CHINESE NEW YEAR CAMP

I guess this year Ai Ling and her family friends decided to celebrate Chinese New Year with a difference, close to the trees and really bonding together, without the distraction of the city noise and traffic.

How many people are aware that the outdoors is great for the children, not only for their general health, but specifically for their eye-sight. One of the side effects of today's living mode is the slow changes taking place in our physical conditions. Due to our enclosed living condition, exposure to TV, ipads and handphones, the incidence of MYOPIA  or, short-sightedness is growing at alarming proportions. In the developed economies of the Far East, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea the incidence of myopia among school growing children are in the range of 80-90%.

The issue with myopia in children is that, left undetected and treated early, the immediate short-term effect is the slowing down of their learning in school. Bear in mind that 70-80% of learning is through the visual experience. In the longer term, people who have myopia at an early age, and which progresses acutely over the years, are more likely to suffer earlier from other eye-problems in their adult years, such as cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc.

So it is very important not to take myopia in children lightly as these have material impact on their lives later on.

Now what has the outdoors to do with myopia. One of the major causes of myopia is the elongation of the eye, which causes the image of objects to fall in front of the retina, not on top of it, hence the blur vision. Corrective lenses are then used to bring back the image on to the retina. Now research has shown that the elongation of the eye has a direct relationship with the exposure of the eye to sunlight. Or put in another way, the lesser sunlight will cause the eye to grow longer. That is why incidences of myopia is more prevalent in cities than in rural societies.

Something to think about, isn't it? So get those children out as much as possible to the outdoors so that they have healthy eyes, whilst at the same time wean them away from all the electronic gadgets.

And if they show slowing down in their studies, or get irritable, get their eyes checked as soon as possible. Technology today is so advanced that you can actually slow-down the progress of myopia through techniques like Ortho-K lenses, Atropine 0.01 drops, myopia control lenses, etc.

How do I know so much. Well, it just so happens that I am now working in an eye-clinic just to expand my resume. You will be surprised at the cases we see. We have seen 5 weeks old babaies with cataract and other ailments, but that's another story.