What are bi-focal or progressive lenses, why do you need them when you have reading problem?

Knowing your turning 40 can be depressing, but it needs to be accepted, that's how life goes! It's a hard truth!

But hey, need not to worry, there are always researches going on to give you tips on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle even when you are turning old. 

As we age, we get the need of going to our practitioners to get solutions on our health condition. And going to a practitioner isn't that bad. They help you out in avoiding things that are bad for your health. 

One such common ageing problem is difficulty in reading small prints. This condition is also called presbyopia. And it is normal, and it is not a thing to panic about. As I am writing this article, even I am yet to face the same, as I haven't turned 40 yet. I have heard people saying, my grandfather/great grandfather never wore glasses or had any problem like this, his eyes wear healthy. Totally agree! But the thing to notice is that, there is lot of difference in our lifestyles compared to our great grandfathers. Don't you agree, the lifestyle has changed now? Even the food we consume is not the same. Our grandfather's nutrition intake was different or probably they were not doing a lot of reading or looking at their mobiles or laptops (Were they even using mobiles or laptops by then?). Other biological reason could be that, they might be having a different eye condition, like myopia or antimetropia. In case of low grade myopia (low minus powers), the person can read or see near things well, when not wearing their distance corrective glasses. Antimetropia is a condition, in which one eye is myopic (corrective lenses being minus power) and other eye is hyperopic (corrective lenses being plus power), in this case, one eye compensates for reading and other one for distance, in low grade refractive errors, person doesn't have to wear glasses, neither for the distance nor for reading. 

I don't have power for distance, why should I use bifocal/progressive, can't I simply use a reading glass?

Bi-focal/progressive lenses are mostly required by those who have continuous work of looking at distances and reading distances regularly i.e., looking at different distances for most of their day. And using a bi-focal or progressive lenses, gives comfort of not removing glasses when you look at the distance. You can keep them on the whole day. If one thinks, their application of using reading glasses is hardly 1-2 hours a day, then they may avoid opting for bi-focals or progressive.

Now for those having power for distance as well, Bi-focals are a boon. Thanks to Ben Franklin! You look at distance and reading with bifocal/multidistances with progressives clearly.

Yes, they can be more priced, but won't you spend for something that makes your life much more easier?