Interestingly enough, scientists have been able to induce myopia in all sorts of animals by making them wear contacts.<p>My suspicion is that staring at objects closely and under dimly lit conditions causes pseusdo-myopia which is later exacerbated by wearing glasses, causing actual axial elongation in the eyeballs through hormesis. Especially since this is what seems to happen in other animals when we dissect them.
Pretty interesting. The dominant hypothesis now is that exposure to daylight is the main variable. It explains why myopia seems, like diabetes and heart disease, to be what doctors call a “disease of affluence”—more common in rich countries than poor ones—since economic growth brings with it more education, and therefore, for children, more time inside.
Anecdote: I live in Asia, and when I was in middle school, AFAIR there were only 3 people (out of 40-ish) don't wear glasses including me.<p>Parents nowadays blame screens for short-sightedness, but the truth is back then my classmates are almost all doing reading and writing all the time, and nobody was using screens (Symbian Nokia only took off years later).<p>It's only me and the other two boys who spend all the time and money on online video games - the other two guys were almost score zero in every single exam.
As an anecdote, in some modern Asian cities, you can live your life entirely indoors.<p>You live in a small apartment above a large shopping mall and connected to the metro.<p>School is indoors, book learning is prioritised over outdoor physical activity.<p>Kids would spend their entire childhoods indoors.<p>No wonder myopia is so prevalent.
Reminds me of a memoir titled "house of sticks" written by Ly Tran, who experienced blindness from a very young age. When she escalated the issue to her father, asking for glasses, he denounced them: he was convinced that glasses were a conspiracy made by the government to control citizens.
Anecdotal evidence (lived in Vietnam for a year).<p>I was astonished at the number of people wearing glasses in the country. Especially women.<p>At first I thought it was some kind of fashion statement, but it seemed to be prescription lenses for the most part.<p>I’m in no way saying that the article explains any of this - it’s just an observation.
Related discussion from yesterday: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31711990" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31711990</a><p>(I guess Economist must have a theme week on this...)
What does folks think about CRT as treatment for myopia? They are basically hard lenses that you only wear during night and stay glasses-free during day time. My understanding is that myopia doesn't go away but also doesn't get worse.<p><a href="https://www.paragonvision.com/crt-lenses/" rel="nofollow">https://www.paragonvision.com/crt-lenses/</a>
I read an article a while ago that suggested people in cities had a worst eye sights than people on the country because of the buildings and not proper distance your eye could adapt and train itself. I guess it makes sense considering there are more and more skyscrapper in Asia.
It would have been better to use “near-sightedness” instead of “short-sightedness”. The first term always means myopia. The second can mean either myopia or personality flaw.
Sitting all day at school staring at books and notebooks, memorizing bunch of useless stuff and then doing same thing without any outdoor activity (with focusing eyes at longer distance) with more and more population living in urban setting, I'm shocked!
Glasses tend to degrade vision.
What if previously it was impossible to afford glasses , so your eyes never got so bad?<p>Then again 2 out of 3 Asians I've dated wore glasses. My first girlfriend and mine's frames touched when we kissed.<p>The 2 were both Americans, so it would point to a generic explanation.<p>Then again a geneticist friend of mine pointed out the egg that made you was actually created inside of your grandmother. So bad nutrition, due to famine perhaps, can easily affect multiple generations.<p>Rather depressing to think about how the grandmothers of most people likely suffered though some form of famine. It's really great to see global poverty decrease to such a level this won't be the case in 100 years.