The Male Health Center - Cataracts in Men

Coping with Cataracts

Don't assume that surgery is the only solution to blurry vision.
Cataracts can turn your world to a blur at any age, but this fogging of the eyes' lenses from the accumulation of dead cells becomes far more common as we put on years. A lifetime of exposure to damage from the outside and the inevitable effects of aging from within can gang up to steal our vision. As a result, cataract surgery has become the most common operation for people over 65. More than a million cataract removals are done each year.

If you have a significant problem with cataracts, surgery can set your eyesight straight again. Unfortunately, not everyone who has such an operation really needs it. A recent study found that 35 percent of people who had cataracts removed actually didn't have significant blurring in the first place. They subjected themselves to unnecessary surgery and the associated risks.

Often, mild blurring can be corrected with new eyeglasses, and mild cases of cataracts won't necessarily get worse. New specs could be all you need. Surgery generally isn't warranted unless you require frequent changes of prescription or find that glasses alone can't provide acceptable vision. So, talk to your eye doctor about the alternatives before accepting surgery.

Most cataract surgeries today are done by either the traditional extracpaulsar techniqueremoval of the lens intactor by a new technique, called phacoemulsification, that breaks the lens into tiny pieces before removal. The new method requires a smaller incision, so healing is quicker, there tend to be fewer complications, and it is more often successful at clearing vision. This technique requires specialized training and experience, however, so it's especially important to establish a doctor's credentials before agreeing to phacoemulsification.

If you don't have a problem with cataracts, you should count yourself luckyand you should be doing what you can to avoid getting them. Smoking and exposure to ultraviolet light are the two most significant risk factors for developing cataracts.

Avoiding the first is straightforward, if not easy. And you can protect yourself from the sun's harmful rays by wearing sunglasses that filter at least 98 percent of all three wavelengths of ultra violet light when you're outdoors. Glasses that wrap around further increase protection by blocking light that might leak in around the sides of flat glasses.

There is also some evidence that antioxidant vitaminsvitamins C and E and beta carotenemay help prevent smoking and sunlight from doing their dirty work. It could be that Bugs Bunny was right: Carrots really might help keep you from going blind.

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