Many believe that presbyopia is a disease, but it is not.  Presbyopia is actually the eyes inability to adjust and accommodate changes in lighting and focus as the body ages.  Many experts believe that presbyopia is caused by a loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens or even changes in the shape of the lens or the loss of power in the ciliary muscles, though the specific cause is not known.  Much has been written on the condition, and for all experts know each case has a different cause, what experts do know is that we will all experience the condition sooner or later.

Presbyopia doesn’t pick and choose its victims, because it literally affects everyone at some point in their life, usually it starts anywhere from age 40-50.

The first symptoms are usually the inability to read fine print, to read in dim lighting, and some patients experience strained eyes when they read for long periods of time.  The condition is usually less noticeable in bright natural light as the iris closes so that the depth of focus is enhanced.  It seems as though the ability to focus is greater, but really it is not.

Unfortunately, presbyopia is not something that can be cured, though experts believe that there may be a cure or preventative treatments in the future.

Luckily, the eyes inability to adjust can be treated with corrective lenses, glasses, and contact lenses.  Many that suffer from this condition find that bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses are quite helpful in eliminating or at least reducing the symptoms of presbyopia.  Many patients find that wearing just one lens will help the symptoms so that they will again be able to read without trouble.

By the age of 65 most people report symptoms of full-blown presbyopia, but most find ways to cope with the symptoms.  Some find that reading glasses help them read every day things such as prescription bottles and recipe cards with little or no effort.  Many people don’t like the idea of contact lenses or corrective lenses so they continue to hold things further and further away as they age.  You’ll find as you get older that you just hold things further and further away from your face as you read!  The action that you choose to take to deal with presbyopia is your choice and usually has to do with how severely you are affected.

For people who wear corrective lenses, Lasik surgery seems like a dream come true, allowing them to exchange uncomfortable and expensive eyeglasses or contact lenses for perfect, unaided vision.  However, with the wrong surgeon, Lasik surgery can quickly become a nightmare.  Your vision can be permanently damaged without the hope of correction, or even lost altogether.  We’ll show you how to choose a Lasik surgeon to ensure that your operation is a success.

Step One:  Collect Recommendations

Ask friends, family members, and acquaintances whether they have had Lasik surgery themselves, or if they know anyone who has.  Find out where they had the surgery done, and how pleased they were with the experience.  Personal recommendations are a far better starting point than the Yellow Pages!

Step Two:  Check Experience

Once you have a list of potential doctors from your acquaintances, research them thoroughly to narrow down your list.  You want a surgeon who has performed a large number of successful Lasik operations – a thousand or more is a good place to start.  You should also check your surgeon’s education, how long he or she has been in practice, and whether Lasik surgery is a prime focus of that practice.  Do a Google search to find out if any warnings or glowing recommendations have been posted online.

Step Three:  Meet with the Doctor

Your gut instinct tells you a lot about a person.  Meeting with your short list of doctors will help you find one that makes you comfortable and who seems professional and capable.  Make sure that the surgeon you pick answers all of your questions and does not make you feel pressured or dismissed.  Also ensure that the surgeon you meet is the one who will actually perform your operation from beginning to end.

It is much more important to find a competent, proactive, and experienced Lasik surgeon than to find one that is close to your home or has the lowest rates.  By following these three simple steps, you can vastly improve your chances of having a successful, problem-free operation and do away with your glasses or contact lenses forever.

Is it hard for you to see things that are close up even though your distance vision is as acute as ever? Farsightedness is the result of an abnormality in the structure of your eyes that makes it difficult for them to focus on objects that are close to you. While farsightedness is often present from the time that you’re a child, it’s often not apparent until middle age when your eyes start losing their ability to adjust focus from near to far quickly and easily.

Farsightedness runs in families, although injuries or diseases in the eye may contribute to the condition in rare cases. It is most often diagnosed with a simple eye test, though headaches and eyestrain can signal problems with farsightedness in adults.

There are a number of options for correcting farsightedness, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Eyeglasses

The most common treatment for farsightedness is eyeglasses with corrective lenses. They are the easiest and safest option for improving your vision if you have hyperopia. Glasses are readily available and can be fitted with precision and accuracy. Nearly everyone can wear eyeglasses, which can easily be replaced if the prescription needs changing.

