Indian doctor Sudhir Kumar has shared details of a case on Twitter where a woman began suffering from vision impairment for one and a half year. Her symptoms included seeing bright flashes of light, dark zig zag lines and some times, the inability to see or focus on objects.
In a lengthy Twitter thread, he said that the 30 year old woman had quit her job as a beautician to take care of her specially-abled son, which is when she picked up the habit of scrolling through her phone for several hours at night with the lights switched off.
“I reviewed the history. Symptoms had started after she quit her job of a beautician in order to take care of her specially abled child. She picked up a new habit of browsing through her smartphone for several hours daily, including >2 hours at nights with lights switched of.”
After this, the doctor revealed that it was clearly a case of ‘smartphone vision syndrome’ which occurs after long term usage of tablets, phones or computers which can cause disabling optical symptoms.
“The diagnosis was obvious now. She was suffering from smartphone vision syndrome (SVS). Long-term use of devices such as computer, smartphones or tablets can cause various eye-related disabling symptoms, referred to as computer vision syndrome (CVS) or digital vision syndrome.”
The doctor had advised the woman to reduce her use of phones and only use it when it is completely necessary. Now, 18 months later the woman’s eyesight has been restored and she no longer sees flashes of light or zig zag lines.
Using this case as an example, he advised his followers to reduce phone usage to take care of their bodies better. His two reminders were:
1 Take 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen (20-20-20 rule).
2 Avoid looking at screens of digital devices for long, as it can cause severe and disabling vision-related problems.
