Many of you who are in your mid 40's may have noticed that the words on the page have grown to be more difficult to read, especially the smaller print. Many middle-aged folks have given in to reading glasses, which sold 30.8 million pairs for those of us in that age group, or a great business model, depending on how you look at it, as reported in 2015. Bifocals and trifocals are expensive solutions for those who wear regular glasses already. Others rely on inexpensive readers that they can find in most stores. What if there was something you could do that can correct this problem affecting us baby boomers? Presbyopia, the difficulty of reading fine print becomes noticeable for many of us by age 45, and by age 50, the problem is almost universal. According to the NY Times, a new approach using a phone app can help you improve presbyopia. One of the writers decided to take the training activated with a monthly prescription. The idea is that the app will show you images called Gabor Patches. The images train the part of the brain that translates the vision and according to this reporter's experience, with regular use, the presbyopia will improve. The question is, is it worth the cost of the monthly app rental? Check the article out here Training Your Brain So That You Don’t Need Reading Glasses Austin Frakt By middle age, the lenses in your eyes harden, becoming less flexible. Your eye muscles increasingly struggle to bend them to focus on this print. But a new form of training — brain retraining, really — may delay the inevitable age-related loss of close-range visual focus so that you won’t need reading glasses. Various studies say it works, though no treatment of any kind works for everybody. The increasing difficulty of reading small print that begins in middle age is called presbyopia, from the Greek words for “old man” and “eye.” It’s exceedingly common, and despite the Greek etymology, women experience it, too. Every five years, the average adult over 30 loses the ability to see another line on the eye reading charts used in eye doctors’ offices. By 45, presbyopia affects an estimated 83 percent of adults in North America. Over age 50, it’s nearly universal. It’s why my middle-aged friends are getting fitted for bifocals or graduated lenses. There are holdouts, of course, who view their cellphones and newspapers at arm’s length to make out the words. Read more