Vision
From the moment we are born, our vision develops to serve us for the rest of our lives. During our early years problems could manifest sometimes in seemingly unrelated ways; learning difficulties, clumsiness, poor sport performance, sport preferences … to name but a few. Early diagnosis and corrective action could sometimes be life changing. It is for these reasons that children should have their eyes tested early and regularly.
In our teen to adult life time, in any of these situations, our best vision is essential … interestingly, 80% of our actions is initiated by vision.
At the age of 35 years, our body cells have reached our maximum growth and from hereon our eyes may start to experience difficulty with close-up sustained focusing, eg. reading books, watching TV, mobile digital viewing. Our internal eye lenses start to lose their flexibility even without symptoms particularly if we don’t encourage their flexibility; then when we experience focusing symptoms we are diagnosed with the onset of Presbyopia.
With our busy lifestyle of convenience and disposability we rush out to purchase-over-the-counter reading spectacles at the first instance as these are available without the need for an eye check. It is a much better idea to have your eyes checked by an optometrist who is trained to measure exactly at which stage of Presbyopia you are in as this is a developing eye condition that changes with ageing and may be influenced by your near visual demands/habits. Lens laboratories are always developing innovative types of lenses based on complicated mathematical algorithms to match the comfort and types of demands that we unconsciously make of our eyes even though our eyes are nearing their sell-by-date either due to ageing or poor habits of stressing our vision.
With longer life expectancy, many of us will develop cataracts, glaucoma or macular degeneration in our later years. When we consider the frightening consequences of failing vision or even going blind it is surprising how many people may not bother to have their eyes examined regularly.
Besides optimal vision correction/assistance the health of our eyes is just as important and tests for various disorders or even minor eye mishaps mean that potential problems can be diagnosed and treated at the earliest possible stage.
In our twilight years, our vision deteriorates whilst we develop cataracts or glaucoma or macular problems because light pathways to the optic nerve are affected – without light there can be no vision.