Eye Health
It is important to visit your eye
care professional once a year for a
comprehensive eye exam. Although you
may think you are seeing fine, issues may
be lurking without any warning signs.
During a yearly visit, your pupils will be
dilated, or widened, so that your eye care
professional can examine the back of the
eye for damage or disease. It is important
to know your family’s eye health history
as well, since some conditions are
hereditary. Some of the most common
eye diseases include diabetic retinopathy,
glaucoma, cataracts, and age-related
macular degeneration (AMD).
• Diabetic Retinopathy: This type
1 or type 2 diabetes complication is
caused by damage to blood vessels
in the retina, the light-sensitive
tissues in the back of the eye. If left
untreated, diabetic retinopathy could
cause blindness. Early stages of this
condition may go unnoticed if an eye
care professional is not visited yearly.
As the condition progresses, symptoms
may include blurred vision, impaired
color vision, floaters, and/or dark areas
in your vision. Symptoms may occur if
there is too much sugar in your blood,
which can cause a blockage in the
blood vessels that lead to the retina.
Proper management of diabetes is the
best way to prevent vision loss.
• Glaucoma: The second leading cause
of blindness, glaucoma is a group of
diseases that damage the eye’s optic
nerve. The risk of developing glaucoma
increases with age and if parents or
siblings have the disease. During an
eye exam, glaucoma can be detected by
measuring eye pressure, inspecting the
drainage angle of the eye, evaluating
the health of the optic nerve and
testing the visual field of each eye.
Depending on the type and severity of
the disease, glaucoma can be treated
through eye drops, medication or
surgery.
• Cataracts: A cataract affects vision by
clouding the lens of the eye. Chances of
cataracts increase greatly with age, with
more than half of all Americans either
having a cataract or having had cataract
surgery by the age of 80. People in
their 40s and 50s can have cataracts,
but they are typically small and do not
affect vision. Cataracts are detected by
blurred vision, faded colors, glare from
headlights or lamps, poor night vision,
double vision, or frequent prescription
changes in eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Early detection can improve cataracts
through new eyeglasses, anti-glare
Continued on page 21 >
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