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Written By: Admin | Published : August 19, 2013 11:55 AM IST
Love your smart phone? Well, you probably should think about using it sparingly. A recent study by Dr David Allambym revealed that smartphones were capable of causing myopia or short-sightenessin people. This report comes in after there was a surge of young Britishers being affected by the eye disorder. He states that he has noted a 35% increase in the number of cases of advanced myopia in people from the time smart phones were launched in 1997. He predicts that in the next ten years, the world will see a 50% increase in the number of cases.
Half of the Britons own smartphones spend an average of two hours per day using them. Combined with the amount of hours spent in front of a computer screen, laptop, tablet and television, it means that particularly young people and children are at risk of permanently damaging their vision. New research has also found that the average smartphone user holds the handset 30 cm from their face, with some people holding it just 18 cm away, compared to newspapers and books, which are held 40cm away from the eyes.
According to Allamby, excessive screen watching at a close proximity keeps the genes that control myopia activated well beyond the age that short-sightedness would historically have stabilized which is around the age of 21. This phenomenon is known as 'epigenetics'. Myopia used to stop in the early 20s but now we see it progressing throughout the 20s, 30s, and even into our 40s. Allamby says today's generation of children are most at risk of myopia, with children as young as seven being given their first smartphone.
(Read:Are mobile phones and tablets ruining your child s development?)
So what is myopia?
Myopia is a condition where a person is unable to see objects that are at a distance from them. Also known as short-sightedness, as person suffers from myopia when the eyeball elongate to such an extent that the light entering the eye no more refracts through the lens properly, therefore reaching the retina improperly, leading to blurred vision. This condition occurs in 3.19% people under the age of fifteen, while 20% of people above the age of 15 years suffer from it in India. The study conducted by the International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care *(in collaboration with other institutes), states that these numbers were mainly seen in people living in the urban setting. While these statistics might be true, there are other reasons for a person to suffer from the condition, which includes hereditary and physiological factors.
According to Dr Rohit Shetty, a renowned refractive surgeon and the Vice Chairman of Narayana Nethralaya, The eye was not made to look at graphic or moving images , like we see on a computer or phone screen, as often as we do these days. Looking constantly at these screens for over eight hours in a day can lead to various eye disorders, the most common one being dry eyes.
While we all can t throw away our smartphones, there are a few things one can do to protect the eyes. Here are a few tips:
So, there you have it. Your smart phone may be the best thing that happened to you, but it might not be the best thing for your eyes.
*Statistical source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11886410
