When it comes to your eyes, there are so many things that can go wrong! From vision issues to problems with the physical structure of the eye itself, your eye is a complicated organ with lots of moving parts. It stands to reason that one or more of those parts can stop working–or stop working correctly–at any point. You can have vision problems whether you’re under one year of age, middle aged, or beyond.
One such issue that can occur is something called presbyopia. It’s a disease that happens slowly, but most people only notice symptoms after the age of 40, and it can worsen until around age 65. You don’t want to deal with eye problems when you’re thinking about all the fun things you can do when you retire!
So what is presbyopia?
Presbyopia is when your eyes start losing the ability to see things clearly close up. For example, you want to read a book, but to bring the words into focus, you have to hold at an absurdly long distance from your face–maybe even so far away that you can’t even see the words! It is similar, in a way, to myopia (nearsightedness). But one main difference is that presbyopia is almost inevitable and a natural part of aging rather than an unusual development in one’s vision that may be cause for concern.
What are some of the symptoms of presbyopia?
How do you know if it’s happening to you or not? Just like a student in school who realizes that the blackboard is looking blurry when they are developing myopia, an adult with developing presbyopia will realize that they can’t see the words of the newspaper they’re holding if it’s too close to their face. Or they may want to read the nutrition labels on a packaged product in the grocery store, but it looks fuzzy and blurry to them holding it up close. You may be starting to get presbyopia if you can’t hold your reading material at normal reading distance because otherwise the words look blurry.
In addition, headaches often happen if you do spend any time reading up close. This is usually the result of eye strain. Symptoms may be worse when you’re in a place with dim lighting (for example, a movie theater) or if you’re tired (reading just before sleeping).
Even in situations without dim lighting, you may find yourself wishing for and feeling the need for brighter lighting than before. Brighter lights help because they change the focus of the light on your retina, making it easier to see clearly.
What causes presbyopia?
When you are younger, you may notice a certain elasticity and flexibility in your skin; when you get older, your skin gets less flexible. Your eyes are similar. When you are younger, your clear lens, which is located behind your iris, is super flexible. It can bend and change shape whenever it needs to, which is what allows you to be able to focus both on objects that are close up or far away. When you get older, that lens starts to lose its flexibility, which affects the way you see things. With presbyopia, the flexibility that is lost is the type that allows you to see things up close.
There is no cure currently for presbyopia, as it is considered a natural part of aging that can happen to some people. However, your eye doctor may be able to suggest progressive lenses or surgery to help correct the matter as much as possible. At the very least, it may prevent eye strain and headaches from getting worse.
Written by Yonah Leserowitz
