Are Cell Phones Killing Our Eyes?

Cellphone screens strain many eyes?!



There are some studies that shows that Cellular phone causes symptoms like headaches, earaches, blurring of vision, short-term memory loss, numbing, tingling, and burning sensations, bad sleep, fatigue, anxiety and finally the most important some research indicates that prolonged use of mobile phones may increases the risk of brain cancer. (coming soon)

Well, I’m not sure about all these effects, actually you'll need dictionary assistance to decrypt some of them but I for sure know that mobile and computers screens cause the eyestrain.

Although not associated with long-term consequences, eyestrain resulting from mobile phone use can be bothersome and uncomfortable. Eye strain occurs when you over-use your eye muscles. Any muscle held in one position too long will strain.

Eyestrain isn’t only caused by the use of desktop computers and laptops, but also by the intense use of tiny-screened electronic gadgets such as PDAs and cell phones!!

These small devices have the potential to accelerate the onset of computer vision syndrome, Anshel says. The text of these smaller images is not as clear as on larger screens, and bright light makes the screens fade out.

When you concentrate on a task such as browsing, gaming or reading on small phone screen for a longer period of time your inner eye muscles tighten up causing your eyes to get irritated, dry and uncomfortable. Therefore it is highly suggestible to give your eyes a chance to refocus, once or twice an hour, take a five-minute break from whatever you're doing.

If you read on a park bench or while walking through a brightly lighted store, the screen is washed out, and that tends to make problems more prominent, Daum says.

The one advantage of hand-held devices is that they can be held at a comfortable reading distance and looked down on as you would when reading a book.

Anshel and Daum say some people tend to have worse problems with computer vision syndrome.

Men and women over 40 have eyes that are less flexible and resilient because of the aging process and thus have more complaints. And women over 40 experience particular problems with dry eyes because, as their hormones decline, their tear mechanisms decline as well.

To reduce symptoms, people usually must take several approaches. Getting optimal reading aids is a first step. Daum says two-thirds of people who are nearsighted or farsighted or have astigmatism don't have their condition corrected.

Second, they should consider wearing special occupational or computer glasses when working at a video screen. Anshel says that while people often wear trifocals while working at the computer, their trifocals have a very narrow part of the lens that works when focusing on the computer screen. Thus they end up tilting their head back, which contributes to neck aches and other problems.

Kent Daum, associate professor of optometry at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Jeffrey R. Anshel, an optometrist in California.

---------------------