What is Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is a condition similar to farsightedness that affects all of us as we start to age. Starting from around the time you turn 40, you may start to notice you have more difficulty focusing on nearby objects. A lot of us are probably familiar with the cliche of older people needing to hold menus, novels and newspapers further away from their face in order to read them. While this might be a cliche, it’s also a pretty clear sign that presbyopia, meaning literally “old sight” in Greek, is starting to affect your eyes.
If you have noticed your arms stretching to comfortably read things or view objects close up that used to be easier to see, don’t worry! You’re not alone. All of us will experience presbyopia, as it’s the unavoidable product of ageing eyes. While all of us will go through some symptoms of presbyopia, there are plenty of ways to treat and correct this condition, saving your arms and your eyesight in the process. Let’s break down what causes this condition, how you can tell whether presbyopia is affecting your vision, and what to do about it if it is.
How does this eye condition affect my vision?
Near distance tasks such as reading, sewing or any other related activity that requires the focus on minor details becomes difficult. For example, while holding a newspaper, the distance between your eyes and the newspaper increases in order to adjust the focus for clearer vision. The far distance vision isn’t affected in presbyopia. The difficulty in closer vision tasks often results in tiredness, headaches etc.
What causes presbyopia
Presbyopia basically occurs with age. All eyesight relies on our eyes refracting light through our eye’s cornea and lens in order to produce an image that our brains recognise. Your eye lens is curved, and can contract or expand thanks to the surrounding muscles in the eye’s structure in order to focus on things at a range of distances.
Just like the rest of our muscles, this circular eye muscle becomes less elastic and flexible over time, making it harder to constrict the lens and focus on things in the foreground. As this constricting movement gets less powerful over time, our ability to focus on small lettering and nearby objects diminishes.
Presbyopia is generally considered normal in terms of age as it is a very similar concept like greying hair or stiffening of joints. As every person experiences ageing, the occurrence of presbyopia cannot really be prevented.