Before puberty, what you do not notice is your eyes getting worse. You always listen to your parents nagging at you for not reading books and looking at your phone in the dark too close. They are not wrong. In fact, they were protecting you from possibly getting myopia.
Author: James Cheon Editor: Haryeong Eo, Yunjin Jung
Introduction:
Before puberty, what you do not notice is your eyes getting worse. You always listen to your parents nagging at you for not reading books and looking at your phone in the dark too close. They are not wrong. In fact, they were protecting you from possibly getting myopia.
However, during puberty, you start to notice your eyesight becoming increasingly blurry. It is possible that you become quite emotional and become relatively revolting against your parents’ words, and would just simply ignore their words about eye health. Performing such acts regularly and excessively might be the the cause to your nearsightedness. But during puberty, the fundamental reason for such an issue is to physical growth and hormones.
Figure 1
Eye examination
Note. Photograph of a child getting her eyes examined. Located in Britannica ImageQuest.
Myths related to teenager myopia:
Before discussing some of the causes of nearsightedness, common assumptions about myopia should be correctly addressed. Inaccurate myths about the causes of myopia leads to preventing patients from getting appropriate treatment.
1. To begin with, current society associates wearing glasses and contact lenses as one of the causes of worsening eyesight. In fact, the purpose of glasses and contact lenses is not to exacerbate but to prevent eye sights from getting worse. Before anything else, to determine the extent of your refractive defect, a series of eye tests are conducted. The data will then be used to determine the best appropriate lens power and material to meet your visual acuity requirements. Another common myth about myopia is that it's preferable to use a weaker lens power than what your eye doctor recommends (Myopia Institute, 2017). This would be counterproductive to the objective of wearing corrective lenses. Your refractive defect would not be effectively compensated by the lenses, so you would still have trouble seeing distant objects clearly.
2. Another myth is that myopia is caused by sitting too close to the television. This tendency, on the other hand, could be a telltale sign that you already have myopia. You may find it difficult to watch your favorite show if you are too far away from the television, which is why you prefer to sit close to it. The greatest thing you can do is get your eyes checked as soon as possible to rule out any other possibilities.
3. Adding on, another myth is that babies are born with their eyes fully-grown, so eye growth has nothing to do with myopia (Mukamal, 2021). This is false because, generally, babies are born with an eye size that is not completely grown, which is two third of an average adult eye size. In usual circumstances, after birth, eyes continue to grow in two stages: the first few years and puberty. Additionally, during puberty, the rate of eye growth is very high, and causes a progression of myopia. The section on "Growth Hormones" will go through this in further detail.
Figure 2
Myopia
Note. Illustration of the a comparison of an eye that is myopic and a normal eye. Located in Britannica ImageQuest.
What is Myopia?
Myopia, often known as near-sightedness, is a refractive defect that causes far-away things to appear blurry. The cause is as the shape of the eye changes, light focuses in front of the retina rather than on it (Dau Family Eye Care, 2020). Blurred vision, headaches, eye strain, squinting to see well, excessive blinking, and rubbing eyes are common symptoms of myopia. This condition can occur when the cornea or lens is overly curved for the length of the eyeball, or when the eye shape is known to be inherited. Family history of nearsightedness, a lot of reading, and spending most of your time inside are all risk factors (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020). If myopia is left untreated for a long time, it might lead to blindness (Duff, 2019).
Why we need to address myopia progression, typically teenagers, is that as time goes by, rates of myopia are increasing. Due to the fast developing and publicizing of electronic devices, teenagers are becoming more exposed to screens. As stated by Dr. Heiting, OD, "It's estimated that by the year 2050, roughly half of the world's population will be nearsighted.” To prevent this it is important to spread awareness of this disorder and help people around the world to become more cautious to such disorder.
Growth Hormones:
One of the main causes that leads to rapid eye sight degradation is due to your physical growth. During puberty, not only your body and mind grows, your eyeballs would also grow in size (EyeQue Corporation, 2020).While it is true that eyeballs grow before puberty, the extent to which how fast they grow skyrockets during puberty due to growth spurts, which are caused by the high production of growth hormones or somatotrophin. Excessive eye growth and vitreous chamber expansion are causes of myopia progression. If the eyeball grows disproportionally long, the focal point will fall short of the retina and the child in puberty would experience nearsightedness. Adding on, like other organs, homeostatic control mechanisms regulates the the eye growth (Wallman, 2012). The sudden growth of the eyeballs during puberty would break free from the control, making it hard for the body to accustom to such growth.
