While mom would have you believe that sitting too close to the TV and other bad habits have caused the challenge, most people by the age of 42 require reading glasses for near vision.
You have Presbyopia!
While presbyopia could be defined by some as a shortening of the arms that prevents you from holding an object far enough away to be read, this is simply a comedic jab at your age. Presbyopia is actually blurry near vision due to the normal decrease in your eyes ability to focus. This happens to everyone around age 40. Can this be prevented? there’s really nothing you can do to stop it. And, contrary to old wives tales, wearing glasses does not make it worse. There’s a simple explanation.
Our eyes have a crystalline lens that is responsible for focusing your vision between mere objects and distant ones. When you are looking for a way to lens in your eye is relaxed, but when you look at something nearby, like a flower the lens flexes to focus on the flower. When you’re young, the lens is very flexible and active – it can focus on a distant Mountain, then seconds later read a roadmap held 4 inches from your nose. As you age the lens gets a little flicker around the middle and doesn’t like to flexes much.
Because of these changes the lens becomes unable to flex like when we were younger to focus on nearby objects. By age 40 that lens is so fat and lazy it won’t even help out when we’re trying to read the newspaper or see our watch. Objects at 40 centimeters, our usual reading distance, become blurry.
Although this process has been occurring throughout our lives, it is at age 40 that we notice it because we can no longer do the things nearby that we used to do. Therefore, a new lens, such as a glasses lens or a contact lens, must be used to focus our near vision.
There are many great options to overcome this obstacle. Traditional bifocals, reading glass, progressive lenses, also known as no-line bifocals and bifocal contact lenses are just a few of the options available to you. cataract surgeons are using new implantable lenses that can be surgically inserted in place of your natural lenses. Monovision LASIK is also a great option. New and better technology becomes available each day and your local optometrist can share more information about the latest advances.