7-month Parker Beach playing outdoors & decreasing his risk for myopia
With increases in childhood obesity and diabetes, there has been a big public awareness effort to get kids outdoors. A little less time playing video games or watching television and a little more time exercising can help keep children healthy through their important developmental years. But a recent study says that being outdoors may also provide a huge benefit to a child’s vision.
Well over 10,000 children were followed in a study that concluded being outdoors could significantly reduce a child’s likelihood of developing myopia, or nearsightedness. Children who spent a “high” amount of time outdoors were up to 50% less likely to develop nearsightedness over time. A “high” amount of time was defined as at least 3 hours outdoors a day during the summer and 1 hour a day in the winter.
The interesting aspect of the study is that it may actually be the outdoor light, rather than the specific activity, which reduces the risk of nearsightedness. While further study is needed, researchers theorize that the increased duration of outdoor light may stimulate dopamine production in the eye to reduce the development of nearsightedness.
Given this was such a large study with a very significant conclusion, it’s clear that your child’s vision could benefit by playing outdoors. The risk for nearsightedness could be greatly reduced, as well as the likelihood they would need glasses or contact lenses. But don’t forget UV-blocking sunglasses when outdoors!
As always, I’d love to hear your comments or questions. Give us a shout over on Facebook or on Google+. And, remember, you can now request your annual eye exam appointment at our office by clicking here.
Dr. Beach.
ovie theater and turns the focussing knob to a much stronger setting. The movie on the screen is now blurry. Another reason for myopia is the eye may be too long. Sounds strange, but the visual system of the eye is designed to focus at a certain distance between the cornea and the retina. Imagine that same movie theater in which the engineers have designed a projector system focussed on a screen with a set distance. But what if someone knocked out the back wall of the movie theater and moved the screen back 10 feet? It would be blurry because now the projector is over-focused for this new longer screen distance.
behind the retina instead of directly on the retina. This may happen if the cornea curvature is too flat (too weak) or if the eye is too short. Just to muddy the waters, if someone has a lot of hyperopia their far away vision can also be blurry….we’ll save that one for another blog post!
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