Q. I am 51 and have recently noticed that newspaper print is getting harder to read. To forestall the need for reading glasses, should I give my eyes a daily workout by reading the paper without glasses, or will reading small print make the problem worse?
A. Neither course of action will make a difference in the long run, and in the short run, "an unnecessary workout by reading the paper without glasses will only lead to blurriness, headaches and frustration," said Dr. Christopher E. Starr.
Starr is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
"Your difficulty is almost certainly presbyopia, a condition that appears at middle age and is caused by a progressive loss of flexibility in the lens, making it harder and harder for the lens to change shape to focus clearly on objects at different distances.
"The difficulty is most noticeable when trying to view small targets like printed text.
"Presbyopia is purely related to increasing age and there are no exercises that can prevent it or slow it down," Starr said in an e-mail message.
"Wearing the correct eyeglass prescription will allow you to read comfortably at a normal distance and will not weaken the eye or cause the presbyopia to progress further."
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