Increased rates of myopia linked to reduced time outside, studies suggest (2015)
nature.com
nature.com
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.
"More than a billion people around the world need eyeglasses but don’t have them, researchers say, an affliction long overlooked on lists of public health priorities. Some estimates put that figure closer to 2.5 billion people. They include thousands of nearsighted Nigerian truck drivers who strain to see pedestrians darting across the road and middle-aged coffee farmers in Bolivia whose inability to see objects up close makes it hard to spot ripe beans for harvest. Then there are the tens of millions of children like Shivam across the world whose families cannot afford an eye exam or the prescription eyeglasses that would help them excel in school."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/health/glasses-developing...
What makes you think it's unusual?
We know from several large scale studies that eye reaches its maximum axial length by around age 13, and while the eye gets ever so slightly shorter (hyperopic, rather than myopic) as you age, it's far outweighed by the effects of presbyopia, whereby the lens of your eye becomes less elastic with age, and thus is unable to focus up close. In effect, it makes you more farsighted, and why people with myopia feel that their vision somewhat improves with age.
Sources (with references to the large scale studies, which unfortunately I cannot currently access): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4347057/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3843406/
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...
Can the damage be reversed?
Maybe the spending time outside is more related to it as this article says; I work almost exclusively outside. I abhor cold so I only spend my days in warm climes where I work outside behind my computer/phone/tablet/... for the entire day. When I have meetings, I try to get people to meet outside, which usually works (most people like this far more than staying inside, even if it's chilly, but not with freeze/rain/snow of course).
This happened to me at 40. The eye doctor explained that human eyes get thicker and more leathery as we age, which changes their shape. So if you're myopic before this time, you have a decent chance of having improved vision. It eventually goes the other way, though, and reading glasses or bifocals are needed to correct your vision.
>>> Many years ago, someone who used to work for me was struggling with poor memory. He wanted to be alert and disciplined but it was almost like laziness was a disease and he was suffering from it. Not in the physical sense because he was out and about working on stuff all the time but there was no productivity, focus or any significant output. We (him and I) figured he severely lacked focus. I told him to practice trataka for three months every day. It would help him with his memory and focus. He followed the instructions diligently and at the end of three months, there was remarkable improvement in his memory and recall. But, memory improvement wasn’t the main thing. As a result of the practice, another, totally unexpected, thing happened. He reported a blurred vision in spite of wearing spectacles. He went to the optometrist only to find out that he no longer needed the prescription glasses (for short-sightedness or myopia). He had been wearing glasses for more than a decade. I’ve observed on numerous occasions that yogic practices do channelize the flow of various energies in the body. It changes your gaze, gait and movements. It even affects your speech in its own positive way. You slow down a bit but become more effective, more mindful. An unfailing sign of a true yogi is stillness of the gaze. Even some advanced meditators struggle to keep their eyeballs still (even when their eyes are closed). Stillness of the gaze has a remarkable effect on the energy flow in your body. There is a specific yogic practice to perfect your gaze. The method of fixing your gaze on an object is called trāṭaka. Movement in the eyes, flickering of the eyelids represent a subtle flaw in your posture as well as meditation. Practice of trataka is the best practice to eliminate this flaw. Like all other yogic practices, do it every day for at least 40 days to benefit from it.
Excerpted from: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan...
Your body changes a lot around the 40 year mark and I don't think that it's related, at all, to your smart phone. I'm sure that those older than us can tell us what to expect in the next decade.
I still have 2020 vision.
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. :/
With these on, my eyes' comfortable (and nearly only remaining) "infinity focus" is used to work at a computer. One wonders, if myopia is, in fact, caused by long-term eye strain from excessive near focus time during developing years, whether a disciplined approach of using normal reading glasses designed for older folks, while doing all paper/computer work, might help against developing myopia.
I'm aware of bifocals and contact lenses/laser surgery (with these, ordinary cheap reading glasses would suffice) but I've always been most comfortable just wearing normal eyeglasses, so switching to weakened glasses as necessary works for me.
That's part of the reason I decided to do something outside of my degree path (that and the fact economics is depressing AF). I still enjoy computers, economics, all the things I studied, but working with my hands, stints in the outdoors, not staring at a screen makes me happier (and healthier).
I have some studio lights around for recording. Would these benefit the eye the way the sun does? I had considered using them while working for seasonal affective disorder.
It's hard to be sure but my eyes feel a little weaker since moving in.
I assumed using it at night would mess up my sleep, but it didn't.
On quora they agree https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-benefits-being-short-sigh...
Thanks for reminding me about myopia, I will get glasses (if anything, just for mountain views). One time I tried someone else's glasses and it was wonderful, completely different world when being outside, extremely sharp, not blurry.
Can you elaborate ?
But possibly there is myopia and presbyopia (age related farsightedness) interaction.
"Many people with near-sightedness can read comfortably without eyeglasses or contact lenses even after age forty."
"Presbyopia is the result of age-related hardening of the natural lens. Everybody has this happen and it gets bad enough we can’t ignore the resulting near vision problem by about age 45. The one good thing about being near-sighted is that the large eyeball means the default focal point of the myopic Eye is up close, depending on how nearsighted you are. So if myopic, without glasses you can see up close without needing to work at it."
Some days when I go out early in the morning I can see everything perfectly, and other days I can't even read a number plate that is five metres away.
Human bodies autocalibrate for their environment to a remarkable degree on virtually every axis, moreso during childhood and adolescence and to a lesser degree after reaching maturity. I can't fathom why anyone would doubt that spending all of your time staring at nearby objects causes your eyes to adapt to staring at nearby objects.
And this perfectly fits the article's findings.
Anecdotally, a few of my friends are into sailing, in a 'crewing a large sailing ship' sense, and apparently some have seen noticeable improvements to their myopia after being out at sea for a couple of weeks and spending a lot of time staring at the horizon.