Despite the almost complete eradication of deadly diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and cholera, new diseases have emerged associated with modern lifestyles that depend on sitting for long periods and related diseases such as diabetes.
The Economist magazine says that a new disease has become widespread, the myopia disease, which it said has become an “epidemic”, and the reason for this is education.
“Myopia” affects school students and threatens to cause major health problems in the later stages of their lives, and the reason for this is sitting in the classroom for long periods.
The magazine report says that Asia has become the center of this new epidemic due to students sitting in classrooms that are relatively dimly lit, and the West is also concerned about the disease, which studies have proven to be widespread.
Before the economic booms, which began in the 1960s, “myopia” was uncommon in East Asia, but now it is almost ubiquitous among young people.
In Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei, more than 80 percent of those who finish their studies suffer from “myopia”.
In Seoul, the capital of South Korea, 9 out of 10 young people suffer from it, and China, whose economic rise later started catching up as well, as data from as far away as Gwangju in the south and Mongolia in the north show rates of about 80 in cent.
Studies indicate rates ranging from 20 to 40 percent in Europe, and about 59 percent for the 17-19 age group in the United States.
The report points to the problems caused by this disease, the most important of which are the cost of glasses and contact lenses and the necessity of using them for life. It also causes other eye diseases in middle age, some of which can cause irreversible vision loss.
Practical evidence indicates that regular exposure to bright daylight is vital in properly controlling the development of children’s eyes, and that lack of light leads to long and short-sightedness, so the solution lies in the need for children to stay outside the classroom, that is, in the open air, for long periods of time.
Studies conducted in Taiwan, especially on primary school students, found that keeping children out of school can reduce rates of disease, and indeed Taiwan has been able to reverse the decades-long rise in myopia rates.
The report says that collective action by governments can solve the problem while reassuring anxious parents that their children spending less time in the classroom “would not be disastrous” for their education, with classroom education focusing on the teen years, and long stays in the playground, for example, can It solves other problems associated with our time such as obesity.