Seeing the world around you through healthy eyes and clear vision is often considered to be one of the pillars of great quality of life. Unfortunately, in some cases, either because of age, genetics, injury or a combination of these factors, a person may suffer from any number of eye and vision-threatening illnesses that can drastically reduce his/her ability to experience life with clear, healthy vision. The best way to prevent these conditions from doing serious harm to your vision, and reducing your overall quality of life, is to learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of some of the most common eye conditions and familiarize yourself with possible detection and treatment options.
Dry Eyes
A person with this condition suffer from incessant dryness, redness, stinging and/or burning in the eyes as a result of either the eyes inability to produce enough tears or to produce tears that possess the right qualities to keep eyes healthy and comfortable, causing a consistent lack of sufficient lubrication and moisture on the surface of the eye.
Dry eyes are incurable. However, your optometrist will be able to prescribe artificial tears to help relieve symptoms. These specialty lubricating eye drops are formulated to help with dry, scratchy feeling eyes.
Many types of artificial tears exist to help relieve symptoms depending on the underlying cause of dry eyes. Your eye doctor should be able to help you find which artificial tears will help you most.
Glaucoma
This illness is marked by damage to your optic nerve, which is responsible for sending visual information from your eyes to your brain, that results from rising inner eye fluid pressure.
Glaucoma comes on very slowly and shows little or no symptoms until significant vision damage has already been done. Routine comprehensive eye exams are the best way to catch glaucoma early.
Although rare, noticeable symptoms include halos around lights, vision loss, nausea or vomiting, eye pain and tunnel vision.
Glaucoma rarely causes total blindness, and if caught early can be prevented from doing any significant damage.
Macular Degeneration
Macular degeneration is a deterioration of the macula, a small part of the retina that is responsible for central and detail vision.
Macular degeneration is usually associated with old age, but can be developed at any age..
Macular degeneration is easy to miss until significant sight has been lost because of its tendency to develop slowly and painlessly.
There are two different types of macular degeneration:
- Dry macular degeneration is the more common form of this condition. Symptoms include blurry distance and/or reading vision, less vivid color vision, difficulty seeing in dim light, trouble recognizing the faces of loved ones and a blank or blurry spot in your central vision.
- Wet macular degeneration is more rare and generally understood to be more dangerous due to its tendency to deteriorate very quickly. Some symptoms of wet macular degeneration are similar to those of the dry form, such as seeing less vivid colors and loss of central vision in general. You may also see straight lines as though they are bent, crooked or irregular.
No macular degeneration treatment exists which has the full approval of the federal government as yet, but expert studies show that certain health supplements, such as Vitamins C and E may reduce one’s risk of developing macular degeneration.
For more information about these and other eye conditions, contact your eye doctor today.
