Medical research raises questions about increased risk of myopia, asthma, depression, anxiety.

UPDATE: Some readers are missing that many of the links here are to peer reviewed medical research. Please follow the links to the Medical Library references.

Medical research shows children (and adults too) need natural spaces and full spectrum light.

A skyscraper school is unhealthy

Light coming through windows is not the same as outdoor light. Glass filters out some wavelengths and the intensity is just 0.5% of midday sunlight. Office lighting is around 500 lux, but outdoor direct sunlight is 100,000 lux. There is no way to recreate the same effect indoors easily. Human tissues respond to these differences. Natural full spectrum outdoor light is associated with better vision, better mental health and better sleep. In office workers, natural elements (greenery) and sunlight increase job satisfaction, commitment, improved mood and lower anxiety.

Less outdoor activity means more myopia and the need for glasses. UV B exposure in teens and young adults is associated with better vision. It turns out it’s not books that cause short-sightedness, but a lack of time outdoors that matters. And there may be life long effects; children with myopia grow up to have a higher risk of glucoma, retinal detachment and cataracts.

An indoor lifestyle means more vitamin D deficiency, and an increased risk for many chronic diseases including autoimmune diseases, asthma, some cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, schizophrenia and type 2 diabetes. This is especially important in students with dark skin (and Perth Mod has many kids with every kind of skin). Chidlren are often low in Vitamin D even in sunny countries. Sixty eight percent of children in Ethiopian cities were vitamin D deficient. City children were three times as likely to be deficient as rural ones. Vitamin D deficiency is a public health problem.

There are only 200 school age children who live in the inner city of Perth. It’s not a high density kid zone. It’s the CBD.

*Headline edited 30-3-2017

8 thoughts on “Medical research raises questions about increased risk of myopia, asthma, depression, anxiety.

  1. What unsubstantiated rubbish this is and it is a real insult for a school with such a strong academic reputation. I presume ‘asthma’ can’t discriminate between being at home and being at school so the entirety of South-East Asian high rise apartment dwellers presumably also have asthma? Interesting since Australia, and in fact Western Australia has more asthma sufferers per capita than any other place worldwide yet WA is also one of the least urbanised cities in the world with a sprawl of 120km so comparatively for its population significantly worse than LA. Poor eyesight due to lack of sunlight, so presumably Scanadavia is entirely myopic. ‘Research shows..’.


    1. Follow the link (it’s not that hard). 35% increase in Asthma in children with low Vitamin D levels. Agrees with previous studies…

      You can presume all you want, but the simple country comparison doesn’t work on a problem with many variables


  2. A wonderful link, not hard to follow but quite hard to understand. Your argument apparently explains how ‘Vitamin D deprived’ Australians en masse have one of the highest rates of Asthma in the world (but then also mysteriously we also have one of the highest rates of skin cancer). Your uninvited uninformed flyer arrived in my mailbox yesterday and is now polluting my bin. What a waste of a tree that was.


    1. Sorry you are having trouble understanding it. I may not be able to help you much with that. You need to be able to pick apart multiple causes, which is what the large, long term study (and many others) have done. As long as you keep trying to understand the medical situation by looking only at whole countries you will be stuck in a kind of medieval medical zone.
      This may do your head in, but regular sun exposure doesn’t correlate as well as you think with skin cancer. Sunburn does. Vit D deficiency is a risk factor. So getting some sun each day may help prevent cancer. (And Vit D deficiency increases the risk of many cancers) Even the Cancer Council of WA is discussing the need for balanced sun exposure.
      See also
      Try not to be in the lowest quartile of Vit D levels.

      Delighted to hear you got the flyer. Hope you told your Labor member.


Comments are closed.

Create a website or blog at

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: