Today’s guest blogger is Dr. Christine Allison. Dr. Allison is an Associate Professor at the Illinois College of Optometry, where she is the Director of the Binocular Vision/Pediatric Residency Program. Dr. Allison currently serves on COVD’s Board of Directors.
One of the most common questions I hear from parents is, “How can I prevent my children from needing glasses?” or “How can I prevent their eyes from getting worse?” This is a question that haunts vision researchers on a daily basis. There is no question that populations worldwide are seeing an increase in nearsightedness. Many studies have looked at the increased use of near work such as increased reading, computer use, and texting to be the blame for this problem. While these activities definitely increase the need for the focusing system to be working overtime, a clear link for the development of nearsightedness to these activities has yet to be established.
The question of genetics has also been looked at in many studies. A recent study of Sinapore Chinese preschool children published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology showed agreement with many other studies that children with two nearsighted parents have a much greater risk of being nearsighted than those with one or no nearsighted parents. Also, children with even one nearsighted parent have a much greater risk of needing glasses than those children whose parents are not nearsighted. Thus there seems to be a definite genetic component to the question of “Will my child need glasses?”
Recently though, some exciting new studies have come out that show that children who spend more time on outdoor activities have less nearsightedness than those who spend more time indoors. Time spent outdoors on leisure activities such as playing in the backyard or at a park, or taking a walk around the neighborhood were compared to sporting activities both outdoors and indoors. It was found that time outdoors, rather than specifically playing sports, was the factor that was the most important in preventing the development and progression of nearsightedness in school-aged children. The reason for this is not clear yet, but many researchers believe that the increased light levels outdoors versus indoors are an important factor. The significantly increased levels of light intensity when a child is outdoors may cause a decrease in a chemical in the brain that causes eye growth (nearsighted eyes are longer), or the smaller pupil size when outdoors may cause a larger depth of field and thus less blur (which could stimulate nearsightedness to develop).
Thus, we now have good reason to send our children outdoors more! Not only will the increased time outdoors give them a chance to increase their physical activity to prevent childhood obesity, it may also work to prevent them from needing glasses! So, it is time to tell our patients and their children “To go fly a kite!” and mean it!
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D Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD
Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Dr. Rochelle Mozlin
Dominick Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A
Benjamin C. Winters, O.D.
There definitely are a lot of theories about nearsightedness and why it develops. I’ve often wondered if not just heredity but environment tends to influence the children in the family of those who are nearsighted to read more and do more indoor activities. Parents may be big readers and expect high academic achievement and reading from their kids. Neither of my parents were nearsighted, but I am extremely nearsighted. I read constantly as a child and teenager, and was an excellent student. My sister did not like to read and did not like school-she became a very low myope and astigmat who still resists wearing glasses for distance. I was able to do an exam on her when I was in optometry school and she had a major focusing problem and overconvergence posture-no wonder she didn’t like to read! Maybe more myopia would have been a solution for her?
What about our mentors in vision therapy who did not always have instant access to the internet and research? They explained nearsightedness in terms of our clinical measurements. We learned to observe the behaviour of our patients and integrate the 21 point analysis findings to guide us with recommendations for the nearsighted child and parents that can certainly be added to the modern version of going to fly a kite. I do this regularly with the families I see. Genetic carry down of a nearsighted gene offers concrete behavioural suggestions for how a parent can model farsighted behaviour that includes more feeling, seeing, and emotions than rational looking and understanding. Is flying a kite enough do we need to integrate the patients life experiences into the vision care equation. In the case of my 14 year old son, he just spent 3 weeks on a farm taking care of organic cows. His mother is very -5.75 nearsighted and -2.75 astigmatic and Daved has 20/20, no glasses and good binocularity. By the way, he is a avid reader and plays X box video games alot. What is the point? He is given a non-myopic behaviour to follow, and I use the 21 point findings to determine how to structure a divergent vision therapy program and way of living for him. He doesn’t flying kites.
Very good post and I agree that eye problems in our children today is mainly because of all the technology around us. I think it is safe to blame it all on computers, psp, tv and cellphones because they are the villains. Si I definitely support your idea, to let our children experience the outdoors more and not get stuck inside the home just staring at the monitor and just gathering radiation.
[...] idea to minimize the amount of time young children spend on any near task, whether it be 2D or 3D. Playing outdoors is a great [...]
Is there any evidence that daylight helps farsighted eyes as well? Is there any research on that? Because, while I do get her out as much as possible as it’s good for overall health, in the case of my moderately farsighted toddler it would be helpful if her eyes grew more, to help her overcome the farsightedness that contributes to her strabismus.
amberhj, I cannot think of any evidence that daylight helps the eyes grow. But having your toddler be as active as possible will help her development as a two-sided and two-eyed person. In that regard, I’m sure that getting her out as much as possible is helping her overcome her strabismus.
Hello Amberhj:
I love your question. daylight contains all the colours and research done by my colleagues and I, show that through the eye, mainly the retina, colour frequencies can be selected that not only affect vision but the whole of the autonomic nervous system. If you would like more information I suggest you visit the College of Syntonic Optometry website. Just Google it.
I personally use daylight for my farsightedness with much success. Thanks for your question. Roberto Kaplan FCOVD. FCSO.
[...] Second, I love that many of these toys can be found outdoors or brought outdoors. After all, research has shown that being outdoors decreases the risk of developing myopia (nearsightedness). Third I love that these toys are free, especially during the holiday season, when the messages of [...]