. The solution becomes the problem, although it's very big business, that's for sure.

Now, at age 58, I still don't need glasses for reading, because I exercise my eyes. I force them to focus at a reasonable reading distance, and when they're adjusted to that, I pull whatever I'm reading in about an inch, adjust to that, then pull it in again, until I can read about 8" from my face. It works. It just takes some awareness and discipline.

I wonder if the difference is the quality of light - indoors'artificial and outdoorslnatural whatever the child is actually doing. Does the flickering of some artifical lights cause the problem? Does vitamin D play a part?

I spent 10 years on submarines where the environment is very close indeed. After a long trip at sea, it was well known that our peripheral vision was effected for a couple of days after getting back ashore. We also spent months living under flourescent and dim lighting. However, there was not a greater number of myopia sufferers on board submarines compared to normal civillians, so I'm not so sure about this finding. Surely if it is correct, then there should be a high percentage of submariners who suffer from myopia.

New Scientist uses an unusually small type size in magazine text, and frequently uses low-contrast colors behind text, making the magazine harder to read.

So, New Scientist is doing its bit to increase the incidence of myopia among its most devoted readers...a practice that contributes to the practice.

It's time to change to more reasonable standards for your readers!

"By practising these exercises people get better at functioning with their deficit, but six months later their prescription hasn't changed,"

This demonstrated to be false for me. I started training the eyes right after having followed a small seminar about it, and having accidentally broken my eyeglasses that same night.

It took some time, self-discipline and awareness, but now I proudly can say that my vision is almost 10/10 on both eyes. And exercising outdoors, with distant objects like the car plates while driving was an integral part of it.

Of course no doctor ever trusted me in the period when the vision was slowly improving. I had regular exams because I was forced to by the organisation for which I was working at that time.

This led also to funny situations. But now I simply don't care anymore, and keep happily refreshing my exercises with a certain regularity.

Im convinced that computer screens are what caused my short-sightedness. I had perfect vision until I was in my last year at primary school, which is about a year after my parents bought our first pc. It got slowly worse, and finally settled when my GCSE schoolwork really started to bite and I had less time to spend on it. I started a Computer Science degree and after the first year, my vision started changing again, and was aprox twice as bad at the end of the 4-years than it was before I started.

I wouldnt be surprised at all if the rates of myopia in different countries map fairly consistantly against the percentage of young people in those countries that regularly use pcs or consoles for long periods.

If out-of-focus peripheral vision may be the culprit, then the mechanisms of this should be looked at. Perhaps the lack of a sharp difference in light falling on adjacent cells is what actually triggers the elongation. In that case fluorescent lighting could be contributing to this because of the softness (and dimness) of the light. I wonder if the switchover to LED lights for indoor lighting will have any effect on myopia.

Sometimes we approach problems from the wrong direction. chicken and egg stuff, is it not? Actually kids and all people probably do whatever they can do best, that is, if far vision is fuzzy, thay may be inclined to sit indoors and read. Of course the problem worsens as the retina is encourages to good growth/health by exposure to sunny environs. Crowded or city conditions can retard retinal growth by forcing people to remain indoors more with their little ones, and indeed daycare centers rarely have the staff to spend long periods outdoors with their little charges. Once cause and effect have been established, even imperceptibly, the person heads toward the niche that seems to fit and inadvertantly fosters the extension of the problem with their vision. Also, necessity is as always the mother of invention in the case of the eye, if you excerise the ability to read, near focus is improved, but you must also demand the ability to see far to keep far focus alive. My guess is that self preservation is actually the driving force: poor far vision could (have been) dangerous when noticing a predator crouching , or stalking about, as quickly as it was seen meant a quicker escape which meant survival. The potentially fuzzy far-seer may have, still does, feel safer indoors/enclosed space, and the potentially far sighted shun the effort of reading, even the the underlying problem is still in the minimal/hardly perceptible stage. Anyway, the eye kept in bandages or in a dark room for too long makes the retina deteriorate irrevocably, forcing the eye to warp or stretch as necessary to enable vision, so early infancy and childhood exposure to sunlight is the biggest key to good eyesight, put that baby in a buggy a go for a walk a few times a day, but don't let the sun shine directly into the eyes which is also destructive. Best answer: Moms should not work until all the little kiddies are in kindergarten at the very least, stay home and tend to those babies like no day care center ever could, and follow grandma's advice, plenty of fresh air, sunhine, veggies and love. All this of course is Grannie's common sense, I have no research to quote but I know much of it exists so we would love feedback from the experts.

