Extra forty minutes a day in the fresh air reduces the risk of myopia in children, the authors of a study conducted in twelve schools in China say. In some areas of this country, ninety out of a hundred graduates suffer from myopia. To reduce the percentage of children with the condition, schoolchildren were forced to teach an extra lesson on the street.
The researchers divided twelve elementary schools in China into two groups: six schools did not change their schedules, and the other six schools began to kick children out for forty minutes at the end of the school day. Parents of students from the second group were advised to go out with their children more often on weekends. The aim of the study was to determine the number of children with myopia. Two thousand first graders, about seven years old, participated in the experiment. Three years later, forty percent of the children in the control group had myopia. Among those who walked an extra forty minutes a day, this figure was thirty percent. That is, the risk of developing myopia has decreased by about twenty-five percent. The study authors believe that increased exposure to sunlight may have a positive effect on eye development. On the street, children are more likely to look at objects located at a greater distance than indoors. This can play a role in complementing your exposure to sunlight. To improve the outcome, schools are encouraged to increase the amount of time children spend outdoors and to continue educating parents about the benefits of walking. Myopia is the result of eye growth due to collagen mutation, the sclera is too soft and stretches during the growth process. The image is not formed on the retina, but in front of it. The experiment carried out could reduce the percentage of schoolchildren with myopia due to the fact that the described measures removed the spasm of accommodation. Accommodation spasm is false myopia, spasm of the ciliary muscle, it occurs when the eyes are focused on close objects for a long time. Schoolchildren spend all day in class, concentrating on reading textbooks and solving examples in notebooks, which affects the development of accommodation spasm. The conclusion is logical: normal occupational hygiene and interruptions reduce fatigue. I asked Meklon , an ophthalmologist, for his opinion on the results of this experiment. He said that it is almost impossible to slow down or influence the labor regime on the growth of true myopia. The elasticity of collagen and the growth rate of the eye does not depend on whether you are reading in the dark or sitting at the computer for days. However, this results in an accommodation spasm, which has the same symptoms as causing confusion. The spasm is not associated with the linear dimensions of the eye, but is a consequence of overworking the lens muscle. True myopia, on the other hand, is a consequence of congenital collagen mutation and excessive elasticity of the sclera. The maximum that can be done to reduce its development is scleroplasty surgery. There are also studies that suggest that it is possible to partially compensate for problems with connective tissue by administering magnesium and vitamin B6 preparations during the growth of the child. As a rule, true myopia stops progressing simultaneously with the end of a person’s growth. Has your shoe size not changed for 5 years and have you seen worse? The reason, most likely, is precisely the spasm. Even after laser correction, vision may deteriorate due to the same spasm. If a healthy person can earn it by overloading, then how is the person worse after the correction? The problem of spasm is especially acute after 30 years, when the range of accommodation of the lens decreases. As a child, you can sit for days at the monitor without any special consequences, and at 30, an ordinary office day at the computer leads to the fact that you can hardly distinguish objects in the distance.