Does using your phone cause eye cancer? Tongren ophthalmologist Wei Wenbin says

The daily life of modern young people is too tight at work and too much pressure. When it’s night, they turn off the lights and start browsing on their phones...

It is well known that playing with mobile phones is harmful to the eyes. However, recently, an article that was forwarded crazily in the circle of friends wrote: Turning off the lights to play with mobile phones will cause the eyes to be stimulated by strong light for more than 30 minutes, which will cause macular degeneration. Once the macula degenerates, it is equivalent to suffering from eye cancer, and the eyes will eventually suffer from blindness.

Suddenly, many people were so scared that they turned off their phones.

Does using your phone cause eye cancer? Experts debunk the rumor!

Will playing with your phone at night cause macular disease? In fact, there is currently no clinical research to strongly prove this.

The macula is located in the optical center of the human eye and is a very important area of ​​the retina. Its existence can directly affect the human eye's visual functions such as vision and color vision. If there are overlapping images, black shadows, deformations, etc. in the human field of vision, you should be alert to the possibility of lesions in the macula area.

Most macular diseases are closely related to age. As age increases, the retinal cells in the macular area age and degenerate, and the chance of developing macular diseases increases. Of course, macular diseases are also closely related to family history, lifestyle, cardiovascular disease, etc. Generally, late-stage macular diseases have a very serious impact on the patient's vision and can even cause blindness.

"There are many causes of macular degeneration, including heredity, high blood sugar, high blood lipids, high blood pressure, smoking or long-term outdoor work, prolonged exposure of the eyes to strong light, etc. These factors have no direct relationship with looking at mobile phones in the dark, and there is no scientific basis to directly prove it." Wei Wenbin, deputy director and director of ophthalmology at Beijing Tongren Hospital, said that so far, Tongren Hospital has not received any patients with macular degeneration due to looking at mobile phones.

As for the claim that using mobile phones can cause eye cancer, this is even more nonsense.

Wei Wenbin said that it is impossible to call macular degeneration "eye cancer". The so-called "eye cancer" refers to a malignant tumor that grows in the eye. Clinically, eye cancer is mostly caused by inheritance or self-gene mutation. Eye cancer is prone to occur in the cornea and its edge. Its symptoms are generally gray spots found in the pupil.

Teach you the correct posture for playing with your phone

After a busy day, it is rare to relax at night. Playing with mobile phones has become a habit of modern people. Friends who love to use mobile phones must remember these precautions and try to minimize the damage to the eyes caused by mobile phones.

1. Control duration

Staring at the screen for a long time can damage your eyesight, so after using your phone for 30-40 minutes, you should look away from the screen for 3-5 minutes.

2. Adjust the brightness of your phone

Many smartphones now have the function of automatically adjusting brightness. By using this function, the brightness of the phone will not hurt the eyes too much.

3. Control distance

If the mobile phone screen is too close to the eyes, it can easily cause eyestrain. The screen distance should be kept at least 30 cm.

4. Adjust the font

The larger the font size of your phone, the better. Especially for the elderly, they often unconsciously bring the screen close to their eyes because the font size is too small.

Eyes allow humans to understand the world and pursue the unknown. To protect your eyes, try to avoid looking at your phone or other electronic products in the dark.

Source: Truths and Misconceptions about Tumors, NetEase

Editor-in-charge: Rao Chunyu