CATARACT clearly explained

INTRODUCTION
Our eyes are those precious and priceless organs that nature has blessed us with. With them we see the world and appreciate life's visible structures. However for several reasons some individual might experience a gradually progressive loss of their sight. This can be distressing and disabling hence it's worth discussing. Cataract is a common cause of this and Good News is that it's treatable.


WHAT REALLY IS THE DOCTOR TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE SAYS"CATARACT"

The only part of our eyes that makes us see is that yellow part labelled retina, and vision is at its best when the light ray from the object we are looking at focuses on the retina's part labelled 'fovea', every other structures in front of it are transparent media that functions primarily in helping us to see by focusing light rays on our retinal fovea. An exception to this is the colored part labelled iris, and apart from it being responsible for the color of our eyeballs (brown, blue, black), it also controls the amount of light rays entering into our eyes by controlling the size of our pupil (the aperture through which light rays enters into our eye). 

Our eye lens is one of these clear media that are meant to remain transparent to allow light rays to reach our retina. When our lens become opaque from any of the reasons stated below, they gradually and progressively blocks the rays of light reaching our retina thus obscuring our vision.

Our normally transparent eye lenses are by nature made of water and protein. The proteins are arranged in a pattern to keep it transparent thus allowing light rays to pass through. When these lenses are interfered with (either by trauma or any of the listed causes below), they reacts by rearranging their proteins in response to the inciting stimulus and new proteins fibres are also produced. This makes the proteins to clump together at a point in the lens. The bad thing about this is that once it starts, it can only progress, there is no stopping to it.  The clump would get bigger and bigger till it fills up the entire transparent lens and makes it opaque. So at the early stage we might not notice any changes but as it progressively increase in size, it will start to scatter light rays reaching our retina instead of focusing it on the most sensitive part of our retina, the fovea.

One of the significance of this is that we might find it very difficult to drive at night because lights from the headlamps of different car would be scattered all over our retina and would make it so difficult for us to tell from which vehicle the lights are coming from.

WHAT CAUSES THIS LENS OPACITY, THIS SO CALLED "CATARACT"?.

1. AGE RELATED CATARACT: The longer we live the more our "chances" of developing it. 

2. TRAUMATIC CATARACT: Cataracts have been documented to develop following a traumatic injury to the eye OR in a previously operated eye.

3. SECONDARY CATARACT: This cataract develops in people with other forms of ailment like diabetes mellitus. It is also a well documented medical likelihood in people on prolong steroid use.

4. CONGENITAL (-BORN WITH-) CATARACT: Some babies are born with cataract, this is usually because their moms contracted rubella infection in her first trimester and this is usually a significant event as these children need to be thoroughly checked out for other conditions like deafness and heart problems.

5. EXCESSIVE EXPOSURE TO ULTRAVIOLET SUNLIGHT.

6. TOBACCO SMOKING AND EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION.

7. A FAMILY HISTORY OF CATARACT.

8. UNCONTROLLED HYPERTENSION AND OBESITY.


MAY I BE HAVING CATARACT?

You just might...if you are experiencing these...

1. Persistent cloudy, fuzzy, or foggy vision.

2. Problems driving at nights because headlights seems too bright.

2

3. Problems with glare from sunlight or lamps.

4  Double vision in a single eye.

5. Changes in the way you see color.
6. Frequent changes in the glasses prescription.
7. Seeing "Halos" around light.

What would give the diagnosis away most times is a visible round white matter well surrounded by our iris. In other word, a white pupil.

IF NOT CATARACT?
Well another condition doctors calls CORNEAL OPACITY would also whiten out the pupil and impair vision but here the opacity is more extensive and it's not surrounded by the iris because the opacity here is on the cornea (which is in front of the iris) and not on the lens (which is behind the iris). Why not read about it in our "EYE CLINIC" LABEL.

TREATMENT

"THE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR CATARACT IS SURGERY". BUT WAIT,

MISCONCEPTION- people are often scared of eye surgery because they believe that if a pin or surgical blade pierces their eyeball, it might burst it and make them blind hence they prefer to go about partially blind than to have the surgeon's blade to their eyeball and go completely blind. THIS IS NOT TRUE.

FACT IS - as previously explained and demonstrated by several diagrams that what makes us see is our retina which lies at the rare back of our eye thus structures in front of it can be manipulated or replaced by artificial ones when they are diseased, and which is what an eye surgeon does in this case; replace the diseased lens with a clear artificial lens and your sight would be restored. A surgical miracle you might want to call it. If both eyes are affected, your doctor might schedule surgery to remove cataract in the second eye a month or two after the first surgery.

PREVENTIONS

1. WEAR SUNGLASSES- your eyes are not solar panels neither were they designed to cope with the nowadays ultraviolet rays. so put on your sunglasses when you are outdoors, yeah.

2. REDUCE ALCOHOL INTAKE- why not take oranges instead.

3.QUIT SMOKING- yes it's feasible i assure you talk to a doctor about your willingness to quit, he'd help you out and makes the transition even smoother. This is very important because you just might smoke out your lens soon someday.

4. MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WEIGHT- see how to maintain a healthy weight on the weight management label of this blog. Better still click here  http://fgiclinic.blogspot.com.ng/search/label/WEIGHT%20MANAGEMENT. 

5. MANAGE WELL OTHER AILMENTS- be compliant and adherent if you are on antihypertensives or diabetes medications.

CONCLUSION
Cataract is a distressing and disabling ailment that can be treated and maybe prevented. Your eyes ain't solar panels so wear your sunglasses when outdoors, reduce alcohol intake, quit smoking, maintain a healthy weight, manage well other ailments and keep an eye surgeon away. And should you come across anyone with a "white pupil", tell him or her to visit a Hospital.
THANK YOU.