True myopia can't be cured, don't go to the doctor if you are acute
According to the editor, children's affairs affect the hearts of countless parents.
In order for the baby to grow up healthily, parents left-handed theory and right-handed practice, searching online, asking for advice from relatives and friends... However, the information on the Internet is difficult to distinguish between true and false. ……In order to clear the obstacles on the way of parenting children, this newspaper has launched the "Pediatrics' Section" column from today to analyze hot issues of children in a scientific manner and hold up a "protective umbrella" for the growth of children.
Pediatric "Department"
◎Reporter Chen Xi
When the holidays are over and the new semester begins, there may be a few more "little glasses" in the class.
Li Lihua, director of the Optometry Center of Tianjin Eye Hospital, said that during holidays, many children use electronic products for a long time, coupled with insufficient outdoor exercise time, lack of regular work and rest, incorrect reading and writing posture, and imbalanced nutrition, which cause their eyesight to turn red. light.
After a holiday, some children's myopia can even increase by 200 to 300 degrees.
Parents have also begun to wonder, what can be done to cure myopia?
Or try the "recipe" in the circle of friends: watch moving objects, massage acupuncture points, take medicine to treat myopia... In this regard, Li Lihua reminded: "As of now, for true myopia, it can only be corrected and cannot be cured, and it is impossible. Through any kind of treatment method, the degree of myopia can be reduced, and the development speed of myopia can only be delayed through scientific methods."
Acquired factors are the main cause of myopia
"Children never look at electronic products, how can they get myopia?" "Our husbands and wives have very good eyesight, why do children get nearsighted at such a young age"... Many parents are full of doubts about the causes of children's nearsightedness after learning that their children are nearsighted. .
"If you want to understand the causes of myopia, you must first know what myopia is." Li Lihua said that when a person is born, the length of the eye axis is short, and the eye axis will slowly grow with age. If in this process If the axial length of the eye exceeds the standard, the image of an object 5 meters away in the eye will fall in front of the retina, resulting in blurred things, which leads to myopia.
"As for the cause of myopia, there is no conclusion so far, but scientists generally believe that the occurrence and development of myopia are jointly determined by innate and acquired factors." Li Lihua said.
Innate factors include heredity, race and birth season, the most important of which is hereditary factors.
Research on genetic factors found that if the parents have high myopia (generally referred to as myopia above 600 degrees), the incidence of myopia in their children is about 40%; if one parent has high myopia, the incidence of myopia in the children is 20% .
"Although genetic factors are very important, in the outpatient clinic, we found that only about 10% of myopia children between the ages of 3 and 6 are due to genetic factors. At present, the influence of acquired factors on the occurrence of myopia has far exceeded heredity. The acquired factors mainly include more near-sightedness and less outdoor activities.” Li Lihua pointed out, but the living habit of many young people today is precisely to have more near-sightedness, that is, too much exposure to electronic products and less outdoor activities.
"It needs to be emphasized here that near vision includes not only watching electronic products, but also drawing, playing with toys, and doing handicrafts in a small space for a long time. In this way, if you use your eyes too close for a long time, they will cause eye axis. It grows longer and forms myopic refractive error." Li Lihua reminded.
The hyperopia reserve situation can predict the possibility of myopia
"As the saying goes, three-year-old sees older, seven-year-old sees old, this is also applicable to children's myopia." Li Lihua said, just like the development of height from short to tall, the eye axis also experienced the development from short to long. process.
In childhood, the refractive state of the human eye changes very rapidly.
It is generally believed that most newborns are hyperopic, with an average axial length of 16.8 mm.
Around 7 years old, the length of the eye axis will reach the adult level.
At the same time, from birth to 7 years of age is also the most rapid period of human eye development, the original hyperopia gradually developed in the direction of myopia.
After 8 years of age, children's visual development is basically completed, but with the growth and development of the eyeballs, they will continue to develop in the direction of myopia, but the speed slows down. During this period, most children have emmetropia.
After entering adulthood at the age of 18, the refractive state of the human eye will be stable.
"We call this degree of physiological hyperopia the hyperopia reserve. Because the hyperopia reserve is constantly consumed during growth and development, the childhood hyperopia reserve can predict the possibility of myopia in adulthood." Li Lihua introduced, for 4 to 4 For 5-year-old children, there is a reserve of farsightedness of 200 to 225 degrees, and the possibility of nearsightedness is relatively small when they grow up.
