High sunlight exposure may cut myopia in adulthood: Study


London, Dec 2 (IANS): Worried about your teenage kids spending a lot of time playing outdoors games? Take heart, a new study has suggested that increased amounts of exposure to sunlight may reduce the risks of developing myopia or nearsightedness in adulthood.

According to the study, higher exposure of ultraviolet B (UVB) between ages 14 and 29 years may have reduced odds of myopia or nearsightedness -- a condition in which close objects appear clearly, but far ones do not -- in adulthood.

For the study, the research team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Britain, examined the association of myopia with UVB radiation, serum vitamin D concentrations and vitamin D pathway genetic variants, adjusting for years in education in 371 participants with myopia and 2,797 without.

The results showed that those in the years of education had twice the odds of myopia. 

Although exposure to sunlight increases vitamin D levels, it did not correlate with nearsightedness.

No independent associations between myopia and serum vitamin D3 concentrations or variants in genes associated with vitamin D metabolism were found, the researchers said. 

In contrast, those who had the highest blood levels of lutein -- a nutrient found in leafy vegetables -- had nearly half the risk of myopia compared with those with the lowest levels.

"The association between UVB, education, and myopia remained even after respective adjustment. This suggests that the high rate of myopia associated with educational attainment is not solely mediated by lack of time outdoors," said Astrid E. Fletcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"As the protective effect of time spent outdoors is increasingly used in clinical interventions, a greater understanding of the mechanisms and life stages at which benefit is conferred is warranted," Fletcher added, in the study published online in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Marc, USA

    Sun, Dec 04 2016

    A great article! This is one in a long line of studies that show the relationship of sun exposure to myopia, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that myopia is caused by lack of sun exposure. The evidence has been building for years. For example, one of the studies showed that the lowest risk of myopia among 12-year-old students was found among those who reported the highest levels of outdoor activity. Some might surmise that the key ingredient was exercise, but that idea was refuted by the fact that there was no association between indoor activity and myopia. I believe, however, that the admonition to avoid too much sun is misguided. Don't burn, but get plenty of sunlight. Here are a few benefits of sun exposure that you may not be aware of:
     
    •As sun exposure in the U.S. has DECREASED by 90% during the last century, melanoma incidence has INCREASED BY 3,000%.
    •A 20-year Swedish study shows that sun avoidance is as bad for the health as cigarette smoking.
    •A Spanish study shows that women who seek the sun have one-eleventh the hip fracture risk as those who avoid sun.
    •Men who work outdoors have half the risk of melanoma as those who work indoors.
    •Women who totally avoid the sun have 10-times the risk of breast cancer as those who embrace the sun.
    •Women who sunbathe regularly have half the risk of death during a 20-year period compared to those who stay indoors.
    •Sun exposure increases nitric oxide production, which leads to a decrease in heart attack risk.
    •Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is essential to human survival, and sun exposure is the only natural way to obtain it. Sunbathing can produce 20,000 units of vitamin D in 20 minutes of whole-body exposure.
    •Sun exposure dramatically improves mood through the production of serotonin and endorphin.
    •Beyond vitamin D, sun exposure also stimulates the production of endorphin, nitric oxide and BDNF, all of which are vital to human health.
    •Regular sun exposure also reduces high blood pressure, heart disease, psoriasis and multiple sclerosis (MS).
    •As sunscreen use has increased dramatically, melanoma has INCREASED exponentially.

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