Many people do not know that there are several eye diseases that cause blindness.
My mother recently had an episode of possible retinal detachment.
She was experiencing flashes and increased amount of eye floaters but she thought that it was normal.
It was during one of our dinners together that she complained about her vision.
As we dig further, the symptoms horrendously sounded like RD and we sent her to the Accident & Emergency unit first thing in the morning at 5am to get an eye checkup.
And the doctor tell us that she is showing signs of retinal detachment.
She has to be closely monitored and sent to the hospital immediately if she has flashes again.
The finding scared the hell out of me.
Even though statistics claimed that 90% of retinal tear and detachment can be treated but permanent blindness can occur if treatment is delayed.
And it is likely to be delayed if she hadn’t told us and if we didn’t suspect anything.
It sunders me to imagine if I am to lose my sight.
Around 80 percent of the information from the outside that reaches our brains comes from our eyes.
In fact, most learning and how we understand things are done through seeing.
Losing sight cripples a person way more than losing any of the other four senses.
There are around 400 million people in the world who are visually impaired due to various causes. And out of this group, around 50 million of them are totally blind.
There are several causes of blindness, like injuries to the head or eyes, medical conditions and chemical poisoning.
But eye diseases are usually the one that people tended to neglect and not know about their severity.
Below are some of the most common eye diseases that cause blindness:
A scratch on the corneal and it is one of the most commonly neglected eye injury.
There are several causes such as rubbing of eyes vigorously when there are foreign objects, sports and even using improperly maintained contact lenses.
While CA heals quickly most of the time, it can turn into corneal ulcer and cause blindness if certain type of bacteria and fungi get into the scratch.
Like the ones that grow in your mouth, this open sore grows on your cornea instead.
It can be extremely painful with mild to severe discharge and serious cases may cause blindness unless a cornea transplant is performed.
Cornea ulcer are largely caused by bacteria infection and improper use of contact lens heightens the risk of infection.
A common diabetes complication that is the leading cause of blindness in US.
According to the American Diabetes Association, roughly 30 million Americans have diabetes and millions more are pre-diabetic.
Long term diabetes can cause blood vessels of the retina to grow abnormally.
These abnormal blood vessels are extremely fragile and may leak which damages the retina and optic nerves.
In other cases, the blood vessels are unable to bring blood to parts of the retina which causes it to wither and die.
One of the most common eye diseases that cause blindness. Glaucoma accounts for 1 out of every 7 cases of blindness in US.
It is a medical condition in which the optics nerve is damaged by high eye pressure.
Glaucoma is also known as the 'silent sight thief’ as there may be no symptoms until it is too late. Catch it before it acts.
Medical term for inflammation of cornea.
There are many causes including dry eyes, various type of infections, injuries and underlying medical diseases.
Using of contact lens increases risk of getting keratitis significantly especially if the hygiene is poor, prolonged wearing of contact lens and improper usage of cleaning solutions.
A degenerative eye disease where the cornea becomes thin and turns cone shaped instead of dome-shaped.
It is estimated that 1 out of every 2000 people gets KC and patient are as young as 15 years old.
Keratoconus can cause serious distortion of vision such as gradual astigmatism, sensitivity to light and nearsightedness, due to the irregular shape of the cornea.
KC when left unattended may require invasive cornea transplant eventually. Learn how to slow the progression.
More commonly known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a medical condition where the macula (part of the eye that is necessary for seeing fine details) slowly breakdown or degenerate.
It is estimated that 1.8 million Americans aged 40 years and older are affected by AMD and the number of people with AMD is estimated to reach 2.95 million in 2020.
Learn how you can prevent its progression by clicking the link above.
A serious eye condition where permanent blindness may happened if not treated promptly.
Retinal detachment happens when the retina (part of the eye which is responsible for details) separates from the blood vessels which provide it the necessary oxygen and nutrients.
Thus leaving the retina cells suffocating.
Look out for the early symptoms and get yourself healed.
Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a rare inherited disease where the retina slowly and progressively degenerates.
People with RP experience vision loss as their light sensitive cells in retina die gradually and night blindness is one of the indicators.
While you can’t prevent yourself from inheriting RP, studies show that dietary supplements can slow down the progression.
Also known as Grave’s disease.
People with too much thyroid hormones production can develop several eye diseases such as dry eyes, redness and even loss of vision due to compression of the optic nerve by the inflamed and swollen tissues around the eye.
Click on the heading to find out more about the treatments available and what home remedies you can do to treat this eye disease.
More commonly known as posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is an eye condition where the vitreous membrane (gel-like substance the maintains the shape of the eye) separates from the retina (membrane at the back of the eye which receives light information).
PVD is common among people who are above 50 years old. PVD is usually harmless however it may cause retinal detachment/tear which can cause vision loss.
Find out more on how to slow the progression of this eye disease.
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