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Hello, friends!
Do you remember when you were younger, your parents often told you,
not to watch TV too much,
because that'll affect your eyes.
You would have to wear glasses.
And unfortunately,
do you know the truth, today?
We have to wear glasses.
Millions of kids have to wear glasses.
"Kids become nearsighted."
"There are so many nearsighted kids these days."
"Children are having trouble seeing things that are far away."
"Nearsightedness increased in kids."
If you can't properly see things that are at a distance,
it means you have Nearsightedness.
In scientific terms, it is called Myopia.
And the data regarding it is very shocking.
In India, among kids in the age group of 5-15 years old,
the prevalence rate of Myopia used to be around 4.5% 20 years ago.
Today, this number has crossed 21%.
That means, one in five children in the country has to wear prescription glasses.
Today, the situation is that Myopia
is considered an epidemic
and it is predicted that by 2050
every other human being in the world will have glasses.
Why is this happening?
If you already wear glasses
can you naturally cure your eyes?
And if you don't need glasses yet,
how can you protect your eyes in the world of smartphones?
What are the real reasons behind Myopia?
In today's video, we will answer these questions
by understanding the latest scientific studies.
To understand this topic in detail,
we will first have to understand how human eyes work.
Here on the screen, you can see a very simple diagram of the eye.
A human eye basically works like a Convex Lens.
You must have studied about convex lenses in school.
These are the lenses that
converge the light rays falling on it at a point.
The light rays gather at a focus point after passing through the lens.
The focal point in a normal human eye
is the back part of the eye,
which is called the Retina.
If your eyes are working properly,
then the light that enters your eyes,
first hits the cornea,
which is the outermost layer.
Then, through the pupil,
it passes through a lens,
which is a lens inside the human eye.
This Retina is connected to an Optic Nerve
which carries signals to our brain
enabling us to actually see.
Now, an interesting fact here is that
you may assume that
the task of bending the light rays
is carried out by the lens in our eyes,
but more than the lens,
our cornea is the one doing this.
About 70% of the bending of light in our eyes
is carried out by the cornea.
After that, the lens
does a bit of fine-tuning.
So this means that
if your eyes are not working properly,
then the shape of the cornea has changed.
In fact, when people have Myopia or Hyperopia,
the shape of their eyeball changes.
Look at these diagrams.
The eyeball with Myopia is elongated.
Because of this, the focal point
is not on the Retina
but it is formed before the Retina.
And the second case, if you can't see close to you,
it means that you have Hyperopia
also known as Hypermetropia.
In this, your eyeball gets squished.
Things closer to you would look blurry.
Because the light rays converge after the retina.
The focal point falls behind the retina.
Another interesting thing here is that
in humans, all newborn babies
already have squished eyes.
Like the eyes suffering from Hyperopia.
So newborn babies, till they are about 1-2 years old
can't properly see things that are closer to them.
But as the baby grows up,
the eyeballs shift to be the right size.
This process takes about 2 years to complete.
Once children are 2 years old,
they start seeing things normally.
Now, you may be thinking about,
the fixed focal length of lenses.
So how can humans see what is far and what is close at once?
To change our focal length continuously,
wouldn't we need to change the shape of our lenses continuously?
This is absolutely right
and this is carried out by
the eye muscles.
Also known as Ciliary muscles.
Stretch your hand and hold your finger in front of your eyes
while looking at your finger, slowly
bring your finger closer to your eyes.
You will notice how your eyes keep focusing closer to you
and your eye muscles
get increased stress.
You will feel the stress on your eyes
as you try to look closer.
Because Ciliary muscles contract
to look at things that are closer to us.
The contraction of the Ciliary muscles
changes the shape of the lens.
To see things that are close to you,
the lens becomes rounder.
And when you see things far away,
the Ciliary muscles become relaxed
so that the shape of the lens can get more flattened out.
This ability of the eyes
is known as Accommodation.
But obviously, the Ciliary muscles have a limit.
They cannot change the shape of the lens beyond this limit.
And when the shape of the eyeball elongates due to Myopia,
the Ciliary muscles can't be of much help.
But the question here is,
why do people have Myopia?
Why do some people's eyeballs elongate and some don't?
There are three different theories.
The first theory is Near-Work Theory.
