Numerous eye disorders exist …
check out the column to the left and click for more
information about each. However, three of the most
well-known eye disorders are
glaucoma,
cataracts
and
macular degeneration.
Glaucoma: Glaucoma is an eye disease in
which fluid pressure inside the eye builds up
as a result of too much fluid being produced or
not enough fluid being drained. This increase
in pressure can damage the optic nerve and cause
vision to fade. Open-angle glaucoma is the most
common form of the disease, progressing slowly
and painlessly (acute types of glaucoma strike
suddenly, affecting vision more quickly and sometimes
involving severe pain). A leading cause of blindness
in the U.S., this affects approximately 2.2 million
Americans age 40 and older, including an estimated
1.5 to 2 million who do not even know they have
it.
Anyone can get glaucoma, though it rarely strikes
people under 35. People at highest risk include:
African Americans and Hispanics over age 40; anyone
over age 60, and those with a family history.
Cataracts: A cataract is a cloudy area
on the eye's lens. It is not known specifically
why cataracts form, but the most common type is
aging - more than half of all Americans age 65
and older have cataracts. Other types include:
congenital (some children are born with them or
develop them early in life); secondary (develops
in people with diabetes or other health problems,
and is sometimes linked to steroid use or radiation
therapy), and traumatic (after an eye injury,
soon afterward or years later).
Symptoms include: cloudy or blurry vision, sensitivity
to light and glare, poor night vision, colors
that appear faded, frequent changes in your vision
prescription, double vision and/or sudden, but
temporary, improvement in near vision.
Macular Degeneration: Age-related macular
degeneration (ARMD) affects the eyesight of 13
million Americans. It strikes painlessly, disrupting
the central vision needed to read or write, to
drive and to watch TV. ARMD most often affects
persons in their late 50s and 60s. There are two
types of ARMD - the "dry" type and the
"wet" type. The "dry" (or
atrophic) form accounts for 9 out of 10 ARMD cases.
Dry ARMD is characterized by a thinning or deterioration
of tissue underneath the macula and a slow break
down of the cone cells.
The "wet" (exudative) form causes 90
percent of the cases of severe visual loss. In
"wet" ARMD, abnormal blood vessels develop
rapidly under the retina and leak blood or fluid
that damage the macula. The wet form results in
the growth of dense scar tissue.
See the Treatments
home page in this section for more details about
these disorders.
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