‘Nutritional deficiencies, excessive time spent on gadgets causing vision problems’

Nutritional deficiencies and excessive time spent on computers, mobile phones and watching television are among the main causes of increasing vision problems among people, particularly children, as per eye specialists. 

Speaking at an eye screening camp for journalists held at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, specialists of the field urged people to eat healthy and balanced diet enriched with vitamins A and D, and spend limited time on electronic gadgets to avoid developing any eye-related ailments. 

“Consuming unbalanced diet that lacks proper nutritional values and vitamins as well use of excessive electronic gadgets are causing vision problems. We should avoid these habits and regularly eat vegetables, milk and dairy products to have healthy eyes,” said Dr Birbal Genani, medical superintendent at the Spencer Eye Hospital, at the eye screening camp.

Self-medication, hypertension and diabetes were some of the other major reasons behind loss of vision among many people in Pakistan Dr Genani said, and asked people to improve their lifestyle to have healthy eyes in the later stages of their lives.

The screening camp was organized by the KPC’s health and environment committee in collaboration with the Spencer Eye Hospital and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. About 150 journalists and their family members as well as employees of the journalist club visited the camp. According to the specialists, about 95 percent of the persons who were screened had vision problems.

“The refractive errors are more common in working journalists as compared to other citizens due to the nature of their job,” Dr Genani said.

He deplored that the majority of people did not pay attention to their vision problems, which often resulted in loss of eyesight. Dr. Genani said cataract, glaucoma, retinal, squint and refractive errors were common eye diseases in Pakistan and about 40 percent population of the country were suffering from eye-related ailments.