Eyesight declines during the thirties and by the time they reach forty most men have difficulty identifying fine print and need a strong light to read by. Most men prefer to blame the poor lighting rather than admit a need for spectacles. They may also have difficulty with night vision and driving in the dark.
The reason for this decline is that the eye’s lenses harden with age so altering the focal vision. By the age of fifty it is inevitable that a hefty percentage of men will require reading glasses.
On the plus side, some men who have worn glasses since childhood may find their eyesight improved. Not much, but better. Hardening of the lenses sometimes partially corrects nearsight.
As for hearing, the older we get the less we actually hear or differentiate between high-pitched notes. Fortunately the deterioration is slow and deafness neither imminent nor inevitable. Few of us need to hear or identify high-pitched notes and at forty, because of changing values and interests, silence, peace and quiet, become additional valuable commodities. At forty though hearing loss makes a man aware of aging, it seems a relatively unimportant change.
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