Randolph's World

The problem is endemic of many areas of Western medicine where chronic rather than acute symptoms are to be dealt with. Acute symptoms are increasingly effectively resolved, while chronic ailments are simply medicated with very questionable long term results.

One such area, widely ignored when it comes to massive health epidemics of recent times, is myopia. Many people don’t even know the term, which simply refers to shortsightedness of the eye. Glasses, contact lenses, and laser surgery are the current status quo of managing this particular chronic symptom.

Interestingly enough, myopia barely even existed, statistically speaking, till the later part of last century. The world has quickly seen the rise of myopia into a staggering billion affected people, faster and more prevalent than just about any modern disease.

And yet, nothing notable is being done to prevent, understand, or even cure this particular eyesight disease. One must ask, why?

First, when asking most optometrists or even ophthalmologists, the answers aren’t very helpful. Genetics are often blamed, though this makes no sense for such a sudden onset of a global epidemic.

In his recent book, The Story of the Human Body, Daniel Lieberman (the chief of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University), had this to say about myopia: “Nearsightedness is a complex trait caused by many interactions among a large number of genes and multiple environmental factors. However, since people’s genes haven’t changed much in the last few centuries, the recent worldwide epidemic of myopia must result primarily from environmental shifts.”

Indeed, once one digs further into the subject, the wide rift between retail sales optometry and ophthalmology, and the science faction become very apparent. There are the subjects of NITM (near-induced transient myopia) which defines almost all early stages of myopia, which take up thousands of pages on Google Scholar. It becomes quickly apparent that indeed science knows where myopia comes from, that it is indeed environmental, and even transient (ie. temporary). It isn’t until the retail medicine comes into play, medicating a temporary symptom into a permanent and progressive illness, that we find lens-induced myopia, an equally prolific subject in the science community.

An equal amount of telling data is available from the other side, the one that tells us myopia is mysterious and unknowable, and sells millions of lens prescriptions annually. The rapid multi billion dollar annual growth in stock valuations of all the world’s largest lens manufacturers is difficult to reconcile in ways other than simply a ride on the wave of the myopia the industry themselves create.

Industry publications like the British Journal of Opthalmology have this to say about the money grab that happens at the expensive of our eyesight:

“Ophthalmologists should also recognise and take up the challenge of preventing or curing myopia by addressing its cause and not simply treating the consequences.”

This is bold indeed from a veteran publication that relies heavily on the sponsorship of the very industry whose practices it questions. When even the most entrenched industry journals politely hint that an alternative course of action would be appropriate, how can the public remain so well shielded from the myopia-for-profit reality?

Of course there are legitimate alternatives. Behavioral ophthalmology requires the same extensive schooling as all ophthalmology specializations, and yet remains heavily derided in public discourse. Wikipedia editors are rumored to have been paid off to write mind bogglingly slanderous “definitions” of the practice, which makes the mistake of questioning the status quo of permanent prescriptions as the only treatment.

Can we ever change course, or are we resigned to the 90% myopia incidences that are today’s reality among school children in countries like South Korea?

Only time can tell. If stock prices are any indication though, it’s profits before health, the mantra we should have come to expect from retail medicine.

Author: Neha Gupta is a holistic ophthalmology practitioner, in private practice for the past 14 years. Her speciality is myopia prevention and rehabilitation, and light therapy for vision related illness. Her writings related to topics of improving eyesight through rehabilitation can be found online at http://www.frauenfeldclinic.com