As you grow older, there are various health challenges that naturally arise with age. However, by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and having regular health exams, you can be one of the 41% of adults over 65 who say they have very good or excellent health. No matter your age, it’s important to learn what to expect from your eyesight and how you can promote healthy aging.
While you age, so do your eyes. After you reach 40, you might notice that it becomes harder to focus on things closer to you. That’s because the crystalline lens within your eyes is composed of proteins. The proteins are soft and flexible when you are younger, but as you age they become harder and less flexible. When the lens loses its ability to flex, it is no longer able to change its shape and effectively bend light rays as sharply thus diminishing the eye’s ability to focus on near objects. When presbyopia begins, people who already wear glasses may need bifocals or trifocals, and those who have never worn glasses may require reading glasses.
Other than presbyopia, there are several other eye problems and diseases that are related to age. Some of them include:
Cataracts
By age 75 about half of all Americans have cataracts. Cataracts are extremely common among people over the age of 60 and are a normal change that comes with age. But what exactly is a cataract, and how do you know if you have one?
A cataract is a clouding of the lens inside the eye. If you have a cataract, your vision will look hazy, blurred, or less colorful – like looking through a foggy, frosted, or yellowed window. Yet, the good news is, your vision can be successfully restored with surgery.
Safe, simple, and relatively painless, more than 3 million Americans each year have cataract surgery. During cataract surgery, your eye doctor removes the clouded lens and replaces it with an intraocular lens (IOL). This clear, plastic lens helps you regain most to all of your vision. To help you achieve your goal of clear vision, there are various types of IOLs available to suit your needs.
- Monofocal Lens Implants – Provide clear, distance vision, but require glasses to focus on objects close up.
- Toric Lens Implants – If you’ve been diagnosed with astigmatism, which can distort your vision, this IOL can correct it at the same time.
- Multifocal and Accommodative Lens Implants – Similar to monofocal lenses, multifocal and accommodative lenses can give you distance vision; however, you can be less dependent on glasses since they also provide near focusing as well.
To help you determine which IOL is best for you, your eye doctor will examine your eyes and discuss your unique vision needs.
Since cataracts and other eye diseases develop with time, you may not notice them at first. Having routine eye exams allows you to be aware of and track any changes in your vision. If you think you may be affected by cataracts or have noticed any changes in your vision, don’t hesitate to talk to your eye doctor.
For more information on cataract surgery and how it can benefit you, download our free guide, Get the Facts on Cataracts or you can call us at (309) 243-2400 to schedule an appointment with our eye care specialists today.