Adults Aged 41+
The main vision problem for people over the age of 41 is a deterioration in the focusing ability of the eyes.
By the age of 45, the lens in your eye starts to lose its elasticity. Instead of remaining in a jelly type state, the lens material starts to solidify, a bit like concrete setting over time. The lens loses its ability to change shape, and focus on near objects. This is quite a normal physiologic, age related change and can be corrected with reading glasses. It is called presbyopia.
People who have had excellent eyesight throughout their life, typically tend to go “long-sighted” over the age of 40.
They start to develop a distance optical error, which is the opposite of “short-sightedness”. In the early stages, when the error is small, patients can often adequately compensate for this error. However, as time goes on and the error increases they can suffer eyestrain symptoms such as headaches and tired eyes.
This is a very common optical change, due to the same age related changes in the lens that initially caused the near focusing problems of presbyopia. The symptoms are often overlooked. People wonder why they are constantly feeling tired and never imagine the constant fatigue and headaches are due to a vision problem.
It is very important to recognise these symptoms as they are often the first indication that you need your correction updated. You may need a different correction for distance vision as compared to your reading correction.
The very same age related changes in the lens, can occur with the “short-sighted” patient with similar consequences.
However, the “short-sighted” patient tends to go LESS short-sighted. They can therefore end up wearing a correction that is too strong for them, once again causing tiredness and headaches.
People in their latter years, often develop cataracts.
One type of cataract we call nuclear sclerosis, can induce quite large myopic or “short-sighted” refractive shifts, in patients typically aged 70+.
These patients find that their distance vision goes blurry with their old glasses on, but they can see fantastic to read if they take their old glasses off completely. This is often called “second sight” and typically their family marvel at how well grandma or granddad can still read the paper without glasses, when they themselves are often totally reliant on their readers.
These refractive shifts are typical age related changes over the age of 41. They don’t happen to everyone, however they are so common, Eyecatchers Optometrists recommend routine eye examination every two years, so that any vision changes can be addressed.
Make an appointment for a routine comprehensive eye examination now.
Eyecatchers Optometrists Invercargill Practice: 22 Kelvin Street – Ph: 03 218 8561 Gore Practice: 108 Main Street – Ph: 03 208 9244
