Computers Linked to Glaucoma?

An anonymous reader writes "Maybe we should have listened to our parents and gone outside instead of playing video games. In newly published study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, heavy computer users were 74% more likely to develop visual field problems as compared baseline in a group of 10,202 randomly selected workers. Furthermore, heavy computer users were found to be 81% more likely to develop glaucoma."

Comments

Obviously

[YrWrstNtmr]

Nothing for you to see here.

Re:Obviously

[blowdart]

And it proves that all those years looking at jpg porn does make you go blind.

Glaucoma

[What'sInAName]

Hmmm, I can think of a good cure for that. Actually, many video game players already self-treat this condition. ;-)

augh

[Anonymous Coward]

My eyes! The googles do nothing!

Trial lawyers, start your engines!

[glrotate]

Class action baby. Let's sue the hell out of the monitor manufacturers. This will be bigger than aesbestos and silicone implants combined!

Re:Woo Hoo!

[smooth wombat]

What you are thinking only helps Glaucoma in the sense that the pressure on the eye is somewhat (temporarily) relieved. It does nothing to the underlying condition.

For reference:

CNN
Glaucoma Research Foundation
Canadian Opthomological Society
National Eye Institute

I realize that letting facts get in the way of things is not the norm here on /. but there's always a first time.

Did they properly control the experiment

[PsiPsiStar]

1. Did they control for the fact that people who use computers heavily are more likely to be sedentary. Could this lifestyle lead to increased diabetes and related vision problems (don't know about glaucoma)

2. Did they control for the possibility that people with vison problems or other problems originally might be less outgoing and likely to interact with others? What demographic uses computers heavily compared to the mainstream?

I know my distance vision has deteriorated from heavy computer usage, but I'd like to see whether glaucoma is caused by staring at a screen... or some other aspect of computer usage, like chronic inflammation from Carpal Tunnel or somthing like that.

Simple, inexpensive cure to this

[TyrranzzX]

Every hour or so for you sitting at your machine, sit back and close your eyelids, and completly relax and unfocus your eyes. Every night before you go to sleep, completly unfocus your eyes until you fall asleep. This will alleviate the pressure inside of the eye long enough for some of the fluid to drain and pressure to decrease, and will help combat the feeling that the moniter really isn't there nor are the words and the occasional difficulty reading them, or as I call it, virtual nausea, which tends to develope after a few thousand hours of using a computer without stopping for much. This is what I do, and it really helps to keep me focused. If you like meditation, it can really help you get focued and keep you from having problems seeing things. Anyone who games really should learn it. The other reccomendation, is to have a nice view to look at outside the window so you aren't always looking at the moniter, preferably by a strip club or beach or somethin ;).