As we all get older so do our eyes, but where do we turn for information regarding aging eye, senior health, and macular generation. The answer is quite simple “The Eye Digest”.

You may not realize this, but the major cause of impaired vision and blindness in the United States is for the most part age related eye diseases. We should all learn about the various age related diseases that can cause us to have impaired vision or to become blind and what we can do in order to correct these problems before they occur.

Macular Degeneration is an age related eye disease that can cause progressive damage to the central part of the retina, which lets us see fine detail. These means you will begin to see blurring or a darkening in the center of your vision. With Macular degeneration you will no longer be able to enjoy such activities as reading, driving, or even recognizing your family members. A few risk factors include exposure to sunlight, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, and hyperopia or far sightedness.

There is a variety of Glaucoma types; however, there is one that is the second leading cause of blindness in the US, which is open angle glaucoma. Glaucoma is another eye disease that increases with age. There are however, risk factors that can increase your chances of having glaucoma which is high eye pressure, age (of course), family history, race (Blacks have glaucoma more often than other races), cupping of the optic nerve, corneal thickness less than 0.5mm, near sightedness, diabetes, hypertension, eye injuries, and migraine headaches.

Cataract is a word that many of us have at least heard at some time in our lives; however, there are three types of age related cataracts. These include nuclear sclerosis, cortical, and posterior subcapsular. With nuclear sclerosis, the lens hardens and becomes a yellow color, with cortical the lens color becomes opaque, and with posterior subcapsular the backside of the lens becomes opaque. There are certain risk factors that can lead to cataracts as we age which include exposure to sunlight, myopia, cigarette smoking, steroid use, injury to the eye, and diabetes.

No matter what age everyone has experienced dry eye, however, as we age dry eye can become a very serious problem. In older individuals, dry eye can be a disorder in which the interpalpebral ocular surface is damaged from either extreme tear evaporation or tear deficiency. Dry eye should be treated so the damage does not become worse. 

LASIK, LASEK, Epi-LASIK & Sub-Bowmans Keratomileusis are procedures that can help people with age related vision problems before they become worse or before the impairment is so bad that it cannot be cured.