Light, UV Radiation, Myopia Progression and Contact Lenses

Myopia is a very common refractive condition that has reached epidemic levels the last decades in most modern countries, especially in Asia. This increase has been attributed to hereditary and also environmental factors, the latter mainly being accommodation stress due to increasing near vision tasks in everyday life. However, the vital role of natural light in arresting myopia progression has been also documented. Other theories have been developed, like the one concerning peripheral hyperopic defocus and new refractive devices have been designed to cope with the increase in myopia in infants and adults. Somehow, combining research results gives us a new perspective of what might be the key to the problem and a new old player that everybody seems to be afraid of speaking its name (UV) comes literally to light.