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Eye Care - The Aging Eye - Cataract, Macular Degeneration & Glaucoma
July 29, 2007 | Author: admin | Filed under: Eye Care
Eye Care - The Aging Eye - Cataract, Macular Degeneration & Glaucoma
By Barbara Crow
Help your eyes last for a lifetime. Though your risk of certain eye conditions increases with age, you can often prevent or delay problems by knowing your risks and taking care of your eyes. Here’s a primer on eye care for common conditions:
Cataracts
This happens when the normally clear lens of the eye becomes cloudy. It develops gradually, affecting about half of Americans after age 65.
Symptoms
Blurred or dim vision, greater sensitivity to glare, need for brighter light for reading and other activities.
How to see better
Surgery can replace the clouded lens with a clear lens implant. “Surgery is low risk and high benefit,” says Dr. Gottlieb. Multifocal replacement lenses are now available. They produce clear vision and reduce or eliminate the need for reading glasses. You may be able to delay the need for surgery by wearing sunglasses that block ultraviolet (UV) light.
Macular Degeneration
A deterioration of the tissue in the part of the retina responsible for central vision. Doctors perform a dilated eye exam to diagnose early changes in the macula.
Symptoms
With macular degeneration, patients notice a loss of central vision, the need for increasingly bright light to read, difficulty recognizing faces or visual distortions. The dry kind is most common; the wet kind, which involves bleeding in the macula, is most destructive to vision.
How to see better
Although the damage cannot be reversed, your doctor can perform one of several outpatient procedures to slow or even stop the progress of the disease. Foods rich in antioxidants, such as leafy green vegetables and fruits, can help prevent or delay the development of macular degeneration. It’s also important to wear sunglasses that block UV rays, to stop smoking, to manage conditions such as high blood pressure and to get regular eye exams.
Glaucoma
A group of diseases, glaucoma involves damage to the optic nerve, usually accompanied by abnormally high pressure in the eyeball.
Symptoms
Glaucoma causes blind spots to develop in your vision, starting with peripheral vision. If not treated, you may develop tunnel vision and eventually lose your sight.
How to see better
While you can’t reverse or cure glaucoma, you can control it through a variety of therapies, including eyedrops, oral medications and, rarely, surgery. Most patients can control glaucoma “by taking just one prescription eyedrop a night before going to bed,” says Marguerite McDonald, M.D., clinical professor of ophthalmology at Tulane University medical school in New Orleans. Cholesterol-lowering drugs may also be beneficial. Regular eye screenings are critical for detecting glaucoma before damage has occurred. While not every eye disease can be prevented, early detection is the key to managing them. Getting good eye care now can keep you seeing clearly in the years ahead. –Barbara Crow ©MediZine’s Healthy Living, Second Quarter 2007
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Barbara Crow is a writer for MediZine, LLC. Robert A. Barnett is Content Director of [http://www.HealthyUpdates.com]HealthyUpdates.com, a health education website produced by MediZine, LLC.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_Crow http://EzineArticles.com/?Eye-Care—The-Aging-Eye—Cataract,-Macular-Degeneration-and-Glaucoma&id=606516
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