Violet Light Exposure Can Be a Preventive Strategy Against Myopia Progression
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"Prevalence of myopia is increasing worldwide. Outdoor activity is one of the most important environmental factors for myopia control. Here we show that violet light (VL, 360–400 nm wavelength) suppresses myopia progression. First, we confirmed that VL suppressed the axial length (AL) elongation in the chick myopia model. Expression microarray analyses revealed that myopia suppressive gene EGR1 was upregulated by VL exposure. VL exposure induced significantly higher upregulation of EGR1 in chick chorioretinal tissues than blue light under the same conditions. Next, we conducted clinical research retrospectively to compare the AL elongation among myopic children who wore eyeglasses (VL blocked) and two types of contact lenses (partially VL blocked and VL transmitting). The data showed the VL transmitting contact lenses suppressed myopia progression most. These results suggest that VL is one of the important outdoor environmental factors for myopia control. Since VL is apt to be excluded from our modern society due to the excessive UV protection, VL exposure can be a preventive strategy against myopia progression."
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So yup. I've seen this. Though there were many rebuttals, it's interesting. I would like to add that looking a UV light isn't good. It hurts your eyes light snow blindness does. I would assume that this small protection against myopia came from a higher melanopic response (possibly also S-cone, though unsure). There was another paper that found that myopic people had more Long cones vs short cones. There was another that found that myopic people had higher melatonin all day round pointing to a weaker circadian rhythm. I would like to point out that the solution isn't to bring in philips go lites everywhere, as saturating the melanopic response, without attending to the other cones (in my experience) results in a stupor where nothing is done. Ditto for red lights. Not sure where the sweet spot is, but I would assume that a white light, that is triggers melanopic response, but only slightly more than the others would be the optimal light. This is all theory however.