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My child is following in my footsteps and has been prescribed glasses for nearsightedness. Her optometrist told us she should be watching TV rather than reading

My child is following in my footsteps and has been prescribed glasses for nearsightedness. Her optometrist told us she should be watching TV rather than reading books. This was both surprising and upsetting, especially since she loves reading. This lead me on an interesting deep dive into existing research. What surprised me were the massive gaps in understanding. Scientist have at best established correlation between close up work and nearsightedness, and a negative correlation with spending time outside. The actual mechanism in play is unknown, for example the theories about sunlight are still untested. The specific types of close up work that cause issues is unknown. Some scientists have proposed that it's the contrast between white pages and black text that actually causes issues with reading. My conclusion was that anyone who confidently asserts that $x causes nearsightedness is wrong (this thread is a case in point).

Projectiboga 4y ago
Sunlight onbthe retina helps form Serotonin. Has to be direct or through eyelids, not through any glass. A doctor told me a leading theory about how outside time helps is by shifting focus from faraway to close and back. So look at things up at top of buildings or upper canopy of trees then into some nearby detail back and forth my. It's a kind of excersize for eye focus. My son's eyes have held close to 20/20 into High School. We have good views for this from our apartment. I've taught him to check cornices and close details as he walks to and from school.
nealabq 4y ago
In my nearsighted family (parents, 2 kids) we've concluded that reading printed-pages makes you get nearsighted faster than reading words on a computer screen. This seems to work for us. Don't know about anyone else. I'm very nearsighted (-14 diopters), but I grew up reading books on paper.
- underwater 4y ago
  This comment is exactly what I'm talking about. Studies involving hundreds of individuals is struggling to get that kind of clarity around correlations. The observations you've made with a handful of people are anecdotes, not controlled data.
lukeschlather 4y ago
I'm not going to speculate on the exact cause but I'm comfortable saying children should have 2-3 recess periods outside totalling at least an hour (preferably 2 or 3) and that the recess periods should be structured to ensure that children spend time focusing on a variety of things at a variety of distances. There's certainly a possibility this won't have the intended effect but it will doubtlessly have a lot of net good effects assuming air quality cooperates.
trashface 4y ago
After being diagnosed with glaucoma I did a fair amount reading about that condition. My conclusion is that aside from some specific cases (head/eye injury) nobody really knows what causes it, there are probably multiple reasons, it could be a downstream effect from other health problems, and there just isn't a lot of research to sort it out. Cynically, I feel like there is a lot of money being made just by treating eye disorders the same way its been done for decades. For example, right now, the main treatment I use for glaucoma is eye drops, which is the same treatment given to my grandmother when she was diagnosed in the 1960s. And those drops are not covered by insurance, rather expensive, and I have to take them every day forever, along with twice a year eye exams and visual field tests.
- Hannan 4y ago
  I don't know if this can help you or not, but Mark Cuban's Cost plus Drug Company has 3 different glaucoma drop generics available that may be cheaper than how you're getting it today? https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/categories/glaucoma/ https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/categories/glaucoma/
  - trashface 4y ago
    It could help, thanks for that. It looks like the drops I use aren't on there. Problem is, its kind of a confidence game. My eye doc says to me, use brand X drops, they are the best. But they also aren't covered by insurance, and are distributed by an online pharmacy my doc _may_ have a financial stake in (I can't confirm this but I have a suspicion.) So do I ignore her advice and take different drops, which might be cheaper, but potentially have more issues with eyes down the road? I don't know. For now I've decided to take the expensive brand-name drops, and we're monitoring to see if my condition progresses or not. After a couple years of this I might switch.
    - Hannan 4y ago
      I see; that sucks. I hope you get some answers and some financial/medical relief in the future.
lupire 4y ago
Cast ebook to TV.

Projectiboga 4y ago

Sunlight onbthe retina helps form Serotonin. Has to be direct or through eyelids, not through any glass. A doctor told me a leading theory about how outside time helps is by shifting focus from faraway to close and back. So look at things up at top of buildings or upper canopy of trees then into some nearby detail back and forth my. It's a kind of excersize for eye focus. My son's eyes have held close to 20/20 into High School. We have good views for this from our apartment. I've taught him to check cornices and close details as he walks to and from school.

nealabq 4y ago

In my nearsighted family (parents, 2 kids) we've concluded that reading printed-pages makes you get nearsighted faster than reading words on a computer screen. This seems to work for us. Don't know about anyone else. I'm very nearsighted (-14 diopters), but I grew up reading books on paper.

underwater 4y ago
This comment is exactly what I'm talking about. Studies involving hundreds of individuals is struggling to get that kind of clarity around correlations. The observations you've made with a handful of people are anecdotes, not controlled data.

lukeschlather 4y ago

I'm not going to speculate on the exact cause but I'm comfortable saying children should have 2-3 recess periods outside totalling at least an hour (preferably 2 or 3) and that the recess periods should be structured to ensure that children spend time focusing on a variety of things at a variety of distances. There's certainly a possibility this won't have the intended effect but it will doubtlessly have a lot of net good effects assuming air quality cooperates.

trashface 4y ago

After being diagnosed with glaucoma I did a fair amount reading about that condition. My conclusion is that aside from some specific cases (head/eye injury) nobody really knows what causes it, there are probably multiple reasons, it could be a downstream effect from other health problems, and there just isn't a lot of research to sort it out. Cynically, I feel like there is a lot of money being made just by treating eye disorders the same way its been done for decades. For example, right now, the main treatment I use for glaucoma is eye drops, which is the same treatment given to my grandmother when she was diagnosed in the 1960s. And those drops are not covered by insurance, rather expensive, and I have to take them every day forever, along with twice a year eye exams and visual field tests.

Hannan 4y ago
I don't know if this can help you or not, but Mark Cuban's Cost plus Drug Company has 3 different glaucoma drop generics available that may be cheaper than how you're getting it today? https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/categories/glaucoma/ https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/categories/glaucoma/
- trashface 4y ago
  It could help, thanks for that. It looks like the drops I use aren't on there. Problem is, its kind of a confidence game. My eye doc says to me, use brand X drops, they are the best. But they also aren't covered by insurance, and are distributed by an online pharmacy my doc _may_ have a financial stake in (I can't confirm this but I have a suspicion.) So do I ignore her advice and take different drops, which might be cheaper, but potentially have more issues with eyes down the road? I don't know. For now I've decided to take the expensive brand-name drops, and we're monitoring to see if my condition progresses or not. After a couple years of this I might switch.
  - Hannan 4y ago
    I see; that sucks. I hope you get some answers and some financial/medical relief in the future.

lupire 4y ago

Cast ebook to TV.