Find solution
Is getting your eyes lasered dangerous?

How do I prevent my eyes from getting worse?

  • I fear I'm slowly but surely becoming Mr. Magoo. Is there anything I can do to preserve my eyesight? I have been nearsighted for most of my life. I got my first pair of glasses in fifth grade. My eyes became progressively worse through high school. And then, as expected, the progression stabilized when I hit my early twenties. I kind of expected that my eyesight would remain stable for at least a couple decades or so. However, since I started on my second degree my eyes have gone downhill once more. And now that I'm working, I'm chained to desk between 8 and 12 hours a day, squinting at a computer monitor. If my eyes keep getting worse at this rate, I will not be able to see diddlysquat by the time I'm 40. I'd like to get laser treatment eventually, but it'll be a waste if my eyes keep getting worse. My optometrist once told me that a weaker prescription is better for nearsighted work, such as reading, so I ordered my contact lenses slightly under-strength (I don't drive). Currently I'm wearing 6.5 in one eye and 5.25 in the other. What else can I do? Am I causing my increasing nearsightedness, or is it genetic and beyond my control? Is it possible to exercise eyes?

  • Answer:

    squinting at a computer monitor. This has absolutely nothing to do with your eyesight. Visine or other lubrication also will have absolutely nothing to do with it: the focal length of your eye depends on the shape and curvature of the cornea, not on whether your eyes dry out at night. Age-related presbyopia is caused in part by a weakening of the eye muscles, so they can no longer flex the cornea as effectively -- so there's at least a theoretical basis for expecting that exercises might help with presbyopia (though as far as I know this has yet to be confirmed by any reputable clinical trials.) In any case this isn't relevant to you, because you have the opposite of presbyopia. For myopia,The American Academy of Ophthalmology task force on complementary therapy performed an assessment of the effectiveness on eye exercises and visual training in reducing myopia. Their conclusions were: There is level I evidence that visual training for control of accommodation has no effect on myopia. In other studies (level II/III evidence), an improvement in subjective visual acuity for patients with myopia who have undertaken visual training has been shown but no corresponding physiological cause for the improvement has been demonstrated. The improvements in myopic patients noted in these studies have been postulated to be due to improvements in interpreting blurred images, changes in mood or motivation, creation of an artificial contact lens by tear film changes, or a pinhole effect from miosis of the pupil. No evidence was found that visual training has any effect on the progression of myopia. No evidence was found that visual training improves visual function for patients with hyperopia or astigmatism. No evidence was found that visual training improves vision lost through disease processes such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, or diabetic retinopathy. http://www.agingeye.net/visionbasics/visionmyths.php(Note the 'withoutglasses.com' site darth_tedious links to claims to help with presbyopia, not myopia. It's also worth noting that their little http://www.withoutglasses.com/test.html to see if their miracle method can work for you!! would work for literally anyone who has two functioning eyeballs. Color me a teeny tiny bit skeptical.) Anyway. Congratulations, you're a victim of genetics. I'd like to get laser treatment eventually, but it'll be a waste if my eyes keep getting worse. Your eyes may or may not continue to get worse, but even if you get LASIK and they do continue to deteriorate, they'd be starting from 0 instead of from -6. Not such a bad deal.

keep it under cover at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

It depends on the way that your eyesight is degenerating. Although explicitly illegal, some older people get prescriptions for human growth hormone - one of the benefits is increased muscle tone, which extends to the tone of the muscles that controls the eyes - resulting in not needing reading glasses anymore. Since you stare at a computer all day, do you keep your eyes lubricated? Don't use visine, rather go for something like Alcon Tears Naturale II (it's like visine but not bad for you) or (I can't remember the brand) Refresh Tears (it's more viscous and lasts a long time but can get gummy for me).

porpoise

Aldous Huxley wrote a book called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeingwhich is about he Bates method of strengthening the eyes. It worked for him . I don't know anything about it really so I can't say, but might be worth reading about some of the exercises. And I;m sure there are more recent eye exercise books out there.

Liquidwolf

To add to porpoise's comment, use Refresh Tears just before going to sleep too. This is something that everyone should to as your eyes tend to dry quite a bit over night.

elroyel1327

A friend is wildly enthusiastic about the results he's getting from this site's program: http://www.withoutglasses.com/

darth_tedious

I'm pretty sure it's beyond your control, but if it makes you feel better, at some point they usually stop getting worse and may even get better. I am in my mid-30s (and wear a 6.5 in both eyes) and my eyes seemed to have stopped getting worse in the last few years.

amro

Eventually you'll hit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyopia, and then you'll probably get bifocals. Happens to lots of people. I'm not your ophthalmologist, I'm just a girl who earned her first set of bifocals at age 33. (-10.25 and -4.25! WOOOO)

fairytale of los angeles

If it helps you, my eyesight is a LOT worse than yours and I share your concerns (negative eights in both eyes). I've been eating more carrots and resting my eyes when I'm at home., and looking away from the computer every few minutes.

anniecat

If you don't have an ophthalmologist, i.e., a doctor, find one and use them. You want to determine if there is a medical reason for your deteriorating vision. Most likely, though, it's just a factor of age. And, as I understand it, staring at a computer monitor all day can give you a headache, but it will not cause actual harm to your eyes. Taking breaks and looking at distant objects helps the muscles that surround your eyes, but not what's inside your eyeball. The basic reason our vision changes as we age is that the shape of our eyes changes, or so my ophthalmologist tells me.

justcorbly

I have terrible eyesight (-8.00 in each eye); I was prescribed glasses at age 8 and my sight has gone downhill every year or so since then. In fact, my eye doctor was sort of alarmed that the deterioration didn't stop when I hit my late 20s. However, a couple of years ago, in my early 30s, my eyesight improved slightly but noticeably when I stopped wearing contact lenses and switched to glasses. A trip to the eye doctor confirmed it. I was very excited and asked him what could have caused it; he said it could possibly be attributed to my switch to glasses but didn't elaborate. Maybe it has something to do with the dryness that contacts can cause. So, you could try switching from contacts to glasses. I did it after nearly 20 years of contact use, and I found it surprisingly easy. It helped to get frames that I loved, and to pay through the nose for the thinnest lenses available. However, my eye doctor also predicted that soon I would need bifocals. I am in my mid-30s, so you'll have some company soon, fairytale of los angeles. Sigh.

hurdy gurdy girl

Load more

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.