I don't see anything new in this article. I've studied this subject and the problem consists in the flexibility of a membrane near the retine, the less we switch focus from short/long range, the less flexible that membrane becomes. Over time it causes myophia. So basically the solution is to switch focus distances very often... which means outdoor activity helps.. most hunters for example have awesome sight as they are used to switch their eye focus from short to long range very often. Its just a plain exercise.

About another comment, it is true that wearing glasses indeed makes things worse due to the distance of the lense from the eye. It worsens eyesight over time which means you'll need to buy new glasses every 3-5 years. Big business indeed. I don't see anywhere advertising that people can improve their eyesight without needing glasses by making a few focus exercises... because of course that wouldn't be profitable would it? :-) I guess governments don't give a damn too...

A suprising answer to blurry vision is to apply warm compresses to closed eyes for approx 5-10mins. This allows for a better quality of oil to come from the meibomian glands, and although oil makes up only 1% of the tears covering the eye's surface it has a huge impact on vision. I thought I was rapidly descending into short-sightedness but this solution completely reversed that trend. I'd be interested to see other peoples experience with this method. It's advice that came from a Harvard Medical Univerity lecturer.

I started wearing glasses at around age 9 for near sightedness. Three years ago, at age 33, I gave birth to twins and quit my career that had involved sitting at a desk, with a computer, in windowless offices. When I went for my yearly exam this year my doctor noted that my eyes have improved by .75 dioptres. After a lifetime of consistently getting worse, my eyes were suddenly getting better. No doubt that my being outside enjoying the world for hours a day with the kids has everything to do with it. It's always nice when science proves common sense.

I spent a great deal of time playing football outdoors and I am quite myopic. I also read a great deal. I know it could be a statistical phenomenon, but I'm still not convinced.

Eye size is loosely tied to light intensity - low light organisms need larger eyes to collect more light.

In animals with ridged eye sockets this accomodation to lower light levels causes a larger eye to form in a fixed sized socket, which necessarily leads to an elongated eye and improper focus.

I was prescribed glasses for nearsightedness at age 24. My prescribed glasses got progressively stronger every time I went back for another eye exam. Finally at age 54, I made a decision to do some eye exercises and dump the glasses. I'm now 68 and haven't used glasses since, except in some infrequent cases when the print is way too small.

Something is missing in that research. I suspect it's not looking at the specifics of those exercises.

Doing them outdoors is big, as is spending time in direct sunlight. With too much time spent in direct sunlight being a problem, it's best to limit that time to 15 minutes or less unless sunscreen or sunblock are used.

If you refuse to believe this, than you're going to be stuck with glasses the rest of your life. Why not give it a try and find out for yourself?

32 years ago (aged 13) I was taken by my mum to the optician as my dad had noticed me squinting at the t.v. After a few minutes the optician told me that I was short-sighted and told my mum that I had been a forceps delivery at birth. Mum was surprised and asked how he knew this and he said it was because the type of short-sightedness I had (the shape of my eyeball) was typical in someone who was delivered by forceps. I got my specs and 25 years on still had the same prescription, although I've never needed them for close-up work or reading. Has any research looked into this possible forceps delivery factor I wonder?

In my late thirties I noticed a considerable deterioration in my eyesight that I put down to working at a computer, so at my next eye test I opted for varifocals. Now aged 45 my eyes are worse than 7-8 years ago and my optician says this is age-related - apparently the decline rapidly increases when you hit 40 or thereabouts. I find the varifocals a nuisance and at my next eye test I'll be going back to standard specs and do what I always did - take them off for close-up work or reading! Also, as my eyes have aged and the myopia has got worse, my distance vision has improved slightly, my optician says this is normal - but I still need the specs for t.v.

