Symptoms

Symptoms of Age Related Cataracts

Symptoms usually develop over many years, most commonly in older people. Gradually, more of the lens in your eye becomes cloudy. If your cataracts are mild, you may not notice any symptoms to start with. If you have cataracts in both eyes, one eye may be more affected than the other. Blurred, cloudy or misty vision is the most common symptom of age-related cataracts. You may have small spots or dots in your vision - patches where your sight is not as clear. Your sight may be affected by the light. For example, you may find it more difficult to see:

if the light is dim, or
when the light is bright, such as on a very sunny day or in bright artificial light.

Other ways that cataracts may affect your sight can include:

the glare from bright lights may be dazzling or uncomfortable to look at
halos may appear around sources of light
colors may look faded or less clear, and
reading, watching TV and other daily activities may be more difficult than they used to be.

If you wear glasses, you may find that they have become less effective. Less commonly, you may see a halo (a circle of light) around bright lights such as car headlights or street lights. The symptoms of cataracts can be similar to the symptoms of other eye conditions. It is therefore important to see your optician (optometrist) or GP for a check-up. A rare symptom of cataracts is double vision (seeing two images of an object instead of one).

Causes of Age Related Cataracts

Cataract Formation

Cataract Formation 2

Every normally developed human eye contains within it a crystalline lens. This lens is a clear organ made up of clear proteins and is responsible for focusing images on the retina, much like the lens inside the camera that brings images to focus on the film. With time and with environmental factors, such as ultraviolet lights, smoking, poor nutrition, diabetes, radiation and/or chemotherapy, but most commonly as part of the aging process, the lens becomes cloudy. This occurs due to denaturation of the clear crystalline proteins. The process of clouding of the normal crystalline lens is irreversible and is called "cataract formation". As the cataract forms, the light is scattered by an increasingly dense and cloudy lens and results in poor vision.

Changes to the lens in the eye

As people grow older, there can be changes to the protein that makes up the lens in the eye. Some experts think that this may be linked to how fluids and nutrients reach the eye. These changes in the lens protein can lead to cloudy areas developing.It is not known how or why getting older causes these changes to happen.

Risk factors

Research suggests that some factors may increase the risk of age-related cataracts developing. For example:

a history of cataracts in your family
lifestyle factors, such as smoking or a poor diet
overexposing your eyes to sunlight
taking steroid medicines for a long time

Other causes

In younger people, cataracts may have other less common causes. For example:

diabetes (people who have diabetes tend to develop cataracts at an earlier age)
injuries to the eye, and
other eye conditions, such as uveitis (inflammation of the uveal tract in the eye).

Dr. Mellgren and MedNet Consulting, LLC provides this on-line information for educational and communication purposes only and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Information published on this website is not intended to replace, supplant, or augment a consultation with an eye care professional regarding the viewer/user's own medical care. Dr. Mellgren and MedNet Consulting disclaims any and all liability for injury or other damages that could result from use of the information obtained from this site.