• Question: Why do we lose our sight as we get older?

    Asked by 567aged23 to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara on 19 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 19 Nov 2015:


      Hello 🙂

      When we get old we start to lose the ability to look at thing that are close to us. In our eyes there is a structure called crystalline lens and it is the structure that helps us focusing what we are looking at.
      The lens is usually very flexible so it can adjust depending on how far from us the object we are looking at is, when we get old it loses its flexibility and we strugle to see close object.
      In some other cases there could be also other diseases affecting the eyes.

    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 20 Nov 2015:


      Eyesight can get worse for a number of reasons. people can develop cataracts, where the lens at the front of the eye goes cloudy, or they can develop diseases like Age-related macular degeneration, where damage to the retina at the back of the eye can stop you from seeing (and is indeed the leading cause of blindness), or you can just go long or short-sighted, as the muscles that help the eye to focus get a little weaker and a little less stretchy, just like the muscles elsewhere in the body.

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