00:00Myopia is an unusual elongated growth pattern of the eyeball, which usually begins in childhood
00:06and is likely caused by genetics and environment.
00:09Sometimes, the condition can do great damage later in life.
00:13Myopia is associated with higher rates of glaucoma, cataracts, retinal tears, and macular degeneration,
00:20all diseases which can rob someone of their sight entirely.
00:23Those risks appear much more significant for people whose childhood diagnosis progresses
00:28into severe or high myopia.
00:31Nearly 10% of the world's population, or close to 1 billion people,
00:36will have high myopia by 2050, according to estimates.
00:40For most children, though, myopia only leads to nearsightedness
00:43and a lifelong need for glasses or other vision correction.
00:47In children with myopia, vision generally stabilizes by age 20,
00:52although higher risks of blinding eye disease continue throughout one's life.
00:56Myopia rates have been on the rise since well before the dawn of smart devices.
01:01They jumped from 25% in the US early 1970s to about 42% around the turn of the millennium,
01:07according to one study. Estimates suggest half of the world will be nearsighted by 2050.
01:14Some parts of the world have already far surpassed that milestone.
01:17In some East Asian countries, myopia rates have climbed as high as 80 to 90%.
01:23During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple studies have shown
01:27myopia rates increased significantly among children.
01:30While more screen time has been suspected as a culprit,
01:33most of the studies did not specifically investigate screen time during lockdowns.
01:38Despite the ubiquity of smartphones, 84% teenagers in the US own one,
01:43according to a 2019 study. Experts remain unsure about exactly what they do to our eyes.
01:50Near work, such as reading, has long been associated with nearsightedness,
01:55although it's still not entirely clear whether lots of reading contributes to myopia
01:59or if people who can't see distances well gravitate toward books.
02:03It's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation,
02:05says Mark Rosenfield, professor at the State University of New York College of Optometry.
02:11What came first, the myopia or the reading?
02:15Rosenfield says that while screens are known to cause eye strain
02:18and may be contributing to myopia, other factors,
02:21like extended time spent in dark indoor settings, likely deserve at least some of the blame.
02:26But of course, it could be a combination of the two,
02:29he says. Stress, he adds, may play a role as well.
02:33The relatively new field of myopia management has been growing worldwide,
02:38although many other countries offer patients more treatment options
02:41than are available in the United States, where approvals lag behind.
02:45Myopia control tools include orthokeratology,
02:48or ortho-K, a more rigid lens worn at night,
02:51and atropine, an eyedrop. Atropine was used to treat myopia as far back as 1868,
02:57but it fell out of favor due to problematic side effects.
03:00More recently, lower doses of atropine,
03:03which is widely used in East Asia, have proven more tolerable.
03:06But the Food and Drug Administration found the substance to be ineffective against myopia in recent trials.
03:12This surprised many optometrists, who questioned the trial's design.
03:17Myopia control glasses are also used in other countries,
03:20providing families with a more kid-friendly treatment than contacts,
03:24but the glasses have yet to be approved for use in the U.S.
03:27One promising new treatment that is taking off in the U.S.
03:30is specialized contact lenses to help control myopia.
03:34At a clinic run by the New England College of Optometry in Brookline,
03:38Massachusetts, Fuensanta Verdeaz pulls back the foil from a single contact lens package
03:43and fishes out the floppy sliver of clear plastic.
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