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from the eye-see-what-you-a-looking-at dept.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a cell in the retina that may cause myopia when it dysfunctions. The dysfunction may be linked to the amount of time a child spends indoors and away from natural light.
"This discovery could lead to a new therapeutic target to control myopia," said Greg Schwartz, lead investigator and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
More than a billion people in the world have myopia, whose incidence is rising and is linked to how much time people spend indoors as children.
The newly discovered retinal cell -- which is highly sensitive to light -- controls how the eye grows and develops. If the cell instructs the eye to grow too long, images fail to be focused on the retina, causing nearsighted vision and a lifetime of corrective glasses or contact lenses.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:54AM
It's been known for a while that this is the case (I think from the study on Singaporean school children from 5(?) years ago) but now they have discovered the mechanism that causes it. One step closer to figuring out a work around.
Also your prison inmate reference would appear to be a different mechanism because this is a purely developmental problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:52AM
Some prisoners are children. 8)