RE: Are we spending too much time indoors?

[steemimages]

Anecdotally from my own experience, there are far more school and college children wearing glasses these days.

In the past people who wore glasses were ridiculed in school. A little bit of nudge theory later.

It has now become a bit of a fashion to wear glasses even when not needed so it's difficult to assess the true extent of vision impairment from my end. No data.

The allergy issue is also tricky to assess.

With every generation since the 19th century, the number of children with allergies has 'seemingly' increased exponentially.

It may be the case that we have just got better at detecting allergies and creating treatments.

In the past. People with allergies just died we must assume without accurate data it's difficult to confirm or deny.

There is for sure another angle to this kind of research. Big pharma?

It does seem that we have more people with allergies today than when I was a kid.

Maybe it is at epidemic levels or maybe just a marketing ploy?

Vitamin D can be absorbed by just spending 10 minutes in the sun even in England in the winter.

Interesting piece. I'd like to see the data set and who sponsored the research.

Comments

[revisesociology]

The main article I read was from an English Academic, drawing on lots of data, fair point we should check the sources of all these things.

It's just a theory at the moment, but one that makes intuitive sense - that lack of sunlight leads to detiorating health.

You're right in saying that there are other possible interpretations!

[steemimages]

I agree that the lack of sunlight can have a powerful effect on us. This is bourne out through the studies on suicide rates.

The further north we are on the planet the higher the incidence of suicide so it isn't much of a jump to think that it has other major health impacts.

Country Population Total Number Per Year Crude Suicide Rate Rank
Lithuania 2,864,459 913 31.9 suicides per 100k 1
Russia 143,895,551 44,607 31 suicides per 100k 2
Guyana 786,508 229 29.2 suicides per 100k 3
S.Korea 51,339,238 13,810 26.9 suicides per 100k 4
Belarus 9,433,874 2,471 26.2 suicides per 100k 5
Suriname 573,085 130 22.8 suicides per 100k 6
Kazakhstan 18,592,970 4,183 22.5 suicides per 100k 7
Ukraine 43,795,220 9,810 22.4 suicides per 100k 8
Latvia 1,911,108 405 21.2 suicides per 100k 10
Lesotho 2,292,682 486 21.2 suicides per 100k 9
Belgium 11,562,784 2,393 20.7 suicides per 100k 11
Hungary 9,655,361 1,844 19.1 suicides per 100k 12

Source

Anything that gets people up and out is a good idea. There is a tendency in northern climes to spend a lot of time indoors.

The allergies definitely feel much more prevalent these days. Someone having a peanut allegy was very rare and novel idea not so long ago?

Guyana seems like an interesting place?