Eyesight going downhill

[giggirl]

I was lucky enough to have 20:20 vision all my life. Until 40. After 40 well, let's just say that my arms aren't long enough to read a menu. I'm sure that some of the local eateries think I must actually be unable to read at all, as I insist that the menu is read to me, or just order ?the usual?. I do have reading glasses but it?s a slippery slope once you start to wear them they quickly become not strong enough.

There?s a school of thought that says that the eye is just a muscle and there are exercises you can do to get your eyesight back up to par. Does anyone have any experience here? Any luck? I?ve bought myself some Traynor Pinhole glasses. They look weird. Has anyone tried them? They?ve just arrived and the instructions are in small print ? oh the irony!

[HAL9000]

I tried these eye exercises years ago: they seemed to work for me: The Bates method.

[brum]

Yes I've got some of those glasses, GG. I suspect they look silly on me though, what do you think?

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=4703121c51&view=att&th=126515791cb634e7&attid=0.1&disp=thd&zw

[fractionater]

google "Eye Yoga"

not sure if its all "Quackery" though.

Alternatively does lasreing work for long sightness? I had mine done for short sight about 5 yrs ago... best money i ever spent!

[Sue]

Life's too short, lol.

Just grit your teeth and wear the spex :))

Now, if you were short-sighted like me you could have super duper varifocal contact lenses, best invention since - oh, the last best invention. No need for reading glasses at all! Hurrah! Well, except in very dim light :-$

Edited to say: I believe if you have lasered eyes for short sight you will still need reading glasses as you get older, though I may be completely wrong.

[SteveT]

Drop into asda OKR and buy a pair for a tenner, they also loan you a page with different font sizes to practice with.

[bob]

No prob's just get arm extensions

Bob S

OPP'S

[reggie]

the other Bob wouldn't have got his apostrophe wrong

it's a silly little thing but...

[Sue]

SteveT Wrote:

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> Drop into asda OKR and buy a pair for a tenner,

> they also loan you a page with different font

> sizes to practice with.

xxxxxx

A tenner? You can get them in Primark for about a quid!

:))

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I had to get specs a little while ago. If you have your prescription, Asda and Morrisons do quite reasonable ones.

I have to confess that I completely embraced the fact. Can't wait to be a completely dotty old bird. Must find me some dangly things to hang them round my neck.

Purple hats next.

[PeckhamRose]

My prescription is +10.75 on each eye.

Them's THICK GLASSES!

So I wear contact lenses. Only recently has the technology been there to do the laser thing on me (inserting a lens in the eye I want you should know!) but it would cost ?3grand per eye which I do not have. Now I have found I need reading glasses on top of wearing my lenses, at +1.25.

Glasses Direct stop at +8.

This is all very expensive!

giggirl, I wish you well mate!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Ooh - twins PR! I'm +1.25 too. Go cheap version at pound shops and supermarkets.

[giggirl]

Thanks to everyone.

PR - OMG that is a lot of money. Ouch

PGC - I'm dotty enough darling, I don't need any accessories!

I think I'm going to give the eye exercises a go. I shall probably look like I'm gurning but nevertheless. After 40 odd years of not needing glasses (and I know I should be grateful) I do sort of resent them. Going to try and exercise my eye muscles. I'll be walking into a lampost near you any moment now.

Px

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Don't eschew them, think of all the frames you could match to shoes.

[Izodia]

Yes, glasses can be yet another fashion accessory. I'm wearing a fabulous Chanel pair as we speak...

[Sue]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> IMust find me some dangly things to hang them

> round my neck.

>

> xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yeh I did that when I first needed reading glasses and didn't have varifocal contact lenses.

They got dislodged from the cord, and I trod on them and broke them.

I also used to wear my reading glasses on top of my ordinary glasses, on days I couldn't be arsed to put my lenses in.

I used to get some very strange looks from the postman as I used to forget I had two pairs of spex on.

:))

[PeckhamRose]

gg that's +1.25 reading glasses (yes, PGC from chemists and supermarkets) ON TOP OF +10.75 contact lenses from opticians.

Exercises never helped me!

Neither did laziness. I was at a boarding school and we broke into the sanitarium section and learned the eye chart off by heart. Ahem....

[fractionater]

When I had my eyes lasered over 5years ago, it cost me ?5.5k..and my prescription was -9 in both eyes.... but still the best money i ever spent.

[PeckhamRose]

I would love to have the laser treatment but simply can't afford it.

And if I did have that kind of money I'd rather get up and go travel!

gg what you gonna do, what kind of exercises?

Why don't you do it on one eye and see what the differences are? !!

[TE44]

Lie us know how the exercises go giggirl, the bates method was used successfully by Aldious Huxley,

he wrote a book called The Art Of Seeing. I've picked up a couple of more recently published books based

on this method, but friends reverted to wearing glasses, and althouygh took the books didn't read them.

Glad to hear they worked for you HAL900.

[Loz]

Blimey fractionator, I'm of similar blindness levels as you were (very slightly better) and I baulked at laser surgery as the consultant said I was a borderline case. They would have to zap a third of the thickness of my cornea, which is pretty much the max they will do. I decided to stick with the galsses & lenses.

Incidentally, I am rubbish reading in dim light with my (short sighted) glasses/lenses, but excellent without them. No probs with taking off the glasses, but shifting one lens aside for a quick read is rather weird...

[HAL9000]

TE44 Wrote:

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> the bates method was used successfully by Aldious Huxley ...

The wiki page linked to above features an interesting eyewitness account about this very point that one should read before praising Huxley's success.

> Glad to hear they worked for you HAL900.

I was twelve at the time. Had I read the wiki page then, I doubt I would have bothered. But I think some of the exercises did bring about an improvement and I still do them from time to time.

[Narnia]

I've only read the subject matter. Is this a Winter Olympic sport?

[Sue]

TE44 Wrote:

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> Lie us know how the exercises go giggirl, the

> bates method was used successfully by Aldious

> Huxley,

>

xxxxxxxxx

Didn't help him to spell his name right,though :)

[brum]

If I appear blurry to you in this photo, then you probably need specs like mine!;-)