Cataract: Meaning, Symptoms, Treatment & Recovery
A clouding in the eye’s natural lens, a cataract is one of the most common ophthalmological problems seen in people over 40. While most cataracts are caused by simply getting older, modern technologies in today’s medicine have made it one of the most treatable eye illnesses worldwide. Some patients choose their local clinic or a nearby hospital to cure their cataracts, while others opt for a more radical solution and choose cataract treatment abroad. Here is everything you need to know about cataracts, including their symptoms, causes, treatment methods, and everything in between.
What is a Cataract?
Cataract meaning may be defined as a cloudy area in the lens of the eye. Cataracts have a larger risk of appearing as people get older. It is known that more than half of the world’s population aged 80 or older are prone to have cataracts or have already undergone surgery to get rid of them.What Are the Causes of Cataracts?
Although most cataracts are directly age-related, there are numerous types of cataracts that can appear due to different reasons. Cataracts may also appear after a severe eye injury or after surgery for a different eye problem, such as glaucoma. That being said, these are the less likely possibilities that you may have cataracts if you are over the age of 40. Age is still one of the top cataract causes known to this day. Research also shows that people who have certain health problems like diabetes, people who smoke, drink too much alcohol, have spent a lot of time in the sun over the course of years, and take steroids, are at risk for cataracts as well.Posterior subcapsular, nuclear sclerotic, and cortical cataracts are the three types of cataracts that specialists have been dealing with over the years in the medical community. Age, general health conditions, and inheritance are also key factors that need to be considered in the diagnosis stage of the illness.Most Common Cataract Symptoms
Being one of the most common eye problems, cataracts have become an easy disease to spot due to their distinctive and numerous symptoms. While a cataract on the eye may not present any early symptoms, the late cataract symptoms include:- Blurry vision
- Faded colors in vision
- Trouble seeing at night
- Sensitivity towards light
- Double vision