I vividly remember buying my first pair of glasses as a child. My mother is extremely nearsighted and takes me to the optician every year. My older sister was diagnosed when she was about 8 years old, and I prayed that she wouldn't copy me because she was afraid of being made fun of, but by the time I was her age, the world had become a blur. A visit to the optician that year confirmed it, and I've been wearing glasses or contact lenses ever since.
In the late 1970s, it was extremely unusual for someone to need glasses at such a young age. No more. Over the past 30 years, myopia has increased rapidly, especially among children. Approximately one-third of 5- to 19-year-olds are now nearsighted, up from one-quarter in 1990. If this trend continues, the proportion will be approximately 40% by 2050 – or 740 million myopic young people.
It's more than an inconvenience. “Myopia is a disease,” they say. K. Davina Flick Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland, where he recently served as co-chair. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Conditions. “It is widespread Quality of life and economic impactThere is a risk of blindness, especially in severe cases,” she says. But researchers are increasingly thinking that the epidemic can be slowed or even reversed.
Most cases of myopia are axial. This means that the axis of the eyeball, the distance between the cornea at the front and the light-sensing retina at the back, becomes too long. This means that the light that enters your eyes is focused right in front of your eyes.
Source: www.newscientist.com
