Health Watch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.
This week on Healthwatch, we've been talking about healthy vision. There's a lot of folk wisdom about vision, but how true is it?
One thing you may have heard from your parents is that sitting too close to the television will ruin your eyes. Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center say there was concern at one point about radiation from computer monitors and TV sets, but now it's a non-issue. Another warning you may have heard is that reading in bad light will ruin your eyes.
Dr. Wayne Bowman, a UT Southwestern ophthalmologist, says there have been studies on how excessive eyestrain in people with a family history of nearsightedness could bring on nearsightedness, but the jury is still out. In spite of what you may have heard as a kid, eating carrots probably won't improve your eyesight. That belief came from days of deficient diets when adding vegetables may have made more of a difference.
Next week we'll talk more about vision.
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May 2005
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