If you’ve cultivated a larger world view as you age, you can thank wisdom and experience—but not necessarily your eyes. In fact, your ability to see is probably much less than it used to be, owing to the natural aging process and the group of eye diseases that comes with it.
By Alyson Black
“Not all diseases come with a warning,” cautions ophthalmologist David Hoffman, MD. “And since most eye diseases don’t come with pain, there is always a tendency to put them on the backburner. But people shouldn’t wait until their vision is blurry to see the ophthalmologist. You need to know what’s going on.” To that end, the accepted recommendation is that adults age 40 and over receive an annual eye exam (most people need reading glasses by then, anyway), and get checked every two years if there is no indication of any problem. Unfortunately, when it comes to eyes and aging, problems are not at all unusual.
Cataracts
When cataracts develop, explains Hoffman, it’s as though the clear window over the eye has grown yellow and eventually cloudy. This results in poor vision, glare, and problems driving at night. Eyeglasses can help cope with blurring and sunglasses can remove some of the glare, but they aren’t solutions. “Cataracts are something that everyone will have to deal with,” says Hoffman. “Just about everybody gets them.”
In fact, says John Boozan, MD, FACS, Overlook’s chief of ophthalmology within the Department of Surgery, “so many people develop cataracts because people are living longer, and people have diabetes more often.” Fortunately, cataracts are easily removed and cataract surgery ranks high on the nation’s list of most successful operations; the average age for cataract surgery in the United States is 78. “The surgery cures patients of that disease,” says Boozan, “and it’s an outpatient procedure with a quick recovery."
Glaucoma
Like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, glaucoma is a silent disease. It’s caused by pressure in the eye, which causes damage to the optic nerve, leads to a loss of peripheral vision, and, if left untreated, loss of central vision. Treatment options include eye drops or laser surgery to increase the amount of fluid that flows out of the eye. But many cases of glaucoma can be prevented, explains Boozan, with common-sense lifestyle measures. “Exercise, eat well, and don’t smoke,” he says. “There’s less chance of diabetes with exercise and proper diet, and eye pressure decreases with a decrease in body mass.”Routine checkups can easily detect glaucoma, and should be performed from age 50 on for Caucasians (age 40 if there is a family history of the disease). African-Americans are afflicted by a much more aggressive form of the disease and should be screened earlier, from age 40 (age 30 if there is a family history).
Macular degeneration
There are two forms of macular degeneration (wet, in which blood vessels bleed under the retina; and dry, resulting in a loss of central vision), and most people walk around with it for years before being diagnosed with it. Risk factors include family history (there is a 25 percent increased chance for having macular degeneration if a parent or sibling has it), smoking, and having light-colored eyes.
The wet form of macular degeneration requires medication delivered directly to the retina, to prevent blood vessels from growing. In its dry form, there is evidence to support improvement with the use of antioxidant vitamins. And a study released this past winter found that women who took a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement had significantly lower risks of developing age-related macular degeneration. If these findings are successfully replicated in future studies, researchers believe that this combination of vitamins might become the first line of prevention in staving off age-related macular degeneration—other than avoiding cigarette smoking. “Generally,” says Hoffman, “things that are good for the heart are good for macular degeneration.”
For a referral to an ophthalmologist, please call (866) 819-4980.
April 2009
