HOW THE EYE AGES
Remember your Uncle Charlie and the problems he used to have reading the newspaper? It seemed as though he had trouble focusing, so he first tried his bifocals. When that didn’t work, he held the paper out at arms length. Then, with his arms fully outstretched, he was finally able to settle into his reading.
But you couldn’t understand why he ended up that way. “Bring it closer, Uncle Charlie, not farther away,” you informed him with the naivete of youth. Or you may have handed him your father’s glasses to try. But while you may have been nearsighted as a child, presbyopia, a form of farsightedness, which is what Uncle Charlie had, is much more common among midlife adults. In fact, as you age, and if you wear glasses or contacts, you may find that your prescription has gone from one extreme to another, from nearsightedness to farsightedness.
Presbyopia is only one characteristic of the aging eye. If you know a man or woman over the age of 50 who has never worn glasses or contact lenses, you should consider yourself to be in rare company. Besides the possibility of having presbyopia as you grow older, you may find that you need to rely on your reading glasses more, whereas before you only needed them for reading or night driving. You may also find that it takes longer for your eyes to adjust to the dark, and even once you’ve become used to the poor light you may not be able to make out certain objects as clearly as you once did. Your eyes may not water as easily as when you were younger, something that is especially true for post-menopausal women.
There’s not much you can do to prevent the effects that each additional year has on your sense of vision. Some ophthalmologists believe that if you work at a computer or a craft where you frequently need to focus on objects up close, your vision will deteriorate less rapidly if you wear regular eyeglasses instead of contact lenses. And remember what your mother told you about reading under poor light? It’s true that the less you strain your eyes, the longer you’ll keep your eyesight intact.
The chances of getting certain ophthalmologic diseases—such as glaucoma, cataracts, and retinal detachment—increase with age, but the good news is that after about the age of 50, your eyesight will stabilize and may even improve significantly. Overall, if you try to stay aware of any changes in vision you experience and visit your eye doctor at the early signs of change, you’ll improve your chances of having healthy eyes well into your 70s, 80s, and beyond.
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