Hi Devon, Well, this may be hubris on my part, but I partially disagree with your ophthalmologist. He says "You cannot damage your eyes by using your eyes." Actually, one gradually looses one's ability to focus at distance if one primarily uses one's eyes for close work. In modern times this has been largely caused by excessive reading as children and not using our far vision enough. (In adults who drive, even those of us who read obsessively, the problem tends not to get worse, but the damage is done by that time.)
This makes sense because focusing is accomplished by muscles behind the iris pulling on the lens and changing its shape to adjust where the light rays converge inside the eye. The convergence needs to be exactly on the retina for sharp focus, so the lens needs to be more rounded to focus on near objects. This requires the muscles attached to the lens to relax. And focusing at a distance requires the lens to be flatter, accomplished by the muscles pulling on the lens and stretching it out slightly. So if one seldom focuses on distant objects, the muscles atrophy and the ability to focus on distant objects is lost. Use it or lose it. Perhaps losing near vision from age and far vision from only focusing close up was what was meant by "going blind". I can tell you from experience that, without glasses, one is effectively blind in that condition-- perhaps one could call it the "Mr. Magoo effect", for those of us of a certain age. Therefore it is important to look up occasionally while reading, or making lace or other near work, and look off into the distance, to keep those muscles active. So I partially disagree with your ophthalmologist: you can damage your eyes if you use them in an imbalanced manner. Nancy, nit-picking in Connecticut, USA :-) On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 7:58 AM, Devon Thein <devonth...@gmail.com> wrote: > The theory that you lose your eyesight from making lace is a > persistent one. I once consulted my ophthalmologist about this, > fearing for my own eyesight, and he said, "You cannot damage your eyes > by using your eyes." ... - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
