Useful thanks, I shall try and remember these experiences when the day comes for me…

Neil

The great thing about natural eye lenses is that they can alter their focal length.

The problem is that the cornea might not focus correctly.

Right now in the interval of the Wales/Australia match, I am reminded that by my mid-teens I could not see the ball at the far end of the pitch. You could wear spectacles for cricket (I have seen a young Sir Geoffrey do so) but not rugby and we did not have contact lenses in those days.

Don't forget that one can wear one's short-sighted -ve lenses with +ve reading glasses at the same time.

For some reason, people think that it is a little odd.

I had both my eyes done about 4 years ago. At the time I used varifocal lenses to correct the state of my vision as it then was. After cataract surgery I had the probably normal lens set up of acceptable vision at medium to long distance and correction needed for close work. It seemed plain to me that the best option for me was a set of varifocal lens glasses with the top of the lens having very little effect and the lower portion having a magnifying effect for the close work. In practice I now only have 1 pair of glasses which I wear all day and as I was already well used to varifocal lenses I had no difficulty. Having just the one pair of glasses I rarely lose them.

Be aware that varifocals can take a bit of getting used to for some people but as I recall when I first started with them it took me only a day or 2 before the action required to see clearly at all distances came naturally.

As an aside I also suffered from PCO in my right eye after about 30 months and although the treatment was as Clive says, a quick laser zap, I waited over a year to get it done. Moral is if you notice a treated eye is getting cloudy again get off to your optician and start the ball rolling to get it lasered as soon as you can.

Jim

Edited By Jim Nic on 24/09/2023 23:56:15

I exercised my spectacles-free eyes on close work (8 inches and less) virtually every day for nearly twenty years. Presbyopia struck nonetheless. To effectively see at all at close distances (anything under three feet) I now need about four pairs of different strength reading glasses (and or Optivisors) depending on the distance I’m working at.

It sounds like your own presbyopia is relatively mild if you can force your eyes to focus on everything but close-up, very tiny print.

I don't think there is much agreement or evidence that, once the rot has set in, exercising your eyes can significantly prevent them from losing their ability to focus on close work.

No, that is not correct.

The lens and iris are controlled by smooth muscles, which cannot be exercised like striated muscles.

Presbyopia arises from stiffening of the lens, not weakening of the muscles.

The extra-ocular muscles swivel the eyes.

About 30 years ago I noticed a slight deterioration of my eye sight – I realised that I could no longer see fine detail in the leaves on distant trees. I thought, oh well, here we go, time to get some glasses.

So I went to the optometrist who measured everything and said, well if you really want glasses I can prescribe them, but they will be the very smallest correction I can do. I went ahead and bought the (expensive) glasses anyway, and the distant fine detail was restored.

But then I thought about what I was doing, and did some reading into the subject and stopped using the glasses, instead forcing my eye muscles to stay strong and focus. The muscles do change the shape of the eyeball as well as the lens to assist focus, and this is important as our internal lenses become less pliable with age.

One useful exercise is to focus on something very distant, wait until the eye has fully focussed, then change to something very close, wait to refocus, and so on, back and forth, focussing between the two. I do this 10 times for each eye when I remember to, and this helps exercise the muscles.

30 years later, and having kept those glasses in their case, my uncorrected sight is very good indeed for a person of my age, and I don't need glasses, except for extremely small, fine work. When I read a bed-time book in low lighting, the letters are not completely clear, but I can still read them easily and I persevere to keep my eye muscles strong. I have just checked and I can read, unaided, small print that is just 1mm high – albeit, I need to read it near a window. At a recent airline eye test I was complimented on my visual performance for a pilot of my age and do not need glasses to fly.

Interestingly, my dominant eye has gone longer focus, and my non dominant eye has gone shorter focus, which combine to give me a large focal range. The time it takes for me to change focus from very distant to very near or vice versa, is longer than when I was young.

It is possible that after years of relying on glasses to focus, no amount of practice will bring back atrophied eye focus muscles, but for that reason I avoided and avoid glasses wherever possible, keeping my muscles strong.

For similar reasons to the focussing, I never wear sunglasses, unless it is absolutely unbearably bright, preferring to keep my iris muscles active and fit. And a smaller iris gives you a greater depth of field which aids focus range too.

Obviously, if you need glasses to drive or use machinery etc., you MUST use them !!

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 25/09/2023 10:30:14

Had both eyes done last year other than everything being clearer I still need to wear vari focals which I find disappointing When I had the first one done I had a chest infection which migrated into the eye giving me a very bad eye infection, would I recommend having cataracts done yes !

H

Had both eyes done (separately ) in spring this year. Wonderful improvement, but cannot get quite the ideal lens for the right eye.

Wear varifocals all the time, only really needed for near work.

Strangely, having optimised the viewfinder on the camnera without galsses, the specs slightly distort the image

A small price to pay for such an improvement in vision, particularly when driving at night.

Howard.

You’re welcome, Bill

… and as a special treat Archive.org has it for online viewing, or download

**LINK**

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.11974/page/n13/mode/2up

MichaelG.