Dr. Ronnie Bonick, a neuro-ophthalmologist at Mount Sinai, explains that wearing reading glasses does not worsen your eyesight. Glasses are optical aids that focus images on the retina without changing your eye's shape. Presbyopia, the age-related decline in close-up vision, typically starts in your mid-40s to early 50s and progresses naturally over years.
Questions this episode answers
October 20, 2020.
Dr. Ronnie Bonick — board-certified neuro-ophthalmologist; associate professor at Mount Sinai, New York City.
Usually by the mid-40s to early-50s (mid-40s, late-40s, early-50s).
May start at about +0.75 to +1.00, progress over 3–5 years to +1.50–+2.00, and most people plateau around +2.50–+3.00.
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If I Start wearing Readers, Will I Make My Eyesight Worse? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the health expert. Taryn12 from Instagram asks, I've noticed my eyesight is declining. If I start wearing readers, will I make it worse? Hey, it's J.J. here. I wondered the same thing, so I brought on Dr. Ronnie Bonick. She is a board certified neuro ophthalmologist and an associate professor at Mount Sinai, New York City. And when she's not out helping improve our vision, you can find her on the dance floor doing everything from salsa to classical Indian dance. Or off the beaten path exploring far off places like Rwanda or Namibia. Stay with us. We'll be right back with the answer.
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So this is a very common myth that many people have about their vision is that if you wear glasses, particularly reading glasses, that will cause your eyesight to get worse. But the good thing is that this is simply not true. So let me explain why this myth is not true. So wearing glasses, basically, glasses or contacts, are crutches. They correct for the curvature of your eye, the front of the eye, which is called the cornea. They may correct for the length of the eye, or they may correct for the focusing ability of the lens inside your eye. So basically, glasses help an image be properly focused onto the retina. That's all they do. So it's an optical aid. And again, contacts are very similar, and we use them as crutches. They definitely help us to see more clearly, but they don't necessarily accelerate the process that's causing the problem. So, you know, wearing glasses will not change the curvature of your eye. It will not change the length of your eye. It also won't affect that condition I mentioned before, which is presbyopia. So we all develop presbyopia at some point in our lives, usually by our mid-40s, late-40s, early-50s. But wearing glasses won't necessarily accelerate presbyopia. If presbyopia will progress, and it will progress, it will happen naturally. So, for example, someone may start off with reading glasses that are on the low side, like a 0.75 or 1.00. And over time, they will ultimately need a stronger prescription. And this is a gradual process. It just doesn't. Doesn't happen within days or weeks or months. This is something that happens over years. So you may initially start off with a low prescription, but over the next three to four to five years, you may notice that your prescription is increasing, and it may go up to a 1 or 150, eventually a 2. But most people do plateau out at about a 250 or a 3. So again, a 2.50 or 3.00 is pretty much the maximum amount of reading glasses most people will need, and it won't continue to progress beyond that. Now, you may initially just try to get over the counter reading glasses. And if they are not working well for you, or if it's still not quite clear, it's probably best that you get a proper prescription glass either from your ophthalmologist or optometrist. Because perhaps in addition to the presbyopia issue, you may have something else like astigmatism as well. So again, if it's not work, the over the counters are not working for you. Consider getting a prescription lens.
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