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Roughly 66 percent more Americans suffer from myopia today compared with the early '70s.Research from the National Eye Institute finds that while 27 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 54 had myopia in as recently as 1972, the rate spiked to 42 percent in 1999-2004. Myopia is the elongation of the eyeballs, which makes objects in the distance appear blurry. (You know it better as "nearsightedness.") It can be treated easily with glasses, contact lenses or surgery -- though in rare instances it can lead to blindness.
While genetics is a big factor in determining who becomes myopic, "near work," such as Web surfing, reading and texting, can also contribute to the development of nearsightedness. Experts suggest going outside and focusing on the horizon as a way to counterbalance the toll "near work" takes on the eyes.
Going outside and looking around? Is there an app for that?
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Sunday 20 December
By Wes Jones
No granparents myopic nor my parents. My two sisters and me, yep!! We all grew up on a farm and one sister and I hardly read anything, always outdoors. But when we hit 7th grade, bingo, there went the eyes. Mine worst, 20/400. I got corrective surgery at 53, my right eye corrected to 20/20 and my left to 20/100 so I see distance with my right and can read without glasses with my left. I use glasses to correct my left to 20/20 when driving at night in rain, but otherwise, no glasses (except off-the-counter sunglasses).
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Sunday 20 December
By oldgroats
Nice try but no one cares.
Sunday 20 December
By Dr. James Salz
You are one of thousands of patients who have adapted successfully to "monovision" I have done it for hundreds of patients with LASIK but you can also accomplish it with contact lenses. This is a good "pre test" to make sure you can adapt to it if you are thinking about surgery. If you are, google for a trusted lasik surgeon.
Dr. Salz
Tuesday 22 December
By Kelvin Nelson
Thank you for your comments, I'm exactly the same way, I keep my glasses in the car and only wear them at night in the rain. However I recently traveled to Florida and forgot to pack my glasses and drove from St.Petersburg Fl to Apopka Fl (about 100 mi) at night and in the rain, if I had my glasses I would had wore them.
Sunday 20 December
By Justin
Yay for being nearsighted! Since 2nd grade I have worn glasses. So many people I know wear glasses or contacts...
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Sunday 20 December
By johnlinzer
I improved my eyesight by using my glasses less. The best way is to not use your glasses, cover the best eye and let the other eye work harder. Exercise would be a better word. I originally had -2.75 and now my vision is -1.00. I would recommend it to everyone! Within a few weeks you will see a difference.
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Sunday 20 December
By LolaMarie
So I guess when I was growing up many years ago and my parents said that if you sat too close to the TV it would ruin your eyes. Reports later rebunked this. Guess I should have listened to my parents, Huh?
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Sunday 20 December
By Teresa
To be honest, it actually the shape of your eye. If your eye is to short or too long you will develope either far or nearsightness. It has nothing to do with constant reading etc. You can put strand on your eyes which will cause them to hurt but it does not change your sight to nearsightness. As we ALL age, we will ALL need reading glasses including nearsightness. Go to webmd.com and read up on it. Don't belive the BS they're telling you above.
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Sunday 20 December
By weezee
Didn't realize I had elongated eyeballs...eeeww! Nothing's worse than losing your glasses and not being able to see that they're right in front of you!
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Monday 21 December
By Ron
Ha! I was looking for my glasses....and i could see real well for them. I had my glasses on my face..go figure.
Sunday 20 December
By mamimay
I don't mind wearing contacts or glasses to see things far away, I would find it more irritating to need glasses to read close up, both of my parents were nearsighted before becoming farsighted as well, and if they had to choose one, they would pick nearsighted.
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Sunday 20 December
By Teresa
To be honest, it is the shape of your eye that affect yours sight. If your eyeball is too long or too short will make you far or nearsightnessesn (to an extent). You may feel strand from reading or looking at the computer to much, but it does not cause you to become nearsightness. However, as we age we will ALL wear reading glasses because the sharpness of our vision decreases as we age. Also sitting to close to the TV doesn't cause nearsightnesses. If you want to learn more go to webmd.com and don't take the BS they're talking about above.
