Hello All,
Could anyone explain to me the effect poor vision development has on near-sightedness? DS9's eyesight is changing for the worse. The doctor (new doctor - not our past VT doc) indicated to me today that near-sightedness is a compensation for muscles not relaxing, so the vision therapy has not been effective in preventing the nearsightedness.
Hi Portia,
I think you've been fed a bit of a line on this one. The causes of myopia aren't fully understood. I'm definitely not an expert on the subject, but a few review papers I found don't support claims that exercises or vision therapy can prevent nearsightedness. What I found said that it's a mixture of genes and environment.
Environmental factors that are correlated with nearsightedness include time outdoors (protective; may have to do with sunlight stimulating the eye), intensive studying/reading or screen time (increases risk), and high blood sugar (increases risk). Here's an article
from NIH on the subject.
I learned that nearsightedness is becoming a very serious problem in Asia. It's possible that the problem is driven by too much studying/screen time. Apparently, a new campaign in Singapore says, "Keep myopia at bay; go outdoors and play!"
Here's an article on Quackwatch about
vision therapy.
