CAN YOU SEE ME? 
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?

By: Kendall Monroe

That's the new buzz-phrase for the new decade. Only the phrase isn't selling anything, it's a health warning. A health warning about our eyes, more specifically, myopia.

Myopia is on the rise! No. Myopia is not the close cousin of Locknesse, it's an eye condition that leads to blindness. It is an eye condition that is on an extreme rise, globally.

Researchers at the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, found that rates of myopia in people ages 12 to 54 increased from 25% in 1971-72 to 41.6% in 1999-2004. The study included people with a range of myopia, from mild to severe.

With myopia, objects closer up appear clearer than do the objects in the background or farther away.

In today's modern world, heads are face-to-face with screens, little screens 15" and even little 2" screens. Eyes need to focus differently than ever before in man's history or women's herstory.

People as a general rule are not outside as they once were. And even if they are outside, their heads are buried in a screen, and a close-up screen at that.

It may not be so much the time one spends on screens at a close proximity, but more likely the lack of time one spends viewing things at a distance. No longer are the majority of activities outdoors, where one has the ability to focus on say, a pop-fly to third base, or a golf ball driving hundreds of feet. Most activities are now played indoors with extremely limited distance viewing.

The definition of myopia, is the difficulty in seeing distant objects, also known as nearsightedness or short sidedness. It is a refractive defect of the eye in which the eyeball is too long, or the cornea is too steep, so rather than the image focusing on the retina at the back of the eye, images are focused in the vitreous inside of the eye. It is an elongation of the retina and pupil. With longer and thinner eyes, the retina becomes thin and is prone to breaks and tears.

Try placing your screens in front of the window, so that you may look farther than simply a foot or less in front of you. Don't game in the car, look out the window! Take a walk and don't look at your feet, look at the trees and building far off and far away.

Myopia is commonly corrected with glasses, contact lenses, and surgery.

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