Does Genetics Determine My Vision?

Vision exists in a large spectrum in the world. Some people are born with perfect 20/20 eyesight! Others drew the short straw in life, vision speaking. Some people just have very poor vision without glasses or contact lenses. How can this be prevented?

Well, there are some factors that influence vision, but a large chunk of how your vision develops is actually from your genetics! Children of highly nearsighted parents tend to be… highly nearsighted. Similarly, children of farsighted individuals tend to be farsighted. This is greatest when both the mother and the father have the same vision.

But this isn’t actually all that different from lots of things that have a genetic influence. Like height, if your parents are tall, you are most likely going to be tall. And similar to how the anatomy of long bones leads to tall height, the prescription of the eye is based around the overall anatomy of the eye. Nearsighted eyes are longer than farsighted eyes. So, if your parents are nearsighted and have long eyes, there is a good chance you will have the same long eyes causing your nearsightedness.

Genetics isn’t everything through. As we learn more about nearsightedness, there are environmental factors that can make you more nearsighted. Having too much up close work and lack of outside time as the vision is developing also contributes.

So while there are some things you can control, there is a large part of your vision that will just be the way it is. But luckily, with refractive surgery you don’t have to be cursed to a lifetime of wearing correction.

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