Incidentally, or maybe not, I sometimes leave the house in the morning for work and forget I don't have my specs on. I don't notice I'm not wearing them until I open my front door and step outside - the moment I see into the blurry distance I realise I'm not wearing them. This wouldn't have happened years ago - I needed them for everything that wasn't immediately close-up. Obviously due to the small improvement in my distance vision but maybe something to do with the intensity of the daylight? I shall have to try to remember to forget my glasses on a dark winter morning and see if it makes a didfference!

I believe it should be due to exposure to computer screens. I suspected that as a root cause to my myopic problem because I found my eyesight gradually deteriorate especially you could feel the strain after each gaming session.

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How about low light levels at night. Certainly peripheral vision is used more at night. Maybe kids who spend more time outdoors are less visually active at night.

Plot the increase in myopia cases against the UN's prediction of Global Warming - good fit. Now we know the cause.

I would be interested to know if dog owners are less likely to be myopic than cat owners, given that they have to get out to walk the dog everyday.

Its pretty obvious what it is I've known for years. Ours eyes have evolved to hunt etc. and for being in Nature. Reading, watching tv, computers, video games. Bascally anything that has us staring at one thing for a long time causes our eyes to lose the ability to focus correctly

I do recognize that much of this article explains my bad vision. I had great vision in elementary school and spend lots of time outdoors playing with friends. In middle school I became a bit more anti-social and spent a lot more time indoors and late in my first year of high school is when I got glasses. At that point I spent almost all of my day indoors. PE was the only time I really spent outdoors at that point. On the other hand, my brother always preferred activities that put him outside, even if they weren't active activities and he still has great vision.

I was just taking a peek outdoors and a thought occured to me me though. I'm not fair skinned, but I do burn quite easily if I spend too much time in direct sunlight. What would the effects be on eyesight if one were to spend plenty of time outdoors, but say under a covering or tree that shades their body, but they see plenty of objects lighted by the sun. Another words, does being in direct sunlight or viewing objects that are in direct sunlight make the crucial difference?

this was really interesting...got me to think~

Another factor is the increasing use of silver nitrate or erythromycin drops in the eyes of newborns, which renders their sight blurry for days. Countries which previously had not used such drops are beginning to do so. Could this blurriness at birth jumpstart myopia in genetically vulnerable individuals?

Very interesting article.

The author of this New Scientist article has been misled by the optical industry. There is a conspiracy to hide the truth which is exposed on myopia.org. There is no mention in this article about the harm of minus lenses and the myopia-preventing effect of reading glasses, or plus lenses. Myopia is caused by prolonged close work, something our eyes are not designed for

WOw, are yew serious? THat is WAY cool dude!

RT

http://www.private-web.se.tc

There is also evidence that myopia is more common in people born in the summer compared to people born in winter (Mandel et el, Opthalmology, last year).

A season of birth bias and a difference between urban and rural prevalence suggest that vitamin D is a factor. The fact that vitamin D levels are declining in many counries would then explain the rising rates of myopia.

Only this is so important, I am revealing the secret behind this epidemic. I am a sufferer from myopia too. As many of you, I a also have found that the glasses only worsen the problem, when presecribed too early. Why? because it causes the eyes to depend on the glasses as a crutch rather than working its accommodating muscles.

Now to my real point; if somebody can work on this theory someday:

We have this epidemic because kids spend spend too much time in front of TV and reading books. (I don't blame the poor lighting's effect). Don't skip my post yet! As per Emmarcee theory, the accommodating muscles get weaker and weaker as we focus on a flat surface, withought changes in depth which usually taskes your eye muscles to focus. Any flat surface use for long duration will cause this. This explains a lot why this is an epidemic of the modern age and why kids who are more sports minded are spared. Games and sports necessitates your accommodating muscles to try better and better, where as using flat surface kills this facility.

So what is the cure, abolish TV, books and flat screen monitors? My answer: Possbily we can find a way for our kids to use their "accommodation" musles better and more frequently by inventing something better than a flat surface. Can anybody try that?

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