Around 37 million Americans over 50 have experienced some form of vision loss. Most of these cases of vision loss are caused by conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, ocular complications of diabetes mellitus and age-related cataracts.
Below, we get into the common vision conditions that come with old age, and how you can prevent and/or manage them.
Understanding the terms
- Low vision: A portion of your vision is impaired.
- Near-sighted/myopic: A type of low vision where you cannot see distant objects clearly.
- Far-sighted/hyperopic: A type of low vision where you cannot see close objects clearly.
- Visually impaired: This means a person’s eyesight cannot be repaired to reach an average level.
- Partially sighted: A type of impairment that requires special education services.
- Blindness: A lack of vision.
- Legally blind: Refers to people with less than 20/200 vision in the better eye or with a limited field of vision that is 20 degrees or less at its widest point.
- Totally blind: Describes people with a complete lack of form and light reception. They need braille, raised-line drawings, audio recordings and other non-visual media to access content in visually presented materials.
Common eye problems and diseases
While some eye conditions aren’t as severe on their own, they might indicate something more dangerous.
- Presbyopia: When your eyes slowly lose the capacity to see things up close.
- Floaters and flashes: Floaters look like tiny dots in your field of vision. Flashes look like flashing lights or lightning strikes in your field of vision.
- Dry eyes: Dry eyes occur when your eyes don’t produce enough tears.
- Tearing/watery eyes: This describes the excessive production of tears.
Common Eye Diseases
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a disease that damages your eye’s optic nerve. The condition is the leading cause of blindness for people over 60.
In the early stages, there are typically no warning signs. While there is no cure, treatments and early detection through a comprehensive eye exam can help stop the damage and protect your vision.
There are many different types of glaucoma. Open-angle glaucoma is the most common form, accounting for 9 in 10 cases in the United States. Most people don’t realize they have open-angle glaucoma until they lose their eyesight. While doctors aren’t entirely sure what causes open-angle glaucoma, they think it is related to pressure buildup in the eye. People with high blood pressure and diabetes are at higher risk for this type of glaucoma.
Angle-closure glaucoma is a medical emergency. The symptoms of angle-closure glaucoma include intense eye pain, blurry vision, red eye, and nausea. In angle-closure glaucoma, your eye cannot drain out fluid, and if not treated immediately, it can cause blindness in just a few days. Your doctor will use laser treatment and prescribe medicine to drain the fluid to release some pressure.
Normal tension glaucoma is a type of open-angle glaucoma, but it happens in people who have normal eye pressure. Doctors don’t know what causes this. You’re at increased risk if you have heart problems such as an irregular heartbeat or low blood pressure.
Cataracts
Cataracts are common as you age and cause a cloudy area in the lens of your eye. Cataracts can go unnoticed for some time and eventually cause vision to be blurry, hazy, and less colorful, eventually leading to vision loss. Other symptoms include:
- Seeing a halo around lights
- Seeing double
- Frequently updating your glasses or contact lens prescription.
Luckily, there is surgery to get rid of cataracts. While cataracts typically result from age, occasionally, they can occur following surgery for a different eye issue or due to an unrelated eye injury.
You’re most at risk for cataracts if you have health problems like diabetes, smoke, drink excessively, have a family history of cataracts, spend a lot of time in the sun or take steroids.
Use sunglasses outside to prevent cataracts and protect your eyes from the sun. Wear protective eye equipment when playing sports or working with power tools. Quitting smoking and eating a healthy, balanced diet can also help prevent cataracts.
Conjunctivitis
Conjunctivitis, commonly referred to as pink eye, is a highly contagious infection caused by a bacterial or viral infection. It causes swelling and redness and often feels itchy and painful. Viral conjunctivitis is the most common form, but you can also get pink eye from an allergen, fungus or parasite.
To prevent pink eye, wash your hands frequently, change your contact lenses, clean your eyeglasses regularly, throw out old makeup and makeup brushes, and don’t share personal products with people with conjunctivitis.
While pink eye typically improves on its own, see your doctor if your eyes are very red, you have excessive eye pain, your vision is blurry, you’re extra sensitive to light, you notice a lot of mucus coming from your eye or you are getting worse instead of getting better.
Corneal diseases
Many types of diseases can affect the cornea. Interestingly, shingles can impact your cornea, causing swelling and scarring. Your doctor can prescribe an antiviral medication to help shingles disappear and prevent damage to your cornea.
Ocular herpes is another disease that can hurt the cornea. When a herpes virus infects the eye, sores called ocular herpes can develop on the outer layer of the eye and cornea and cause a severe eye infection called keratitis. At times, this can lead to blindness.
Other diseases, like Stevens-Johnson syndrome, can also affect the cornea.
Common retina concerns
The retina helps to focus images that come through the eye’s lens. It converts these images to electric signals and sends them along the optic nerve to the brain.
Age-related macular degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can happen to the macula, which is part of the retina. Age-related macular degeneration is a prevalent cause of vision loss for seniors. While it doesn’t cause complete blindness, it does make it harder to see faces, read and drive. The progression of age-related macular degeneration can depend on the person and is often slow, which is why it is essential to get regular eye exams.
There are two types of AMD. Dry AMD occurs when the macula gets thinner with age. It has three stages of progression, early, intermediate, and late, and there is no treatment for late dry AMD. While the early stage often doesn’t have symptoms, intermediate dry AMD can cause mild blurriness in your central vision or cause trouble seeing in low lighting. In the late stage, straight lines appear wavy, a blurry area appears near the center of your eye, and colors appear less bright than before.
Wet AMD is the second type. It occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow in the back of the eye and damage the macula. Vision loss occurs faster with wet AMD. Any stage of dry AMD can turn into wet AMD, but wet AMD is always a late stage.
To avoid AMD, quit smoking, exercise regularly, keep blood pressure and cholesterol at acceptable levels, and eat lots of leafy green vegetables.
Diabetic retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy causes vision loss in people with diabetes. If you have diabetes, get a dilated eye exam at least once a year. This exam can help detect diabetic retinopathy early and preserve your vision. Exercise, eat healthily, and take diabetes medications to prevent or delay vision loss. While this doesn’t always have symptoms, you might notice changes in your vision, have trouble reading or struggle to see faraway objects.
Retinal detachment
Retinal detachment occurs when your retina disconnects from its usual position in the eye. When a small part of your retina is detached, you likely won’t have any symptoms. However, if more of your retina is disconnected, you will notice unclear vision, a lot of new floaters, flashes of light, and a dark shadow on the sides or in the middle of your eye. This is a medical emergency. If you experience this, go to the emergency room or your doctor’s office immediately.
You are at increased risk if you have a family history of retinal detachment, severe eye injury, or eye surgery. Aging and eye injuries can both cause this condition.
Preventing age-related eye problems
Diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease can all damage your eyes, so it is essential to manage these conditions as you age. If caught early, many eye issues can be resolved or helped, so work closely with your doctor or ophthalmologist to manage your care.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet, quitting smoking, and participating in regular physical activity are great ways to protect your vision as you age. Always wear UV-blocking sunglasses when you’re outside to help decrease damage to your eyes. If you’re frequently looking at a computer screen, avoid digital eye strain by taking breaks.
Common aids for vision loss
If you experience vision loss, know there are tools available to help. Low vision aids such as telescopic glasses and magnifying glasses are great tools to help you see things more clearly.