On the other hand, eyeglasses aren’t an option for people in some professions such as fire-fighting. They can be expensive, uncomfortable and fragile.

Contact Lenses

Contact lenses have become more and more popular as the materials and styles available have improved. Today’s soft contact lenses are fitted with nearly as much precision as glasses, and provide better peripheral vision. In many cases the choice to wear contact lenses rather than glasses is a matter of appearance – you may simply  feel you look better without glasses.

On the flip side, contact lenses can be more expensive than glasses. If you’re not suited to wearing disposable or extended wear contact lenses, disinfecting and cleaning your contact lenses daily can be inconvenient.

Eye Surgery

Another option for correcting farsightedness is eye surgery. A surgeon skilled with a laser scalpel can reshape the cornea of the eye so that light focuses directly on the retina as it’s supposed to do rather than behind the retina, which distorts the vision. The results of surgery are variable, but when it is most successful, laser eye surgery can completely eliminate the need for glasses or contact lenses.

In the early days of contact lenses, anyone with astigmatism was deemed unsuitable to wear them.  Now – technology has advanced and unless your prescription is particularly complicated, your astigmatism may be corrected with multifocus contact lenses.

Hang on – you’ve lost me…what is astigmatism?

Astigmatism is a condition of the cornea of the eye.  The cornea is the clear ‘layer’ of the eye that covers the iris (the colored part) and the pupil (the black dot in the middle).  The function of the cornea is to let light into the eye, which allows you to see.

A ‘normal’ cornea is shaped like a tennis ball.  Light enters it and is focused on a single point of the retina. The retina is a membrane lining the eye. It gets images via the lens of the eye which are changed into signals and sent to the brain via the optic nerve.

If you have astigmatism, your cornea is shaped more like an egg. This means that the light is focused on more than one point on the retina and this gives you blurry vision. It can also cause you to see shadows on letters when you’re reading, make you squint and cause double vision.
Toric Contact Lenses May Be The Answer…

A toric contact lens has two different strengths of prescription. These are at right angles to each other which corrects the astigmatism.  Torics are available in soft lenses, rigid gas permeable ones and also multifocals.

In order to correct the astigmatism, the contact lens must stay in one position in the eye.  There are two ways to achieve this.

1.  The lenses have a ‘ballast’ – the bottom edge of the lens is thicker than the top edge, which prevents it moving around or

2.  The middle of the lens is thicker than the top and bottom edges.

What Sort Of Torics Are Available?

* Daily disposable
* Monthly Disposable
* Frequent replacement
* Silicone hydrogel for 30 day wear
* Eye color changers
* Eye color enhancers

What Other Multifocal Contact Lenses Are There?

Aspheric contacts have different prescriptions blended across them.  They are known as ‘simultaneous vision’ or ‘progressive’ lenses as your eyes have to learn how to choose to see through the appropriate prescription for what you are doing.

This sounds very complicated but aspherics are the most popular type of multifocal contact lens so it can’t be that difficult!

Many people can and do. There may be a period of trial and error while you work with your eye care professional to find what’s best.

Most multi-focal contact lens manufacturers are aware that not everyone will be able to wear them.  For this reason, they offer a warranty on their lenses so that if you’re unlucky and can’t get on with them, you can get a different pair of lenses or a pair of spectacles.  However, part of the money that you pay to have contact lenses fitted is for the professional time taken during that fitting and subsequent follow-ups.  So you may not get back the whole amount that you paid to try the multi-focals. However, you should leave the eye doctor with some form of eyewear that corrects your vision.

Everyone knows that carrots are good for our  vision but what makes this  vegetable and other similar foods so beneficial for the wellbeing of our eyes? The answer lies in the vitamins and minerals that they supply.

Over the years, numerous studies have been conducted, showing interesting facts about the health of the eyes.  For instance, some studies show that the risk of macular degeneration and cataracts can be greatly reduced with antioxidants.  Going even further, Vitamin A is one particular antioxidant that has shown specific protection against blindness while Vitamin C shows prevention of glaucoma.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is one of the most important  vitamins for the eyes. At its extreme, deficiencies of vitamin A can cause blindness and a to a lesser degree night blindness. Vitamin A assists with providing a healthy lining of the eye. When this vitamin is lacking, the lining of the eye can become dry and breakdown causing blindness.

