SOME Asian parents don’t care how their kids look.

Despite all the corrections, I still think it’s good to have perfect eyesight. For one, surgery is kinda scary. I heard that people who get LASIK have about 15% less moisture in their eyes. For contact lens people, it’s still a pain because you can’t wear contacts when you swim. I had to give up my MMA career because you can’t wear contacts when you fight. (This is a joke; I’ve never stepped inside the Octagon. Although there was a guy on the Ultimate Fighter whose doctors told him he couldn’t fight anymore after getting punched repeatedly in the eyes…)

http://mmajunkie.com/news/23756/after-tuf-13-run-ended-in-eye-surgery-zach-davis-isnt-set-on-retirement.mma

Anyway, in the meantime, I’m going to try to make sure my kids get lots of outdoor time, whether it’s because of longer distances or brightness-induced dopamine. Sunglasses are important when it’s really bright–UV isn’t too good for eyes. I do hope they follow up on the studies to see what’s really causing myopia; maybe they can do the study that you mention. I know some Chinese Australians, and their eyesight is perfect!

The NYtimes article is a bit misleading. Possibly dopamine/sunlight exposure may affect how the eyeball develops, but the more time one is spending outdoors, the less time one is staring at a computer screen or something else that is near. Even if one isn’t specifically doing a near task, if someone is indoors, in general all your visual targets are at close range, so there is always some type of accommodation going on. Only when someone is outdoors, your visual targets vary much more, and your accommodation can truly be “relaxed” as it should be and less factors are in play to cause myopia.

I guess a real experiment for the “sunlight” theory would be to have children in a sunlight closed room w/ tv, books, computer, classroom stuff, etc….but a natural light setting from an entire ceiling window and see if they get just as nearsighted over the course of a few years as children in a normal urban setting.

I’ve had a stable Rx for about 10 years, until about 2 years ago my work environment changed and I was doing a lot of research on the computer all day long. This lasted for about 6-8 months and in the midst of it, my Rx started changing. It drove me crazy b/c I never thought I was seeing clearly.

Then when everyone hits their 40′s – you will all lose your ability to accommodate on near targets, so the eye changes again – but this is a different mechanism/different part of the eye that changes than when someone gets nearsighted.

And then if one gets cataracts – biggest cause is SUN – UV exposure (sunglasses are very important!), smoking, diabetes…. cataract surgery today is amazing. It’s basically cataract and refractive surgery together b/c the new lens implants available today correct for your prior prescription, so many many ppl that get cataract surgery in the states today will not need glasses afterwards.

But being nearsighted is not really a “bad” thing anymore, evolutionarily. Its not really unhealthy (save for a slightly higher risk of having a retinal detachment). If you can wear contacts, the Rx’es go up to -20.00. For disposables, up to -12.00. And once you get a little cataract, your eye doc can implant an even better lens to rid you of glasses/contacts if you want after the surgery. There’s too much stigma associated w/ being nearsighted today that doesn’t really apply anymore since we have so many options to correct it.

http://www.dimbulb.net/.a/6a00d83454a03269e20134897e1210970c-800wi

LOL! Notty!