Cataract: Symptoms and Treatment

Cataracts, or also grey cataracts. It is a degenerative disease that affects the lens of the eye.

Normally, the lens is clear and transparent. In this disease, it becomes cloudy, foggy.

Cataracts are one of the most common causes of visual impairment to blindness worldwide.

It mainly affects the elderly, but also occurs in the young. There is also a congenital form. For a long time it is present without symptoms, until there is a blurring and blurring of vision in one or both eyes. 

Diagnosis and treatment are nowadays easy and affordable. Except in developing countries, where people suffer from blindness due to this disease and because of the unavailability of medical care (and because of the economic situation) "so to speak unnecessarily".

FAQ:
What is a cataract? 
How does it manifest? 
How is it treated? 
Will vitamins, natural treatments and prevention help?

Is surgical treatment necessary?

Some facts about cataracts: 

• is the most common disease of the eye and seniors
• mostly affects both eyes, but with varying degrees of damage and clouding of the lens
• typically affects people over the age of 60
• more than half of people over the age of 60 suffer from a mild form, at least in one eye
• over the age of 75 affects the majority of the population, in at least one eye
• more common in women and in the black population
• can also affect younger
• we also know the congenital form, which is already observed in newborns and young children
• approximately 50% of blindness worldwide is caused by cataracts (WHO data)
• if left untreated, it can cause severe visual impairment up to blindness, while...
• surgical treatment is simple - painless and takes a short time (40 minutes or less)

What is a cataract?

Alternatively, have you noticed that although you don't have eye pain, you are bothered by a kind of visual discomfort?

Did you answer yes to some or all of these questions? Please note, it is quite likely that you have cataracts.

More specifically,...

Cataracts are a degenerative disease of the lens of the eye.

The lens is normally clear. This, and in addition its ability to bend when focusing, helps to transmit the image (light rays) to the retina of the eye and to sharp vision.

Lens accommodation = focusing the image near or far.

Cataracts cause the lens to gradually become cloudy, foggy. Thus, it loses its ability to transmit rays of light sharply to the eye. 

Vision becomes cloudy, blurred. Objects are out of focus. Colours fade. At a severe stage, the disease prevents the transmission of the image to the retina completely, and the person is blind.

In addition, it limits - reduces the field of vision. 

People report the condition feels like they were looking through a pale or grey veil.

It usually affects both eyes, but in varying degrees of damage.

Table: classification of cataracts

Degenerative diseases develop gradually with age. This is also the case with cataracts. 

Cataracts are considered to be a degenerative process, and thus it is a kind of natural and irreversible aging process of the eyes, of the body. During life, metabolites, metabolic wastes, metabolism accumulate in the lens. This results in both clouding and a change in the stiffness of the lens.

Over time, tiny particles accumulate in the lens, these cover initially only small areas. Gradually the clumping becomes dense, this leads to characteristic changes in the colour of the lens.

Senile cataracts = cataract caused by ageing.

However, several factors play a role in its development. 

Multifactorial influence on the development of the disease:

• ageing and older age
• being female
• heredity and genetic predisposition
• sunlight (UVB, others), radiation - overexposure to sunlight
• unsuitable lifestyle
• smoking, alcohol and drugs
• eye injuries
• inflammation of the iris
• glaucoma
• metabolic and systemic diseases such as diabetes, rheumatic diseases, 
• rubella, toxoplasmosis
• long-term use of medications (corticosteroids, cytostatics, antipsychotics, some eye drops and others)
• postoperative complication after eye surgery
• high blood pressure

More severe degrees of refractive errors of the eye are also involved in cataract formation.

As stated, behind the changes in lens quality are metabolic processes. At this level, deposition into the lens occurs. This causes a change in its composition and colour.

A clear lens is thus transformed into a cloudy lens. Its transparency is reduced. 

Less light reaches the eye and retina.
One describes the state as looking through a veil, a curtain.

It is no longer clear (black), but rather pale, white, gray, or brown and other colours. These changes result in impaired passage of light rays to the retina of the eye.

And that's why cataracts manifest as:

• decrease in visual acuity
• impaired vision at dusk and at night
• double vision
• blurry vision
• reduction of colour saturation, colour fading, reduction of contrast
• perception of spots, floaters in the field of view
• reduction of the visual field
• the need for more light when reading
• increasing diopters and the need for thicker glasses
• increased sensitivity to illumination, impact of light rays on the face
• clouding of the lens visible externally - colour change, the lens is grey - grey, pale 

These symptoms are present in one or both eyes.

Diagnosis includes the medical history, i.e. data on the deterioration of vision and visual acuity and other symptoms of the disease.

An eye examination is important, and this includes, for example:

• examination of visual acuity, by superimposing one eye and reading from a chart
• slit lamp examination - magnifies the structures of the eye, thus illuminating the iris, the lens, and the space between the iris and the cornea, (examination of the anterior segment of the eye)
• examination of the retina of the eye - after dilating the lens, the back of the eye and the retina are examined, also with a slit lamp or an ophthalmoscope

In severe stages of the disease, clouding of the lens is visible even to the naked eye.

Question: 
When is treatment necessary? 
Read on...

Cataracts are not painful and initially have no symptoms. 

The first symptoms may include a feeling of visual discomfort, not pain.

Gradually, visual acuity deteriorates. The person has a need for stronger diopters. Glasses initially help to correct the condition.

Blurred vision, double vision, even fogging, and a veil-like view set in. There is a reduction in contrast sensitivity, colour fading. The world is no longer as colour-saturated as before. 

Typical features...

Eyesight is worst in the evening and at night. The affected person has difficulty driving in the twilight in the dark, and the illumination by the lights of oncoming cars is a big problem.

It is only later that the haze and greyness in the field of vision may be noticeable. The severe degree is total clouding of the lens and hence loss of vision, blindness. 

The disease mostly affects both eyes. However, not evenly. In one eye, the degenerative process is more advanced, and this is the reason in the differences in vision.

The course of the disease is individual. It can be prolonged.

However, there are also cases with rapid progression, and within months. Examples are conditions of association of other diseases (diabetes) or hereditary occurrence.

Cataracts in children?

As shown in the table there is congenital cataract. Cataracts arise hereditarily or due to chromosomal abnormalities. Additionally after the mother overcomes various infections during pregnancy. Examples are rubella, smallpox, hepatitis or toxoplasmosis. 

In this case, newborn screening, i.e. early detection of diseases, is used. The child's eyesight is also examined immediately after birth.

Surgery in the first 6 to 8 weeks can be very effective with a good prognosis.

Although cataracts are more associated with older age, they occur in a very small percentage even in childhood. It also affects children of preschool or school age.

Sometimes it can arise as a result of an accident or other eye diseases, also as a result of diabetes or excessive administration of corticosteroids.

Therefore, also because of the occurrence of side effects, corticosteroids must not be administered on a long-term basis.

Cataracts do not usually arise suddenly; they are a long-term process, even over several years. Of course, the course is accelerated by diabetes or rheumatic and other diseases, but also by the occurrence of cataracts in the family (the influence of heredity).

The earlier the cataract is operated, the better. Unlike in the past, when cataracts were left to mature.