Every human has a biconvex flexible natural lens in their eye. When the protein of this lens breaks down, you will see your surroundings hazy, blurry, or a bit colourless when you have cataract.
Cause of cataract
Cataracts come slowly with age and can also come due to some previous injury. Some genetic disorders passed down from parents to their offspring can also cause cataracts. Using steroids for a long time may also contribute to developing a cataract. As you age more, your eye lenses become less flexible. It gets thicker and has less clear vision. When the cataract occurs, your vision becomes cloudier, and the cataract scatters and blocks the passage of light through the eye lens. It fails to reach the retina of your eye, causing the formation of a blurry image.
Symptoms
Cataract problems come due to ageing and do not develop very rapidly. A few symptoms of cataracts are as follows.
- You face Dim, blurry, cloudy vision
- The eye becomes very sensitive to light.
- You will experience vision problems at night.
- Objects appear colourless or yellowish.
- Changing eyeglasses or contact lenses too frequently.
- Problems of double vision.
- Bright lights for reading.
- Sometimes smoking and obesity also cause cause
- Previous eye inflammation or eye surgery can also cause cataracts.
- Excessive consumption of alcohol.
Preventive measures
* Protecting the eye from external injury.
* Eat healthy food
* Stop smoking or excessive alcohol consumption
* Eat kiwi, broccoli, cantaloupe, potatoes, red and green bell peppers, brussels sprouts, tomato, oranges, and citrus fruit.
* Go for eye checkups.
Diagnosis and cure
Eye test: Go to your eye specialist and get a visual acuity test done. The doctor will make you read letters from a distance with one eye at first and then the other.
Glare test- where the doctor shines a bright light in your eye and asks you to read.
Retinal exam: The pupil of the eye is widened by adding some drops. This helps the doctor get a better look at the retina and a better look at the cataract.
Slit lamp exam- a particular type of microscope is used, which has a bright light, and the doctor can check different parts of your eye.
The only way to cure cataract is surgery. It’s about 15-20 minutes to surgery. The surgery is done to one eye at a time, and the recovery time is less but may vary from person to person.
