The great outdoors slows the onset of myopia

Attending conferences is a great way for the Lesley Cree Opticians team to keep up to date with new technologies, research and developments.

Optometrist Ruth Bennett recently attended the Hospital Optometrists Annual Conference in Leeds and was particularly looking forward to a presentation entitled ‘Myopia Progression and Control’.

Myopia is the fancy word for ‘short sightedness’. When someone is short sighted they can see clearly things that are close to them, but objects further away are blurred.

Commenting, Ruth said, “Conferences are a great way to keep updated with the latest research and learn from peers. I have always enjoyed the hospital conference and found it a refreshing time with like-minded optometrists.”

Ruth explains some of the theory on Myopia.

“Typically, if someone becomes short sighted it is whilst they are a child or a teenager. Often, they become more short sighted over a period of years. Plenty of research is going on to try to answer the questions ‘why do we become short sighted?’ and ‘why does the short sightedness progress?’ This has led to a number of techniques being tried to see if we can slow down the rate of progression of myopia.

So far these have included an eye drop called “Atropine”, which has already been shown to work well. However, Atropine causes blurred vision and stings…a lot!  So, it is not something that is easy to use to treat children.

Secondly bifocal glasses are being used, and although they make a difference, it is so small that they are rarely of any practical use. Finally, varifocal contact lenses are proving to be more successful. Consequently, at this stage, it is acknowledged that more research is needed and to find out if there are any unwanted side effects of treatments on trial.”

The good news is that there is one method which has been proven to work –  it is healthy, free and easy.

What is it?

Go outside!

Yes – it’s that simple. At least one hour outside every day has been shown to reduce the likelihood of children becoming short sighted. We don’t completely know the mechanism, but in the meantime, our advice is to send children outside to play!