Do You Have Cataracts?
Getting older is a wonderful thing: you gain life experience, collect adventurous memories and often begin to notice changes in your body, including your eyes.
One of the things that is common as we age are cataracts. To the everyday person this might look like:
Clouding of the eyes
Blurred vision,
Double vision in one eye,
Colors can become hard to differentiate, and
Night vision can be troublesome (halos)
Most cataracts develop due to injury or aging and are caused by proteins and fibres that are broken down within the lens of the eye structure. These particles then cause vision to become hazy or clouded. Contributing factors to cataracts include:
Diabetes,
Aging,
Family history,
Smoking,
UV damage (sun exposure),
Obesity,
Eye trauma (including surgical procedures),
Excessive use of alcohol, and
Prolonged use of corticosteroids.
A cataract is basically a cloudy lens. The lens structure of your eye sits behind the colored part (your iris). As the proteins and fibres break down, the lens becomes increasingly cloudy and your vision begins to change. At first you may not even notice changes. With time the particulate in the lens alters the way your retina receives light and visual information because the light coming in is scattered and blocked by the haze. As a result, your vision becomes blurred. It is common for cataracts to happen in both eyes but most often do not progress at the same rate. So one eye might not have the same visual changes as the other.
There are 4 main types of cataracts:
Nuclear cataracts - these are focused on the center of the lens. These can cause objects far away to be blurry but near objects to appear clear. In some cases this type of cataract may actually seem to improve vision before making it worse. As vision gets worse and the lens begins to turn yellow/brown you might have problems differentiating colors.
Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts - this cataract is a small spot near the back of your lens that blocks the path of light. These tend to grow faster than other types of cataracts. People with this type often have trouble with night vision. It can cause glare and halos around light, reduce your vision in bright light, and will most often also affect your reading vision.
Congenital Cataracts - these are cataracts you can be born with or develop over childhood and are due to your genetics.They can be associated with infection or trauma from when you were in-utero. If they affect vision they are usually removed.
Cortical Cataracts - this type of cataract begins at the outer edge of the lens. It appears as white spots or streaks and as it grows, gets closer to the center of the lens. Eventually it spreads to the center and affects the light passing through the lens (and your ability to see.)
So what can you do to help prevent cataracts or slow their growth?
Eat healthy and exercise - like most health conditions the better shape you can keep yourself in the better your body is at warding off potential issues. Include fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet and limit processed foods. Increasing antioxidants in your diet can help ward off free radicals that do damage to tissues. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle also includes managing any other health conditions you have - when you work with your health providers and conditions are in-check they are less likely to cause as much damage to your body than if they are left unregulated. (A major example of this is diabetes.)
Wear sunglasses - it looks good and protects you from harmful UV rays that damage your eyes.
Don’t smoke - this should be included under the “healthy lifestyle” but it truly is it’s own risk factor.
Get regular eye exams - your eye doctor can see the first signs of impending trouble and help you to ward it off or mitigate issues. You should be getting eye exams annually (they do a lot more than just check for your eye prescription!)
Reduce alcohol - alcohol increases cataract risk. It also contributes to a myriad of other health issues despite popular culture reinforcing its use. Limit, decrease or pull a full stop on your intake to help mitigate your risk.
How can you tell if you have cataracts?
Get an eye exam. There are 4 main parts to your eye exam that the optometrist looks at:
Vision test - how well you are able to see (think eye charts and the eye doctor asking is “1 or 2” is better)
Eye structure test - this is done with the slit lamp (the bright light microscope-looking tool in your eye exam). Your eye doctor is actually able to see into your eyeball and identify anything worrisome from a close up visual check.
Retinal exam - this is the part of the exam where you used to get dilation drops so the eye doctor could see deep into the eye structure to assess your retina. Though we still might require this at our office we have a special machine that is able to take photographs so we can look at what we need without the dilation drops (this prevents disrupting your day - dilation drops take time to work and leave you light sensitive afterwards.)
Fluid pressure test - also known as applanation tonometry. Where we can assess the pressure within your eyeball.
Treatment for cataracts:
If you have cataracts that are poorly affecting your vision then surgery is usually the recommended option. You will need to discuss with your eye doctor what is right for you and then they will refer you to an eye surgeon for the procedure.
Cataract surgery requires removing the cloudy lens and replacing it with an artificial clear lens. As with all surgery there are risks involved. This is normally done as a day procedure and does not require an overnight stay in the hospital. You usually are awake during the surgery.
After the procedure you might be sore for a few days but are generally fully healed in a few weeks.
If you have cataracts requiring surgery in both eyes one will be done first. Once you have healed from the first surgery then the second eye will be done.
If you are having any eye concerns, have questions or haven’t seen an eye doctor in more than a year then it’s time to get checked. Call or text us at Eyes On You to get an appointment now 206-467-1006. We have spots available at both our Seattle Downtown and Eastlake practices.
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