The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-09-19
PREVENTION or NEAR
 sIGHTEDNEsS

A8H V AakN AAO4N VE kNGAA~
 sIGHTEDNEsS
 Tn the talk about myopia Cnear- sightedness, sl1ortsightedness . few weeks ago we said that the child who inherits a dolichocephalic head (skull long from front to back and comparatively narrow from ear to ear) will not necessarily develop sufficient myopia or nearsighted- ness to require glasses at the age of ten or later, no matter how near sighted one or both parents may be. whether the individual with this Teutonic shape of skull, as conn pared with the brachycephalic shape of skull, short and broad the American Indian type, shall become seriously near-sighted in youth and early adult life depends upon the amount of strain to which the eyes are subjected in childhood, upon neglect of or prevention of nutritional deficiency in the devel- oping period, upon prescribing or prescribing of glasses by any one other than a physician, and upon the amount of open air activity, play, exercise, sport or work the individual gets during childhood and youth.
 The young person predisposed to nearsightedness by heredity or shape of skull must be carefully protected from excessive study or close work of any kind indoors, from use of the eyes for any kind of close work during and for few weeks after such illnesses as mea- sles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, humps. Indistinct or very fine print strains the eyes seriously Neither evident redness nor other eye symptoms show whether or not there Is eyestrain. Poor illumination in school and ct home is Q common contributing factor of near-highted- ness.
 Poor illumination or lighting will be considered in detail in a talk to follow. It concerns or should con- cern everybody, regardless of the present state of his or her eyes and eyesight.
 According to pr. A. A. Knapp American Journal of OphthalmOl- OKy, Dec, '39) better nutrition, es- pecially in relation to the vitamir supply, explains why there are few CT cases of progressive myopia to- day than there were thirty years ago. Dr. Knapp believes the rarity of myopia in the American Indian the fact that rural people are freel from myopia than people residing in cities, and the fact that fewer people residing in high attitudes are explained by the greater sup ply of sunshine vitamin D they get The great prevalence of myopia ir China Is due to the vitamin defl' ciencies and the general poor nu' triton in that country. Dr. Knapp advises supplementing the patienti diet with vitaEnin D and calcium.
 pr. H. H. Husted (T'he Optomet. ric Weekly, Feb. 24, 44) gives hii observation of many years that Il myopic children get plenty of sun. shine or Vtamin D internally and drink plenty of milk (best food source of calcium) or if they will Enot drink milk then an adequate daily ration of calcium to supple. ment the poor diet, their myopis is fairly well controlled, does mol progress and become more severe as they get on into the teens.
 In the book let "V-I-T-E Spell Youth" (for copy send 10 cents ant stamped self addressed envelope) 1 well-known horse-and-buggy docto advises that nearly all growinI children and youths who are not Q
 strong and vigorous as they shoul' be, ought to eat half dozen tablet
 of vitamin D, thiamine and ribo flavin every day to supplement tn ordinary deficient American diet This is the most agreeable form 0 vitamin D for young people to takt . Whether to check the progress c myopia (gradual increase of near sightedness in the teens and earl adult life) or to prevent develop 2 ment of such weaknesses as spins
 curvative, round shoulders, fatigu
 posture, sway-back, weak ankleI } pronated feet, this daily ration c [ vitarnin D, vitamin Bl thiamine y and c (ribofiavin) is essential foot , not medicine. and must be contir 5 ued daily for years, like bread an } cheese.