How long do you think you can stay indoors?

hopgog wrote: »

On the dole atm so, leave house once a week to collect money do a week shop. As I have little left after the mortgage and bills I usally don't leave till next week.

When the weather was fine like last week I sit in the garden with my tablet and garden a bit. Those days are really nice, sit outside read and smoke a joint with a cup of coffee or a beer. When wet it's mostly indoors so not as nice.

Do you look for work between joints?

2 Days and I'm climbing the walls.

An Australian researcher, Dr Kathryn Rose of the University of Sydney, made a huge study of 2,300 Australian 12-year-olds in relation to the incidence of short sight, and found that those children who did not play outside were at increased risk of becoming nearsighted. A study of 1,250 Singapore teenagers by Seang-Mei Saw of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine came up with the same result. Then Dr Rose made a bigger study, of 4,000 schoolchildren; same result again.

Short-sightedness/nearsightedness (UK/US usage) has increased enormously in recent years worldwide, but especially in the Far East - Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.

Countries that have a high level of a genetic risk factor for short sight don't have a high number of shortsighted people - if the children play outside a lot. It seems that the gene only expresses if a kid is deprived of outdoor light in the couple of years before puberty (as happens at the moment in the Far East, where they've gone crazy for homework clubs and grinds since World War II).

The scientists are not yet sure why light is necessary to growing eyes; but apparently some interaction between the retina and the glandular system goes haywire if kids don't get enough outdoor light in those years before and during puberty, and the eyeballs kind of freeze into a nearsighted shape.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this research doesn't also have wider applications, and outdoor light turns out to be very important for adult health, too. Look at the better health in youth, adulthood and old age of the Scandinavian countries, who have in the last 50 years built a huge network of paths to allow people to walk and cycle in cities, by the sea and in mountains. Ireland could do the same with equally good results.

Separately, in the 1930s in England, young unemployed people went hillwalking, leading to an immense societal change http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchester_Rambler

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I had surgery on my knee a few years back and had to rest for 5 or 6 days afterwards. It was great the first few hours playing video games and watching box sets, by the second day I was hankering to get out and do something. It was fairly rough after that.

Funny thing is, a friend's getting a second knee replaced with a bionic titanium knee. In both cases she was sternly told to take plenty of exercise (and physio), including during the hours immediately after the operation :eek:

Luckily she's a gardening, walking kind of a woman.

Snow bound in my friends cottage, while house-sitting, for 5 days on a mountain in Tipperary a couple of years back.

Well stocked with food, a generator & his own well.

I survived & actually enjoyed the tranquility & beautiful landscape covered in snow.

gadetra wrote: »

I blow that theory right out of the water! Grew up farming, and at horses. Apart from school I was outside every single day until it was dark. Had to, animals need to be fed/fathered/exercised rain, hail or snow. Plus I hated being inside. I got my first pair of glasses at 10 I think. It certainly wasn't for the want of outside time! I did read an awful lot though, mainly at night time but I'd take my books outside or down to.the sheds. Maybe I should blame my early nocturnal reading habits!

You're the one swallow that doesn't make a summer! These huge studies show the general rule, but there are exceptions.

Here's another one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/eyesight-outdoor-play_n_1029074.html What do you call a study of multiple studies?

Another one with better and more comprehensive information, but still written so humans can understand: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/122-a12/

Oh, metastudy or meta-analysis, by the way.

traprunner wrote: »

I wonder how long before vitamin D levels would drop enough to become a problem for people who could spend forever indoors.

In the US, where solitary confinement - considered to be psychological torture by the international Red Cross - is not unusual, it would be possible to study this. Though the problem with lack of light isn't only Vitamin D, it's also the associated lack of exercise, and the effect of lack of light on the brain.

I used to hillwalk with someone who'd spent quite a while in jail. He told me that he considered it important to get out of the city and into the mountains every week, because when you're in a city (or indoors, of course), the eyes focus only within a few feet, whereas in the mountains or on the sea, the eyes focus typically about 100 metres away, as their basic area of focus.

HughWotMVIII wrote: »

Forever if I had supplies to last me as long. I think the longest I've stayed in so far is probably a couple of months - I work online so I never really need to meet people which lends itself quite easily to hermit mode.

What kind of work do you do out of curiosity?