Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

Health Check

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Health Check: Time Outdoors Cuts Risk of Short-Sight

Magazines & Reviews

Teenagers-on-the-beach##.jpg

2017/02/01 GMT

Time Outdoors Cuts Risk of Short-Sight

BBC World Service - Health Check, Time Outdoors Cuts Risk of Short-Sight

Could spending time outside help your eyesight?

Could spending time outside help your eyesight? New research suggests more sunlight for teenagers helps to cut their risk of becoming shortsighted.

For centuries poor eyesight has been blamed on too many hours spent studying in dim light.  But new research suggests that sunlight could help to cut the risk of developing myopia – where objects in the distance look blurry without corrective glasses.  A European study suggests that the risk of becoming shortsighted can be reduced by up to a third by spending more time outdoors – especially in our teenage years. 

The Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez used to be considered the world’s murder capital. Even though the number of killings has decreased, the city’s location on drug-trafficking routes means that the level of violence remains high.  A rise in the number of suicides among young people in the city has prompted a campaign to provide psychological support, as Irene Caselli reports. 

Thirty nine million people around the world are blind – a figure set to almost double unless diagnosis and treatments are improved.  In many rural areas the piece of equipment used to examine eyes - an ophthalmoscope - just isn’t available.  A cheap, solar-powered version of the device has been created by a British team – including retired consultant ophthalmologist John Sandford-Smith who has worked in Pakistan, Nigeria, Yemen and Ethiopia. 


(Photo: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Health Check

Time Outdoors Cuts Risk of Short-Sight

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service