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Medical Forum / General / Vision / December 2006Can myopia be cured in 2-3 years?
Hello,All, Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. I am a myopia for nearly 13 years and now I am 24 years old. I donot want to do LASIK because it will do operation on my eye. And I am little afraid. And nowadays, medical technology such as gene engineering is greatly developing. I wonna to know if gene medicine will be coming into practise to cure myopia in the later 2-3 years. I really want to get rid of glasses. It is painful to wear it. It will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! > Hello,All, > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of > gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! Of all the strategies being discussed, I have never come across gene therapy, and I try to keep abreast. If you don't like eyeglasses, try contact lenses. Many people wear them successfully. DrG Dear Lyra, Myopia can not be "cured". But if you had clear vision (and a postive refractive STATE) by age 5, you could have avoided entry into myopia if you had, and would accept support from a second-opinion optometrist. See: www.chinamyopia.org Just one man's opinion. Best, Otis > Hello,All, > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of > gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! > Dear Lyra, Dear Lyra, Please disregard Otis's postings. He is not in the medical profession and not in any position to give medical advice! Thanks! Allen > Hello,All, > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of > gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! Contacts. I was -12 and -10 and contacts were much better. What is your prescription? "Dan Abel 写道： " > > Hello,All, > > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > What is your prescription? I do not want to wear contact. Because someone told me that wearing contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. > "Dan Abel 写道： > " [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > I do not want to wear contact. Because someone told me that wearing > contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. It's probably more accurate to say that--for SOME people, contact lenses CAN cause dry eyes. However, it doesn't happen overnight. If this is a concern, you can be monitored for it by regular visits where your eye doctor checks things like Schirmer's values, TBUT testing, etc. I think Dan's right: contact lenses could be a good idea for you. Of course, I'm not an eye doctor, so .... Good luck! >>>I wonna to know if gene medicine >>>will be coming into practise to cure myopia in the later 2-3 years. >>> Highly unlikely. >>> I really want to get rid of glasses. It is painful to wear it. It >>>will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. > Someone did not tell you the whole story. You haven't posted your Rx, but I'll guess that your best and safest fix at this time is indeed contact lenses. If you can follow instructions carefully you can probably wear them successfully without fear of "serious dry eye disease". Perhaps that person was referring to lasik, which has indeed caused some permanent dry eye problems. I've fit thousands of patients with contacts and never seen a case like that that could be traced to the contacts. In fact, we often successfully TREAT cases of serious dry eyes WITH contact lenses! By far most serious dry eye conditions are (1) in the elderly, or (2) in people who suffer from serious auto-immune disorders, or (3) in people suffering severe malnutrition. w.stacy, o.d. "William Stacy 写道： " > >>>I wonna to know if gene medicine > >>>will be coming into practise to cure myopia in the later 2-3 years. [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > w.stacy, o.d. Do you mean that Gene enginerring is not that magic to cure myopia? Despire... I do not know why so many clever head can not think out a practical idea of treating myopia instead of wearing glasses. My glass is nearly -12.0 D. So high. > Do you mean that Gene enginerring is not that magic to cure myopia? > Despire... I do not know why so many clever head can not think out a > practical idea of treating myopia instead of wearing glasses. My glass > is nearly -12.0 D. So high. Most of the world does not consider myopia, even high myopia, a major disease needing huge experimental investments to cure. You might think it is, but most do not. So it won't happen, even if it is possible. -12.00 spectacles are easily and cheaply and comfortably and safely treated with about -10.00 Focus Night and Day contact lenses. w.stacy, o.d. > Do you mean that Gene enginerring is not that magic to cure myopia? > Despire... I do not know why so many clever head can not think out a > practical idea of treating myopia instead of wearing glasses. My glass > is nearly -12.0 D. So high. That's EXACTLY what I mean. Most of the scientific world does not consider myopia, even high myopia, to be of such importance as to justify large expenditures on a genetic or any other cure, even if possible. The fact is, your -12.00 spectacle disability can easily, safely, comfortably and inexpensively fixed with -10.00 Focus Night and Day contact lenses. w.stacy, o.d. sorry for the double response on this thread. I thought my computer had sent my first one into cyberspace. >I do not want to wear contact. Because someone told me that wearing >contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. You don't want to wear contacts or glasses and you don't want to have LASIK. Then, there's no alternative for you now or in the near future. > "Dan Abel дµÀ£º > " [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > I do not want to wear contact. Because someone told me that wearing > contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. If you already have a problem with dry eyes, soft contacts may make it worse. It did for me. If I drank enough liquids, or put in saline solution, it just wasn't a problem. I resisted contacts for some decades. Finally, due to cataract, I was pretty much forced to try them. My doctor warned me that once I got used to them, that I might prefer them to glasses. That's what happened. Try them, you might like them. If they don't work, well, then stop wearing them. There will not be a serious problem, you will be able to control whether you are comfortable with them. > In article <1166145207.190499.54...