What is MYOPIA???

 MYOPIA (EYE DISEASE)

Have you found it hard to read road signs and scoreboards or problems recognizing people in the distance? That’s are the symptoms where you are having myopia. Many of us think that vision only deteriorates with age, but myopia among Asian school children and young adults is growing at an alarming rate. According to the Ministry of Health In a survey of school children in Malaysia, the prevalence of myopia was 42% Chinese and 15% Malay (Suboh, 2014). But what is myopia? Myopia, commonly called shortsightedness or nearsightedness, is a defect of the eye that causes light to focus in front of the retina instead of directly on it. Instead of a `normal' shaped eyeball, the myopic eyeball is slightly longer. Shortsighted people can often see reasonably clearly at short distances, but will not be able to see distant objects clearly. While practicing social distancing and staying at home during the movement control order (MCO), make us be tempted to use the phone a lot more. Too much screen time could lead to eyesight problems to all of us, with symptoms like frequent blinking, abnormal visual behavior and consistent rubbing of the eyes. Often a person will not realize that they cannot see clearly but a complete eye test is the only sure way of determining whether your vision is normal. There are three significant factors that can lead to short-sightedness which are spending too much time focusing on nearby objects, lack of natural light while reading and being genetically inherited.

One of the environmental factors on why people usually develop myopia is because they are spending too much time focusing on nearby objects such as computers and smartphones. This is because when people look at close objects, they need to increase the power of the eyes’ focusing system. The eye will go through a process of accommodation where the optical power of the eye increases to bring the near object into focus. Therefore, if they spend too much time looking at a near target, there is a constant demand on the eye to focus that image. The eye will try to adapt to what is now the new normal where it needs to elongate so that the light from close objects is more effectively focused on the back of the eye. However, because the eye has elongated, so when people look at distant objects, they cannot focus well. Basically, people with higher education have a higher tendency to develop myopia because education relates to socioeconomic background and large amounts of near work, such as reading and computer use. According to Professor Ian Morgan, 2018. They point that early intense educational pressures combined with little time for play outdoors has led to almost 50% of children being myopic by the end of primary school, compared with less than 10% in a study of British children. A previous study among a population of highly educated young adults also found a high rate of myopia progression (86%) during law school (Loman et al., 2002). Therefore, this can approve that the frequent use of gadgets such as computers, smartphones and notebooks can increase the risk to be diagnosed with myopia.

Next, myopia or short-sightedness also can occur due to the lack of natural light while reading. When people normally read in the dim light, the eye will tend to grow slightly larger to make the peripheral images on the retina clearer. Therefore, the enlargement of the eyeball may have the effect of making the eye short-sighted. This is because dim light can make our pupils become larger because it needs to maximize the light that enters the eye. When more light rays enter the eye through the edge of the pupil, it will cause the light rays to be refracted differently and create a slightly blurred image at the edges of the retina. This can lead to short-sightedness problems.  A number of recent epidemiological studies have suggested that greater time spent outdoors has a protective effect on the incidence and progression of school myopia (Rose et al., 2008). This is because extra exposure to daylight could encourage the production of dopamine, which could have an effect on eye growth. Therefore, rather than spending time reading books and using the computer, having some outdoor activities also can prevent us from developing myopia.

Lastly, short-sightedness can occur to someone because of genetic inheritance. Basically, genetically inherited means a basic principle of genetics and explains how characteristics are passed from one generation to the next. Most understanding about genetics began from the Gregor Model. When we talk about genetically inherited, usually it tends to run in families. For example, if parents are short-sighted, their children have a tendency to get short-sighted too no matter during what age. Based on studies, if one of the parents is short-sighted, their children have around 40% chance of developing the condition while 60% chance if both parents are short-sighted. But some studies proved that genetics does not account fully the dramatic increases in the prevalence of short-sightedness worldwide. Many more causes can lead to short-sightedness especially based on someone’s lifestyle and habits. From what we can see, there still both parents do not have short-sightedness but their children have. This happened maybe due to long exposure to gadgets or books. According to Dr. Eric Jorgenson, 2016, some genetic disorder affecting pigmentation causes change at the back of the eyes and resulting in short-sightedness. Then, if the parents inherit enough genetic variants underlying these processes, their children will develop short-sightedness.

To avoid the statistics of short-sightedness’ person, the scientist had started to find ways on how to predict and identify children who have high risk to get short-sightedness. According to Prof. Chris Hammond, 2017, they are now heading towards the ability to predict which children will become short-sighted based on their genetic markers. From this method, they manage to identify those who are at high risks and can get treatment immediately. As a conclusion, there are three significant factors that can lead to short-sightedness which are spending too much time focusing on nearby objects, lack of natural light while reading and being genetically inherited. If you already have short-sightedness, here are some suggestions of treatment that you can try. You can use corrective lenses such as glasses or contact lens. But, if you have enough budget, you can get laser eye surgery or make artificial lens implants. From our speech, we hope that it might help you guys to get some information about short-sightedness and get some ideas on how to treat this kind of eye condition. Remember one thing. Wearing spectacles is not easy so please take care of your eyes. If you have the symptoms of short-sightedness, go and meet the eyes specialist immediately and ask for their advice.