in the sense like looking through a frosty glass this is how more and more people are seeing the world up close everything is clear but move farther away and it all becomes a blur rates of myopia or nearsightedness are skyrocketing and scientists say it appears Canadians are losing their vision younger than ever so we're seeing children as early as five or six who are becoming myopic and that's one of the concerns that we have is the earlier onset than we used to see perhaps 20 years ago a recent study has found that in children between
the ages of 11 and 13 nearly 30 percent were nearsighted and some didn't even know it for six to eight year-olds it was 6% glasses are becoming the norm but experts insist myopia can have serious consequences from retinal degeneration and detachment to glaucoma and blindness it isn't innocuous at all as soon as you are myopic your risk of complications associated with that increases and the higher your prescription the higher your risk and the earlier myopia starts and goes undiagnosed the faster it develops genetics play a role but doctors think it's starting younger because of you
guessed it all that screen time and perhaps more importantly what our screens are replacing there's a large amount of evidence that shows that spending time outdoors is actually a protective factor against myopia the study went further showing that for every extra hour spent outdoors per week a child's odds of being nearsighted dropped by 14% researchers say it may be the bright light vitamin D or the effects of sunlight on certain neurotransmitters either way in China where more than half of children are myopic they're building glass classrooms I usually actually just message an email at home
in Toronto seven-year-old Jacqueline is busy her mother says limiting screen time to an hour a day is tough but she'll try in terms of my takeaway when we think of how we budget our family time I would definitely be more motivated to get outside more foresight that could help her daughter see well into the future look pristine Burak CBC News Toronto