And 6 to 8 years old children whose hyperopia reserve is less than 50 degrees, 85% will have myopia after 2 years.
Starting from the age of 3, it is recommended that parents take their children to check the length of the eye axis and corneal curvature every six months, and pay close attention to whether the child has a tendency to myopia.
"Myopia is irreversible, but human intervention can slow down the length of the eye axis, thereby delaying the occurrence of myopia." Li Lihua said, the earlier the intervention, the better the effect of preventing myopia.
"We support preschool children to do more outdoor exercises and'eyes' bathing in the sun." Li Lihua explained that the latest research shows that ensuring 2 hours of outdoor exercise a day can not only increase the elasticity of children's muscles, but also help regulate eye muscles.
At the same time, light passes through the pupils to reach the retina and stimulates the eyes to secrete dopamine. This neurotransmitter can slow down the growth of the children’s eye axis.
In addition, the use of eyes by preschool children must follow the "2010" rule-continuous close-up use of the eyes for 15 to 20 minutes at least 10 minutes of rest.
"For children who are already in school, they cannot avoid daily reading, writing and using electronic products, so they need to develop good eye habits." Li Lihua suggested that parents should do a good job in improving the family's visual environment.
Pay attention to the standard of daylighting, the ratio of the window area to the room area is not less than 1:6; the lighting source must ensure a certain intensity, and there is no stroboscopic; do not use eyes at close range for a long time, follow "20-20-20" The principle is that after using your eyes for 20 minutes, the scenery 20 feet (6 meters) away will continue to rest for 20 seconds; when looking at electronic products, follow the principle of "near big and not small, and far away."
OK lens can effectively delay the rapid development of myopia
After learning that the child was short-sighted, the parents were very anxious, and many people began to go to the doctors at random.
"Look at moving objects", "take medicine to improve eyesight", "massage and stick ear points", "wear glasses with lower power than the actual degree"... There are endless methods of treating myopia on the Internet, and many methods claim to "cure" myopia.
For a long time, ophthalmologists from various countries have conducted a lot of explorations on myopia correction, but there has been a lot of controversy about the effectiveness and feasibility of some methods. Experts at home and abroad have recognized that the method of delaying myopia is optical correction-wearing Refractive glasses, especially for young people who are growing up, wearing refractive glasses is a better correction method.
Li Lihua made it clear that as of now, true myopia can only be corrected and cannot be treated, and it is impossible to reduce the degree of myopia through any kind of treatment.
"At present, the corrective effect of the OK lens, that is, the orthokeratology lens, has been more and more recognized. It is a rigid air-permeable contact lens. Through its unique inverse geometric design, the central area of the lens is larger than the center of the individual cornea. The area is flat. Wearing at night can change the curvature of the front surface of the cornea and form a defocus ring, thereby temporarily improving the naked eye vision." Li Lihua introduced that the orthokeratology lens has its effect in delaying the rapid development of myopia. At present Look better than frame glasses.
For the glasses that many parents reject and resist, Li Lihua said that if children are found to have anisometropia and amblyopia, they must wear glasses as soon as possible; if children have accommodative esotropia, they should also wear glasses as soon as possible to improve the child’s eye position. Problems, help the development of binocular vision function.
"Wearing glasses should also be used as a symptomatic mirror. If you wear inappropriate glasses, the adjustment of visual function will be in an unstable state, which will easily bring excess burden to the ciliary muscle and accelerate the development of myopia." She said.
"Looking at moving objects can only relieve eye fatigue, and has nothing to do with shortening the length of the eye axis, and has no effect on correcting myopia." Li Lihua explained.
"The so-called drugs that can improve myopia are even more nonsense. The human body has a blood-eye barrier. The amount of oral drugs that enters the blood through the digestive tract and then enters the eye is very small. At present, almost all drugs for the treatment of eyes are externally used." Li Lihua said. , Most of the ingredients of these drugs on the market are extracted from blueberries and carrots. Usually, pay attention to a balanced diet and eat more dark-colored fruits and vegetables to achieve the same effect.
"Many people think that their eyesight can be improved by massaging and sticking to ear points, but in fact, there will be no change in myopia." Li Lihua explained.
"Massage and sticking to ear points can make the blood circulation in the eyes more smooth, and vision may be improved in the short term, but when the massage effect disappears, myopia will still exist." Li Lihua said.