Babies born during summer are more prone to myopia

Sorry guys.

Prof. Michael Belkin, a professor at Tel Aviv University's Goldschleger Eye Research Institute, makes sure his grandchildren wear sunglasses, even as babies. He advises all parents to do the same.

Belkin has been researching the eye for over 30 years, and is one of the foremost professors in this field. In his latest research, led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Belkin showed that babies born during the summer months of June and July have a 24% greater chance of becoming severely shortsighted than those born between December and January.

The reason: early-life exposure to natural light. According to Belkin, the body has a mechanism that causes the eyeball to lengthen, causing shortsightedness, when exposed to prolonged illumination. Hence, the more light a newborn is exposed to after birth, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the myopia will be.

Link & Image: Israel21c