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  • At some point growing up, my vision changed.

  • And slowly I stopped being able to see past about...

  • this far in front of my face.

  • Basically, anything past...

  • like 10 inches in front of my eyes... is blurry.

  • So eventually I got glasses.

  • And with them, my world turns from this...

  • to this.

  • This whole experience, as inconvenient as it is, is more widespread than it's ever been.

  • -Myopia. -Myopia.

  • - Myopia, am I saying it right? -A rise in short-sightedness...

  • -...and the researchers actually called it an epidemic.

  • -...but they're still trying to figure out why this is.

  • Rates of myopia, or near-sightedness, or needing glasses to see things far away, have been rising for decades.

  • In the US, where I live, just 25% of people were myopic in 1971.

  • By 2004, that number was up to 42%.

  • And if current trends continue it's estimated that half of the world's population will be myopic by 2050.

  • In Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea rates are already a lot higher than that.

  • And a growing portion have high myopia, which the WHO categorizes as a prescription stronger than -5.

  • That puts them at risk of losing their sight one day.

  • For decades, researchers thought that whether or not you needed glasses was just a matter of genetics.

  • And it partly is.

  • Having one myopic parent doubles your odds of being nearsighted and having 2 increases the odds 5 fold.

  • But human genetics don't change this fast.

  • The abruptness of this increase suggests that that this change is environmental.

  • Something about the way we live today is making it harder and harder for people to see at a distance.

  • So what could it be?

  • Most people are born with eyes that are too short from front to back.

  • In this shape, the lens focuses images behind the retina.

  • That's the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.

  • That makes the eye hyperopic or farsighted.

  • Blurry up close and clear from far away.

  • But as we grow up, our eyes grow too.

  • Until they reach a spherical shape.

  • In this shape, the lens focuses light directly onto the retina and produces a clear image.

  • But sometimes the eye keeps growing longer.

  • In this shape, the lens can focus up close images onto the retina.

  • But at a distance, images focus at a point in front of the retina, making distance vision blurry.

  • So, all of us with myopia just have eyeballs that have grown too long.

  • The eye does not look like a basketball anymore.

  • It looks more like a rugby ball.

  • That's Seang Mei Saw.

  • She's a myopia epidemiologist and physician in Singapore.

  • It is a lifelong disease,

  • so once you're myopic, it doesn't regress.

  • So what's making more and more people's eyes grow longer than they should?

  • The evidence points to the way we spend time in childhood and adolescence.

  • That's when our eyes grow fastest.

  • So it's when most people's myopia develops and then stabilizes.

  • Though it can develop later if you abuse your vision enough.

  • Two factors in particular have the biggest influence.

  • Near work, or the time that we spend looking at things up close, and how much time we spend indoors.

  • In a healthy eye, muscles have to squeeze the lens in order to focus up close images onto the retina.

  • So some experts theorize that if your eyes grow up straining to look at things up close a lot of the time,

  • they'll just grow longer to reduce that strain.

  • But the evidence on this explanation is mixed.

  • The stronger explanation is time spent indoors.

  • Exposure to bright outdoor light stimulates the production of dopamine in the retina.

  • This neurotransmitter regulates the eyes growth.

  • Without enough dopamine, the eye doesn't know when to stop growing.

  • In indoors, it's hard to get enough.

  • The light from the sun has up to a 100,000 lux on a sunny day.

  • Whereas in the room, the light levels generally are only about 200 to 300 lux.

  • But between electronic devices and early emphasis on academics eye experts believe that

  • children today are growing up with a combination of too little daylight and too much time doing things up close.

  • And nowhere is that more apparent than in East and Southeast Asia.

  • Children in Asia are not spending that amount of time outside.

  • This could possibly be because of the education system has become much more competitive.

  • The children have a lot more homework,

  • they attend teaching centers,

  • and you spend more time reading and writing.

  • Needing glasses or contacts to see for the rest of your life is obviously inconvenient.

  • But in the long term, the consequences of that distorted eyeball shape can become serious.

  • University of Houston, Professor of Optometry, Mark Bullimore, explained this to me.

  • You know, you're born with a finite amount of tissue that make up the various coats of your eyeball.

  • Excessive elongation of that quite simply places additional stress on those structures.

  • The retina has been stretched so much that it starts to break,

  • and then sort of peel off like an old piece of paint.

  • The longer those eye structures are stretched the higher the risk of disorders

  • like myopic macular degeneration, retinal detachment, glaucoma, and cataracts.

  • So, we're finding this almost linear relationship between them.

  • The amount of myopia and the risks to your vision later in life.

  • We used to think about myopia as an optical defect.

  • Now, we think about it much more as a disease.

  • And the earlier a child becomes myopic the more serious their myopia can become

  • and the greater the risk of debilitating conditions.

  • Which means it's important to intervene as early as possible.

  • So, what does that look like?

  • For those who start to develop myopia, there's treatment.

  • First are multifocal soft contacts and glasses.

  • They make peripheral vision intentionally blurry, which appears to slow the progression of myopia.

  • Then, there's orthokeratology, or ortho-k lenses,

  • hard contact lenses worn only at night that reshape the wearer's cornea while they sleep,

  • so that they can see at a distance during the day.

