Fujian man collapses: I am only 40, how can I have this problem...

Speaking of presbyopia

Do you have the impression that he is an elderly person?

The image of reading a newspaper or book with a magnifying glass?

In many people’s inherent impression

Presbyopia is exclusive to the elderly

However, in ophthalmology clinics

There are more and more people born in the 1980s

…

Make a figure

40 years old is already "flowering"

Mr. Shen (pseudonym) from Fuzhou is 40 years old this year. He is an illustrator and also a figurine enthusiast who often makes his own figurines. Since last year, he has tried live streaming figurine making. He does some during the day when he is free, and regularly broadcasts for 2-3 hours at night, and also broadcasts on weekends and holidays.

Unexpectedly, after a few months of production, he found that he occasionally had trouble seeing the small parts in his hands clearly during the live broadcast , and often had to take off his glasses and refocus before he could continue.

For this reason, Mr. Shen went to the hospital's eye department for a check-up and found that he had begun to suffer from presbyopia.

Since Mr. Shen already had myopia and astigmatism , he had no choice but to get a new pair of glasses with the existing degree reduced by 100 degrees, and wear two pairs of glasses alternately .
As a "post-80s"

Mr. Shen still finds it difficult to accept himself

The fact of suddenly becoming "old"

But clinically

Cases like Mr. Shen's are not uncommon.

Dr. Tang Shumin, chief ophthalmologist at the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, said: "Although presbyopia has the word 'old' in it, it is an inevitable phenomenon in middle age . 40 years old is like a watershed, and the peak of presbyopia occurs at 42-44 years old .

Dr. Tang has seen many patients born in the 1980s aged 37-38, most of whom are writers and IT workers. According to the 2023 China Presbyopia Population Insight Report, there are 390 million people over the age of 35 in China who need to solve presbyopia problems, accounting for nearly 30% of the total population of China.
People with myopia are less likely to have presbyopia? Wrong!

Many people think that presbyopia is when you can't see things up close. In fact, the early symptoms of presbyopia are often not sudden blurred vision, but a gradual worsening process.

▶ The initial symptoms may be due to the decline in the adjustment ability of the ciliary muscles of the eyes. Looking at close objects for a long time may cause eye fatigue . Close work such as reading cannot be sustained. Symptoms of visual fatigue such as eye pain, tearing, and headaches may occur, which require rest to relieve.

▶Further development may lead to difficulty in seeing close objects . You may need to hold your phone or newspapers further away, or tilt your head back to increase the viewing distance, and squint to see fonts and objects clearly.

There has always been a saying that if you are nearsighted when you are young, you will not suffer from presbyopia when you are older, but this is not true.

Dr. Tang Introduction

Myopia and presbyopia are essentially two completely different concepts .

Myopia is a type of refractive error, which is mainly caused by the excessive length of the eye axis or the mismatch of the eye's refractive structure, resulting in blurred vision at a distance.

Presbyopia is a physiological condition caused by the decreased accommodation ability due to the "aging and hardening" of the lens and the decline of ciliary muscle function.

Regardless of whether you have refractive problems such as myopia or hyperopia, you will experience presbyopia once you enter middle age or old age.

People with myopia need minus lenses (concave lenses) to disperse light, while people with presbyopia need positive lenses (convex lenses) to converge light. Therefore, after myopic people develop presbyopia, they cannot use the original glasses when looking at close objects. They need to reduce the degree of myopia to see close objects . For some people with low myopia, this is like taking off the myopia glasses. Therefore, this makes people mistakenly believe that myopic people will not develop presbyopia when they get older.

Reverse shooting practice can slow down the onset of presbyopia

For those with early symptoms of presbyopia , you can try practicing reverse mirror (also known as flip mirror, double-sided mirror, butterfly mirror) .

The reverse racket is composed of two pairs of positive and negative spherical lenses of equal degree. It can be used with vision cards to detect and train the adjustment sensitivity of one or both eyes.

"Of course, reverse beat training can only train the regulatory function of the ciliary muscle to a certain extent, delaying the progression of presbyopia, but it cannot solve presbyopia ," Dr. Tang emphasized.

For people who already have presbyopia, wearing reading glasses with appropriate degrees is the most reliable and effective way to correct presbyopia , especially for the "early visual aging group" around their 40s and 50s who often have to look at computers and read text. Not wearing reading glasses will lead to more serious visual fatigue and increase the burden on the ciliary muscles.

People with myopia can wear two pairs of glasses or use progressive multifocal lenses to meet their vision needs at different distances, such as far, medium and near. However, it should be noted that patients must undergo strict examinations and fittings to confirm the additional presbyopia required on the basis of correcting the original refractive error.

However, these glasses are not fixed once they are fitted. As age increases and cataracts occur, the degree of the glasses will change and they will need to be checked and replaced regularly .

In addition, in recent years, laser surgery can also correct presbyopia to a certain extent, but laser surgery can only delay the need to wear glasses for presbyopia. Real presbyopia still exists , but you may not need to wear glasses for a few years or even tens of years.

In fact, many people now need to face computer screens for long periods of time at work, and lie down to play with their mobile phones after work. They lack outdoor activities that can relax the eyes . These are behaviors that increase the burden on the eyes, over-burden the adjustment power of the ciliary muscles, and presbyopia comes early.