So it really was all that reading under the bedcovers with a torch

[muninnhuginn]

Or, as New Scientist puts it: Lifestyle causes myopia, not genes

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I was always being told that it was my fault I was so short-sighted. It was such a relief to be told by the optician who gave me my first eye test that it was my over-large eyeballs (really!) that had caused it, not my fondness for reading.

(The reverse, indeed: I read so much so young because before I got my first specs, the world outside my focus-distance was blurred. In books, I could see as far as anyone else. Naturally I read a lot.)

"In books..."

[muninnhuginn]

... the view's so much nicer too.

I'm sure there must be a combination of factors that make vision deteriorate.

Re: "In books..."

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there must be a combination of factors that make vision deteriorate.

Fine, ignore my direct experience.

Look, this is exactly what I kept being told: "Oh, it's partially your fault. It must be."

Well, no. No more than any other physical handicap. Do you tell disabled children that the reason they can't walk is because they're lazy?

Re: "In books..."

[muninnhuginn]

Evidently I hit a raw nerve there.

Actually, I'd attach no more blame, if you that's what you saw me doing, to an activity-related cause than a genetic one. Impairment comes about from too many causes, sometimes impossible to determine in an individual case, to do that. I'm always horrified by the suggestion that medical treatment should be different for those who smoke or who are deemed to be overwieght becaue their health problems are somehow their fault. I'd expect someone with mobility difficulties due to genetic disease to be treated no differently to the paraplegic ex-rugby player injured in a scrum.

We use our bodies and sometimes that use has unintended side effects--musicians going deaf for example (and that may be a good analogy to the situation with short-sightedness: there's little doubt that exposure to high levels of noise damages the hearing, yet not all musicians playing in loud groups--rock bands, symphony orchestras--go deaf and of those some might have done so anyway and others might not, but I'd not wish to treat them differently) or athletes who end up with joint problems (they might have a genetic propensity to suffer from arthritits or it might be the damage due to their activities or both).

Do you tell disabled children that the reason they can't walk is because they're lazy?

No I wouldn't, any more than I would tell a dyslexic child that it was stupid. But I might see whether tinted glasses or different-coloured paper helped.

I'm much more concerned that the human-controlled factors are identified and understood so that they can be counteracted--without finger pointing.

But then my vison's cock-eyed and rather short and I'm sure my judgments are the same. Oh, for the long-sightedness of my mother or my father's one longsighted one shortsighted vision.

Re: "In books..."

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Evidently I hit a raw nerve there.

You did, but I shouldn't have shouted. I was feeling on edge and tired and unnerved, for various reasons which have nothing to do with my short-sightedness (or with your comments), and I very much regret being so snappish. I apologise.

Re: "In books..."

[muninnhuginn]

No problem. It's always good to examine ones assumptions before thay become prejudices.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Yes, they've been learning a lot lately about ways in which diet and metabolic deficiencies can affect vision, as can our habitual ways of using our eyes.

None of which, I fear, will save me from bifocals!