How optometry ruins lives (xD)

Hello! 

Today's post is about science nerd and anime/gamer nerd combining their forces and kind of ruining the ethereal  image I had about fictional characters that I have fandomed, or will fandom in my life. This is overanalysis of Anime and ocular studies, so if you don't this sort of post, I suggest you move on to some other page. xD 

Anopthalmos! Just kidding. It's just Chopper being adorbs.

Before I just used to think character design was pure creativity. Back story was often fictional, or based on the rules of the realm that the character resided in. Now for ocular diseases study, we're getting a whole new set of 'realm rules' hammered into us, which kind of makes me sad sometimes because the characters that I thought were so unique and creatively designed...if they were actually to walk around in society today, probably wouldn't be as fierce, happy, or perfect.

I'm not saying that these characters aren't plausible, but this study (yes I actually am studying pretty hard this year and learning stuff ermagerd, not sure if all that stuff will stay as stuck as the first 152 pokemon and evolution levels), kind of makes me wonder how much research and logical effort is put into a fictional character's design, whether it be an anime, video game, book, etc. A classic example of , which could only be explained fictional laws and physics that defies logic is one of the One Piece battles (I can't remember which one), but I believe it was one where Chopper was 

Nami from One Piece..Another...er...physics anomaly.
Maybe more biological to be honest o_o;;

fighting an enemy and they both were falling for some reason, and Chopper used his devil fruit to sudden increase in mass and weight so that he would fall faster and dodge the blow from the enemy. This of course, is not true as according to Newton's law of gravity, which (pardon my rusty physicst), objects will fall at the same speed regardless of mass. Now ofcourse you can try to explain that with other things like 'oh but the way Chopper was orientating himself in the fight must have done something with the air resistance', but it reality, it was likely just a lack of physics knowledge and intuitive creativity of the artist/writer.

For some other interesting physics-related One Piece anomalies, I recommend http://comipress.com/article/2007/11/08/2894.

Thus on that note, I will be focussing on Anime and Video game characters today because they're the ones that have the most vivid impression on my childhood, and I'd like to share so interesting points that I guess, maybe only a person who has undergone specific optometry study would notice or have been exposed to. Or maybe it's just me being on a weird tangent again, but here we go. 

Here are some common character design aspects, that are ocular related that may 'seem cool', but in reality...

1.Albinos, or characters with pale hair and pale or red eyes. 

Picture from jonatan7.deviantart.com via google.

So I think most of us are familiar with other white haired/pale eyes anime characters. Other characters that come to mind are Sephiroth, the wimpy guy from Final Fantasy 13, and the grid of characters above.

It seems cool right? Really different hair, and fascinating array of coloured eyes.

Well, these people, more likely than not, are suffering form Oculocutaneous Albinism. This means that they lack pigment, which means that you see the red fundus (back of the eye) reflection from the back of their eye (hence the red eyes), or their eyes are a very pale sort of blue or even colourless, because they have no pigment in their iris (the colored part of your eye). 

Final Fantasy X-2. Rikku (left), Yuna (middle), also with heterochromia (we'll get to that later), and Paine (right) with red eyes and pale skin and hair, aka oculocutaneous albinism.

Cool in appearance, but according to my notes, (haha this is actually helping me study), 'autosomal recessive, pink skin, white hair, nystagmus, macular hyoplasia, high myopic astigmatic refractive errors, poor vision'. So in reality, if one of those characters walked into an optometrist clinic, they would probably have bad eyesight, and really light sensitive. Meaning that they would be very keen on getting a good, dark pair of sunglasses, and I would be more than happy to sell them polarised. Nystagmus means that the person has problems focusing on one or or both of their eyes, and is often characterised by like...twitches? If you want to know what i'm talking about, find a sibling or a friend and a spinning chair, and spin them for 30 seconds, then tell them to open their eyes and see what their eyes are doing. That's called nystagmus. But the nystagmus in this case wouldn't be caused by spinning around, it would just be there even in static status, meaning extra difficulty orientating and tracking objects. 

So..all these badass characters who fight like it's second nature, or run around in deserts, or HIGHLY REFLECTIVE SURFACES IM TALKING TO YOU TOSHIRO AND YOUR ICE...yes. It sounds so much cooler to have white hair and light blue eyes because of your ice powers...but in reality, you are probably lacking pigment...maybe it makes sense that the sky goes cloudy to reduce brightness to make fights more durable. We'll see. I guess fairly speaking, I'm pretty sure there's people who just naturally have white hairs...I wouldn't know, I'm specializing in eyes not hair and skin growth xD. 

Cloudy skies on the summoning of Hyourinmaru...Happy accident? 

