20 August, 2013

Smartphones cause rise in myopia: Surgeon

If smartphones have made our lives easier, there is a flip side too -- they cause visionimpairment, says a leading laser eye surgeon.

Femalefirst.co.uk reports that Surgeon David Allambym has revealed that smartphones have caused cases of myopia (short-sightedness) among young Britons to surge.

Allamby, founder of Focus Clinics, has reported a 35 percent increase of patients with advancing myopia, since the launch of smartphones in 1997, and warns that worsening Myopia in young adults could increase by 50 percent within 10 years.

Half of Britons own smartphones and spend an average of two hours per day using them. Combined with the amount of hours spent in front of a computer screen, laptop, tablet and television, it means that particularly young people and children are at risk of permanently damaging their vision.

New research found that the average smartphone user holds thehandset 30 cm from their face, with some people holding it just 18 cm away, compared to newspapers and books, which are held 40cm away from the eyes.

According to Allamby, excessive screen watching at a close proximity keeps the genes that control myopia activated well beyond the age that short-sightedness would historically have stabilized, around the age of 21. This is known as 'epigenetics'. Myopia used to stop in our early 20s but now we see it progressing throughout the 20s, 30s, and even into our 40s.

"If things continue as they are, I predict that 40-50 percent of 30-year-olds could have myopia by 2033 as a result of smartphones and lifestyles in front of screens, an epidemic we call Screen-Sightedness. People need to ensure they limit screen time wherever possible even by going outside without their phone for a period of time each day, and also seriously consider the age at which they give their children a smartphone," Allamby said.

Allamby says today's generation of children are most at risk of myopia, with children as young as seven being given their first smartphone.

It is predicted that by 2014 children aged 12 to 17 years will be the second biggest market for smartphones behind 18-24 year olds.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.08.2013

Healthy preterm babies have academic difficulties

Scientists have claimed that premature babies are at higher risk for lower academicachievement, especially in mathematics.

Natacha Akshoomoff, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry and UC San Diego's Center for Human Development said that preterm children, who are deemed "normal" in terms of their development at infant/toddler stages, may still remain at risk for significant math difficulties, as well as deficits in attention, executive functions, and spatial skills.

She said that recent studies have identified a common pattern of subtle abnormality in the deep white matter of the brain among children born very premature.

Akshoomoff asserted that these early abnormalities may affect the subsequent development of widely distributed brain areas, and may account for the patterns of cognitive deficit that are observed later inchildhood.

She explained that however, there is currently very little data actually linking these neural abnormalities with the emergence of such deficits and associated early academic difficulties.

Akshoomoff said that the goal of the current study is to provide these essential data as children enter a critical developmental stage when intervention may have the best potential to achieve better outcomes for these children.

The study participants will include 60 healthy children born at 25 to 32 gestational weeks with average intelligence, and 40 full-term children matched for age, sex and verbal IQ.

Children will enter the study within six months of entering kindergarten and will be followed for three years. The scientists predict that specific early perceptual and cognitive deficits will be related to math deficits that emerge as children start school.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.08.2013

The beginning of every great success is desire

Napoleon Hill