A New Perspective on Vision


It is an indisputable fact that modern living has made our eyes weak. In the material to follow, I am going to offer the primary theory as to why that is, and what we may be able to do about it. But first, I will touch on the more obvious problem with too much screen time, and the nature of blue light from computer screens and digital devices.

Myopia

A doctor in the UK has estimated that, since the advent of the smartphone, nearsightedness (myopia) has gone up nearly 35%. 

(Smart phones make you short sighted, Brit eye surgeon claims.)

In some Asian cities, nearly 90% of the population needs corrective lenses (glasses or contact lenses). In Shanghai, for example, 86% of high school students suffer from myopia. Surely something is wrong here.

(Why Is Nearsightedness Skyrocketing Among Chinese Youth?)

So, we are facing an epidemic of myopia, and receiving little in the way of concern from the medical profession (while the optometrists are filling their coffers). But, as usual, there are reasons for this happening, and once we understand the causes we can find the remedy. Though, given the obvious link to smartphones, I can appreciate that many will be hesitant to give them up, but herein I will offer some less drastic solutions. 

Blue Light

Working on a computer, or reading and viewing on a screen, is more challenging to the eyes than reading a book, or looking at hard copy images. The difference is that the computer adds elements of screen contrast, flicker, and glare.

Working at a computer gets more difficult, and causes more eye problems, the older we get. The ability to focus on near and far objects starts to diminish after about age 40, leading to a condition called presbyopia. This occurs because the lens of the eye becomes less flexible.

Much of this eye damage occurs because of blue light exposure, something well examined by Daniel Georgiev, founder of the popular app, Iris.

Daniel Georgiev had perfect vision as a young man, but that changed once he became a computer programmer, spending more than 10 hours per day in front of a computer. He started to experience eye strain and pain, and soon needed glasses. At this point, Georgiev began to do heavy research into the subject of eye and vision health, soon realizing how damaging long term exposure to computer monitors could be. 

Deciding to find a solution to this problem, both for himself and others, he eventually created his own software for eye health and protection, and to improve worker productivity. Thus was born Iris, a variety of software packages that reduce flicker rate on monitors, and adjust the light spectrum depending on whether it is day, or night.

For an overview of his material, have a look at his Ted talk video: How technology is killing our eyes. And, to find out more about Iris software visit his website: iristech.co

What Is The Root Cause Of Myopia?

Discussing eye health would not have been complete, without addressing the modern problem with blue light, and computer screens. Georgiev’s work handily covers that base. What I want to discuss now is an overlooked factor that affects our vision.

Myopia began long before the advent of computers, so the underlying cause must predate computers and digital devices. Why do we get nearsighted (the main reason people need glasses), and develop presbyopia? And why is this primarily a modern phenomena? 

There have been many different theories about what causes myopia, and one that used to be scoffed at has recently found some scientific support.

Reading

The theory that reading leads to myopia was first postulated by a British eye doctor in 1813. He observed that soldiers, who tended to be illiterate, rarely were myopic, while officers, who were well-educated, often were.

Later, in 1883, another doctor ranked 7,500 Dutch military recruits according to former occupation, discovering nearsightedness was more prevalent among the more educated. He found myopia occured among 2.5% of the farmers and fishermen, 12% among craftsmen doing close handiwork, and up to 32% among scholars.

As a society we have for a long time subconsciously made this association between reading and glasses.We assume that people with glasses are more intelligent: in the old days those with glasses were “nerds”. 

Studies done decades ago, found that teachers would grade the same work higher if the student wore glasses, than if the same work was turned in by a student who did not. I remember when movie stars like Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme would wear non-prescription glasses when doing interviews on TV, in order that they would be perceived to be more intelligent. 

Pol Pot (the Cambodian dictator responsible for the “Killing Fields”) wanted to eliminate the intellectual classes in an attempt to “purify” Cambodian society. As part of his genocide against his own people, he had all the teachers, lawyers, and intellectuals put to death. Finally, running out of victims, he turned to those who wore glasses, and also had them killed. Pot had also made the connection between glasses and “intelligence” (“book-learning”).

In our culture, which practically worships “intelligence” (however, not emotional intelligence nor instinctive intelligence), the prevalence of loud, obvious frames for glasses, speaks to this unconscious bias. After all, why wouldn’t everyone just use contact lenses (or get laser eye surgery), unless there were some perceived benefit to wearing glasses? (The nerds have the last laugh, now.)

All of this is to point out that there is something to the link between reading and glasses. Now, new research supports the thesis that nearsightedness is related to education, and thus to reading.

Why Going To School Is Bad For You

A study published June, 2018, in the BMJ, found that the more years a person spends in school, the more likely they are to be myopic. During that study, it was also established that it was education that caused myopia, and not the other way around (i.e. people with myopia were more drawn to reading). (Education and myopia: assessing the direction of causality by mendelian randomisation | The BMJ)

Let’s look at this conversely. Other research indicates there is a link between the amount of time children spend outside, and the likelihood of developing myopia (more time outside, less occurence of myopia). Obviously, being in school means less time outdoors, and more time indoors (trading in sunlight for fluorescent light; a whole other issue, but one that is tangentially related), staring at school books (and now, also screens).

Debbie Jones, a clinical professor in the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry and Vision Science, suggests many East Asian cultures strongly emphasize high educational standards, which could explain their higher rates of myopia. 

Her research determined that, “for each additional hour a child spends outside per week, their chance of being myopic fell by 14%”. (She recommends that children should spend at least 90 minutes outdoors daily.) (Source)

Yet, Jones, and the other researchers, were not exactly sure why time outdoors was so important for vision. They believe more exposure to sunlight may be part of the reason, and that focusing on a variety of objects, near and far, was also part of the explanation.

You imagine a kid kicking a soccer ball around, they’re looking at their feet, they’re looking ahead at the net, they’re looking into the distance. So they’re constantly changing that focal range,” she said.

Focal Range

Children are generally farsighted (in which you can see distant objects clearly, but objects nearby may be blurry) in early childhood. When they learn to read they need to dramatically draw that focus in, in order to see things up close. Narrowing down focus is done with a visual process called “accommodation”.

When our eyes need to focus on something closer than a foot or two away, the ciliary muscles that control the eye lenses have to contract. This “accommodation” makes the lens bulge, bringing the nearby object into focus on the retina.

According to the theory of myopia that blames “nearwork”, an excessive use of accommodation will actually modify the configuration of the eye.

The more often we make the ciliary muscles contract, and the lens bulge, the more difficult it becomes for the structure to return to its normal state. Accommodation also causes an increase in pressure within the eye. If this process occurs too often, and the intraocular pressure stays high for too long, the eyeball often responds by elongating, and remaining that way.

This theory has many followers, including members of the American Optometric Society. Of the nation's 22,500 practicing optometrists, about 9,000 are having their myopic clients perform some vision retraining (eye exercises in which the patient is forced to shift focusing distance to strengthen the eye's ability to shift focus).

In Part 2 we will look at more science on the subject of “nearwork” and examine some unorthodox exercises we can do to counteract the development of myopia.

(Author: All newsletters and blogs are written by Ken Peters who has worked as a nutritional consultant for the last 30 years, and as product designer for NutriStart for the last 25 years. He has also authored two books - Health Secrets Vol. 1&2. He may be reached at: kenpetersconsulting@gmail.com)