@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>, > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > I do not want to wear contact. Because someone told me that wearing > > contacts will cause serious dry eyes disease. I believe it. >If you already have a problem with dry eyes, soft contacts may make it > worse. It did for me. If I drank enough liquids, or put in saline [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > be a serious problem, you will be able to control whether you are > comfortable with them. My prescription is -9 and -8 and I have been wearing contact lenses since the age of 18. I started out with hard lenses, then later went to gas permeable, and in my late 30s switched to soft lenses. I have been wearing contact lenses for more than 30 years and no "dry eye disease". Believe me, most people with high prescriptions would much rather wear contact lenses than glasses. They are more comfortable (even the old fashioined hard lenses were more comfortable for me than wearing heavy glasses) and you will see better. As the above poster says, there's no reason not to try contact lenses and see if you like them. If you don't, you can go back to glasses. I now wear daily disposable Acuvue contact lenses and can't even feel them in my eye. Possibly the friend who told you about problems with dry eye and contact lenses was not cleaning or maintaining his or her lenses properly. When I was in my 20s I had friends who didn't pay attention to lens hygiene and then were surprised when they had a problem (and I was surprised if they didn't have a problem). But it isn't very hard to maintain your lenses properly. I was never interested in Lasik because contact lenses seem like such an easy solution to myopia, at least for me. -gudrun Dear Lyra, If a negative refractive STATE is caused by genetics, then the most probable solution would be genetic engineering which would be used to PREVENT the development of a negative refractive STATE for the fundamental eye. So I would not "wait" for genetic engineering to change your refractive STATE from -12 diopters to 0.0 diopters. The other methods, Lasik, Contact lens, glasses, do work, and I would consider these other methods as the only practical solution to your question. Best, Otis > Hello,All, > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of > gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! > Dear Lyra, Dear Lyra, Please disregard Otis's postings. He is not in the medical profession nor in any position to give medical advice! Thanks! Allen > Hello,All, > Here I start a topic about myopia especially high-degree myopia. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > will be much appreciated if someone is familiar with the progress of > gene engineering and could give me an answer. Thank you! It is unlikely that gene therapy will ever be effective for myopia and certainly not in the next few years. Gene therapy is in its infancy as a treatment for anything and so far disorders due to a single malfunctioning protein produced by a single gene have been targeted. Myopia is a multifactorial problem with multiple genes, enviromental factors and the interactions between the genes and the environmental factors involved. All the genes and the environmental factors have not yet even been identified; until the genes are identified the proteins involved and a treatment for them cannot be developed. And even if the genetic factors are treatable, there will remain environmental factors. Here is a brief quote from Wikipedia regarding multifactor disorders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy#Types_of_gene_therapy "Multigene disorders - Conditions or disorders that arise from mutations in a single gene are the best candidates for gene therapy. Unfortunately, some of the most commonly occurring disorders, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, and diabetes, are caused by the combined effects of variations in many genes. Multigene or multifactorial disorders such as these would be especially difficult to treat effectively using gene therapy." and a quote regarding problems with gene therapy: "Some of the problems of gene therapy include: Short-lived nature of gene therapy - Before gene therapy can become a permanent cure for any condition, the therapeutic DNA introduced into target cells must remain functional and the cells containing the therapeutic DNA must be long-lived and stable. Problems with integrating therapeutic DNA into the genome and the rapidly dividing nature of many cells prevent gene therapy from achieving any long-term benefits. Patients will have to undergo multiple rounds of gene therapy. Immune response - Anytime a foreign object is introduced into human tissues, the immune system is designed to attack the invader. The risk of stimulating the immune system in a way that reduces gene therapy effectiveness is always a potential risk. Furthermore, the immune system's enhanced response to invaders it has seen before makes it difficult for gene therapy to be repeated in patients. Problems with viral vectors - Viruses, while the carrier of choice in most gene therapy studies, present a variety of potential problems to the patient --toxicity, immune and inflammatory responses, and gene control and targeting issues. In addition, there is always the fear that the viral vector, once inside the patient, may recover its ability to cause disease. Multigene disorders - Conditions or disorders that arise from mutations in a single gene are the best candidates for gene therapy. Unfortunately, some of the most commonly occurring disorders, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, and diabetes, are caused by the combined effects of variations in many genes. Multigene or multifactorial disorders such as these would be especially difficult to treat effectively using gene therapy. Chance of inducing a tumor - If the DNA is integrated in the wrong place in the genome, for example in a tumor suppressor gene, it could induce a tumor. Deaths have occurred due to gene therapy, including Jesse Gelsinger. Dr Judy |
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