2. Heterochromia

My lecturer is a seasoned eye diseases specialist, and his notes directly state that Heterochromia is rare as an isolated congenital disease, and always look for something else. In other words, it is VERY RARE, for people to have different colored eyes without some sort of other defect. Such other defects/diseases associated with heterochromia include, but are not limited to Fuch's heterochromic uveitis, Horner's Syndrome, Waardenburg's syndrome, diffuse melanoma, siderosis etc. Siderosis bulbi is if a person gets an iron foreign body into their eye, and being bathed in ocular fluids, the iron body rusts and discolours one of their eye. Hence that heterochromia would have pathological origins, or that 'something else' that is 'wrong' with the person. Also note that siderosis bulbi is potentially blinding, as the high iron concentration can affect your lens and give you a cataract in that eye. So no, heterochromia in that case is not good. 

Kakashi's not really heterochromic..but regardless,
he's still sah kewl!

There are plenty of heterochromic characters out there, and I'm pretty sure I was fascinated by the concept when I was a kid, because, I mean, c'mon, it looks so cool.

In reality, heterochromia is a red flag for potential complications and congenital diseases. I know Yuna's heterochromia, from Final Fantasy X and X-2, is supposed to be symbolic of her blood-line and unity...etc, but yeah. Simple heterochromia is very...very..rare. 

We're being trained now to see heterochromia as a serious occurrence to investigate in regards to the presence of other dieseases or defects, so I guess now if I ever see another heterochromic character, my first thought will always be...I wonder what else could be wrong with them, and they just haven't been diagnosed, or aware of yet? I wonder when was the last time they saw the optometrist...and I wonder if there are even optometrists in Konoha..

3. Waardenburg's Syndrome

Waardenburg's Syndrome is a congenital condition that is also associated with Hischsprung's disease, which is the absence of ganglion cells and is often associated with lack of nerve bodies in the colon, which causes constipation and discomfort to the patient. 

Waadenburg's Syndrome is actually highly associated with the presence of a white forelock, and vastly heterochromic eyes (usually one blue and one green). (Note that heterochromia in general, is just a difference in eye colour, not necessarily different colour hues, for example on eye can just be lighter or darker. (i.e. one brown and one slighter browner eye). 

Dynamic heterochromia associated with Hischsprung's disease

I guess I can't really remember any characters off the top of head with a strikingly white forelock, but I do remember when I was obsessed with drawing horses I'd always add a 'white forelock' just to make them look cool or more unique. Now I know that I was probably condemning them to a life of misery and congenital defects.

Another character that kind of pops into mind is Auron from Final Fantasy X. I guess at this point, I am fairly impressed because Auron has sunglasses xD (note that another key feature that's being drilled into us, is that if a patient has one good eye left, ALWAYS PRESCRIBE GLASSES for protection purposes.) Also, if Auron did have Waardenburg's syndrome, he would probably need glasses as there are lots of associated ocular and vision problems that come with Waardenburg's syndrome, such as wideset eyes etc. Hearing loss is also characteristic, I don't remember Auron's personality that precisely, but I do remember he was kind of a nutter...maybe?  

I guess the extra merit Auron has is that he has other grey patches of hair, which could be indicative of age, rather than pathological Waardenburg's. *shrug* 

I guess Waardenburg's syndrome also stands out to me because when I was in high school, I clearly remember this kid who had a white forelock, and wore glasses.  I wish I remembered this kid's name so I could facebook stalk, but at this point, I wonder if he was diagnosed. I do remember seeing him on the bus, and I thought he was one of those kids who just wanted to look cool or make a fashion statement by bleaching that chunk of hair white.

Other things you start to notice as an optometry student is ptosis (i.e. the drooping of one eyelid), which can be indicative of other diseases as well. So now when I'm browsing facebook, yes, sometimes I click on people's pictures of them having fun and partying whatnot, and I'm pretty sure I would diagnose ptosis. Ptosis is relatively common, and I'm pretty sure many, if not the majority of my single eyelid Asian friends have a ptosis in one of their eyes haha. For those who are curious, ptosis is defined by our lecturer as when the upper eyelid crosses the limbus at anything roughly lower than 11 and 1 o'clock (i.e. imagine the round coloured bit of the eye as a clock face, and the part of the eyelid that intersects is where you're interested in. The picture below, again courtesy of Google, shows a ptosis in the person's right eye (which is left in the pic). You can see the upper eyelid cuts at maybe 10 and 2:30, and is clearly more droopy than her left eye. 

Ptosis in the right eye. Notice the smaller pupil in the same eye which is a classic characteristic of Horner's Syndrome, which is important! 

Anyway that's my random 2 cents worth of mind ramble today, I think I've expressed some of my thoughts, so now I can go absorb more information for my exams! (ughh 2 more hours of colour vision to go..total 8 hours =.=) Good luck with studies everyone!

Oh, also got my timetable for semester 2...sigh. It's not that great but oh well.

Night guys, sorry for the typos, I've kinda reached the point in the post where you start of excited and just want to express some ideas, then it starts to get a bit fatiguing to finish it off. I actually came back for a quick edit this morning, but I probably won't come back to edit further. Sorries! ^^"'