Some scientists have said that
the more time we spend looking at things near us,
the more will be the strain on our eyes.
The more our ciliary muscles will have to work
and the longer our eyeballs will be in a rounder and squeezed state.
And the longer the eyeballs are squeezed,
the more difficult it will be to relax the eyeball.
This is the Near Work Theory.
The more time you spend reading books,
looking at the screen of your phone or laptop,
the higher will be the strain on the eyes.
But before this, there was another theory
which was believed to be the real reason causing Myopia.
The DNA theory.
Scientists believed that there was no reason behind Myopia,
rather, it was said to be related to genetics.
Your DNA would decide whether you will have Myopia or not
and it would be hereditary.
If your family has a history of Myopia,
if everyone has glasses,
then you will have glasses too.
No matter what you do.
This DNA theory started failing by the 1970s
because in 1969, an interesting study was conducted,
on Alaskan tribes.
It was found that
the middle-aged and elderly people of Alaska
were never exposed to Myopia.
But in children and teenagers,
the rates of Myopia were more than 50%.
Such a major change within a single generation,
genetics could not be the reason behind it.
Especially when it was found that the children
were adopting a westernised lifestyle.
This is where the Near Work Theory was born.
Although this Near Work theory was not a big discovery in itself.
Technically, this theory was more than 400 years old
when a German astronomer named Johannes Kepler
suggested this for the first time in 1604
that it could be the reason behind needing glasses,
when he was prescribed one.
But since the 1970s, this Near Work Theory
has become the most popular theory among scientists.
It was observed that
the more educated people are,
the more academic the population is,
the more spectacles are seen among them.
Historically too, British doctors had observed
that among the students studying at Oxford University
cases of Myopia were much more prevalent
as compared to military recruits,
who were enlisted in the army.
In a late 19th-century handbook, it was even suggested that
if one wanted to treat Myopia,
one needed a change of air.
To go on a sea voyage, for example.
So, today, this Near-Work theory can be extended
to smartphones, tablets, and computers.
The same thing that our parents used to warn against,
watching too much TV would ruin your eyes.
Watching TV from up-close would ruin your eyes.
Was this true?
The Near-Work theory is a good explanation
but it was difficult to prove it.
In fact, many latest scientific studies have found loopholes in this theory.
In 2008, an Australian study found that
it doesn't actually matter
how much time you spend on Near-Work activities.
It matters more
how intense each session is.
In 2015, a meta-analysis was done
on scientific studies regarding this Near Work Theory.
It found that every week, for every hour you spend doing near-work activities,
your chance of getting Myopia
increases by 2%.
So, if you are looking at things near you for an extra hour,
reading books, looking at your phone, looking at your laptop,
all of these increase the chance of Myopia.
But some studies started spotting inconsistencies in this Near-Work theory.
Some scientists questioned whether
Myopia was really caused by people doing near work activities
or whether there could be some other reason.
A reason that is closely co-related to Near Work activities
that could be causing Myopia.
Here comes our third and latest scientific theory,
the Outside Theory.
According to this theory, near-work activities aren't causing Myopia among children
instead, the higher prevalence of Myopia is caused by
them spending less time outdoors.
The exposure to daylight
is the main variable behind Myopia.
Today, most scientists believe that
the Outside Theory is the main reason
causing Myopia.
In 2007, a large-scale study was conducted
on children living in California.
It found that when children spend time outdoors,
the risk of Myopia is greatly reduced.
The following year, in 2008,
another study was conducted in Sydney
on more than 4,000 children.
In this study, children were observed for 3 years.
Variables were identified
as to how much time they spend outside versus inside,
how many near-work activities they undertake,
and they reached the same conclusion.
What were the outdoor activities the children were participating in?
Were they playing sports,
going for a walk, going on picnics,
or merely just spending time outside?
It didn't make any difference.
Their spending time outdoors was the only important part.
This theory also proved
why Myopia is often called a disease of affluence.
A disease that is more common in rich countries
as compared to poor countries.
With economic growth,
children start studying more,
people start working on computers more,
people spend less time outdoors,
causing widespread instances of Myopia.
Several studies were conducted on animals to find out
what actually happens inside the eyes.
When we spend time outside,
what are the changes in the eyes
that protects us from developing Myopia?
