What causes nearsightedness & can you prevent it? | Peter Attia, M.D. & Steven Dell, M.D.

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About:

The Peter Attia Drive is a weekly, ultra-deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking…and a few other things. With over 40 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including fasting, ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more.

Peter is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. His practice deals extensively with nutritional interventions, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, emotional and mental health, and pharmacology to increase lifespan (delay the onset of chronic disease), while simultaneously improving healthspan (quality of life).

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[idanssn]

Two points:
1. Will the eye respond to an opposite signal? Meaning can you try to focus on far away objects and that will eventually make the eye grow shorter?
2. How does what he says here about sunlight and dopamine synthesis sits with his recommendations to always wear sunglasses outside, later on in the interview?

[englishwithteachermark]

I was extremely near-sighted but grew up long before computer technology. I went outside all the time. Not a day passed where I wasn't outside playing baseball and football with my friends.

[ethicsexistentialism]

I listened to the entire thing on the Peter Attia Podcast. Peter has really improved his interview skills in the past year. I was hoping for more emphasis on PREVENTATIVE advice in this one, as my vision is only just starting to deteriorate... but this episode was more focused on treatment. Steven knows his stuff though.

[rongendron]

I'm 78 & have been myopic since age 10 in 1956! I have always attributed this from excessive television
watching, after our family got their first t.v. in 1950 at age 4! When I mentioned this to optometrists, decades
ago, they scoffed at me, saying that it was genetic & not influenced by doing 'close work'! They may, finally
be proven wrong, with this different theory!

[JoaoVitorBRgomes]

Awesome cut from the podcast. Congrats to Steven Dell and Peter Attia.

[TheTimelyFocus]

Great stuff! Looking forward to watching the whole thing. Curious what wearing polarized sunglasses does to our vision. I always thought of it as a good idea but now I am having second thoughts.

[donsolomon]

I do saturation diving, which involves being locked in a chamber for 28 days. Basically over that period we have zero distance vision. Once we get out of the chamber and if I go outside and look in distance, I can't focus in distance for at least half a day.

[connorgray]

Great episode. I wonder if an adult in mid 20s who is nearsighted spend far more time outdoors looking at things in the distance would improve their vision at all? or is the case that once you're an adult that nearsightedness is fixed?

[tomsmock]

The steepness of the retina in myopic individuals is the biggest contributor to detached retinas.

[joelawrence]

I will accept that challenge sir. Go Revero! Let freedom ring!

[robynf.]

I have figured out that when I go to take the vision test for my drivers license, I cannot be on my phone or iPad prior to the visit at all. Otherwise I can’t pass the distance test for my drivers license.

[nicolehanson]

I always played out as a kid and hardly spent any time on computers or phones. Is there any other triggers?

[TerryManitoba]

👑👑👑As soon as I thought the Algorithm would not show me any more of the King of the Humble Brag - It drags me back in & forces me to post another review❗❗❗

[Unsensitive]

I remember seeing recruitment for a study in children. The plan was to use lenses which are improper, then having them focus on the distance to read, with the goal of reversing myopia.

[mikegb]

3:16 And people made fun of Donald Trump when he looked directly into the sun. He was protecting his eyes from nearsightedness by stimulating his retina to release dopamine.

[jaredking]

It will be interesting to see the levels of nearsightedness over the next few years from the pandemic/remote learning

[usekcf]

I got glasses for nearsightedness in 5th grade. None of my kids have them at all and the youngest is 14? And they have had phones since the age of 3 and get outside much less than I did?

[guygadbois]

so I've got one long sighted eye and one short sighted eye... why

[pm]

Checked with my glasses provider and they tell me my prescription lenses have some amount of UV protection built in to them. Does that mean I don't need to look for my missing glasses?

[yoyo]

Is this exclusive to children? Are negative effects permanent?