Eye Diseases

There are harmful chemicals and toxins surrounding us, bacteria can easily get into our eyes damaging them and our vision. We can never be enough careful with our eye health, w e should always keep them clean and healthy, so we can avoid any kinds of injuries. Unfortunately there are vision disorders and eye problems, which can be inherited or developed over time, as we grow older. Some of these disorders are astigmatism, cataracts and macular degeneration, which are hard to be prevented, but with proper care and help their process can be slowed down.

Macular degeneration, especially age related macular degeneration occurs as we get older, usually around the age of 60. Because the late age the percentage of vision loss or total blindness caused by macular degeneration is a problem we are struggling with. Macular degeneration occurs, when the central portion of the retina, the light-sensing nerve tissue found at the back of the eye is deteriorating. There are symptoms like blurred central distance or close-up vision, which due to the ignorance can often be delayed; the most common results of lost macular function consist in scotomas or blind spots and shapes or colors might appear different for the eyes, straight lines being distorted, looking irregular. There are two main types of age related macular degeneration: dry and wet. In the case of dry macular degeneration abnormal blood vessels are growing from the choroid under the macula. Because of the blood leaking into the retina the vision becomes distorted and blurred, making straight lines look wavy and in the most severe case can lead to total loss of central vision.

The dry form is characterized by the drusen deposit in the macula. If being small, the yellow spots might not cause any discomfort, but as they grow they might cause blurry vision, vision distortion, which fortunately can be noticed by patients, usually while reading. There is no cure for age related macular degeneration, but treatments can prevent vision loss, slowing down the progression of this disease. Usually a laser surgery is advised for patients.

Another eye condition causing discomfort for people is the development of cataracts. Cataract is a clouding on the natural lens of the eye found behind the iris.  The eye lens is focusing the light into the retina adjusting the eye’s focus, letting you see clear.  The two main components of the lens are proteins and water. As we grow older he components, proteins may clump together forming a cloud on a small area of the lens, this is called cataract. As time passes the clouding might become larger, damaging our vision and in the worse case it might lead to blindness. The symptoms are hardly noticeable at first, people might only notice that their vision is blurred, and the light might seem too glaring or sharp. Some studies have shown that severe exposure to ultraviolet light might improve the chances of cataract apparition that is why the use of sunglasses is advisory. But there are other factors too, which can fasten the apparition of cataracts, such as high salt consumption, diabetes, cigarette smoke or pollution. When the early symptoms appear, people can improve their vision with changing their eyeglasses or contact lenses, but in the severe cases cataract surgery is advisory.