Myopia exists when light focuses in front of the retina, rather than on top of it. | Courtesy of David Gee/College of Optometry
The University of Houstons College of Optometry is leading the charge in the fight against myopia, or nearsightedness, with several studies aimed at discovering how to fully stop the progression of the condition in children a problem that can lead to permanent blindness.
Dr. Earl Smith, Dean of the UH College of Optometry, wasnamed one of the Most Influential in Optometryin 2015 for his extensive research into myopia and was recently awarded a $1.9 million research grant by the National Eye Institute to help fund hisongoing work. Dr. David Berntsen is part of a clinical trial for childrens contact lenses that builds off of some of Smiths work, and Dr. Ruth Manny worked on two studies that tested eyeglasses and looked for myopia risk factors.
Were in the middle of an epidemic of myopia, Smith said. In Asia, East Asia, for example: Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore if you look at the kids graduating from technical high schools in urban areas, 80 to 95 percent are nearsighted, and theyre not a little bit nearsighted. Theyre a lot nearsighted.
Myopia exists when the eye grows too long on its axial length, Smith said, so light from a faraway object focuses in front of the retina, rather than on it. This causes objects at large distances to look blurry.
The myopia epidemic, Smith said, is likely caused by intense educational practices and lack of time outside for children. Sitting indoors, reading and studying for long hours does not give the eye enough variety in distance or exposure to sunlight. Everything inside is close to the eye, Smith said, while everything outside is far away, giving the eye the needed signal to slow growth.
Myopia is one of the largest causes of permanent blindness in Asia, he said, and the condition is taking hold in the United States. From 1970 to 2000, the number of myopia sufferers in the adult population jumped from to 45 percent from 25 percent. Those with severe myopia increased by a factor of eight, Smith said.
An estimated five billion people half of the earths population will be nearsighted by 2050 if nothing is done about the epidemic, Smith said. One billion of those five billion people will have severe myopia, Smith said, which is likely to lead to permanent blindness.
Glasses and contact lenses are the most common ways to correct nearsightedness, Smith said, because they changethe focus of the light received by the eye so that it comes to rest on the retina.
Smith said the goal of his research is to understand the role of vision in affecting eye growth. The eye has corrective systems in place so that during development, if vision is blurry, the eye will grow to correct it.
At first, Smith said, his research was focused on those suffering from lazy or crossed eyes. His focus shifted once he foundthat visual experience plays a key role in the development of those conditions and myopia.
Vision regulates the way the eye grows, whether one is nearsighted or not, Smith said. Its a fascinating thing. The eye uses visual feedback associated with defocus to regulate the way the eye grows. Because of changes in our behavior, those systems sometimes operate in ways that cause the eye to become nearsighted.
Smith said the biggest contribution his research made was proving that the periphery vision could dominate eye growth. If corrective bifocal contact lenses are applied, giving the wearer clear vision while simultaneously correcting the peripheral vision, eye growth will be slowed and myopia can be avoided, Smith said.
Dr. David Berntsen,an associate professor at the College of Optometry and fellow recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health, is working on the Bifocal Lenses In Nearsighted Kids clinical trial.
My funding and the primary work in my lab is clinical trials in kids, looking at specific types of lenses to see if they can slow myopia progression, Berntsen said.
The funding Berntsen received is a different type of grant system that funds large-scale clinical trials, he said. The BLINK study is a collaboration between UH researchers and colleagues at Ohio State University.
BLINK enrolled about 150 kids at UH and 144 at Ohio State University, aged 7 to 11-years-old, over the course of about a year and a half, Berntsen said.
Berntsen explained that each child is randomly assigned one of three kinds of contact lenses. The control lens is one that is normally prescribed to correct myopia.The other two are bifocals with varying degrees of plus-power in the periphery of the lens focusing the light sooner at the edges, controlling eye growth according to the findings of Smiths research.The peripheral light is then focused in front of the retina, which sends a signal to the eye to slow growth.
Traditional lenses give the wearer clear central vision, but peripheral light focuses behind the retina, which may stimulate the eye to grow longer,which exacerbates myopia, Berntsen.
Corrective lenses are the standard of care for treating myopia, Berntsen said, so there are no studies comparing myopic progression with lenses versus no lenses.There are studies that have found that peripheral light focused behind the retina like with traditional spectacles is associated with faster progression than when peripheral light is focused in front of the retina,like with Berntsens bifocal contacts.
Berntsen said the ultimate goal of his research is to stop eye growth in myopic children, but currently it can only be slowed.
Another College of Optometry professor, Dr. Ruth Manny, was involved in a similar study in 2008. The Correction of Myopia Evaluation Trialaimed to understand differences in the progression of myopia in children wearing different types of eyeglasses.
The question COMET was designed to answer was: Is the increase in nearsightedness that occurs as children get older different between children who wear eyeglasses with progressive additional bifocals (no line bifocal) and children who wear conventional single vision spectacle lenses? Manny said in an email.
