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TAU Researchers Discover Correlation Between Birth Month and Short-Sightedness
August 27, 2007Planning for a summer delivery for your child? You might want to choose an ophthalmologist along with an obstetrician.
If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a Tel Aviv University investigation led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps.
Forming a large multi-center Israeli team, the scientists took data on Israeli youth aged 16-23 and retroactively correlated the incidence of myopia (short-sightedness) with their month of birth. The results were astonishing. Babies born in June and July had a 24% greater chance of becoming severely myopic than those born in December and January the group with the least number of severely myopic individuals. The investigators say that this evidence is likely applicable to babies born anywhere in the world.
The results of the study were published this month in the clinical eye journal Ophthalmology. The team interpolated data from a sample size of almost 300,000 young adults, making it one of the largest epidemiological surveys carried out in the world on any subject.
Is this great disparity in eyesight related to one's luck or astrological sign? "Nonsense," balks study co-author Prof. Michael Belkin of Tel Aviv University's Goldschleger Eye Research Institute, the most prominent eye research organization in Israel and the region. Belkin is also Incumbent to the Fox Chair of Ophthalmology and one of the founders and first director of the Goldschleger Institute, established more than 25 years ago at the Sheba Medical Center. In November Prof. Belkin will attend the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in New Orleans, La.
"It is probably a long-term effect of early-life exposure to natural light that increases the chances of a child becoming short-sighted," he says. "I am speaking about those people who would have to wear very thick glasses, if they did not use contact lenses or laser surgery for the removal of spectacles."
A more thorough laboratory analysis of myopia in young chickens suggested that the body has a mechanism that causes the eyeball to lengthen (short-sighted eyes are longer than normal) when it is exposed to prolonged illumination. This mechanism is associated with melatonin, a pigment secreted by the pineal gland, though scientists are not sure exactly how it operates. This is the same gland that sets our body's internal clock or permits it to participate in "Circadian rhythms."
"We know that sunlight affects the pineal gland and we have indications that melatonin, through other compounds, is involved in regulating eye length," says Belkin. "More sun equals less melatonin, equals a longer eye which is short sighted."
Belkin doesn't identify any evolutionary benefit for extreme myopia in summer babies. "People with longer eyes who lived in the period prior to the invention of eyeglasses were severely disadvantaged and restricted to a few professions or doomed to death." Nowadays, however, shortsightedness has its advantages, Belkin says, pointing out a strong correlation between myopia and intelligence.
Belkin scientifically demonstrated this correlation 20 years ago. "It is not a myth at all that people who wear pop-bottle glasses are smarter. They tend to be," he argues.
Though involved in this recent research regarding myopia, Belkin's main research subject is lasers and their application for curing eye disease. "I am studying the effects of lasers on eyes: How to prevent accidental injuries and how to develop lasers for treatment of eye diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration - the leading causes of blindness."
Every young eye doctor in Israel is required to complete six months of residency in a research setting and the location of choice is usually the Goldschleger Institute, located outside the university campus in the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer Hospital. Many of the region's accomplished eye surgeons have worked at the center.
Tel Aviv University
The results of the study were published this month in the clinical eye journal Ophthalmology. The team interpolated data from a sample size of almost 300,000 young adults, making it one of the largest epidemiological surveys carried out in the world on any subject.
Is this great disparity in eyesight related to one's luck or astrological sign? "Nonsense," balks study co-author Prof. Michael Belkin of Tel Aviv University's Goldschleger Eye Research Institute, the most prominent eye research organization in Israel and the region. Belkin is also Incumbent to the Fox Chair of Ophthalmology and one of the founders and first director of the Goldschleger Institute, established more than 25 years ago at the Sheba Medical Center. In November Prof. Belkin will attend the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in New Orleans, La.
"It is probably a long-term effect of early-life exposure to natural light that increases the chances of a child becoming short-sighted," he says. "I am speaking about those people who would have to wear very thick glasses, if they did not use contact lenses or laser surgery for the removal of spectacles."
