Be Familiar With These Eye Conditions
With so many eye conditions that affect most people, it can be hard to keep up with them and know what to look for. Be familiar with these common eye issues, before it’s too late and you can’t see at all.
Glaucoma
Symptoms:
Common in the elderly, glaucoma is actually a number of eye conditions that build pressure in the eye. Often, symptoms of glaucoma aren’t caught until the disease is far progressed, which can result in permanent vision loss. Glaucoma eventually damages the optic nerve, which causes blindness. Symptoms of early glaucoma include tunnel vision, eye pain, vision loss, and halos around lights. Since there are many different types of glaucoma, it is best to work with your doctor to get a detailed diagnosis.
Treatment:
Depending on how advanced the glaucoma is when it is caught, there are a number of options for treatment. If caught early, your eye doctor will prescribe pressure reducing eye drops. These can be very effective if used properly. The next options are surgery. Surgery can be preformed to drain the eye and relieve pressure, or, a new opening can be created all together to assure that fluid will be able to leave the eye. Consult your doctor if you think one of these options may be right for you.
Dry Eye
Symptoms:
Dry eye is easy to diagnose. The common symptoms are chronic dryness, burning, and itching eye. However, excessive eye watering is also a symptom, as the eye is trying to overcompensate for the dryness. People who have difficulty producing tears suffer from dry eye.
Treatment:
Usually, treatment consists of a daily eye drop, which can be bought over the counter or prescribed by a doctor. There are eye drops for many different needs, such as contact wearers, people with eye strain, allergy eye, and general dry eye.
Macular Degeneration
Symptoms:
Macular degeneration is simply the breakdown of eye tissues as people age. There are several types of macular degeneration, but wet and dry are the two most common. Dry macular degeneration happens when eye cells deteriorate and cause a blurry spot in the central line of vision. There are a number of causes for dry generation, including smoking, obesity, race, age, and family history. Women are at a greater risk of macular degeneration than men. Wet macular degeneration refers to the formation of abnormal blood vessels under the macula. This causes people to have straight or wavy lines in their field of vision.
Treatment:
There are several ways to fight macular degeneration, but first, you must know what type you have. There is a test just for macular degeneration, where your eye is dilated and the pressure is measured. One also looks at a checkered board, known as an amsler grid, to see if the lines appear straight or wavy. Depending on the type of macular degeneration, it is fought with antioxidant supplements, drug injects, or laser surgery.
Computer Vision Syndrome
Symptoms:
One of the growing eye conditions, computer vision syndrome, or CVS, affects millions of people on a daily basis. Anyone working on a computer all day is subject to CVS. Bright office lights glaring on your computer screen causes your eyes to strain, as well as unfit computer monitor contrast. Eye strain isn’t the only symptom of CVS, most people also complain of neck and shoulder pain, headaches, and loss of focus.
Treatment:
Since we can’t avoid computers in this day and age, there are other things you can do to combat CVS. Many people find relief with computer glasses, which can be worn in addition to contacts or prescription glasses. They are covered with an anti-reflective coating that can reduce the glare that often causes CVS. Computers are considered to be in the immediate zone of vision, which are close objects that have most of your focus. Sitting at least an arms length from your computer can also help ease CVS, as well as a good char that keeps you at an eye level to your monitor.
Celeste Johnson is a writer for Reading Glasses Shopper. She is interested in eye health issues and developments in eye wear, such as men’s folding reading glasses. Celeste enjoys reading, writing, and shopping.
