More than half of all Americans over the age of sixty-five have cataracts. A cataract is a clouding of the lens in your eye that can impair your vision.
For you to see, light must pass through your cornea, pupil, and the fluid inside your eyeball (called aqueous humor) before it hits the lens. The lens takes the light rays and bends them into focus onto the retina at the back of the eye. From the retina, the optic nerve takes the information and sends it to the brain as images. A buildup of protein in the lens creates a cataract, causing vision loss.
Doctors aren’t sure what causes the protein to build up and cloud the lens to form a cataract. This means there is no sure way to prevent them! Because cataracts are so common in older adults, the American Academy of Ophthalmology suggests that people between the ages of forty and sixty-five have a full eye exam every two to four years; people sixty-five and older should have a full eye exam every one to two years. If you have a history of eye problems or a medical condition like diabetes that increases the risk of eye disease, you should talk to your doctor about more frequent eye exams. Exposure to cigarette smoke and air pollution can increase your risk of developing cataracts.
There are several different types of cataracts:
- Age-related cataracts develop as you age.
- Congenital cataracts can appear at birth or develop during childhood as a result of an infection in the womb.
- Secondary cataracts develop as a result of another disease, like diabetes or thanks to long-term exposure to certain toxic substances.
- Traumatic cataracts form after an injury to the eye.
Cataracts form very slowly and may not come with noticeable symptoms. You may eventually notice cloudy or blurry vision, changes in the way you see colors (especially yellow), problems with glare and night driving, or even double vision. You may experience a change in your close-up vision, like sudden nearsightedness or a marked improvement in your close vision.
If your cataracts are impairing your daily life, your doctor may suggest cataract surgery. The clouded lens will be removed and replaced with a clear plastic lens. More than nine out of ten people who have cataract surgery have significant improvement in vision; cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgery in the United States.