Presbyopia (Where'd my near focus go?)

The human eye is a remarkable organ. Besides transmitting electromagnetic waves from the visible light spectrum to the brain where they get processed as the complex sensation of vision, the healthy young eye has the uncanny ability to focus light from the distance to the near and back, without you perceiving the physical change in your eye that allows this to happen. Behind your pupil, there is a lens, attached to a radial muscle, that changes shape in response to a change in the focus distance of what you are viewing.

Then, somewhere in the middle of life (for most it happens in their 40's) you begin to lose that ability to change from distance focus to near focus. This inevitable change comes when the crystalline lens behind your pupil begins to harden. The harder it gets, the more help you need to change to near vision from your distance focused vision (IE your distance lenses or your naturally good distance vision). Gradually, after about 10 years, the loss of your near focus stops when the lens becomes too hard to shift anymore.

The way you observe this change depends on your natural vision. If you are naturally near sighted, sometimes taking off your glasses helps you see up close. If you are farsighted, you generally need reading glasses earlier, then glasses for distance too when you can no longer use your close focus power to see in the distance.

Nobody escapes Presbyopia if they live through that stage of life. Some people with naturally good distance vision in one eye, and naturally near-sighted vision in the other go into their later years thinking they beat Presbyopia, but measurements will always confirm that they have lost the close-focus ability of younger eyes. Science still puzzles over some way to stop or reverse this process. If someone does find it, they will have found the key to wealth. For today's baby boomers, Presbyopia represents one of the greatest aging frustrations they endure.

HealthDay (12/29, 2008 Robert Preidt) reported that, according to a study published in the Dec. issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, "more than one billion people worldwide had age-related farsightedness -- called presbyopia -- in 2005," with about "410 million of" them being "unable to perform tasks that required near vision."

Many options exist to correct your vision if you are Presbyopic. From glasses, to contact lenses, to surgery, or some combination of the three, you can have clear vision for whatever tasks you are doing. You may be surprised by the number of ways we can customize a solution for you if you have specific needs beyond what the standard options correct. Stay tuned for discussion on today's lens technologies that make it easier than ever, particularly the new digitally-surfaced progressive lenses.