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jenkSurfing while waiting for some updates to test...from the "Really?" column on www.nytimes.com:
The Claim: Wearing Glasses Can Weaken Your EyesLeft unsaid is whether *not* wearing glasses makes you adjust to poor vision, whereas wearing glasses will notice if they're off...
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
Published: January 25, 2005
THE FACTS Glasses can bring a blurry world into focus, but some people suspect that by doing all the heavy lifting the glasses may speed the natural decline of vision. But ophthalmologists say this is an illusion.
How well a person can see is largely determined by the size of the eyeball, something a pair of glasses cannot change. The average eye is about an inch from the cornea, in the front, to the retina, in the back. When the eyes are either too large (shortsightedness) or too small (farsightedness), the cornea cannot properly focus images on the retina, and glasses can help compensate.
Dr. Robert Cykiert, an ophthalmologist at New York University Hospitals Center, said the contrast between poor and normal vision becomes more obvious when people wear glasses for a while and then take them off. But glasses have no lasting effect on eyesight.
Reading in the dark won't damage your eyes either, Dr. Cykiert said, though you may get a headache from all the squinting and straining.
THE BOTTOM LINE Glasses will not make your vision deteriorate more quickly.