There were 469 children enrolled in four different cities: Houston, Boston, Philadelphia and Birmingham, Alabama. Manny said that after three years of study, researchers found that while myopia progression was less in those children wearing bifocals, the difference was too small to recommend no-line bifocals as a method to treat myopic children.
The results of COMET have led researchers to explore different treatments, Manny said, such as the bifocal contact lenses in Berntsens study.
Manny was also involved in a study called theCollaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Ethnicity and Refractive Errorthat looked at 13 risk factors for myopia in children, and found that refractive error, orlight focusing incorrectly within the eye, was the single best predictor of the condition.
Despite working within the same college at UH, Smith, Berntsen and Manny are not directly involved in each others research, they explained.
[emailprotected]
Tags: College of Optometry, myopia, nearsightedness, optometry, research, UH College of Optometry
Does the construction along Spur 5, which will eventually impact the U.S. 59 north and south on-ramps from I-45, affect your commute to class?
Total Voters: 106
Read the original here:
College of Optometry researchers fight myopia, blindness - The Daily Cougar
- AI has perfect detection rate for severe cases of condition that causes blindness in preemies - OHSU News - March 10th, 2024
- PulseSight launches with gene therapy platform targeting age-related blindness - Longevity.Technology - March 10th, 2024
- AIOS and RANZCO Unite to Combat Preventable Blindness - Hindustan Times - March 10th, 2024
- Baby born without eyes defies the odds as she thrives despite blindness - Express - March 10th, 2024
- Penn Medicine Accelerator Program to Boost AI-Powered Projects Targeting Blindness and Cervical Cancer - India Education Diary - March 10th, 2024
- Scientists discover gut bacteria`s role in genetically-linked vision loss - WION - February 27th, 2024
- Prevent Blindness launches new Retinopathy of Prematurity Education and Support Program as part of inaugural ... - Modern Retina - February 27th, 2024
- Revolutionizing Eye Disease Treatment: The Unseen Link Between Gut Bacteria and Blindness - Medriva - February 27th, 2024
- The Virtue of Color-Blindness & The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America Book Review - National Review - February 27th, 2024
- Sight loss could be treated by antibiotics after being linked to gut bacteria - The Independent - February 27th, 2024
- Prevent Blindness Launches New "Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) Education and Support Program" as Part of ... - PR Web - February 27th, 2024
- $35 million to fight blindness with manufactured corneas | Health Portfolio Ministers | Australian Government ... - Department of Health - February 10th, 2024
- Eye care, vision impairment and blindness - World Health Organization (WHO) - October 27th, 2023
- CHOROIDEREMIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION EXPANDS RESEARCH SUPPORT INTO NONSENSE MUTATIONS OF A RARE INHERITED RETINAL - EIN News - May 1st, 2023
- Chennai eye hospital ties up with Iceland firm to adopt mathematical algorithm to predict diabetic retinopathy - The Hindu - April 23rd, 2023
- Drug-Resistant Bacteria Tied to Eyedrops Can Spread Person to Person ... - April 7th, 2023
- Prevention of Blindness Week 2023: Mumbai experts explain why you should be concerned about glaucoma and the need for regular eye checkups -... - April 7th, 2023
- Childhood blindness - Wikipedia - February 24th, 2023
- FDA Approves Syfovre (pegcetacoplan injection) for the Treatment of ... - February 24th, 2023
- Human mini brains illuminate path to curing blindness - February 16th, 2023
- Raymond V. Gilmartin: Man with a global vision - February 16th, 2023
- Why Are People So Mad About MrBeast's Blindness Video? - February 16th, 2023
- This heartwarming video of a colorblind boy seeing color for the first time will make you cry - Indiatimes.com - February 16th, 2023
- Blindness (Vision Impairment): Types, Causes and Treatment - February 8th, 2023
- CDC urges people to stop using brand of artificial tears linked to ... - February 8th, 2023
- Health News Roundup: U.S. FDA says India-made eye drop linked to some infections, blindness and one death; China records 3,278 COVID-related deaths... - February 8th, 2023
- I had two strokes at 29 and gone blind -I've been accused of faking my sight loss - Daily Mail - February 8th, 2023
- Blindness and vision impairment - World Health Organization - January 23rd, 2023
- Recovery from blindness - Wikipedia - January 23rd, 2023
- Colour blindness tests, juggling, avoiding glare: A hockey goalkeepeers quest to train his biggest weapon, eyes - The Indian Express - January 23rd, 2023
- But Did You See the Gorilla? The Problem With Inattentional Blindness ... - October 15th, 2022
- Canadians unaware of diseases that lead to blindness, survey says - CTV News Northern Ontario - October 15th, 2022
- A Review of Corneal Blindness: Causes and Management - Cureus - October 15th, 2022
- A cure for blindness may be first product made in space - Freethink - October 15th, 2022
