Sooner or Later, the Eyes Have It

If it’s getting more difficult for you to read the fine print, the culprit may be a vision condition called presbyopia, the loss of close-up focusing. Sorry, boomers: This is one thing you can’t prevent. By age 50, nearly everyone has this condition to some degree. It can begin as early as age 20, although it won’t be noticeable until much later.

Presbyopia involves your eye’s lens, which changes shape to focus light directly onto the back of the eye. As you age, however, the lens becomes less resilient and can’t change its shape as easily. This, in turn, means it can’t focus clearly on close objects, such as the words on a page. The objects look blurry. Presbyopia worsens until about age 65, when the lens has lost most of its elasticity.

There are steps you can take, however, to correct this normal part of the aging process. Simple reading glasses--the kind you can buy off the rack at drugstores--may work for some people. If you are nearsighted or farsighted, your eye doctor can prescribe bifocals or other types of corrective eye wear.

* Bifocals: They correct near and far vision by employing a smaller lens in the lower part of the lens to magnify objects that are close.

* Trifocals: They correct near, middle and far vision with a smaller lens in the lower part of the lens that magnifies near objects and those that are about an arm’s length away.

* Multifocals or “progressive” lenses: They correct for near to middle to far vision gradually. Unlike bifocals or trifocals, the lenses don’t have the obvious lines that some people may find annoying or an unwanted symbol of aging.

* Contact lenses: They are also an option to correct presbyopia. The simplest plan is to wear reading glasses with your contacts. But your eye doctor may choose to prescribe monovision or multifocal lenses.

* Monovision: One lens corrects for near vision; the other, for far vision.

* Multifocal: Some lenses alternate between near and far vision; others gradually change from near to far vision. So, don’t fight presbyopia: get it corrected with the help of your eye doctor.

Source: StayWell Co.

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Prebyopia: The Inside Story

In a normal eye, muscles attached to the lens contract or relax, changing the shape of the lens. This action works to focus the viewed image of the retina.

With presbyopia, the lens has hardened and cannot change shape as easily. Close objedts are no longer focused clearly on the retina.