Sat, Nov-07-09, 08:14
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Senior Member
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Are Your Eyes What You Eat?
The article from New Scientist (link below) is on a seeming epidemic of myopia. As a part of the discussion, is the concept by Loren Cordain that excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates plays a role.
In addition to a low carb potential role in the problem, those suffering from myopia may find the long article of some interest for what the future might hold for themselves and future children.
Simply being outside in bright daylight appears to be a great help, but not a full solution.
http://www.newscientist.com/article....html?full=true
Quote:
Are your eyes what you eat?
Seven years ago, evolutionary biologist Loren Cordain at Colorado State University in Fort Collins caused a stir by suggesting that myopia may be triggered by the excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates. The study compared diets and rates of myopia in different nations, and it seemed plausible that insulin levels which were raised in response to a high-carb diet could stimulate the eye to grow and become elongated, causing myopia.
This year, two independent studies, led by Frank Schaeffel at the University of Tübingen in Germany and Josh Wallman at the City College of New York, have provided further evidence that insulin can stimulate eye growth. Working with chicks that wore special lenses to provoke myopia, they found that injecting insulin into the chicks' eyes increased the deterioration in their sight dramatically.
Yet whether this explains the link between diet and myopia remains hotly debated. "Initially we just didn't believe Cordain's carbohydrate story, but now that we know that insulin can interfere so much, I am not so sure," says Schaeffel. Wallman remains more doubtful, arguing that a high-carb diet may not necessarily raise insulin levels in the eye enough to cause damage.
Cordain cites studies which found that people with high blood-sugar levels are more likely to be myopic, and says that insulin levels in the eye do seem to reflect levels elsewhere in the body. High blood sugar may also promote myopia by raising levels of the growth factor IGF-1, a substance which likewise stimulates eye growth, he says.
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The first few paragraphs of the article are below as well:
Quote:
Generation specs: Stopping the short-sight epidemic
* 06 November 2009 by Nora Schultz
* Magazine issue 273
The decline was rapid. I got my first pair of glasses aged 9, and by my mid-teens could no longer read the title on the cover of New Scientist at arm's length. With my mum's eyes just as bad, I always assumed that I'd inherited my short-sightedness from her and that I could do little to stop my vision from becoming a little blurrier each year.
Around the same time, however, rates of short-sightedness, or myopia, were rising to epidemic proportions around the world. Today, in some of the worst-affected countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, around 80 per cent of young adults are myopic, compared to only 25 per cent a few decades back.
Rates are lower in western countries - between 30 and 50 per cent - but myopia seems to be rising steadily here too. What could be causing this mysterious epidemic? It is clear that genetics alone can't explain the condition, and the long-standing theory that reading was to blame has failed to play out in subsequent studies.
Large-scale epidemiological surveys ensued, which have pinned down the specific aspects of modern lifestyles that cause children's eyesight to deteriorate. With just a few simple measures, it now looks like we could easily prevent future generations from descending into my blurry world.
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