To mark National Eye Health Week this year, I have written a new Eye Health Factsheet for you in the A-Z. Here’s a bit to start you off but you can read it in full here.
In this era of ever-more screen use, it is more important than ever to look after our eyes, especially as we age.
How eye sight works
Light passes through the cornea at the front of the eye, through the pupil (the space at the centre of the coloured iris), through the lens and hits the retina at the back of the eye. A message is then sent through the optic nerve to the brain to tell the brain what it is looking at. The lens is suspended and held in position by zonules, which are small fibres that pull on the ciliary muscles. When we focus on something, the ciliary muscles contract and pull on the zonules, which then pull on the edges of the lens and change its shape.
How eyesight changes throughout life
At birth, the lenses are clear and flexible, the ciliary muscles are strong and can easily change the shape of the lens, so eyesight is good.
After 40, there is a loss of elasticity in the lens, ciliary muscles weaken and changes in the zonules make them to looser, meaning we can’t focus on close objects as well as we did.
After 50, there is a greater risk of developing cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration.
Cataracts occur when there is a clouding of the lens as proteins start to ‘clump’ which obscures the lens opaque, so that less and less light can pass through.
Glaucoma is associated with pressure building up in the eyes, which causes damage to the optic nerves. This causes peripheral vision loss and can lead to blindness.
Macular degeneration is a condition resulting from deterioration of the macular (centrally located area at the back of the retina), due to hereditary and environmental factors and can be exaggerated by smoking, obesity or ultraviolet light exposure.
How is your eyesight?
Continue reading here for various online tests, supplements, diet and interesting resources on things like the ocular microbiome etc. Hope it helps.