5 Common Eye Problems in the Elderly and How to Prevent Them
Vision is inarguably vital to living a good life. It's responsible for perceiving your environment and allows you to enjoy its wonders. However, your vision becomes more vulnerable to common eye problems as you age.
If you fail to recognize them early on, they may lead to irreversible damage, and you might lose your eyesight forever. As such, it's more crucial to recognize the symptoms and determine the urgency immediately.
To walk you through this, here are common eye problems in older people and how to prevent them.
Cataracts
Cataracts are one of the most common eye problems people experience as they age. When you're young, the surrounding area of your eye lens is clear, but as you age, it gets cloudy, making it harder for people to focus light. It's a relatively normal change in your eyes. Half of all 80-year-old or older Americans get them, and some get surgery to get rid of them.
Unfortunately, there are no relevant studies that have proven how to prevent cataracts or help in slowing down their development. However, eye doctors have recommended a few tips and strategies that can help you, including regular eye examinations.
Making time to visit your eye doctor for an examination will help you ensure the condition of your eye and help detect cataracts in their earlier stages before it gets worse.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma can occur in any group but is more common in older people. It's a scary eye condition that can lead to blindness for people over 60. What's even more frightening is that this eye condition doesn't have any warning signs, and you will only most likely experience changes in vision until in its later stages.
Glaucoma results from damage to the optic nerve with a major risk factor of eye pressure. The eye pressure results in the fluid that typically flows throughout your eyes but, for some reason, starts to build up. The fluid is called aqueous humor, which usually drains through an area in your eye where the iris and cornea meet.
The best thing you can do to prevent glaucoma from forming in the first place is to wear appropriate eye protection, especially if you perform activities that can risk eye injuries. Aside from that, maintain a healthy diet, regular exercise, and manage your blood pressure since these will significantly help in improving your overall health, including your percentage of risk for glaucoma.
Experts recommend eating a healthy diet to people, but it doesn't prevent glaucoma from worsening, but you can consult your doctor and ask for prescriptions like Latanoprost. The Latanoprost tablet price is usually hefty, especially since the expenses can quickly build up, but you can look into prescription coupons to get them at a discounted price.
Presbyopia
Presbyopia is another eye condition that's usually part of aging. It happens when the lens that usually helps your eye system to focus stops focusing light correctly on your retina. In other words, it's a refractive error that makes it harder for older people to see things up close.
Unfortunately, there are still no proven research studies to help prevent presbyopia, but there are several ways that you can treat this eye condition. One of which includes wearing corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Ensure that these are prescribed by your eye doctor so that you get the appropriate treatment for your eyes. Furthermore, refractive surgeries and getting lens implants are also options you can consider.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, is another common eye problem in aging adults that blurs central vision. This is due to damaging the macula in old age, and it's been reported as the leading cause of vision loss in this age group.
AMD doesn't cause complete blindness, but it can significantly affect your overall well-being and hinders you from doing your usual activities, such as driving, reading, or seeing faces.
Fortunately, you can prevent AMD by living an active lifestyle. Regular exercise improves your risk of developing AMD. A study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology followed this. On the other hand, if you develop this eye condition, a good healthy diet and regular exercise, quitting bad vices such as smoking will help improve the condition.
In addition to that, consider drinking supplements as well to prevent further development.
Diabetic Retinopathy
As its name suggests, diabetic retinopathy results from an abnormal increase in blood sugar levels, which damages your retina. This is also a common condition that most diabetic patients experience.
If left undiagnosed and untreated, it can eventually cause blindness. On the brighter side, diabetic retinopathy takes several years to reach critical stages and threatens your sight.
Fortunately, you can do a few things to reduce your risk of developing this eye condition and prevent it from worsening. First and foremost, the most obvious is maintaining control of your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. As such, it's recommended that you should be mindful of your food intake and take time to work out.
Diabetic retinopathy's treatment includes eye injection with ranibizumab and aflibercept medicines. This procedure will prevent your eyes from getting worse and significantly helps in improving your vision. However, this can be on a case-to-case basis because it will also depend on the condition of your current eye. Don't forget to consult with your eye doctor to consider the best options.
Final Thoughts
Your eyes help you appreciate the wonder of the world. You should care for them as much as possible, and caring for them involves looking out for your overall well-being. Thus, always be conscientious of how you live and lead your life. Aging is inevitable, but you can do something with how you would want to live as an older adult.