Sex Hormones:
Another reason that can lead to rapid myopic progression would be the impact of hormones. This also differs for males and females:
• Boys:
For boys in puberty, there is a chances for rapid eye sight degradation due to high levels of testosterone, also known as the “male sex hormone”, but not very extreme. What is unique about testosterone is that it makes eyes smaller (Gudmundsson, 2020) which could decrease the chances of males to have sudden progression of nearsightedness. Also, low testosterone levels could cause myopia indirectly by causing dry eyes (WebMD, 2004). However, boys during puberty has extra high level of testosterone production, so the progression of nearsightedness for boys would be less noticeable.
• Girls:
However for girls in puberty, it is different. Puberty has higher impact on girls’ vision particularly due to their high production and level of estrogen and progesterone, also known as the “female sex hormones”, in that stage of life. The changing levels has the possibility to affect the eye’s oil glands, resulting to the dryness of the eyes. Estrogen can also make the cornea less stiff with more elasticity, which can affect how light travels into the eye (Boyd, 2018). Also the menstrual cycle, which starts during puberty, affects vision. The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in the female reproductive system that prepares and makes pregnancy possible. The two of four specific phases in the menstrual cycle might cause a progression of myopia. During the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, follicles developing in the ovary produces estrogen, increasing estrogen level. The rise of estrogen level stimulates the repair and thickening of the endometrium after menstruation. There would also be a rise in the folliclestimulating hormone, or FSH, receptors that make the follicles more receptive to FSH, increasing estrogen production. During the luteal phase the progesterone and estrogen level rise as corpus luteum develops. As stated by Dr. Edward Kondrot, a leading Homeopathic Ophthalmologist, “During the first week of menstruation the typical elevated estrogen level can cause blurred vision.”
Figure 3
Prescription
Note. Photograph of a doctor writing a prescription for his patient. Located in Britannica ImageQuest.
Conclusion:
Having myopia is not very comfortable since you have to always wear glasses or contact lenses. So it is always good to prevent such disorder to occur on you. The best thing you could do is to get your eyes checked regularly during puberty. But before you do that, listen to your parents when they tell you to not do something because their speeches comes from their experiences. You could also get laser eye surgery in the future, LASIK, but should do that after you are an adult because at that time your growth would end. Even though it is hard to ignore the captivation of electronic devices, or prevent yourself from reading books in a close distance, trying to prevent these issues should become a passive trait for teenagers so that they would not need to become a victim of myopia.
References
Boyd, K. (2018, November 12). How hormones can affect eyes and vision. American Academy of Ophthalmology. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/how-hormones-can-affecteyes-vision Dau
Family Eye Care. (2020, April 7). What is the main cause of myopia? Eye Doctors in St Johns & Jacksonville FL | Dau Family Eye Care. https://www.daufamilyeyecare.com/what-isthe-main-cause-of-myopia.html
Duff, B. L. (2019, January 18). Can myopia lead to blindness? All About Vision. https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/myopia-faq/can-myopia-lead-to-blindness.htm
Eye examination. [Photograph]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. https://quest.eb.com/search/132_1557871/1/132_1557871/cite
EyeQue Corporation. (2021, December 15). What can cause sudden vision changes? | EyeQue - The Leader in Smartphone Vision Tests. https://www.eyeque.com/knowledge-center/what-cancause-sudden-vision-changes/
Gudmundsson, G. (2020, May 27). 17 signs of high testosterone production in men. BroScience. https://broscience.com/17-signs-of-high-testosterone-in-men/ #:~:text=High%20testosterone%20generally%20leads%20to%20smaller%20eyes. %20This,high%20t-levels%20tend%20to%20carry%20less%20body%20fat
Heiting, G. (2019, February 27). Why myopia progression is a concern. All About Vision. https:// www.allaboutvision.com/parents/myopia-progression.htm
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2020, April 2). Nearsightedness - Symptoms and causes. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nearsightedness/symptoms-causes/ syc-20375556
Mukamal, R. (2021, June 7). 20 eye and vision myths. American Academy of Ophthalmology. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/common-eye-vision-myths-facts
Myopia. [Illustration]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. https://quest.eb.com/search/309_365836/1/309_365836/cite
Myopia Institute. (2017, May 3). 4 common myopia myths exposed. https:// www.myopiainstitute.com/eye-care/4-common-myopia-myths-exposed/ #:~:text=Let%20your%20dependable%20optometrist%20from%20The%20Myopia%20Institute, myopia.%201.%20Wearing%20Glasses%20Can%20Worsen%20Your%20Myopia
Prescription. [Photograph]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. https://quest.eb.com/search/132_1557401/1/132_1557401/cite
Wallman, J., & Winawer, J. (2012, April 12). Homeostasis of eye growth and the question of myopia. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15312645/ #:~:text=Homeostasis%20of%20eye%20growth%20and%20the%20question%20of,we%20consi der%20several%20implications%20of%20this%20visual%20guidance
WebMD. (2004, January 27). Dry eyes: Causes and treatment. https://www.webmd.com/eyehealth/eye-health-dry-eyes
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