Few people could argue that without our 5 senseslifewould be pretty dull.
All our senses are extremely important but I think if you asked mostpeople which sense would they least like to lose they would probablysay their vision.
As with most of our abilities, our vision is something thatmany of ustake for granted.
If you stop and think for a moment, you will realize that just abouteverything we do in our day to daylifeinvolves our vision. Duringthisarticle I am going to try and see if I can get youto startthinking a little bit more about your eyes.
Listed below is my top 10 list of weird and wonderful things youdidn'tknow about your eyes
10. Everyone needs reading glasses as they get older ....
This is assuming that you already have perfect distance vision.
If you are currently reading this article and are under 40 years of agewith perfect distance vision, I can say with absolute certainty that youwill need reading glasses at some point in the future.
For about 99% of the population the age that you will first startneeding reading glasses is between 43 and 50 years old.
This is because the lens in your eye slowly loses its focusing abilitywith age.
In order to focus things near to you, your lens has to change from a flat to a more spherical shape and it loses the ability to do this as you get older.
As you get to around 45 years old you will start to hold things further away from you to keep them focus.
9. The lens in your eye is quicker than anycamera lens...
Just behind the pupil sits the eyes natural lens, whose function is tofocus on the object you are looking at.
Just take a minute to glance around the room and think about howmany different distances you are focusing at.
Every time you do this, the lens in your eye is instantly changingfocus without you even being aware of it !!
Compare that with a camera lens which takes a few seconds to focusbetween one distance and another.
Just be thankful that the lens in your eye is as quick as it is, otherwisethings would be continually going in and out of focus.
8. Your eyes are fully developed by the age of 7 years old ....
By the age of 7 years old our eyes are fully developed and arephysiologically the same as adults eyes.
It is for this reason that it is vitally important to pick up alazyeyebefore we reach this age.
The earlier alazy eyeis diagnosed, the greater the chance it willrespond to treatment, as the eyes are still developing and capable ofan improvement in vision.
Beyond 7 years old no amount of treatment will result in anyimprovement in vision.
7. You blink approximately 15,000 times each day ...
Blinking is a semi-involuntary function meaning we do itautomatically, but can also choose to blink if we so require.
Blinking is an extremely important function of your eyes as it helps
remove any debris on the surface of your eye, by spreading freshtearsover them.
These tears help to nourish your eyes with oxygen and also haveimportantbacterialproperties.
You can think of the function of blinking as being similar to the actionof the windscreen wipers on yourcar, cleaning and removingeverything to keep you seeing clearly.
6. Everyone gets cataracts as they get older ...
People dont realize that cataracts are just a normal consequence ofgetting older and everyone gets them at some point in their life.
You can think of cataracts as being similar to getting grey hair, in that it is just a normal natural age change.
The average age people first get cataracts is about aged 70 years oldand by80 years oldyou are guaranteed to have cataracts.
In the same way that you could not find any aged80 years oldwithoutgrey hair, it would be equally impossible to find anyone over80 yearsoldwithout cataracts.
Cataracts refer to a gradual clouding of the lens in your eye andtypically take about ten years from onset to them needing treatment.
5. Diabetes is often first detected during aneye test ...
People who suffer fromtype 2 diabetes(the type you develop later inlife) are oftensymptomfree, meaning they often dont even know thatthey have it.
This typeof diabetesis commonly picked up during an eye test as itcan be seen as tiny hemorrhages from leaking blood vessels at theback of your eye.
This certainly is good reason to get your eyes tested regularly.
4. You see with your brain and not your eyes ...
The function of your eyes is to collect all the required informationabout the object you are looking at.
This information is then passed from your eye to the brain via theoptic nerve.
It is the brain (visual cortex) where all this information is analyzed toenable you to seethe object in its finished form.
This is not to say that your eyes dont play an important role as theycertainly do.
3. Your eyes can adapt toblind spotsin your vision ...
Certain eye conditions such as Glaucoma and certaingeneral healthconditions such as having a stroke, can lead to you
developingblind spotsin your vision.
This would be extremely debilitating if it wasnt for your brain andyour eyes ability to adapt to make theseblind spotsdisappear.
It does this by suppressing theblind spotin your affected eye andletting your other good eye fill in the gaps.
It is adaptation like this that makes your eyes so resilient.
2. 20:20 vision is not the best vision you can have ...
When people hear the phrase 20:20 vision they assume that this is thebest vision possible.
However this is not true as 20:20 vision refers to what the average adult should be able to see.
If you imagine a typicaleye testchart the 20:20 vision is probably onlythe line second from the bottom.
The line below it is even smaller than 20:20 vision and would meanyou have 20:16 vision.
So dont be so impressed next time someone tells you they have 20:20 vision!
1. Your eyes water when they are dry ...
I know this might sound crazy but this is one of strange facts aboutyour eyes.
Your tears are made up of 3 different components and they are water, mucus and fat.
If these 3 components are not in exactly the right quantities, your eyecan become dry as a consequence.
Your brain responds to this dryness by producing extra water andhence your eyes water.
No comments:
Post a Comment