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RobertDyck

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From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,932

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Treatment for presbyopia - need for reading glasses over 40

Presbyopia Treatment: Current and Future Options
I wouldn't recommend surgery. As you age, the lens of your eye gets harder. Ligaments stretch the lens, making it thinner. Circular muscles around the lens contract to relieve this tension, allowing the lens to become thicker. A thicker lens bends light more, allowing you to focus closer. Hardening of the lens makes it difficult to change focus. I keep asking what is causing the lens to become harder, and why can't pharmaceutical companies invent eye drops to dissolve that? The lens does grow new cells; not quickly, but does. Perhaps drops that act slowly, so you have to take drops daily for some time, checking with an eye specialist for progress.

New cells grow on the edges, behind the iris, and migrate to their final location. Mature lens cells have no organelles, and no nucleus. They only contain transparent proteins.

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Dr McCoy said he would normally prescribe Retinax. He gave Kirk reading glasses because he's allergic to Retinax. So where's the Retinax? I want Retinax!

Eye drops described in the article sound like they have a long way to go. But at least someone is working on it.

RobertDyck

Moderator

From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,932

Website

Re: Treatment for presbyopia - need for reading glasses over 40

NCBI: Growth of the human eye lens

Abstract
Purpose

To analyze human lens growth from the accumulation of wet weight as a function of age.

Methods

Wet weights were assembled for over 1,100 human lenses, ranging in age from 6 months prenatal to 99 years postnatal, and were examined using various growth models. Initially, prenatal and postnatal data were examined separately, to determine the growth modes and then all data were fitted to a single equation.

Results

Variations in weights due to tissue handling procedures and the unavailability of statistical data for averaged sets precluded the use of >500 values in the present analysis. Regression of age on log lens weight for the remaining 614 lenses indicated that, unlike other species, human lens growth appears to take place in two distinct phases. It was found that asymptotic growth during prenatal life and early childhood generates about 149 mg of tissue in a process, which can be modelled with a Gompertz function. Soon after birth, growth becomes linear, dropping to 1.38 mg/year, and this rate is maintained throughout the rest of life. The relationship of lens wet weight with age over the whole of the lifespan could best be described with the expression, W=1.38Ab + 149exp^[exp^(1.6-3Ac)], where W is lens weight in mg, Ab is postnatal age in years and Ac is the time since conception in years. Comparison of 138 male and 64 female lenses indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female lens weights in the linear (adult) growth mode.

Conclusions

Human lens growth differs from growth in other species in that it occurs in two distinct modes. The first follows a sigmoidal relationship and provides an initial burst of rapid growth during prenatal development with an apparent termination at or shortly after birth. The second growth mode is linear, adding 1.38 mg/year to lens wet weight, throughout life. Because of the variability in available lens wet weight data, further studies, preferably using lens dry weights or protein contents, will be required to establish precisely when the transition from one growth mode to the other occurs. In contrast to previous reports, it was concluded that, like other species, there are no gender differences in human lens weights.

Interesting! So eye weight increases with age. That would imply dissolving some material could help. Details of the proteins must be determined to plan a treatment.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,382

Re: Treatment for presbyopia - need for reading glasses over 40

For RobertDyck ...

Thank you for providing this topic ... it is perfect for the item I found today.  I was attempting to follow a link provided by Mars_B4_Moon, but the ad that appeared in the feed caught my attention...

https://buyadjustableglasses.com/review … cci-dfdd32

I'm ** not ** endorsing this product at all ... My purpose is to give NewMars forum readers a chance to at least look into the techology.

I find that my eyesight is less sure than it used to be.  In keeping with your topic, I use reading glasses on many occasions throughout the day, and would use distance glasses if I had any.  The product on offer at the web site at the link above appears to offer adjustable prescription that a user can dial in by turning a dial on the frame.  The product is probably unaffordable, so I didn't even look, but there may be someone in the NewMars membership who has the means to investigate further.

(th)