How about taking a closer look at common diseases that can threaten your eye health in order to protect our eyesight, one of our most dominant senses, and to be prepared for the risks that may occur? Private Adatip Istanbul Hospital Ophthalmology Specialist Op. Dr. Fatma Işıl Sözen Delil shared with you tips for protecting your eyesight due to World Sight Day.
In a world built on the ability to see, seeing, the most dominant of our senses, is of great importance in every period of our lives. Our daily life, which is becoming more and more digital every day, our changing diet and environmental factors cause eye diseases to increase. According to the latest data released by the World Health Organization, 2.2 billion people globally have visual impairment, and at least 1 billion people have preventable or undiagnosed near or far vision impairment. Ophthalmology Specialist of Private Adatıp Istanbul Hospital, Op. Dr. Fatma Işıl Sözen Delil also explained common diseases that may threaten your eye health and tips to prevent them:
Katarakt
A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens of the eye that causes it to feel like looking through a frosted or foggy window. Most cataracts develop slowly and do not disturb your vision in the early stages, but the clouding intensifies as they continue to develop. Do not think that cataract, which is among the most common vision problems with advancing age, is an inevitable disease. You can reduce the risk of cataract formation by having regular eye checks, keeping your other health problems such as diabetes and blood pressure under control, using sunglasses at any age, avoiding smoking and adopting a healthy diet.
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy, which is one of the most important causes of blindness today, occurs as a result of complications of diabetes. Due to diabetes, the structure of blood vessels in the retina may deteriorate, and depending on these deteriorations, blurring, glare, pain and pressure may occur in the eyes. Vision loss does not develop at the beginning of the disease, but as the disease progresses over time, vision weakness occurs and a significant portion of the patients experience sudden vision loss. Early diagnosis and treatment prevent vision loss to a great extent. For this reason, it is very important for diabetic patients to have an eye examination twice a year and keep their blood sugar under control, without waiting for any eye health problems.
Macular Degeneration (Yellow Spot Disease)
If you start to see pale colors, blurrier writings and broken, wavy lines, then you may have yellow spot disease. This disease, which causes loss of visual acuity with damage to the cells in the central retina, known as the yellow spot, usually occurs due to advanced age. Cigarette smoking and malnutrition are the other risk factors for macular degeneration, which ranks first among the visual disorders that result in vision loss in the world. Staying away from smoking, eating a healthy and balanced diet, adopting an active life, keeping blood pressure and cholesterol under control will reduce your risk of catching yellow spot disease.
Glaucoma (Eye Pressure)
Glaucoma, which is the second most common cause of blindness worldwide, is one of the most insidious diseases, but it frequently occurs in people over 2 years of age. Glaucoma, popularly known as glaucoma, occurs as a result of intraocular pressure thinning and damaging the optic nerve. In glaucoma, which can cause permanent blindness if not detected early, it often does not give any symptoms before the vision is lost by 40 percent. Glaucoma is a disease that gradually narrows the visual field of the person and causes the loss of the side vision field. The most important factor in controlling the disease is that people have regular eye examinations, especially after the age of 40. With these routine controls, the quality of life of patients will increase significantly and diseases that will cause permanent health problems can be prevented.
Be the first to comment