Warning of looming Gen Z blindness epidemic because today’s children ‘don’t go outside as much as previous generations’
Britain’s couch potato children are creating a future blindness crisis that threatens to engulf the NHS as they grow older, a leading eye surgeon has warned.
Excessive screen time means Generation Z has missed out on essential natural light during their formative years, with potentially catastrophic long-term effects on their vision.
The world is already experiencing rising rates of myopia, with a 46 percent increase in Britain over the past thirty years.
But the numbers have reached epidemic levels, with world-renowned eye surgeon Dr Joern Jorgensen warning it will only get worse.
Dr. LEC London’s Jorgensen says children staying indoors on their devices in a crucial window during puberty means they aren’t getting enough dopamine, which in turn damages their eyes.
The world is already experiencing rising rates of myopia, with a 46 percent increase in Britain over the past thirty years. But the numbers have reached epidemic levels, with world-renowned eye surgeon Dr Joern Jorgensen warning it will only get worse
Staring at phones and tablets several inches away from the face for long periods of time can cause nearsightedness or nearsightedness
The second factor is the amount of time spent staring at phones and tablets inches away from the face, which can cause nearsightedness or myopia.
In China, where he has eight clinics, Dr. Jorgensen has seen myopia levels rise from 30 percent to 95 percent and higher in some parts of the country.
And he warns that the same thing will happen in Britain without a major change in the way children spend their free time.
Dr. Jorgensen, who practices in London surgery and is also CEO of 44 eye surgery clinics around the world, told MailOnline: ‘Children don’t go outside as often as previous generations, everything they need is right there in front of them on their devices.
‘That means they are deprived of natural sunlight during a critical period in their lives and that in turn causes a very noticeable increase in myopia. It is alarming and what we are seeing is an epidemic.
‘When you go outside during the day to play football, exercise or just play with friends, a chemical process occurs in which dopamine is released.
‘We know it is an inhibitor of the type of growth in the eye that causes myopia. The horizontal part of the eye elongates and continues to grow, making it difficult to focus.
‘We can encourage children to get outside and exercise more, but you can’t reverse what has already happened when social media plays such an important role in their lives.
‘The second harmful factor is the amount of work that young people do, which is also harmful.’
Having a screen inches from the face means the eyes blink less and compensate more when focusing on close-up tasks for hours.
Dr. Irfan Jeeva, from Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said more and more young people are needing glasses due to exposure to digital devices
It means that the muscles in the eye stretch and the lens shifts, leading to a gradual elongation of the eyeball and damaging the way we focus on distant objects.
Dr. Jorgensen warns that myopia doesn’t just mean ordering glasses; severe cases can lead to blindness.
Severe cases of myopia in young people increase the chance of them developing macular degeneration by 41 percent, studies suggest.
Macular degeneration, one type of which is age-related, is a leading cause of blindness.
Dr. Jorgensen said: ‘Treatment of AMD is one of the largest costs facing the NHS, it is a major drain on resources.
‘A single injection of Lucentis, which is used to treat AMD, costs £1,000 and a patient must receive it every month or risk blindness.
‘Severe myopia also dramatically increases the chance of developing other serious conditions such as glaucoma and retinal detachment.
‘It is a very serious situation. We see cases of high myopia thirty times more often and that causes the four causes of eye disease: cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachment and AMD.’
Through his work in China, he has found that in rural areas such as Tibet, where children are more likely to work outdoors on farms, levels of myopia decrease dramatically.
His warning was echoed by other eye specialists.
Dr. Irfan Jeeva, from Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said more and more young people are needing glasses due to exposure to digital devices.
Dr. Jeeva said phones, tablets and televisions are too often used as ‘babysitters’, but warned parents to limit screen time for their children.
He told BBC Look North: ‘We’re still learning about it, but there’s enough data to believe that increased exposure to screens can affect your visual health, mental health, physical health and emotional health.
‘Screens are quite addictive. They have an internal reward mechanism that makes you want to spend more time with them.”
Myopia has already become a major concern for the NHS, a fear exacerbated by a new study.
The UCL researchers suggested that more time spent reading books at school could be behind the upward trend, with intensive studying and more Britons going to university.
Scientists at University College London (UCL) saw the biggest spike in cases among adults and the highest academic achievers.
The UCL researchers suggested that more time spent reading books at school could be behind the upward trend, with intensive studying and more Britons going to university.
About a third of British people have myopia, which is increasingly common in children.
Research commissioned by the Global Myopia Awareness Coalition shows that more than half (52 percent) of children today play outside less than their parents did when they were young.
Nearly one in three parents (31 percent) believe their children are addicted to screens, while 54 percent say they would like their children to spend less time watching television, playing video games or interacting with a tablet.
More than four in ten (45 percent) parents were unaware that excessive screen time can have a negative effect on eye health, while 51 percent were unaware that spending time outdoors can delay myopia.
Last year, Myopia Focus launched a petition calling for more NHS funding to treat epidemic levels of myopia in children, which it called ‘a growing public health problem’.
Optometrist Jason Higginbotham, who launched the campaign, said: ‘Lifestyle changes are putting more and more people at greater risk of developing sight-threatening conditions linked to myopia. This should no longer be considered a potential threat; it’s very real.
‘We want to put pressure on ministers to do something about it now. The younger treatment starts, the less likely your child will be at risk of vision loss in the future. We need the government to take action.’