Read all about Reduced eyesight
On this page you can read everything about reduced eyesight. If you want to find out what your symptoms mean, or what a doctor would think of. Do the symptomcheck
What is reduced eyesight?
With reduced eyesight one of the first complaints, other than reduced eyesight itself, are usually either headaches or tiredness at the end of the day. Wether it’s during childhood or later in life, reduced eyesight causes you to strain the muscles around your eyes to try and focus. This strain ultimately causes most of the complaints other than the reduced vision itself.
What are symptoms of reduced eyesight?
- Blurry vision
- Inability to focus
- Headaches
- Tiredness
Is reduced eyesight serious and should I see a doctor?
In most cases reduced eyesight is irreversible but not serious. There are some causes of reduced eyesight, especially reduced eyesight that develops in a matter of days, that can be reversible, like infection or inflammation.
Contact a doctor:
- If you have inflammation of your eye for over 3 days
Immediately contact a doctor:
- With injury to the eye
- With foreign objects in the eye
- With puss coming from the eye
- Sudden loss of eyesight
- Seeing flashes
- Moderate to severe pain
What can I do about reduced eyesight myself?
- The most imporant thing to do about reduced eyesight is to get your vision measured
- You can check your vision at an optometrist
- Once your vision is assessed, you can get the necessary glasses or contact lenses
- To avoid straining your eyes:
- Make sure you have sufficient lighting for reading and working
- Take brakes and avoid long, uninterupted periods of staring at a computer screen or reading
How do reduced eyesight affect my body?
Several different things can cause a decline in vision. For some people a loss of vision starts during childhood, for others far after retirement. All through life there can be a decline in eyesight, mostly due to a loss of the ability to focus. The eye continiously has to accomodate for different distances to the objects your trying to focus on. To do this, the muscles controling the eye have to be able to slightly change the shape of the lense for each distance. The higher the age, the more difficult it becomes to accomodate for all different situations. Because it takes more strain to look at objects which are close up, reduced vision caused by natural aging often starts with problems reading, so a first step is often to get reading glasses.
Though loss of vision can be natural process there are several other conditions that can cause this. Cataract, glaucoma and diabetes are well known causes of loss of vision, which often require more treatment than just glasses or contact lenses. Though they are well known, the most common cause of reduced eyesight is a natural decline of the eyes ability to focus.