Does everyone eventually need to wear glasses?
RunsWithBees
Posts: 1,508 Member
I’ll be 45 years old this year and I’ve never needed glasses, my vision is still good both up close and far. I haven’t had a check up at an optometrist’s office before simply because I haven’t needed to. My doc does a simple eye exam with an eye chart at my yearly physical and everything has been normal so far. My father got reading glasses when he was a bit younger than me but still only needs them for reading and he’ll be 75 (mother died younger than me but never had glasses) I notice a lot of people my age hold printed material out at arms length to read it and it seems like so many people wear glasses or contacts these days I was just wondering if it’s an inevitable fact that everyone needs glasses eventually (readers or otherwise) or does anyone know anybody who is significantly elderly and still has good vision? I guess eventually I’ll get a complete eye exam just in case but wondered if glasses are definitely in my future at some point simply due to aging? Does nutrition or exercise make any difference? Just curious 
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Good question. Every elderly person I can think of needs some type of glasses. Also I hear a lot of people my age starting to complain about needing glasses.
I'm only speaking from experience, but I've gone the opposite way.
I wore glasses since grade school. About a year and a half after eating healthy and working out consistently I had to get new glasses because the current ones were too strong.
2 years after that I no longer need to wear glasses! I can see distances very clearly and I can see driving at night. I read books almost every night as well and no problems there either. It has been an amazing experience.
I've done nothing but completely change my nutrition and fitness is a huge part of my life. I have no idea what the future will hold though, but I still get my eye exams.6 -
Theoretically, yes, everyone will eventually need glasses and if they do not they are simply living without and compensating. The issue of holding materials at arms length to read it but being functional in all other aspects is a function of the elasticity of the eye. Your eye is a muscle like anything else. To quickly adjust to looking across the room vs. reading a paper on your desk it changes shape ever so slightly to focus. Think of a magnifying glass getting closer or farther away from the paper to achieve focus. Your eye does that naturally, but as you age just like with skin or joints that elasticity diminishes. I had LASIK 5 years ago but was told inevitably I'll still need "cheaters" someday.6
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I like to have a glass with gin and tonic with me - with lots of lemon, for the vitamins. Most people wear glasses as a fashion item, waist of money i'd say. Prescription glasses? Your optometrist will tell you soon enough during your bi - yearly check up. My parents told me to eat lots of carrots - because: "did you ever see a bunny rabbit with glasses?" And if you can't see a pretty lady walking by any longer, then.....11
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You mention you haven't had a full eye exam. I think they're a good idea every couple of years just for overall eye health and to check for bad things like glaucoma that you can't detect on your own.10
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I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)3
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My optometrist said yes when I asked this, but some can get by with grocery store reading glasses.
I'm still doing that at 58.1 -
Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.3 -
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You mention you haven't had a full eye exam. I think they're a good idea every couple of years just for overall eye health and to check for bad things like glaucoma that you can't detect on your own.
Agree. Working in the eye field, an eye exam is about way more than just checking your vision. There's a number of other things that can happen in the eye from glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, abrasions. Eye health check ups can also detect tumors, heart issues, diabetes. So many things.
And yes, eventually 99% of people will at least need reading glasses.4 -
Keeping tract of my cheaters is just one of my issues with reading glasses. Where did I leave them now? Overall, I need them to read what I think of as fine print when actually it isn't fine print.1
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Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.
I think this is actually the same thing as people with fine far vision needing readers. According to my optometrist it's the same principle. If I didn't want to take off my glasses, I would need bifocals. I noticed the need to start taking off my glasses to read around 40, about the same time others my age are starting to need readers. I had LASIK 20 years ago to correct the near sightedness, but it's finally degraded enough that I have to wear glasses to watch TV and drive. Honestly I should pretty much wear them all the time now, but I don't yet. And they spend half of their time on my head because I'm always trying to do up close work/read.3 -
The 99 percent figure is probably right.
Not everybody.
My dad lived into his 80s and never needed glasses to read.1 -
Exactly how I understand it too.mom23mangos wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.
I think this is actually the same thing as people with fine far vision needing readers. According to my optometrist it's the same principle. If I didn't want to take off my glasses, I would need bifocals. I noticed the need to start taking off my glasses to read around 40, about the same time others my age are starting to need readers. I had LASIK 20 years ago to correct the near sightedness, but it's finally degraded enough that I have to wear glasses to watch TV and drive. Honestly I should pretty much wear them all the time now, but I don't yet. And they spend half of their time on my head because I'm always trying to do up close work/read.
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I've been severely nearsighted since 6th grade. After my vision mostly settled, I couldn't see clearly at a distance greater than about 9 inches. In my mid-forties, that moved out to about 12 inches which still isn't very helpful.
The only time I take my glasses off during the day is to clean them. I use Progressive lenses (no-line multifocals) and my glasses sit high enough so that I can look underneath the frame if I want to look directly at something.
