Birmingham LASIK Surgeon Marc Michelson, M.D. shared an interesting commented, “The vast majority of our LASIK patients are nearsighted and those who have children are always asking about the risk of nearsightedness in their kids,” said Dr. Michelson. “While I tell them that nearsighted parents produce children who are also predisposed to becoming myopic, research reported at the Annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology demonstrated that increased time spent in natural light and viewing distant objects during childhood may actually reduce the risk of nearsightedness,” Dr. Michelson explained.
A review of data of 10,400 participants showed that for each additional hour outdoors per week, the chance of developing myopia dropped by about 2%, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. It was reported that myopic or nearsighted children included in the study tended to spend about 3.7 fewer hours per week outdoors than children with normal vision or hyperopia. Furthermore, increasing outdoor time might reduce the chances of myopia worsening, according to the researchers.
If you or someone you know have questions about children’s eye health and vision, their risk of nearsightedness or myopia or wish to schedule an eye examination for children of any age please feel free to contact Alabama Eye & Cataract Center in Birmingham by calling 205-930-0930, visiting Alabama Eye & Cataract Center or facebook.com/michelsonlaservision.
Michelson Laser Vision and Alabama Eye & Cataract Center are leading eye care centers in Birmingham staffed by a team of specialists including eye doctors who are fellowship trained cornea specialists and cataract and lens implant specialists-all board certified Ophthalmologists-as well as Optometrists, Opticians, technical and administrative staff who provide eye examinations for adults and children, cataract surgery and intraocular lens implants (IOL), laser eye surgery such as LASIK for laser vision correction, diagnosis and treatment of cornea disease including cornea transplants, care for diseases of the retina including diabetes and age related macular degeneration and diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma.
