Toss your glasses?

…HA can’t read without those finky drugstore glasses, which she slaps on her face as needed, creeping around in a fuzz the rest of the time.

…(Seriously, the world is a better place out of focus.)

…But some people have this compulsion about seeing, so they might be interested in an eye exercise program developed by the Cambridge Institute for Better Vision and a vision therapy optometrist named Ray Gottlieb, OD, PhD.

…People who have tried it swear it staves off middle-aged vision, or presbyopia.

…Martin Sussman, founder and director of the Institute, tells HA the program capitalizes on scientific principles governing vision that have been known for 100 years.

…When your eyes see something out of focus, Sussman explains, the brain orders the eye muscles to focus. Like everything else in your decrepit bod, after age 40 or so, the refocusing muscles get stiff and don’t react well enough.

…Focusing is not quite that simple, tho. The eyes also turn in slightly when confronted with a blurry image and these exercises apparently amp up that “convergence” to add punch to the orders being sent to the brain.

…HA hasn’t tried this. If anyone has, please post a comment.

…To take some weird, fun eye tests, go to http://www.bettervision.com/ or check out the DVDs at www.withoutglasses.com.

…Surgical techniques designed to avoid glasses have some drawbacks and some insurance will not cover them. What happens when you alter your eyeball and THEN get middle-aged vision?