Ask HN: How are you taking care of you eyes?

Is it common for people around 50 to get Lasik or a similar procedure to counteract this?

Since march of this year I stopped following my eye doctor's advice ("wear your glasses as much as possible otherwise your brain gets lazy", which is proven BS) and looked into endmyopia (i think i even read about it on HN), as I was getting into the risk zone for retinal detachment (6 diopters), which can lead to blindness.

To sum it up: reduce the amount of near-work you do (looking at your monitor, smartphone, books, etc) and, if you already have glasses, use glasses with a reduced prescription or no glasses for near-work.

With these rules I've managed to go from -5.5/-6 to -3.5/-3.75 in just these 9 months. And that's with me still spending 12h a day on my computer.

Pro tip: you can get very cheap (as little as $3) myopia glasses from aliexpress or a bit more expensive zenni optical. So there's really no big barrier to entry.

Side note: Lasik only cures the symptom of bad vision (just like glasses), but not the cause (elongated eyeball, which is what increases the likelihood of retinal detachment). If you don't change your habits after lasik, chances are you will need glasses again a couple years later as your eyeball further elongates, see: 35% are above 0.5 diopters again just 3 years after lasik https://bjo.bmj.com/content/103/4/565.abstract 58% are above 1 diopter again after 7 to 8 years. https://www.proquest.com/openview/722546068e4b0c9c1d3acba7e3...

I recommend you read more on endmyopia.org to learn about the scientific background and the eye biology behind it. But what I summed up above should easily get you started though and in just a couple of months you should notice improvements in your eyesight (you can test it at home by printing a Snellen eye chart).

Finally going to the eye doctor is no longer frustrating because my eyes are improving instead of getting worse year by year :)

I'm about a decade older than you, was on a computer 12+ hours per day since I was 10.

I started wearing glasses at 16 for 20/40 vision and then switched to contacts at about 25 years old. My vision has remained stable since then except for presbyopia. That is really the only effect of age that I've experienced yet and it is a pain to deal with.

If I don't have glasses on/contacts in I can read something right up against my nose with no problem but obviously have trouble seeing further away.

If I have glasses on/contacts in seeing things close up becomes far more difficult.

So if anyone has a fix for presbyopia, hit me up!

Microwaveable Warm compress , you can get these for as low as $10 . Pop them in microwave for 20 seconds and put them on the eyes for a few minutes daily . Helps with proper functioning of tear glands.