Year: 2017

What is colour blindness?

Colour blindness is a condition that affects a significant percentage of the population. It is the inability to perceive colour differences under normal conditions and the decreased ability to see colour. It is not actual blindness and many people who are colour blind are still able to see objects clearly, but there is a deficiency of colour vision.

Colour blindness can change a life

Colour blindness can change a life and it makes reading and learning harder for children and young adults and it makes pursuing certain careers impossible. Examples of careers that exclude colour blind people include electricians and various driving jobs because of traffic lights. However, both children and adults can learn to compensate for their problems seeing colour.

It’s rare that a person sees no colour at all and it’s usually that they have problems seeing red, green and blue colours or a mix of these.

Symptoms of colour blindness

Typical symptoms of colour blindness vary and one person may be able to see some colours and not others. For example, you may be unable to differentiate between red and green colours but able to see yellow and blue.

Another symptom is the ability to see many colours, but not knowing that you see colours differently from the majority of people. Also, you may have the ability to see certain shades of colour while other people see thousands of them.

Causes of colour blindness

Colour blindness is caused in several ways, the most common cause is genetic.

There are three types of cone cells in the eye and each type senses either green, red or blue light. Colour is seen when cone cells sense different quantities of these three basic colours. And so a genetic deficiency in one of these types of cone cells leads to colour blindness.

However, colour blindness is not always inherited. It can also be caused as a result of injury to the eye, medical side effects and eye conditions such as cataracts and macular degeneration.

Diagnosis of colour blindness

A simple test will measure how well you are able to distinguish various colours. The most common test will involve looking at sets of colours and trying to identify a pattern in them such as a number or letter. This will identify the general type of colour blindness you have.

More complex tests such as arranging coloured chips according to how similar the colours are, or in a colour order can help to determine the extent of this.

Get tested for colour blindness

It is important to detect a colour vision problem early because it can make a big difference. Unfortunately, there is generally no treatment for colour blindness however opticians can provide coloured spectacle lenses which can sometimes help to discriminate between colours rather than clearly see them.

Macula degeneration (AMD) is a condition that affects the central part of the vision. The part we use to look at things directly. It can occur gradually (dry type) or suddenly (wet type).

Key facts:

• Mainly affects people over 60, but can occur sooner.
• Most common cause of sight loss in the developed world
• 600,000 people affected in the UK
• Half of these are registered as sight impaired

Risk factors:

• Age – Over 60s at greater risk
• Smoking – Can occur at an earlier age due to smoking
• Genetics – family history increases the risk
• Diet – poor diet can cause deficiencies in the vitamins, mineral and antioxidants needed to main a healthy macula
• Blood pressure – high blood pressure increase the risk
• Sunlight – light from the blue end of the visual spectrum can increase oxidative damage, leading to macula degeneration.
• Gender – women have a greater risk of developing the condition

Risk factor often occur in combination and it is not possible to pin the condition down to one reason or another.

What can i do:

• Having regular eye checks will help pick up the condition sooner, and may even be before you experience any symptoms.
• Look at your lifestyle, take regular exercise, quit smoking, have a diet rich in green leafy vegetables.
• Assessing your lifestyle with your Optometrist can identify areas that may place you at higher risk.
• Taking macula antioxidants if you have risk factors may help to maintain macula health.
• Using good quality sunglasses will help protect your eyes form harmful UV light.

Treatment:

Wet macula degeneration can be treated with a drug that limits the growth of new and leaky blood vessels.

Dry macula degeneration does not have any know treatment however antioxidants are thought to play a part in maintaning macula health and may delay the onset or progression of the condition.

If you will need to be referred, we are able to refer you for wet macula degeneneration by direct fast referral to the following treatment centres.

Meso-Zeaxanthin is only found in one place in the body, the centre of the macula, in the back of the eye. The Meso-Zeaxanthin in MacuShield is extracted from marigolds. These marigolds are grown specifically for the production of of this ingredient. Other sources of Zeaxanthin are certain types of sea food in limited quantities.

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A cataract is cause by a change in the structure of the natural lens

Key facts:

• Start developing in people as they get older
• Can occur at birth, due to drugs or trauma (less common)
• Age related cataract are very common
• Stops the light from reaching the back of the eye and affects vision
• They develop over many years
• Requires surgery to remove and replace the affected lens.

Risk factors:

• Age – Over 60s at greater risk.
• Smoking – Can occur at an earlier age due to smoking.
• Genetics – family history increases the risk.
• Diet – poor diet can cause deficiencies in the vitamins, mineral and antioxidants needed to main a healthy lens.
• Medication – taking certain medication like corticosteroids at high dose or for a long time.
• Sunlight – prolonged light exposure from the blue end of the visual spectrum can increase oxidative damage, leading to cataracts earlier.
• Alcohol – drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
• Diabetes – cataracts start earlier in diabetics and may affect monitoring of diabetic retinopathy

Risk factor often occur in combination and it is not possible to pin the condition down to one reason or another.

What can i do:

• Having regular eye checks will help pick up the condition sooner, and may even be before you experience any symptoms.
• Look at your lifestyle, take regular exercise, quit smoking, have a diet rich in green leafy vegetables.
• Assessing your lifestyle with your Optometrist can identify areas that may place you at higher risk.
• Using good quality sunglasses will help protect your eyes form harmful UV light.

Treatment:

Treatment for cataracts is done surgically by removing the affected lenses and replacing it with a ocular implant. The surgery is quick, taking under 20 minutes, one eye is done at a time, vision is restored almost immediately.

You can be referred via the NHS, which takes a few months. A referral is sent via your GP to the hospital eye service where an eye surgeon (Ophthalmologist) will assess you and discuss the treatment plan.

You can also be referred privately through you health insurance provider or to a private eye hospital.

Diabetes is a disease of the small blood vessels found all over the body.

Key facts:

• Two main types; type 1 and type 2
• Untreated diabetes can damage your organs
• Symptoms include: feeling thirsty, peeing more than usual, feeling tired regularly.
• 1 in 16 people have diabetes in the UK, and this is rising.
• Can cause serious long-term health problems.

Risk factors:

• Age – Over 60s at greater risk
• Smoking – Can occur at an earlier age due to smoking
• Genetics – family history increases the risk
• Diet – Being over-weight. Eat a health balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight
• Blood pressure – high blood pressure increases the risk
• Exercise – Not enough exercise increases you risk. Take regular exercise
• Ethnicity – Asian backgrounds are at higher risk

Risk factors often occur in combination and it is not possible to pin the condition down to one reason or another.

What can i do:

• Having regular eye checks will help pick up the condition sooner, and may even be before you experience any symptoms.
• Look at your lifestyle, take regular exercise, quit smoking, have a diet rich in green leafy vegetables.
• Assessing your lifestyle with your Optometrist can identify areas that may place you at higher risk.
• Taking macula antioxidants if you have risk factors may help to maintain macula health.
• Using good quality sunglasses will help protect your eyes form harmful UV light.

Treatment:

If you are diagnosed with diabetes you will be put on the national diabetic eye screening service to maintain a record of the health of your eyes. You should still attend for your annual sight test at Oldfields Opticians even if you are under the eye screening service. Your prescription is at risk of changes if your diabetes control is variable. This will allow us to pick up changes related to your diabetes sooner.

If signs of diabetes are found in your eye, depending on the severity, you may need to have treatment with laser.

There is a new therapy now available for Diabetic Retinopathy. You can find out more about it by clicking here.