- Is MrBeast trying to cure 1000 people's blindness? - indy100 - October 15th, 2022
- Early detection and management is the key to prevent glaucoma related blindness: Experts - Express Healthcare - October 15th, 2022
- As World Sight Day Nears, River Blindness is Fading - SaportaReport - October 15th, 2022
- Tears of happiness: How curing blindness in Dolakha saved a girls future - City A.M. - October 15th, 2022
- World Sight Day: Orbis, UC Davis team up to train eye care teams from Latin America to fight avoidable blindness - Ophthalmology Times - October 15th, 2022
- Juan Williams: The GOPs epidemic of intentional blindness - The Hill - October 15th, 2022
- Charles pays tribute to Malawi's elimination of disease causing blindness - Express & Star - October 15th, 2022
- Coping with calamity: Former NYT columnist Frank Bruni on blindness and vision, at Morristown book fest keynote - Morristown Green - October 15th, 2022
- Sighting solutions in a world of vision for weavers - The New Indian Express - October 15th, 2022
- Blindfold run raises $40,000 for the MUHC Foundation to support glaucoma care at the MUHC - StreetInsider.com - October 15th, 2022
- MacKenzie Scott Donates $15M to Address the Eyecare Needs of the Impoverished - InvisionMag - October 15th, 2022
- Astellas and MBC BioLabs Announce Astellas Future Innovator Prize to Help Biotech Start-ups Accelerate Early Drug Discovery and Research Efforts -... - September 20th, 2022
- Treating cataracts before 'critical age' imperative FBC News - FBC News - September 20th, 2022
- GenSight Biologics to Present at Upcoming Industry and Investor Conferences - Business Wire - September 20th, 2022
- Ashton Kutcher battled vasculitis causing blindness, loss of hearing. Know all about the rare condition - India TV News - August 11th, 2022
- Prevent Blindness Is Recognized as a Healthy People 2030 Champion for Supporting the Initiative's Vision - Vision Monday - August 11th, 2022
- Researchers make progress toward a stem cellbased therapy for blindness - Ophthalmology Times - August 11th, 2022
- The strategic blindness of Israel's caretaker government - JNS.org - August 11th, 2022
- UND professor carries the torch for UND studies of visual impairment and blindness - Grand Forks Herald - August 11th, 2022
- Karan Nagrani is using social media to raise awareness about the 'spectrum of blindness' - ABC News - August 11th, 2022
- Vision impairment and blindness related to NCDs: Fong - FBC News - August 11th, 2022
- Strategic blindness of caretaker government - The Jewish Star - August 11th, 2022
- Massachusetts woman blinded by attack working to help others regain sight - WCVB Boston - August 11th, 2022
- Persuasion Film Review: Is Heterogeneous Casting Race-Inclusionary Or Escapist? - Feminism In India - August 11th, 2022
- Is It Time To Start Using Race And Gender To Combat Bias In Lending? - Forbes - August 11th, 2022
- The journey of Kali Yugi started with the mistake of objectives! - Youthistaan - August 11th, 2022
- A 50-State Review of Access to State Medicaid Program Information for People with Limited English Proficiency and/or Disabilities Ahead of the PHE... - August 11th, 2022
- iHealthScreen Completed Prospective Trial of AI-Based Tool for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Screening and Submitting the Results to FDA for... - August 11th, 2022
- Vitamin B12: Why You Need It & Foods To Increase Your Vitamin B12 Intake - NDTV - August 11th, 2022
- Jack Levine: Remembering a dad who proved that even in blindness, there can be vision - The Florida Times-Union - June 26th, 2022
- Potion of Blindness | Minecraft Ideas Wiki | Fandom - June 26th, 2022
- Tightening a molecular "zipper" could help prevent hereditary blindness - New Atlas - June 26th, 2022
- What's the Link Between Glaucoma and Dry Eyes? - Healthline - June 26th, 2022
- Lisa Durden's upcoming documentary "Blind Divas" follows Krystle Allen and Naquela Wright-Prevoe, two Black women entrepreneurs, determined... - June 26th, 2022
- Trump election lies may fit legal concept of willful blindness - Chicago Tribune - June 26th, 2022
- Sightsavers relaunches its thematic strategy The Sun Nigeria - Daily Sun - June 26th, 2022
- Trachoma elimination: millions more to benefit from donated azithromycin - World Health Organization - June 26th, 2022
- Dangers of super gonorrhoea from infertility to blindness as global warning issued - Daily Star - June 26th, 2022
- Fifty years of Title IX: What is it, what does it cover and do we still need it? - The Athletic - June 26th, 2022
- How The SMH Got That Rebel Wilson Story So Wrong - Junkee - June 26th, 2022
- The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post - Lawfare - Lawfare - June 26th, 2022
- Why Brad Pitt quit smoking and drinking altogether during the pandemic - BusinessGhana - June 26th, 2022
- Watch your eye - The New Indian Express - June 26th, 2022
- Olivia Brouwer's art is for everyone to see and touch - Hamilton Spectator - June 26th, 2022
- Monkeypox may not mutate as fast as coronaviruses, but that doesn't mean it can't adapt to its new hosts - The Conversation - June 26th, 2022
- Former American Express Foundation President Takes Helm of Signature Theatre - The Chronicle of Philanthropy - June 26th, 2022