Foods high in Vitamin A include:

• liver
• carrots
• fish-liver oils
• cheese
• butter
• apricots
• parsley
• spinach
• sweet potatoes

Vitamin B

Vitamin B or riboflavin helps to maintain the health of your eyes. A deficiency of vitamin B can cause bloodshot or gritty eyes. It can also cause the eyes to become light sensitive.

Foods high in vitamin B include:

• liver
• eggs
• cheese
• meat
• leafy green vegetables
• peas

Bioflavonoid

Foods such as plums, grapes, cherries, and citrus contain bioflavonoid.

Fatty Acids

Rich in all types of coldwater fish such as trout, salmon, and mackerel

Lutein

Found in collard greens, kale, and spinach

Selenium

Brazil nuts, seafood, and yeast are great choices

Vitamin C

Foods rich in this vitamin include broccoli, oranges, kale, strawberries, cantaloupe, and sweet peppers

Vitamin E

For this, eat almonds, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds

Zinc

Foods such as nuts, hamburgers, nuts, and oysters are excellent options

Just as your diet should include green, leafy vegetables, one to two servings of fish weekly, nuts, citrus, and some of the foods mentioned above, you also need to avoid certain foods.  For instance, new studies are also showing that foods containing bad carbohydrates to include refined white flour can boost the risk of macular degeneration.  Therefore, if you love carbohydrates, avoid refined foods and stick with fruits and vegetables high in fiber!

You will also find a daily intake of certain supplements can greatly reduce eye problems while improving vision.  The following are nutrients that would provide you with healthy vision when taken daily. As always, ensure you check with a health care professional before taking any vitamins.

• Alpha Lipoic Acid – 100 mg
• Beta Carotene – 5,000 IU
• Calcium – 500 mg
• Folic Acid – 800 mcg
• Lutein – 10 mg
• N-Acetyl Cysteine – 100 mg
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids – 2,500 mg
• Selenium – 100 mg
• Thiamin – 2 mg
• Vitamin C – 250 mg
• Vitamin E – 200 mg
• Zeaxanthin – 500 mg
• Zinc – 25 mg

In addition to sustaining health eyes and vision, these daily supplements provide your body with many other benefits.  Just remember when choosing supplements that you buy a reputable brand, making sure the expiration date is not passed.  Additionally, we recommend you avoid the tablets, going with capsules instead, which are easier on the stomach.  Finally, if possible, locate an organic health food store, choosing only organic supplements.  Although a little pricier, they are much better quality.

Cataract surgery was something that people tended to avoid if possible, 20 years ago, but today it is such a common procedure that people no longer stress about it all that much.

More than 2.7 million Americans had this type of surgery just last year and 95% of those people have experienced remarkably improved vision.  These numbers are quite outstanding and show that surgery is an effective way to save your vision if you suffer from the condition.  Cataract surgery is safe and effective and because this surgery has become so common it is generally done on an outpatient basis, meaning patients get to go home within hours of the procedure.

Cataract eye surgery is performed by making microscopic incisions that is facilitated by advanced ultrasonic equipment that can fragment cataracts into tiny pieces.  It is something that is typically done while the patient is awake though mild sedation is often used.  The patient will simply lie still and will be asked to look toward the light of the scope, a patient must notify the doctor if they need to cough, sneeze, or otherwise move, but other than that the patient is required to lie still for the duration of the procedure.  The whole surgery generally takes 20 or 30 minutes and the patient will be monitored for a short period of time before being released.  Many patients are released from the hospital or surgical center within an hour after the procedure being completed.

Cataract eye surgery is now able to improve vision dramatically regardless of how advanced or severe the cataracts are.  Many patients are actually surprised at how well they can see after the procedure is completed and the eye heals.  Thankfully, the procedure can be repeated should the cataracts come back in the future, and there is little risk of damage to the eye in repeat surgeries.

Many times a doctor will prescribe eye drops to help prevent pain, inflammation and infection, but generally the procedure is quite comfortable and complication free.  Drops may be applied both before the surgery and in the days after the surgery.  This medical procedure is one  that really makes one marvel at the advances in medical science.  The fact that doctors can restore vision in just a matter of moments without pain or discomfort is remarkable.  With so many millions of people suffering from cataracts, this surgery is no doubt a lifesaver for many.