Blurry Vision

Presbyopia

Also referred to as “older age reading blur”, is the eyes loss of ability to focus clearly on near objects. It is associated with aging and will begin to affect most people by around age 45. Early signs are the need to hold reading material further away in order to focus clearly. By age 50 many people can no longer read a newspaper or thread a needle without glasses or lenses. Left untreated it can lead to headaches and fatigue, as well as the frustration of not seeing clearly.

As can be seen in the image below, presbyopia is characterized by an inability of the lens to focus the light directly on the retina. Instead the point where the focused light intersects is behind the retina creating a “long sighted” eye. (This is the same as hyperopia or far/long sightedness).

In order to focus on close objects the lens of our eye must thicken up. To focus on distant object the lens gets thinner. This is all controlled by the ciliary muscle. As we focus on distant objects the ciliary muscles relax which allows the suspensory ligaments to tighten, flattening out the lens. When we focus in close the ciliary muscles tighten, and the suspensory ligaments relax permitting the lens to thicken.

Causes

The conventional theory about what causes presbyopia is that as we grow older the lens may become more crystalline and less flexible, and the muscles and suspensory ligaments less elastic and responsive. The result is that when the ciliary muscle contracts to accommodate the closer focus point, the lens is less responsive. It may also be that the muscle fails to apply as much force. This combination leaves a blurry image.

A rarely discussed issue here is the relationship of this inability to accommodate the focal point and the convergence of the eyes. Convergence describes the way in which our eyes pull inwards as we focus on closer objects. The closer we focus, the more our eyes converge or look inwards. Here is the point: Throughout our lives up to our 40’s our accommodation and convergence have been synchronized. They are well established, habitual brain patterns. We “tell” our eyes to focus on X point, and our brain fires off the instructions, as it has done many thousands of times over. But there is one major difference! The lens does not fully respond. The convergence does, the focus does not. However our brain “thinks” the task has been completed. If this is in fact the case it is extremely important in addressing treatment issues.

Treatment

Put simply, the traditional treatment is reading glasses or lenses. Refractive surgery is not recommended, although work is being done into variations that may be considered suitable.

It is the well researched opinion of avoidglasses.com that Eye Exercises and Vision Therapy are highly suitable and effective in dealing with presbyopia. Muscle tone and flexibility of almost any part of the human body shows improvement when appropriately exercised. The eye is no different.

This also has particular importance for the synchronization of convergence and focus or accommodation. For many decades eye specialists have believed that the brain patterns and responses of an adult could not be altered, especially as related to vision and the eyes. This is no longer the case and there is now ample evidence that the brain vision pathways and responses are just as trainable as a child’s.

Effective treatment must use easy, but advanced eye exercises which retrain the brain to re-synchronize the convergence and accommodation, and improve the muscle and suspensory responses.

The Eye Gym can help with Blurry Vision.

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Blurry Vision