Q: I am a 23 years old male. My doctor told me that my eye power is unchangeable from 18-40 years but I have been experiencing a change in eye power. Is there any specific age when my eye power get stabilize? My eyes have no disease and are perfectly normal.

A:Your eye doctor is partly right that eye power does not change much between 18-40 years but slight changes are happening all the time, not only in eyes but all over the body and everything around us in the world. Like your hair grows, skin and all organs in the body as the cells grow old and new cells are replacing them.

Trouble with the lens inside the eye is that cells grow from inside out like layers of Onion in which older cells or fibres are in the centre and newer cells are laid out side that and a stage comes when because of older cell being non elastic the whole lens starts to be non elastic and so cannot focus for near. Critical age in Indians is about 40 years.

In healthy, sporty people it may come later and in westerners it comes about 50 years of age and you have to wear reading glasses for close work in civilised society. If you work as labourer and not reading etc you might even not notice the need for glasses as you can manage normal day to day work without complaining.