  • And there are atropine eye drops,

  • low doses of a substance that temporarily paralyzes the eyes' focusing muscles,

  • which seems to reduce the development of myopia.

  • But the first line of defense is prevention.

  • The simplest and most effective way to prevent myopia is to get kids to spend more time outside.

  • In Taiwan, the government introduced a nationwide program in 2010,

  • encouraging schools to get students outside for 2 hours every day.

  • It appears to have successfully reversed a 40 year-long increase in myopia rates.

  • And since 2001,

  • Singapore has funded public education promoting time outdoors

  • and conducted annual vision screenings at schools.

  • And it seems to be working.

  • Right now, these rates may be higher than ever,

  • but the future of myopia will only look like this if we keep doing things the same way.

  • And we've never been in a better position to change.

At some point growing up, my vision changed.

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B1 US Vox myopia retina eye vision blurry

Why so many people need glasses now

  • 193 8
    Nina Kuo posted on 2023/04/07
Video vocabulary

Keywords

stretch

US /strɛtʃ/

UK /stretʃ/

  • noun
  • Making arm, leg muscles longer to ease them
  • A consecutive row of things
  • A period of time
  • verb
  • To make your arm, leg muscles long to ease them
  • To make something bigger by pulling on it
evidence

US /ˈɛvɪdəns/

UK /'evɪdəns/

  • noun
  • Factual proof that helps to establish the truth
  • Facts, objects, or signs that show that something exists or is true.
  • other
  • To indicate clearly; to be evidence of.
  • To show clearly; prove.
  • other
  • Information used in a court of law to prove something.
  • Facts, objects, or signs that make you believe that something is true.
  • other
  • Information presented in court to prove or disprove alleged facts.
  • Facts, objects, or signs that make you believe that something exists or is true.
dopamine

US /'doʊpəmi:n/

UK /'dəʊpəmi:n/

  • noun
  • Drug used to treat shock and hypotension
  • other
  • A drug used as a stimulant in the treatment of shock by increasing blood pressure and cardiac output.
  • A neurotransmitter that plays several important roles in the brain and body.
  • A chemical in the brain that affects emotions, movement and sensations of pleasure.
epidemic

US /ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/

UK /ˌepɪ'demɪk/

  • adjective
  • Disease that spreads quickly affecting many
  • noun
  • Something that spreads suddenly and widely
effective

US /ɪˈfɛktɪv/

UK /ɪˈfektɪv/

  • adjective
  • In operation; operative.
  • Successful in producing a desired or intended result.
  • Working efficiently to produce a desired result
  • In operation; in force.
  • Successful in producing a desired or intended result.
  • Producing a desired or intended result.
  • Actual rather than nominal; real.
  • Skillful and producing the intended result.
exposure

US /ɪkˈspoʒɚ/

UK /ɪk'spəʊʒə(r)/

  • noun
  • Allowing light through a cameras lens onto film
  • Being talked about in the media
  • Act of making something that is secret known
  • Experience of something directly
  • other
  • The state of being exposed to something; the act of revealing something, especially something scandalous or previously hidden.
  • The state of being unprotected from something harmful, such as the weather.
  • The total amount that someone could lose in an investment or business deal.
  • The condition of being subjected to extreme weather conditions, especially cold, leading to hypothermia.
  • The amount of light allowed to reach a photographic film or sensor.
  • Publicity; the state of being known or recognized.
  • The experience of being exposed to something, such as an idea or culture.
develop

US /dɪˈvɛləp/

UK /dɪ'veləp/

  • verb
  • To explain something in steps and in detail
  • To create or think of something
  • To grow bigger, more complex, or more advanced
  • To make a photograph from film
  • other
  • To invent something or cause something to exist
  • To start to suffer from an illness or other medical condition
  • To improve the quality, strength, or usefulness of something
  • other
  • To (cause something to) grow or change into a more advanced, larger, or stronger form
squeeze

US /skwiz/

UK /skwi:z/

  • noun
  • Amount of liquid from firmly pressing e.g. orange
  • Act of putting pressure on, as to get liquid out
  • When there is not enough space for things/people
  • Act of firmly pressing on two or more sides
  • verb
  • To force or threaten someone to give you something
  • To strongly compress something to get liquid out
  • To be pressed together or crowded into an area
  • To press together the opposite sides of something
  • To reduce the amount of something
strain

US /stren/

UK /streɪn/

  • verb
  • To remove the water from (food) using a colander
  • To injure a muscle, leg etc. by using it too much
  • noun
  • Injury to a muscle, leg etc. through overuse
  • Type or variation of a disease or bacillus
disease

US /dɪˈziz/

UK /dɪˈzi:z/

  • noun
  • Illness that affects a person, animal, or plant
  • other
  • To affect with disease; to cause disease in.
  • To affect with disease; to corrupt or sicken.
  • other
  • A particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of part or all of an organism.
  • An illness or sickness affecting humans, animals, or plants, often with specific signs or symptoms.
  • A disorder of structure or function in a plant, especially one caused by a pathogen.
  • other
  • A condition or problem that is harmful or damaging to a society or organization.
  • other
  • An illness or sickness affecting humans, animals, or plants, often with specific symptoms and signs.