Whether you've always had good distance vision without glasses, or are nearsighted, farsighted, or astigmatic, by the age of forty, no one escapes presbyopia!
Often, the first discomfort is felt after a vacation, when the light diminishes, after summer, or after a bout of fatigue. Suddenly, you can no longer read the newspaper, restaurant menus, or instructions. These small characters become legible only by holding them at arm's length with strong lighting.
Don't panic, it's normal and natural!
Why do we become presbyopic?
It all starts at birth with the lens, this intraocular lens essential for vision.
This strange organ, the lens, begins to age from birth. While it was vascularized during uterine life, it ceases to be so when the child utters its first cry...
Subsequently, this lens behaves like a "tree trunk." Over time, layers accumulate so much that the lens thickens and stiffens. Losing its flexibility, it no longer bulges enough and accommodates (focuses) with difficulty: we see less and less well up close.
Thus, a two-year-old child sees clearly from 5 cm, at six years old their clear vision will be from 7 cm. A young adult of twenty will see clearly from 10 cm; at forty, they will see clearly from 30 cm; at fifty, from 50 cm, then at 70 years, from 2 meters! The normal and comfortable reading distance being 33 cm, we understand that between 40 and 45 years old, arms feel like they're becoming too short!
In France, almost 30 million presbyopes are experiencing this difficult time...
Presbyopia can occur earlier for people living at high altitudes or in hot countries. In Africa and the Himalayas, young presbyopes aged 35 are found. The culprits are heat and UV radiation. This is why it's important to protect your eyes from the sun, even in our latitudes.
How to regain your near vision:
Correcting presbyopia is, in principle, very simple. Since only near vision is impaired, it's necessary to restore power to the eye only for close objects. As the lens has lost its ability to accommodate, an "optical addition" is used for this: reading glasses equipped with "magnifying" lenses (converging lenses) or with degressive lenses for clear and sharp near and intermediate vision. Varionet offers reading glasses with degressive lenses starting from €39.00, frame and lenses included.
