Presbyopia: Definition, Causes, Symptoms, and How to Overcome It
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| Presbyopia illustration. Photo: Getty Images /iStockphoto/ Liudmila Chernetska |
- As we age, the sensory functions of the human body will slowly decrease. One of them is the sense of sight, where many elderly people experience presbyopia.
Apart from age, there are a number of other factors that cause a person to experience presbyopia. Want to know the causes and symptoms of presbyopia? Check out the explanation in this article.
What is Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is a condition where the sense of sight or eyes begin to lose focus when seeing objects that are close. Presbyopia is also known as old eye because many sufferers are aged 40 years and over.
Quoting My Cleveland Clinic, this can happen because the natural lens of the human eye becomes less flexible as we age.
As a reminder, presbyopia is part of the natural human aging process and is not a disease. That way, old eyes can be treated by using glasses, contact lenses, or carrying out minor surgery.
Causes of Presbyopia
Apart from age and the eye's natural lens becoming less flexible, there are a number of other factors that cause a person to experience presbyopia, namely:
Suffering from nearsightedness
Taking certain medications, such as antihistamines or antidepressants
Have a history of certain diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or multiple sclerosis (MS).
Presbyopia Symptoms
A person will experience a number of symptoms that indicate presbyopia. Reported by the Mayo Clinic, here are a number of symptoms of presbyopia:
Needs more light while reading
Blurred vision when reading at normal distances
Feeling a headache when reading at close range
The eyes will feel tense, this makes the eyes easily sore and tired.
How to Overcome Presbyopia
If you start to find it difficult to read at close range, it could be that your sense of sight is experiencing presbyopia. However, you need to remember that old eyes are not a disease and can still be overcome.
An easy way to overcome presbyopia is to use reading glasses. Apart from that, you can also use bifocal or multifocal contact lenses.
However, in some cases, a number of people choose to overcome presbyopia by having LASIK surgery. However, this method requires quite a large cost.
Tips for Preventing Presbyopia from an Early Age
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. For this reason, detikers should take early precautions to avoid experiencing presbyopia.
What are some tips for preventing presbyopia? Check it out below:
Wear sunglasses when outdoors to avoid direct exposure to sunlight
Consume foods rich in nutrients to improve eye health, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and lutein
Get enough rest at night
Avoid smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages
Routinely check your eyes with a doctor.
That's a discussion about presbyopia starting from the definition, causes, symptoms, and how to overcome it. Hopefully this article can increase detikers' knowledge.