OP, you will likely need readers as you age and perhaps for distance as well. In any case, you should make an appointment now to get your eyes checked by someone who specializes in eyes. They need a record of changes over time in order to assess and treat issues properly.1 -
RowingBill wrote: »Keeping tract of my cheaters is just one of my issues with reading glasses. Where did I leave them now? Overall, I need them to read what I think of as fine print when actually it isn't fine print.
I got near vision (monovision) correction (one eye surgery to see close up) other eye was fine, use it for distance.
Hated those *kitten* reading glasses.1 -
I am 75 years old, and I started to have vision problems in second grade. Wore glasses on and off for my nearsighted since I was a child. As I got older trying to read without glasses was difficult, but I got better at long distance. I wear bifocals contact lenses but I also have glasses with progressive lenses.
When I wear my contact lenses, I need sometimes readers for menus or to read labels in the market, specially if the letters are too small. With age, driving at night is also more difficult so I avoid it as much as possible. When I do have to drive at night, the lenses provide better vision than the contacts.
I was told by the optometrist and eye doctor that genetics plays a factor too. Both of my parents and my brother needed glasses to read, but they were not farsighted as I remember. My youngest son wears glasses most of the time now and my oldest needs reading glasses as well.
I carry a pair of readers in my purse, I also have one pair in the kitchen, and another one in my home office. I ask the optometrist what is the better power to wear when I have the contacts on and I buy them in Walgreen.
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monkeefan1974 wrote: »I’ll be 45 years old this year and I’ve never needed glasses, my vision is still good both up close and far. I haven’t had a check up at an optometrist’s office before simply because I haven’t needed to. My doc does a simple eye exam with an eye chart at my yearly physical and everything has been normal so far. My father got reading glasses when he was a bit younger than me but still only needs them for reading and he’ll be 75 (mother died younger than me but never had glasses) I notice a lot of people my age hold printed material out at arms length to read it and it seems like so many people wear glasses or contacts these days I was just wondering if it’s an inevitable fact that everyone needs glasses eventually (readers or otherwise) or does anyone know anybody who is significantly elderly and still has good vision? I guess eventually I’ll get a complete eye exam just in case but wondered if glasses are definitely in my future at some point simply due to aging? Does nutrition or exercise make any difference? Just curious
@monkeefan1974 it varies from person to person like with the onset of cataracts or macular degeneration, etc.
One does not go to the optometrist's office because they can not see well but to check on the internal health of our eyes/body. They do not have to skin us to get a view of our blood flow for example.
Too much pressure in the eye can reduce the blood flow to the eye and we go blind from macular degeneration because that brain tissue dies due to restricted blood flow. Type 2 diabetes damage can start many years before our fasting blood glucose is high enough for the doctors to treat it by today's standard of care. The same with the onset of dementia that is associated with type 2 diabetes often.
It has been said the eyes are a window to see the soul and in a sense that is true.
The leading causes of blindness in the world are in most all cases preventable. Many other diseases/health issues can be picked up with a good visual health exam.
Yes nutrition and exercise can make a huge difference between good, poor and no vision.6 -
I recently found out that LASIK eventually wears off. No one told me that when I had it done, at least not that I remember. I’m the last of my 3 sisters to have it wear off and it took about 15 years. My optometrist pointed it out at my last appointment. I’m just starting to need cheaters occasionally at 46, and my distance vision is getting crummy again. My doctor said it should never be as bad as it was originally, which is a relief. It stinks not to be able to see close up or far away and I may need to get bifocals because the switching back and forth and taking glasses off is getting annoying! Oh, the joys of aging.2
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I recently found out that LASIK eventually wears off. No one told me that when I had it done, at least not that I remember. I’m the last of my 3 sisters to have it wear off and it took about 15 years. My optometrist pointed it out at my last appointment. I’m just starting to need cheaters occasionally at 46, and my distance vision is getting crummy again. My doctor said it should never be as bad as it was originally, which is a relief. It stinks not to be able to see close up or far away and I may need to get bifocals because the switching back and forth and taking glasses off is getting annoying! Oh, the joys of aging.
When I had my monivision correction I was told that changes in the shape of my eyes could make the surgery "wear off" just like natural changes to the eye impact vision.
They didn't guarantee a timeframe but said should last at least 7 years (its past thst) and could have the surgery again.3 -
Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
I'm kinda in that realm. I'm Mr Magoo without my contacts. Now that I'm a man of that age where my arms are too short and the lights are too dim, I've moved to monovision for my contact prescription. Don't know why I didn't do that years ago.
My dominate eye is corrected for distance, my near eye, for near vision.
Now if I'm taking a road trip, especially if there is going to be night driving, I'll wear a distance lens in my non-dominate eye. Then it's where are my readers for restaurant menus. But day to day, I do the monovision thing.
I'm fortunate that I wear the same distance lens in both eyes, so I just got an extra 6 months of distance lenses for my non-dominate eye.
I wear day night lenses for 30 days, and then take them out. So I got 18 distance lenses and 12 near vision lenses and I'm good for a year.
Not everybody can tolerate monovision.
