Will eye strain damage my eyes?

1 answer | Last updated: Jul 05, 2011
Q
bzb asked...
I have amblyopia since childhood (also glaucoma), have been a medical transcriptionist for 35 years. Now work has changed to mostly editing voice recognition drafts. I think I'm holding back from doing it quicker, because I don't trust my eyes to not miss something, plus I'm worried that zipping through the text quickly will hurt my eyes. I am noticing eye strain. I'm wondering if I'm damaging my eyes doing this.
 

Caring.com User - Lylas Mogk, M.D.
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A
Lylas Mogk, M.D. is an ophthalmologist and director of the Henry Ford Visual Rehabilitation and Research Center in Grosse Pointe and Livonia, Michigan, and...
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Using your eyes will not damage them; "eye strain" will not damage them. To relieve the strain, however, be sure you are blinking enough, look away from the material every 20 min or so for a couple minutes and, depending on your age, explore the option of reading glasses. The power of the reading glasses will depend on whether you are editing hardcopy documents on a desk or editing electronic documents on a computer scree. The computer screen is likely to be be a little farther away and would therefore require less power in reading glasses than for a desk.

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