"Mother's milk helps prevent myopia - study", Reuters UK, June 28,
2005,
Link:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-06
-28T114703Z_01_N28350664_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SINGAPORE-MYOPIA-DC.XML

Children who are breastfed are about fifty percent less likely to be
short sighted, Singapore researchers said on Tuesday.

Docosahexaenoi acid or DHA, a substance found in breast milk, could be
the main element which improves early visual development in babies,
resulting in more ordered eyeball growth which then reduces the
development or severity of myopia.

"We can recommend infant breastfeeding as a protective behavior that
may be adopted by mothers to lower the probability of the development
of myopia," said Dr Saw Seang Mei of the National University of
Singapore, who headed the research.

Myopia is the most common eye problem. It affects as much as 40 percent
of the population in the United States and Europe but between 70 and 90
percent of some Asian populations such as Singapore, Japan and Hong
Kong, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Saw said the DHA is also important for the development of photoreceptor
cells in the retina, which play a major role in whether children become
short-sighted.

Researchers studied 797 children aged between 10 to 12 years in
Singapore as part of the survey. They were given medical tests and also
had to answer a series of questions including the number of books they
read per week.

The study, led by the Singapore Eye Research Institute, found that the
risk of myopia in a child that was breastfed is 0.6 times that of child
that was not, even after taking into account of other factors.

While genetic variation was seen to be the culprit of myopia among
children, soaring rates of the condition have led more researchers to
believe it is the rising watching of television, playing computers
games and reading that is to blame.