I tried it over Christmas break, just going without my non-dominate eye correction for a week while I was at home. I could get by, but still had to put things close to my eye to read. The lesser correction in my non-dominate eye lets me sit at a normal vision from my computer or read a book, small print on bottles and packages, etc, without having to locate my readers.
Of course, on the few days I give my eyes a break from the contacts, I wear my glasses, and like your hubby, I take them off to read, but have to hold things closer than is typical.
Before that, I had readers everywhere. I bought the little folding ones and even kept a pair with my when I would cycle in case I had to fix something on my bike and needed to see up close.3 -
Wow
Thanks everybody! This has been an eye opening thread 
I will get a proper eye exam soon if nothing else but to have a baseline for future reference. I cherish my vision every single day and never take it for granted. I suppose one day glasses might be in everyone’s future, mine included I appreciate everyone’s insights and anecdotes, thank you for sharing! 1 -
tbright1965 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
Not everybody can tolerate monovision.
My eye doctor said studies show only about 5% of the population has issues with it. Before I had monovision correction surgery they had me wear a contact to simulate the results of the surgery to make sure there was no problem.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »tbright1965 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
Not everybody can tolerate monovision.
My eye doctor said studies show only about 5% of the population has issues with it. Before I had monovision correction surgery they had me wear a contact to simulate the results of the surgery to make sure there was no problem.
I tried it with contacts and couldn't stand it. I'd rather correct for distance and wear readers than have somewhat sucky distance vision and somewhat sucky up close vision.3 -
Yes, almost everybody eventually needs reading glasses.
Long distance is often fine for life but nearly everyone around 50ish starts needing reading glasses.
Although my husband is 59 and he hasn't yet.1 -
Everyone loses lens accommodation as part of the normal human aging process - the ability of your lens to ball/stretch to focus the image of an up close to arms length object on your retina properly. It is because your lens hardens, making it too rigid to do so.
It is called presbyopia. Google can provide tons of information on etiology, treatment, etc.
It can be permanently surgically corrected, but it ain't cheap and it is invasive. Plus only one of IIRC, 2 or 3, surgical methods have been approved in the US to date for actual lens (i.e., closest to restoring to pre-presbyopia vision functionally and structurally) replacement.
ETA: 40 years old is the average a lot of resources cite for onset for, but it can happen younger or much older. Mine started at 37. Also, it can be a very rapid vs. gradual/slow process. I needed readers within six months of first noticing I could no longer read fine print like I always could. Neither of my parents needed readers until their late 50s/early 60s.
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My vision improved as I got older. I use to have to wear glasses while driving at night. Haven't had to wear glasses anytime the past 8 years now.2
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Nope. The world just starts using smaller fonts as you age.
Seriously, Dr. Dean Edell once said that you can usually guess a person's age over 40 within a few months by looking at how their near vision deteriorates.1 -
dukeingram wrote: »My vision improved as I got older. I use to have to wear glasses while driving at night. Haven't had to wear glasses anytime the past 8 years now.
Could it be that as your near vision worsened it "evened out" your distant vision?0 -
monkeefan1974 wrote: »I’ll be 45 years old this year and I’ve never needed glasses, my vision is still good both up close and far. I haven’t had a check up at an optometrist’s office before simply because I haven’t needed to. My doc does a simple eye exam with an eye chart at my yearly physical and everything has been normal so far. My father got reading glasses when he was a bit younger than me but still only needs them for reading and he’ll be 75 (mother died younger than me but never had glasses) I notice a lot of people my age hold printed material out at arms length to read it and it seems like so many people wear glasses or contacts these days I was just wondering if it’s an inevitable fact that everyone needs glasses eventually (readers or otherwise) or does anyone know anybody who is significantly elderly and still has good vision? I guess eventually I’ll get a complete eye exam just in case but wondered if glasses are definitely in my future at some point simply due to aging? Does nutrition or exercise make any difference? Just curious
I would say the vast majority of people will at some point at least need readers. As you age, things deteriorate, including your eyesight.
I am very near sited (-8 in each eye) and have worn glasses since I was 12. I've just recently needed readers (over the past year). A lot of people are in denial about needing readers too...hence people holding out a piece of paper at arms length to read it. My wife is pretty much in denial even though she's tried my readers on and can read much easier. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is.
I'd also recommend a full eye exam at least every couple of years even if your eyesight is good. An eye exam is not just about your current vision, it can detect a lot of things that you're not going to be able to detect on your own...same reason people should have an annual physical even if they feel physically fine.1 -
Apart from knowing that vision can be affected by certain diseases like diabetes, I've never heard about any specific nutrition plan that would make a huge difference to your vision. I've had glasses since 2nd or 3rd grade and have had annual checkups all my life, and diet and exercise have never come up. Maybe I'm wrong, but if you could actually change or improve your vision just with nutrition and exercise, I think I would have heard about it from an eye doctor at some point.
Congrats on getting to 45 with no vision issues! I'm 43 and I've definitely seen a change in my near vision in the last few years. Ugh. You may eventually need reading glasses, but if your vision has remained perfect for this long, that may be all you ever need.1
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