If you're middle-aged you may have noticed some subtle changes to your vision in recent times. You may be contemplating a visit to your optician and the possibility of getting some prescription glasses or contact lenses for the first time ever. As you've never had a problem with your vision before, what is happening now to prompt these changes?
The Gradual Change
Essentially, the reason behind your change in vision is quite simple – you're getting older. With the technology available today, however, that doesn't have to be a big deal. While there are certainly some other diseases which can develop in certain types of eye with advancing age, the normal effect of "getting older" can be handled fairly easily.
Welcome to the Club
The condition that you are experiencing right now is probably due to presbyopia, which is a condition that affects virtually everybody. It is a symptom that relates to the lens in your eye in particular. This is the structure that focuses the light coming through the front of your eye onto the retina, which is where those light signals are converted into readable signals and transferred to the brain.
What Goes Wrong?
As people age, the lens become less pliable and are not able to work as well as before. They need to have the ability to change shape ever so slightly, so that images that are very far away can be brought into focus just as readily as those that are close by. This loss of pliability happens gradually through the lifetime, but doesn't become noticeable until people usually reach middle age. This is when the lens effectively lose the ability to focus over such a wide range. They are typically still able to focus on very distant objects, but cannot adjust to objects that are close by. It's also possible that the lens can "fix" on close objects, but not on those that are distant.
Seeing Clearly Now
There's only one treatment for presbyopia, and that is to start wearing prescription eyewear to counteract the loss of adjustment. Essentially what you're doing is adding an additional lens so that you're able to focus in on the distant or the near object, according to your requirement.
Getting Your Own Pair
There are many different options available to help you deal with age-related presbyopia and a huge variety of different frames in order to house the lenses. You may not be used to wearing glasses, but you can start to make your own fashion statement at the same time as you say hello to middle age.
