The increase in the number of cases of myopic users and the progression of myopia is increasingly common, especially in children, pre-adolescents and adolescents.
The era of technology makes us to eventually keep more time “connected” and thus spending more time working with electronic devices at close distances, which favors this progression of myopia.
There are several factors that favor the increase in myopia such as genetic predisposition, excessive hours of work in close range tasks, hormonal development or growth and some drugs or systemic pathologies.
Due to the complications that can be caused by a child having high myopia as an adult, the need arises to control its progression from an early age.
There are numerous methods to control myopia such as nocturnal orthokeratology lenses (ortho-k), peripheral blur lenses (Esencia®) or drugs, but in addition to acting directly on it, the rules of visual hygiene are of vital importance to control the increase in myopia.
These rules are beneficial for everyone, but especially for children and adolescents with myopia, through these indications we will try to minimize the advance of this condition. If the child does not wear glasses, but has a family history of myopia, it is very interesting to use these rules as a prevention:
-The furniture must be adapted to the height of the child or adult, a table that is too high will cause our working distance to be shorter, contributing to force our entire visual system.
The right chair for your height, your back upright resting on the backrest, your shoulders back, your feet resting on the floor and the weight well distributed so that both eyes are at the same distance from the work area.
-Natural lighting whenever possible, otherwise we will have two types of ambient lighting and another on the text. The latter should not dazzle or create shadows. If the person is right-handed, we will place them on the left and if they are left-handed, we will place them on the right. It is important to avoid reflections on the paper.
-Adequate working distance: The optimal distance so that the visual system is not forced is from the elbow to the first phalanx of the middle finger, placing the text and the elbow to the side we support the head on the hand and it gives us the approximate distance.
-Take short 2-minute breaks every 30 minutes of study and look from afar, if possible through a window.
-It is recommended to spend as much time as possible outdoors, since according to the latest studies on the advance of myopia, it was proposed as a good method to reduce the advance of this, going out into open spaces where our eyes do not have to fix at distances medium and short.
-Nutrition also plays an important role, our diet should include vitamin-A (which can be found in milk, eggs, carrots, plums…), fruits of all types and vegetables.
-Stimulate the periferical visión: whenever it is that we are working on the Street, the beach or the mountain we should try to use our periferical retina, I mean, looking at long ranges and being aware of our entire visual field, not only the central part.
-The perfect range to watch TV should be equal or bigger tan 6 times the diagonal of the screen, always with the lights on.
-Not Reading laying down in the bed because it either reduces the distance of the reading and the posture is not adequate
-Avoid reading in the car or the train, it is better to look to the horizon.
It is convenient a visual control every year carried out by your personal optometrist.
