Need longer arms?

This is the time of year when days shorten and your arms need to lengthen! For many of us as the bright long summer days become a distant memory, with the increasingly gloomy evenings comes the struggle to focus on close objects such as newspaper and books. Newsprint is definitely the worst with grey print on grey paper causing a marked lack in contrast so important for visual clarity.

So what is happening to our eyes? The eye is essentially a very complex and wonderful camera system made up of three basic elements, the retina which is the equivalent of the camera film (remember those from the days before digital), the cornea which is like the main camera lens and in between the two behind the iris or coloured part of the eye is the crystalline lens which is equivalent to a very sophisticated auto focus system.

For this to work the crystalline lens must squash up to become make it self more powerful hence increasing the power of the eye's focussing system and bring the focal point closer to the eye as in when we read. As we age so does the crystalline lens and the problem is twofold; first the lens becoming less and less flexible as the years go by reducing it's ability to re-focus close to and second the lens, and the fluids that surround it, become less transparent taking on a yellowy hue.

The first is an inevitable consequence of ageing and is rectified by some form of visual correction such as reading glasses, progressive lenses (lenses which are designed to correct distance vision as well as intermediate and close too). Correction can be with spectacles or contact lenses so ask our GOC registered opticians for advice on the best route for you. Refractive surgery is not, in general, a suitable procedure for this problem.

The second, loss of transparency, is caused by the effects of too much UV from the sun, which is why we always try and get everyone, especially youngsters, to wear proper sun glasses.

The answere here is to use natural daylight or light sources that simulate natural day light incandescent bulbs give off a yellowy light, which is filtered out by the aging media in the eye, which a whiter more natural light won’t.

As yet we can’t beat the effects of the aging eye, but we can certainly make them easier to live with.