This Simple Method to Prevent Myopia Might Surprise You

Or at least it surprised me. Growing up, I have always believed the main causes of myopia were genetics and screen time. However, new research has found a new reason for the cause of myopia.

Myopia is a growing issue among children with about half of the global population expected to be short sighted by the end of 2050. With it being such a big problem, what could possibly slow it down?

The answer is sunlight.

According to research, exposure to sunlight release a chemical known as dopamine into our retina which helps prevents myopia. It explains that if children are exposed to enough sunlight, the likelihood of getting myopia could be lowered significantly even if both the parents are myopic.

Without enough sunlight, children are more likely to myopic. This can be supported by the increase of myopia during COVID-19 as most of us were stuck in quarantine.

For instance, in China, myopia was present 1.4 times to 3 times more in primary school students in 2020 compared to the previous 5 years, as they were confine to their homes.

Additionally, Hong Kong had about 28% of 6 to 8 years old children with myopia during the 2020 period having only 15% of this age group having myopia before.

Therefore, to tackle myopia, children should have more outdoor playtime under the sun. However, with the invention of iPads, this might be challenging as children would rather stay home to play with the iPad.

Perhaps as future parents, we should ask our children to play the iPad under the sun so that they do not get myopia.