It was found that when
we get exposure to bright light,
exposure to sunlight,
the dopamine production in our retina increases.
Dopamine regulates the growth of our eyes.
So that our eyes don't elongate too much.
But if there is a lack of dopamine,
eyes start elongating.
Eyes don't know when they need to stop growing.
Human trials were conducted to prove this theory.
One of the biggest ones was conducted in a college in Taiwan,
which was published in 2020.
Thousands of primary schools kids in Taiwan
were observed between 2001 and 2015.
In 2010, a big change was seen in Taiwan,
when their government started a program,
Tian-Tian Outdoor 120.
Under this program, schools were told to
ensure that students spend at least 2 hours outdoors.
And after a few years of the implementation of this program,
there was a big positive impact.
In 2012, the rates of Myopia in Taiwan
was 49.4% among these children.
And by 2015, the rate had fallen to 46.1%.
That is, just by spending 2 hours outside every day,
the need for glasses for kids decreased.
How much daylight is needed exactly
to increase dopamine production in the retina?
This is still unclear,
but the brightness of 10,000 lux
is considered a good benchmark.
Lux is a unit of Illuminance.
The detectable brightness of an area
is measured in lux.
If you go out on a sunny day,
even if you sit in the shade,
your eyes can get exposed to 10,000 lux of brightness quite easily.
In tropical countries that get direct sunlight,
you can easily reach 100,000 lux brightness.
But if you live indoors,
even if you have opened all the windows and doors,
if you are sitting inside the house,
inside any building,
then you can't even reach 1,000 lux brightness.
Now some of you might be thinking that
if we artificially put so many lights inside a room or a classroom,
to reach brightness levels of 10,000 lux,
will it make a difference?
Of course, it will.
But having a brightness level of 10,000 lux in a room is quite difficult.
You will have to install so many lights in the room,
and so much heat will be produced by those lights
that special air conditioners will be needed to keep the room cool.
And it is not probable to work in that brightness.
So it is better to simply go outside.
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but can't take out time with all your studying or work,
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Now let's get back to our topic.
One thing I would like to say here is that
Myopia is not a joke.
Some of you may be thinking
that it isn't a big deal and one has to simply wear glasses,
glasses will fix everything.
But latest scientific studies have found that
there is a significant correlation between Myopia and blindness.
A study published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science Journal
in November 2020 predicted that by 2050,
10% of the world's population will have High-Grade Myopia.
High-grade Myopia means
if your glasses prescription is -6 or lower,
the more severe your power is,
the more elongated your eyes are.
Having high-grade Myopia means that
in future, your risk of being blind increases.
This is because the retina of the eye is in a finite amount.
But if the eyes keeps on growing and elongating,
then it will be like, you applying butter on a slice of bread,
the amount of butter remains the same
but the bread keeps getting bigger.
So you have to spread the butter more thinly on the bread.
The retina also has to keep thinning to spread more
over the area of the eye.
The worst-case scenario here is that
the retina becomes so thin that
it literally starts to rip apart.
This is known as a Retinal Tear.
And if it comes out after being ripped,
it is known as Retinal Detachment.
In such cases, the person goes blind.
A study published in 2019 showed that
when your prescription increases with each diopter,
the risk of Myopic Maculopathy
increases by 67%.
This is another untreatable condition that can blind you.
Not only this, in myopic eyes,
the chances of contracting other diseases increase too.
Like Glaucoma.
In 2019, the American Academy of Ophthalmology set up a task force
so that people start treating Myopia as a global health problem.
But a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out,
lockdowns were imposed all over the world
and people were forced to stay inside their homes.
This made the situation worse.
A study conducted in China compared the rates of Myopia in children
before and after the pandemic.
During the time period between 2015 to 2019
it was found that in 6-year-old children in China,
the rate of Myopia was 5.7%.
But in June 2020, after being in lockdown for 5 months,
when the rate of Myopia in similarly aged kids were checked,
it was at 21.5%.
Imagine, even among 6-year-old kids,
1 in 5 kids need glasses.
Staying indoors, and not going outdoor for only 5 months,
can lead to this.
This has become a national security problem for China.
Because when you want to join the Air Force as a pilot,
your eyes should be perfectly fine.
But if 90% of the kids need glasses,
how will China have pilots for its Air Force?
