Related question: When I looked into LASIK/SMILE recently, they said that after onset of presbyopia, they now routinely recommend "monovision", that is, regulate one of your eyes to 0 diopters, but the other to mild myopia of about -1 diopter. Then you look at far things with the former, and near things with the latter. Good old stereo vision is somewhat impacted, but not too badly apparently.
Anyone got experience/comments on that? (Presumably one could replicate it with contact lenses, in particular.)
All it does is make the pupil smaller? Sure that will improve sharpness, but less light will reach the retina.
This drug is for presbyopia (near things blurry) not myopia (far things blurry) but as these threads tend to discuss both, I will share something I read on HN many years ago that reversed my myopia: near-far focusing while outdoors. Just focus on something at >50 foot distance, focus on your finger right in front of your eye, near, far, near, far focusing just a few times. This completely reversed my early-stage myopia and my eyesight has been 20/20 for years since.
I (and others) make this comment on HN from time to time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38794682 - hopefully it helps others.
It’s mentioned in the article, but there’s been a product on the market already for almost 5 years that does the same thing, with the same mechanism of action. That product, Vuity, has not been popular. The article makes it seem like the reason for Vuity’s lackluster performance is the incidence of side effects but I think it’s just not something people want to pay money for long term.
How much will these cost? I'd love some immediately. I'm starting to need reading glasses and it is really disruptive to my whole life, I do lots of hobbies that need close up vision and never knew what life was like not having it.
Edit:
"During the investor call, Lenz executives outlined the cost of VIZZ. A monthly, 25-pack will cost $79. A 3-month pack from the e-pharmacy will cost $198 ($66 per month). Samples are anticipated in the United States as early as October 2025, with commercial product to be broadly available by mid-Q4 2025."
Interesting. Now I'm worried we're moving from prescription lenses to subscription lenses.
Just when I was finally coming to grips with needing bifocals.
“VIZZ works by gently shrinking the pupil of the eye”
Does this mean you could replicate the effect with brighter lighting? I was hoping for something that would actually make the lens more flexible.
It's not clear if this will be a prescription product or over the counter. Anyone know?
So, if someone only has mild presbyopia do they take less? What happens if you take 'too much' for your level of impairment?
Note that it shrinks the pupils which is cosmetically not great.
any info on availability in the EU?
The drops work by selectively acting on the muscles that control pupil size, constricting the eyes’ aperture. As anyone who knows photography is aware, this increases the depth of field (a larger range of distances from the eye will be approximately in focus). Of course this also reduces the brightness on the retina, so things will be darker, an effect confirmed by the linked FDA data. In that data it’s claimed that the perceived dimness is “temporary”; I guess because of accommodation that kicks in after a while. So this is like increasing your f-stop and your ISO.
I'll pass. Due to FDA cuts, I will wait years before I consider this product.
So Retinox5 from Star Trek?
> The FDA approval comes based on trial data submitted by the pharmaceutical company, so it's worth noting that published peer-reviewed reports are yet to be published. Peer-reviewed publications often follow regulatory approvals, not precede them, which is common in the field of ophthalmology and dermatology.
Does anyone know the reason that data is published after approval rather than before? Seems illogical at face value, but I'm obviously missing something.