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Tuesday 20 December
By Barbara
Two optometrists were on "Good Morning Houston" TV in the 1980's. They were talking about a machine called the "accomotrac". One of them said that the accomotrac was a feedback machine that could show (some kind of) feedback to a person using it when he/she was straining the eyes in such a manner that the person would become nearsighted. The feedback given by the accomotrac could teach a person how not to become nearsighted. He said it would not work if a person had already been straining his/her eyes for too long in his/her life. This optometrist later told me that the accomotrac was almost non-existant in the United States because most people were going for laser treatment instead.
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Sunday 20 December
By Jim
Thank you all for needing glasses. I work at a wholesale optical lab, and will look forward to making your eyewear.
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Sunday 20 December
By saclass
I am a licensed optometrist and would like to reply to a couple of comments here. First of all there is no way you can possibly reduce myopia through exercises, especially from -2.75 to -1.00. A likely explanation is that you previously had too much minus power which your eyes were able to "focus" through. Second, evidence certainly suggests that excessive near work can induce myopia, although the relationship is yet to be universally accepted. It is not just a matter of the length of the eyes, but where light is focused. When you are doing near work, the focusing muscles of your eyes are working harder to focus light, and when you shift your gaze back to the distance they need to relax in order to focus on a distant object. If they do not relax enough a distant object will be blurry and the condition is called "accomodative spasm" or "pseudomyopia." Some suggest that this will lead to an increase in myopia and from what I have seen this is certainly a valid argument and is widely accepted in the eyecare community.
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Sunday 20 December
By Laura
Lets say things clse AND far were t be blury??? like right now. i can bateley see what im typing so i hope i m doing thias right. I feel likem im gong blind. but even without glassess i coulnt see anyting. my moim says its cuause i was wearing glases for log time but ( im giving up here *move faces super close toward screen* and woahh do i have alot of mistakes.) my eyes were always bad like this immm soooo confusedd!
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Sunday 20 December
By Sally
I have been nearsigihted and worn corrective lenses since about age 13.I am now 71 and still nearsighted but less so than in the past and still don't need reading glasses. I wear 1 contact for distance (mono vision) but often wear regular glasses and then simply remove them to read. When younger i could read and see distance through the same lenses but as I aged I can't see up close through distance lenses.
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Monday 21 December
By Joeyh-lville
This article is both right and wrong...doing lots of activities at near can cause excess myopia but not necessarily by elongating your eye. It's actually due to the fact that the lenses in your eyes are working hard to focus an image up close and, if overworked, they will continue to focus too much when you look in the distance. So even with your normal glasses or contacts, light will not be focused correctly on your retina and will result in a blurry image. The best way to keep this from happening is taking frequent breaks from near activities, especially when you feel your eyes getting tired.
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Monday 21 December
By Aleta Schaefer
I have been myopic since birth. I had never seen the world clearly without glasses until I had cataract surgery and had a new lens placed in my eye. As a child I used to "read with my nose" as they used to say because I held the book so close to my face. Most things past my arm's length were gone, not there, not even a hazy outline. With glasses (close to soda bottle bottoms) I could see well. However, as I was growing up, no one messed with my glasses because they were my eyes. I got my first pair of glasses at age 5. I am now 60 and about 4 years ago I had cataract surgery after one eye went totally blind. At first while the swelling was still there, I didn't need glasses, but my misshapened eyeball returned when the swelling went down. I still need glasses to drive. I basically don't wear glasses except to drive and to read, which strikes me as funny because I used to take my glasses off to read. I am so used to wearing glasses after 50 years of them, that my face still feels naked without them. I never resented the glasses as so many of my female classmates thought because to me they were my eyes. I am thrilled to be able to be without them even if my face feels funny. I was never able to really wear contacts either. Most of my newer friends don't know I have always worn glasses. As I age my eyes are still changing and working with a computer all day makes me use the reading glasses more and blurs my vision when I'm not reading. After going without them for a while, clearness returns. It's as if the eyes are adjusting again. Aging has become another new adventure.
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Monday 21 December
By Eeyore
There is a relationship between sugar intake and blurry vision. I know this is true because in my work in diagnostic imaging, our nurse has injected patients with dextrose, and their vision immediately became temporarily blurry.
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