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A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe
Time spent outdoors is the best defence against rising rates of short-sightedness, but scientists are searching for other ways to reverse the troubling trend.
Although marketed to alleviate jet lag and enhance sleep quality, these devices — reminiscent of the visor-like eyewear from Star Trek — have shown early promise in addressing short-sightedness as well, inducing transient changes in certain eye measurements linked to reduced myopia risk. Ophthalmologists at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo tested this idea in a pair of randomized trials in which children with myopia aged 6–12 years wore specialized eyeglasses equipped with frames that emitted violet light for several hours every day. Researchers and public-health officials will need to decide whether to spend resources on simulating the outdoors, says Kevin Frick, a health economist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who is co-chairing a consensus study committee on myopia for the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
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