Keeping up with the trend of reducing frequency of posts seen over last few months it has been a long break again. There usually are set of things keeping me away each time but two reasons were present more consistently all these months. and now I guess one of them may have helped other to exist to some extent?
One hurdle between me and blogging over last many months has been my net connectivity and computer problems. I have been mentioning them now and then so nothing to add here. But other factor, which I initially thought to be independent, was my eyes. I first realised few months ago that my Mypoia had started decreasing. This was expected and somewhat awaited too. it was also confirmation that I had completed a good four decades of life. Now, as I had tried to get into macro world some two years back without spending money, I had +1, +1.5 Diopters at ready disposal and could estimate that reduction was around 1.25-1.5. But then, I am at my best and so succeeded avoiding hard work of visiting an eye doctor to get new prescription for months. Side effect of it was that my brain did not like me seeing thought glasses and I developed computer avoidance tendency.
Finally however, I managed to visit an eye doctor – for, mom was found to have cataract, ready to be operated on. So she had her cataract removed and I had my new eye prescription with Spherical power slashed by 1.25 and Cylindrical component slashed by 0.5. I see a lot better now but cant still say love to stare at computer. Probably staring at computer is not one of those activities eyes enjoy most, well corrected or not.
Now, since its first time my eye prescription change is in reverse direction, and since I have time to get interested in whatever I like, I have been trying to understand basic things about eyes and Myopia. (agree that its strange I didn’t try to understand it earlier) with not so hidden agenda of reaching to a preferred conclusion that this reduction in power is not simply sign of aging but actually some improvement. Its much like trying to identify a bird you just sighted where choices are between a commonly available and rarer similar looking species – you always want it be rare species while knowing its almost always the common one that it is. For now I have put on hold the decision if its just aging or positive effects of lifestyle changes (drastically reduced computer usage being one of those changes) till I get next data point say a year or so from now wrt to accommodation which can be taken as proxy for aging. What makes reaching conclusion more interesting is that, the eye doctor I consulted, a reputed one at that, has categorically declared that there wont be any future reduction in numbers whereas empirical evidence seem to suggest that its usual to see such reduction in 40s for those who have high Myopia..
Btw, while we were visiting Gujarat for eye care, I managed to spend some time looking out for birds.
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| Gull Billed Tern |
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| Gull billed Tern |
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| Purple Moorhen |
Actually not much luck with sightings or shots this time so let me add here old shot of one of my favourite sighting there.
Back here, things were really cold and devoid of Sun till day before. Sun however is out finally and I have got my season's first flycatcher shot.
Meanwhile, a mixed group of stilts, sandpipers, etc is visiting and I hope to walk to Ganga before they go off and before the next post..
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P.S. With some more reading and experiment, I think I have somewhat better understanding of my reducing numbers than I had 10 days ago. My preliminary googling had led me to believe aging mainly affects near vision because we gradually lose accommodation. – this should not have any effect on far vision which is based on relaxed lens.
So, the only point of speculation appeared to be that reduced near-stress might have helped lens relaxing better. This, however did not explain why everyone with Myopia experiences reduction in numbers.
Now, in last week I did and read few more things.
- For the first time I managed to find a study (study itself is old – only I did not find it before) where someone had accepted that Myopia actually decreases with Age.
- I also tried to measure my current accommodation so that I can see how it changes with age in coming years. Now, I happened to do this exercise both indoor in artificial light and after few days outdoor on a Sunny day. – Initially I found results confusing. – I was younger outdoor under the Sun than indoor under artificial light? Accommodation was higher by 0.5 to 1 Diopter. but.. was it accommodation effect? if yes, why I managed to get near point nearer and far point further instead of just near point nearer? ok, I should not have asked this question to myself.. Of course more light, higher f number means better DoF. Outdoor light allowed my pupil to constrict and what I thought was higher accommodation was only higher DoF.
- No wonder that after noticing above effect, I quickly saw everywhere it was mentioned that with age, our pupil size also decreases. Smaller pupil size equals not only better DoF but also lower levels of aberrations. plus, lets not forget that we see with Brain. I forgot to note the source but I think somewhere I read that brains may get better at seeing (making up pictures) with age.
Ok, I could not find ready calculation how much effect and if its significant or not is generated by reducing pupil size for highly myopic eyes or could not calculate myself so far due to not having put effort to do it myself and therefore don’t claim that should be the reason for myopia reduction. but with all of above additional information, my hopes of finding any other reasons beyond simple aging has reduced drastically.
