What is Age related reading difficulties (presbyopia)?

Presbyopia is the growing loss of your eyes’ capability to concentrate on near objects. It is a normal and frequently frustrating component of aging. Presbyopia typically turn out to be evident in your early to mid-40s and persists to get worse until around the age of 65.

You may possibly become conscious of presbyopia when you begin holding books and newspapers at arm’s length to be able to read them.

Causes of Age related reading difficulties (presbyopia)

Your clear lens rests within the eyeball at the back of your coloured iris. This alters shape to concentrate light onto the retina, so you can see. When one is young, the lens is soft and malleable, effortlessly altering shape. This allows you to concentrate on items both close and far off. After age 40, the lens develops to be more inflexible and cannot alter shape as effortlessly. Thus, it becomes tougher to read or do other close-up tasks.

Symptoms of Age related reading difficulties (presbyopia)

Typical symptoms are:

  • Things up close start to appear blurry. For example, your phone or a book. Eventually, also at a typical distance for computer use
  • Tiredness and eyestrain
  • Starting to hold things further away in order to see them clearly
  • Needing better lighting in order to see clearly up close
  • Avoidance of close up work
  • Sometimes a headache may form with close up work
  • Slower comprehension rate with reading and close up work

This starts in most at around the age of 40 and happens because the lens and the muscles controlling the lens start to lose the ability to change focus. They become fixed for clear vision only at a distance, making it harder to focus on close objects.

How to treat Age related reading difficulties (presbyopia)

It is a common misconception that wearing glasses can make your eyesight worse. This is simply untrue. It may be a commonly held belief because, after enjoying clearer vision with glasses, it is easy to find that your eyesight without them seems worse than you might remember.

In fact, if you give your eyes the correct prescription, you’re more likely to reduce the eyestrain and blurriness. In some studies, this is shown to encourage your eyesight to stay more stable as a result. So, if you experience any change in your eyesight, it’s best to come in early, even if it’s just to check and get reassurance that things are ok.

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