The cause of more and more people having myopia (and how to prevent it)

In the last 50 years, the number of people with myopia has doubled in many places in the world, such as in the United States and Europe. But in other territories, especially in Asia, the increase is much higher.

In China, for example, 60 years ago the myopic population oscillated between 10 and 20%. Today, however, more than 90% of adolescents and young adults are. And in Seoul, capital of South Korea, myopia suffers up to 96.5% of men of 19 years. Some estimates suggest that at the end of this decade up to one third of the population, that is, 2.5 billion people, will suffer from this defect in vision, as a result of which the eye does not refract light correctly, causing vision blurred of distant objects.

"Myopia appears during school age and usually gets worse gradually until the eyeball completes its growth.What causes myopia is the excessive growth of the eyeball, which becomes longer than normal. get to measure more than 26 mm, or present more than 6 or 8 diopters, then we speak of pathological myopia ", explains Manuel Díaz, professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Valencia and president of the Spanish Society of Myopia.

That pathological myopia, he adds, "significantly increases the risk of cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachment and myopic maculopathy, it should be emphasized that severe myopia is among the three leading causes of permanent blindness in the world."