How Eyesight Changes As We Get Older
With the process of aging, our body goes through many changes. The change in people’s eyesight as we grow older is one of them. As we age, our other body organs, like tissues and muscles, weaken, and our eyes do as well.
Eyesight decreases as people age due to multiple causes and different intensities. The primary reason is aging, and other factors include quality of lifestyle, vision habits, and exposure to various hazards like UV lights.
The first cause that directly affects every person’s eyesight is aging, which wears down different eye parts like eye muscles, weakness, lubrication, stiffness in the lens, cornea, and retina thinning. These aging effects slow down the ability of the eye to naturally adjust the light intensity (as we discussed in a previous article, How the Human Eye Works), ultimately leading to aging-based vision problems when people get older.
The lens’s stiffness, also called presbyopia, typically starts around the age of 40. The lens starts losing its flexibility, which makes it hard to focus on close objects and requires people to move them away for clear vision. For example, when you read a book with presbyopia, you have to hold it farther away.
As we age, tear production slows down, reducing lubrication in the eyes. This leads to dryness that may damage the vital machinery of the eyes, like the cornea and retina. Reduction in eye lubrication starts affecting vision at the age of 50.
Another effect of aging is the accumulation of protein mass on the eye lens, which is called cataracts or clouding of the eye. Due to cataracts, vision becomes blurry, and people cannot recognise and identify different colours. It is usually affected at 60 and is treatable by surgery.
Some people’s peripheral and night vision is reduced as they age, and they can’t see on the sides without turning their heads. This is the most common effect of aging. In the case of decreased night vision, people cannot work in dim light due to the pupils becoming more minor and less responsive, brightness changes (increase or decrease), and they do not adjust accordingly.
The second cause is exposure to an unhealthy lifestyle, which starts affecting vision at a young age and becomes severe with age. This includes direct exposure to UV radiation, oxidative stress, over-pressure on the eyes, anxiety and stress, work in an unfriendly environment, and poor nutrition.
Due to these factors, the risk of eyesight damage and eye diseases becomes increased. Some common eye diseases include glaucoma, AMD (age-related molecular degeneration), and diabetic retinopathy. Ultimately, we can’t avoid the natural causes of decreased eyesight, but we can minimise it by taking good care of this natural asset.
A luminance contrast between surfaces and lettering on signage and product labels can help.
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