World News @lemmy.world boem @lemmy.world 6mo ago

A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe

www.nature.com A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe. Here’s how to stop it

Time spent outdoors is the best defence against rising rates of short-sightedness, but scientists are searching for other ways to reverse the troubling trend.

Hacker News @lemmy.smeargle.fans bot @lemmy.smeargle.fans

BOT

6mo ago

A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe

www.nature.com /articles/d41586-024-01518-2

29 comments

Interesting that 3/10 people globally have myopia (near sightedness)... that's absurdly high. And as the trends stay as they are they are only predicting an increase

I guess it proves humans as a whole are focusing more on screens, books, and other short visions tasks

Focusing on providing safe outdoor spaces for everyone has never been more important
- I guess it proves humans as a whole are focusing more on screens, books, and other short visions tasks
  
  For me it tells me that nature is not selecting good vision anymore. We are fixing our vision on the side of evolution. If this trait is easy to pass on, it doesn't take many generations.
  
  A near-sighted hawk will never survive to live even a short life beyond its childhood nest. But we have glasses...
  
  Humanity will only suffer more and more ailments as medicine gets better and better, is my prediction. As long as the afflicted individuals have time to breed before dying.
  
  I'm only a layman though. Evolution isn't my field. I might be talking out of my ass.
  
  Well like how glasses fix myopia it isnt really an ailment anymore then. Ideally that's what we should be aiming for. Fixing - not making better just to make better
  
  We only see people with PKU (phenylketonuria) or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) living normally because of our advances in medical fields. Before in our history they would perish (or unfortunately be culled) like the stunted hawk
  
  It's a highly grey area in ethics, but I think as long as we have best interest in mind and dont end up like the humans in Wall-E we should be fine. Star Trek also covers a lot of eugenics topics and in the end they also think humans should take the course of evolution and avoid things like designer babies or genetic enhancements
  
  And its honestly incredible though. Humans literally fighting (and winning) against evolution/nature
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
  
  https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Eugenics_Wars
  
  This article is from 2018 and talks a bit about the suspected causes of increased myopia. The theory is that our eyes are responding to the environment and elongating (axial myopia). So it's not that humans have lost the ability to have good vision via selection, it's that we're adapting to screen vision.
  
  Your point about natural selection is well addressed by @Shawdow194@kbin.social already.
- Read somewhere it's mostly due to not enough sunlight exposure as kids. The eyes can sense out how much to grow thanks to sunlight, however in the absence of it it causes myopia.
  
  Thanks for shedding some light on this
~~Didn't~~ Couldn't see that one coming.
- It was a little blurry for me.
Outdoors teaching is an idea we should really be doing more. It would have been useful to have during the pandemic, and it is still a good idea.
Let's hope there is a way to cure it.

I always thought it was only genetic, so noone could do anything against a wrong eyeball shape. But this seems very uplifting.

I wonder though why this article cites mainly eastern Asian sources. Is the rest of the world not interested in curing myopia?
- Wasn't myopia linked to lack of exposure to sunlight while growing up? The cure is literally for children to go outside more. and for those with it LASIK is the only solution.
  
  As I understand it, it isn't sunlight, but distance.
  
  If a child spends all its time indoors focusing on nothing farther than the walls, myopia will result.
  
  The article goes into detail on this
  
  I'm actually about to get ICL surgery to correct mine in July @ 35 years old. Pretty stoked to not have to use glasses anymore. Though from what I've been told, it will make those of us who get ICLs more susceptible to early cataracts (like 60 years old or so versus 75, as we all will eventually get cataracts if we live long enough), and I'll need a second surgery at that point for better lenses. But if I'm going to eventually need that surgery anyway to remove a cataract, then what's it matter?
- It has been a noticeable phenomena in East Asia for about 2 decades longer than the West. They've been studying it longer/have more data.
  
  Source: I made it the fuck up
Deformed jaws are another one.
- Source?
  
  Mirror
  
  Wojak
once again I was doin it way before it was cool. I gots the two versions now.
Two hours outside per day for children.

29 comments