Caring for Aging Eyes

Squint­ing a lit­tle more than usu­al, reach­ing for your glass­es more often, need­ing to turn on ​“large text” mode on your phone…these are com­mon expe­ri­ences as you get older.

It’s nor­mal for aging eyes to lead to changes in your vision. In many cas­es, using glass­es or get­ting a new pre­scrip­tion will do the trick. But when these sim­ple cor­rec­tive mea­sures don’t work, your vision loss may be due to a more seri­ous eye condition.

Com­mon Eye Prob­lems as You Age

With age comes an increased risk for cer­tain types of eye prob­lems that can affect your vision. 

Cataracts

The lens is a clear part of the eye just behind the iris (the col­ored part of the eye) that helps focus light. As you age, pro­teins in the lens begin to break down and form clumps. These clumps cre­ate cloudy areas in the lens called cataracts.

If you have cataracts, it can feel like you’re look­ing through a fog­gy or frosty win­dow. In addi­tion to blur­ry or dim vision, you may notice some of these symp­toms:

• Col­ors appear fad­ed or yellowed

• Dou­ble vision in one eye
• Dif­fi­cul­ty see­ing at night
• Sun­light, lamps, or head­lights appear too bright
• See­ing rings (“halos”) around lights
• Con­stant­ly need­ing changes to your eye­glass­es or con­tact lens prescriptions
• Need­ing brighter light to read

Surgery is the only way to get rid of cataracts. Get­ting surgery on your eye might make you shud­der to think about, but there’s no need to wor­ry – cataract surgery is one of the most com­mon and safest surg­eries in the US. It is an out­pa­tient pro­ce­dure, mean­ing you can go home on the same day. The eye is numbed dur­ing the surgery, so most peo­ple feel lit­tle to no pain. 

Dry Eye

Dry eye is when the tear glands in your eyes don’t work well and your eyes can’t make enough tears to stay moist. In addi­tion to feel­ing dry, your eyes might feel like they are sting­ing, burn­ing, or scratch­ing, or that there is some­thing stuck in them. It can also make your eyes red and your vision blur­ry or make you extra sen­si­tive to light. 

For­tu­nate­ly, there are treat­ments to ease symp­toms, such as:

• Over-the-counter eye drops called ​“arti­fi­cial tears”

• Pre­scrip­tion medications
• Lifestyle changes like avoid­ing smok­ing or using a humidifier
• Tear duct plugs, which keep tears in your eyes
• Ther­a­peu­tic con­tact lenses
• In-office pul­sa­tion or light procedures
• Surgery to fix droopy eye­lids (not used very often)

Age-Relat­ed Mac­u­lar Degen­er­a­tion (AMD)

Mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion is a con­di­tion that blurs your cen­tral vision, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to clear­ly see objects direct­ly in front of you. Age-relat­ed mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion (AMD) is the main cause of vision loss in old­er adults. 

With AMD, you won’t have com­plete blind­ness. How­ev­er, you may have enough vision loss that it caus­es trou­ble with read­ing, dri­ving, or doing close-up work like cooking.

The good news is that AMD comes in stages, and sig­nif­i­cant vision loss doesn’t gen­er­al­ly occur until it is in its lat­est stages – and get­ting to late-stage AMD isn’t a guar­an­tee. You might stay in the ear­ly or inter­me­di­ate stages and only expe­ri­ence slight vision problems.

There isn’t a cure for AMD, but there are sev­er­al treat­ments that can make symp­toms less severe and slow down the pro­gres­sion of the dis­ease. Your provider may rec­om­mend tak­ing cer­tain med­ica­tions or nutri­tion­al sup­ple­ments or try­ing a laser ther­a­py treatment. 

Also read: What is Age-Relat­ed Mac­u­lar Degeneration?

Glau­co­ma

Glau­co­ma is a catch-all term for sev­er­al dis­eases that cause pres­sure to build up in your eye­ball. That pres­sure dam­ages the optic nerve at the back of your eye, which can lead to blind­ness. In fact, glau­co­ma is one of the lead­ing caus­es of blind­ness. 

When it starts, glau­co­ma doesn’t cause any symp­toms. But as the dis­ease gets worse, you might notice symp­toms like eye pain or pres­sure, blur­ry or low vision, blind spots, dou­ble vision, headaches, or red or blood­shot eyes. 

Dam­age caused by glau­co­ma is per­ma­nent and can’t be reversed – how­ev­er, there is good news. Treat­ments like surgery, med­ica­tion, or laser ther­a­py can help slow down glau­co­ma and pre­vent vision loss. The ear­li­er you start these treat­ments, the bet­ter chance you have of keep­ing vision loss at bay. 

Also read: New Tech­nol­o­gy at QMG Pro­vides Ear­ly Detec­tion of Eye Diseases

Dia­bet­ic Retinopathy

Dia­betes can block the blood ves­sels that go to the reti­na (the part of your eye that detects light and sends sig­nals to the brain). Your eyes then grow new blood ves­sels to make up for it. How­ev­er, the new ves­sels can eas­i­ly bleed or leak flu­id. As the con­di­tion pro­gress­es, you may notice spots float­ing in your vision (floaters), blurred vision, or vision loss. 

Any­one with dia­betes can devel­op dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy. How­ev­er, it may be seen more in old­er adults because the risk increas­es the longer you have had dia­betes. 

If you have dia­betes, you won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly devel­op dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy. And while it’s not always pre­ventable, you can low­er your risk by man­ag­ing your dia­betes and keep­ing your blood pres­sure and cho­les­terol at healthy levels. 

Ear­ly dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy typ­i­cal­ly doesn’t need to be treat­ed. In the lat­er stages, you may need med­ica­tion injec­tions, laser ther­a­py, or surgery. These treat­ments can’t cure dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy, but they can slow it down or stop it from progressing.

How to Pro­tect Your Eyes as You Age

As you get old­er, it’s extra impor­tant to take care of your aging eyes. Some ways to do this include:

• Stop­ping smoking

• Main­tain­ing nor­mal blood pressure
• Being phys­i­cal­ly active
• Stay­ing at a healthy weight
• Wear­ing pro­tec­tive gear when in the sun, like sun­glass­es that block ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion and a wide-brimmed hat
• Man­ag­ing diabetes
• Tak­ing breaks from look­ing at your com­put­er every 20 minutes
• Eat­ing a diet rich in vit­a­mins and nutri­ents that improve eye health

Vit­a­mins and Nutri­ents That Can Reduce the Risk of Eye Disease

• Vit­a­min C 

• Vit­a­min D 

• Zinc 

• Essen­tial fat­ty acids 

• Lutein & zeaxanthin

Also, have your eye health mon­i­tored on a reg­u­lar basis. It’s rec­om­mend­ed that adults over 65 get a com­pre­hen­sive eye exam every 1 to 2 years. If you already have an eye con­di­tion or dia­betes, your provider may sug­gest test­ing more often. 

Also read: Tips to Reduce Eye Strain

Even with the best pre­ven­tive mea­sures, age can take a toll on your vision. But with ear­ly diag­no­sis, the right treat­ment, and tak­ing care of your over­all health, you may be able to low­er your risk of severe vision problems. 

Have you had your reg­u­lar com­pre­hen­sive eye exam? Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Quin­cy Med­ical Group optometrist.