In India too, the situation getting worse rapidly.
The data that I mentioned at the beginning of the video
was based on a study from 2021.
In the age group of 5-15-year-olds urban kids,
in 1999, 4.44% had Myopia.
But by 2019,
21.15% of the kids had Myopia.
And this study has predicted that by 2050,
48.14% of children in India will have Myopia.
That is, every 1 in 2 children in cities will need glasses.
When it comes to solutions,
we should take all three theories into account.
It's not like the DNA theory is completely wrong.
In some people, Myopia does actually happen due to genetic reasons.
It's true that if your parents have Myopia,
then your chances of having Myopia also increase.
But the Outside Theory is the most important theory.
It has the highest impact.
After that comes the Near Work theory
and then comes Genetics.
Since our genetics are out of our control
we can't do anything about it.
So whatever steps we need to take to protect our eyes
is related to the other two theories.
We should take preventative measures taking both theories into account.
First, go out as much as possible in daylight and spend time in sunlight.
However, when you do this, don't forget to apply sunscreen
because sunlight has a bad effect on the skin
which increases the chance of getting skin cancer.
And second, try to reduce the intensity of your Near Work activities.
Do more physical activities.
Participate in sports.
Because sports have an indirect effect on your eyes.
In sports like table tennis and badminton,
your eyes focus on a distance
and then focus closer
when the ball or shuttle comes to you.
This gives your eyes a good chance to relax.
Your eyes are not always strained
such as when you are looking at your phone
or reading books.
The solutions I am telling you about,
many countries have already started implementing them.
In 2018, Xi Jinping said that
controlling childhood Myopia has become a national priority for China.
In 2021, China started a crack down on the video game industry and private tutoring.
For kids up to 6-7 years old,
written exams have been terminated in China.
Some schools have even placed metal bars on their desks
so that while reading or writing
kids don't have to look at books from too close.
Apart from this, restrictions have been put on playing time for video games,
and physical activities have been promoted.
In 2019, the Singapore government took several such steps.
Their Ministry of Education terminated mid-year examinations for students in 3rd and 5th grades.
So that instead of spending time reading books,
the students can spend more time playing outside.
Outdoor time has been doubled in pre-schools.
So that the students play outside for at least an hour a day.
These were the preventative measures.
But what about those who already need glasses?
Unfortunately, friends, Myopia is an irreversible problem.
Once your eyes elongate,
it can't go back to being normal again.
But there is one thing for sure,
you can stop your eyes from elongating further.
If you do the things I talked about
you can prevent your prescription getting higher.
Your eyes won't get worse.
Although there is no natural way to fix your eyes,
an artificial lasik surgery can be undergone
to restore normal vision.
In this surgery,
the shape of the cornea is changed.
Through laser, microscopic amounts of cornea tissue is removed.
So that the shape would allow
the normal vision of the eyes to be restored.
This procedure takes 15-30 minutes,
anesthetic eyedrops are used to mitigate pain.
Although, some people may still feel pain after this surgery.
But, in general, this is a safe procedure.
After this procedure, you don't need to wear glasses or contact lenses.
The normal vision of your eyes comes back.
Although, if those precautionary measures are not taken,
your eyes can get damaged again.
Apart from this, there are some special eye drops and special lenses
which can slow down the progression of Myopia in children.
These lenses are called Orthokeratology lenses
or Ortho-K lenses.
These are contact lenses worn at night,
which temporarily thickens the peripheral areas of the cornea.
With long term use,
it can improve daytime vision as well.
But Ortho-K lenses do not change the shape of the eyeball.
So its effects are reversible.
You'll need to use it long-term to get good results.
It is said that these treatments can slow down
the progression of Myopia by around 50%.
Experts are debating over these.
These are new technologies.
And in my opinion, the best option
is following the preventative measures I mentioned earlier.
Whenever you are doing Near Work activities,
take breaks.
Spend more time outside.
Spend less time on video games and computers.
And when you do this in the long term,
you may be able to avoid glasses.
And if you don't need glasses yet,
don't treat glasses as a solution.
If you liked this video, you can watch an equally detailed scientific research
on the topic of Weight Loss.
Because in this video, I have
explained the weight loss issue similarly.
Click here to watch it.
Thank you very much!
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