A more thorough laboratory analysis of myopia in young chickens suggested that the body has a mechanism that causes the eyeball to lengthen (short-sighted eyes are longer than normal) when it is exposed to prolonged illumination. This mechanism is associated with melatonin, a pigment secreted by the pineal gland, though scientists are not sure exactly how it operates. This is the same gland that sets our body's internal clock or permits it to participate in "Circadian rhythms."
"We know that sunlight affects the pineal gland and we have indications that melatonin, through other compounds, is involved in regulating eye length," says Belkin. "More sun equals less melatonin, equals a longer eye which is short sighted."
Belkin doesn't identify any evolutionary benefit for extreme myopia in summer babies. "People with longer eyes who lived in the period prior to the invention of eyeglasses were severely disadvantaged and restricted to a few professions or doomed to death." Nowadays, however, shortsightedness has its advantages, Belkin says, pointing out a strong correlation between myopia and intelligence.
Belkin scientifically demonstrated this correlation 20 years ago. "It is not a myth at all that people who wear pop-bottle glasses are smarter. They tend to be," he argues.
Though involved in this recent research regarding myopia, Belkin's main research subject is lasers and their application for curing eye disease. "I am studying the effects of lasers on eyes: How to prevent accidental injuries and how to develop lasers for treatment of eye diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration - the leading causes of blindness."
Every young eye doctor in Israel is required to complete six months of residency in a research setting and the location of choice is usually the Goldschleger Institute, located outside the university campus in the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer Hospital. Many of the region's accomplished eye surgeons have worked at the center.
Tel Aviv University
Myopia Current Events and Myopia News RSSClues to visual variant Alzheimer's; myopia and diabetic retinopathy risk
Two studies are of particular note in today's Scientific Program of the 2009 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology (PAAO): a report by Swiss neuro-ophthalmic researchers about vision exam clues that should make ophthalmologists suspect an atypical variant of Alzheimer's disease; and new evidence from a Singapore National Eye Center study that diabetics who are nearsighted may be less susceptible to diabetic retinopathy.
Medication slows progression of myopia in children
Daily treatment with a medication called pirenzepine can slow the rate of progressive myopia, or nearsightedness, in children, reports a study in the August issue of the Journal of AAPOS (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus).
Kids think eyeglasses make other kids look smart
Young children tend to think that other kids with glasses look smarter than kids who don't wear glasses, according to a new study. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 who were surveyed for the study also thought that kids wearing glasses looked more honest than children who don't wear glasses.
New research on how season of birth may affect nearsightedness and on cornea donor sources
Does season of birth play a role in the development of nearsightedness? Do corneas from older donors meet quality standards for transplant surgery? These are among the topics explored in the April 2008 issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Mythbusted -- people who wear glasses aren't geeks
Latest Australian research into myopia or shortsightedness reveals that people who wear glasses are not stereotypical geeks or nerds.
LASIK works well, according to long-term study of highly myopic patients
Laser surgery to correct vision problems has been in use since the early 1990s. Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) is typically used to correct low to moderate myopia, while laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is preferred for high myopia corrections.
Study urges compensation-based approach to drug patent compulsory licensing
A Penn State researcher argues that ambiguous international rules outlining when and how governments may "break" pharmaceutical patents may end up significantly reducing incentives for innovation while at the same time failing to increase access to medicines.
LASIK for older adults
A new University of Illinois at Chicago study appearing in the online edition of the journal Ophthalmology reports on the safety, efficacy and predictability of laser eye surgery (laser in situ keratomileusis or LASIK) in patients 40-69 years old.
MIT: Lack of fuel may limit US nuclear power expansion
Limited supplies of fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed and growing interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations, says an MIT expert on the industry.
Study suggests wearing no-line bifocals slows myopia progression in some children
Certain children who wear a special kind of no-line bifocal lenses show signs of slower progression of myopia than those who wear more conventional lenses according to a new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS).
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