As Bill Clinton has learned, even a young president can lack “the vision thing.” Virtually all of us will have trouble focusing on objects close up by out mid sixties or –seventies, the result of a condition known as presbyopia (not to be confused with “Presleyopia,” which is an inability to see Elvis when everybody else claims he’s still around). With age, the lens becomes less pliable, so it can’t make vision-correcting shape changes as easily. This starts as early as the teens but typically doesn’t become noticeable until the forties.
The Test
Fine-print reading. Hold the stock page from the financial section of a newspaper at arm’s length and slowly move it closer to your face. Note how far the paper is from your eyes when the numbers begin to blur. Depending what decade you’re in you should be able to read the fine print all the way from arm’s length in to a distance of:
Twenties: 6 to 7 inches
Thirties: 10 inches
Forties: 13 inches
Fifties and beyond: More than 13 inches
Those in their fifties and beyond will have difficulty focusing on anything closer than arm’s length.
What to Do
From a practical standpoint, presbyopia isn’t a problem until it bothers you. Still dealing with it early can help your eyes generally work more efficiently, possibly warding off declines in distance vision.
Presbyopia can’t be reversed, but it can be compensated for. You’ll need to go to an optometrist and get a prescription for bifocals. And, no they needn’t make you look like your grandfather. The new generations of bifocals don’t have a fogeyish straight edge across the middle of the lens. Instead, they change thickness gradually from top to bottom, so no one can tell that the glasses you’re wearing are actually bifocals. Initial ver4sions of these lenses often distorted vision at the sides, but that problem has largely been eliminated. Ask your optometrist for one of the new designs, such as the Varilux Comfort lens.
The Test
Fine-print reading. Hold the stock page from the financial section of a newspaper at arm’s length and slowly move it closer to your face. Note how far the paper is from your eyes when the numbers begin to blur. Depending what decade you’re in you should be able to read the fine print all the way from arm’s length in to a distance of:
Twenties: 6 to 7 inches
Thirties: 10 inches
Forties: 13 inches
Fifties and beyond: More than 13 inches
Those in their fifties and beyond will have difficulty focusing on anything closer than arm’s length.
What to Do
From a practical standpoint, presbyopia isn’t a problem until it bothers you. Still dealing with it early can help your eyes generally work more efficiently, possibly warding off declines in distance vision.
Presbyopia can’t be reversed, but it can be compensated for. You’ll need to go to an optometrist and get a prescription for bifocals. And, no they needn’t make you look like your grandfather. The new generations of bifocals don’t have a fogeyish straight edge across the middle of the lens. Instead, they change thickness gradually from top to bottom, so no one can tell that the glasses you’re wearing are actually bifocals. Initial ver4sions of these lenses often distorted vision at the sides, but that problem has largely been eliminated. Ask your optometrist for one of the new designs, such as the Varilux Comfort lens.
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