Below are the latest findings on eye cataract and we hope that this information will be highly beneficial for you. Some of them might seem unbelievable but studies and researches conducted so far have shown that they are indeed true.
Caffeine to Prevent Cataract
As unbelievable as it might sound, caffeine can have positive effect on preventing the formation of cataract. According to a study that conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine, it is believed that caffeine can protect the lens against damage that further could lead to development of cataracts. The researchers hypothesized that caffeine may prevent the intraocular generation of reactive oxygen species in the lens and consequent damage to the tissue.
Diabetes or high level of sugar in the blood system can cause a lot of problem to your body system and which your eyes are not spared. The diabetic condition that presents in the body will gradually damage the eyes pace by pace which including lens, retina, optic nerve, vitreous and etc. The scariest part about this is most patients would not notice any of symptoms until it is too late. Most damages might have happened long before the patient detects any change or deterioration in the vision. That’s why diabetic eye damage is often refer to as ‘silent eye disease’ (apart from glaucoma).
Some of the vision problem that caused by diabetes include frequent vision fluctuations, reduced vision due to the damage of optic nerve, impermanent paralysis of eye muscles, diabetic retinopathy and double vision. Moreover, people with diabetes are more prone to developing eye cataract even at a very young age. Cataract is an eye disorder that develops due to natural aging process but for a diabetic patient it becomes a symptom of the diabetes itself.
The only known treatment for cataract is none other than undergoing a cataract surgery procedure. Until know, doctor and medical research have not actually found a viable way other than has it removed through a surgical procedure. During the surgery, the cloudy lens is removed and replaced with an artificial lens known as intraocular lens.
Basically when cataracts happen to develop, the natural lens of the eye will need to be replaced, especially when the cataract has reached the ripen stage (a condition where it interferes the patient daily activities very much. It might also lead to blindness if nothing is done to it). The implant lens will restore the eye’s normal focusing ability, just as how a natural lens does its job. Sometimes, the capsule that supports the lens can become cloudy too and which the patients would have to undergo a second laser surgery to open the cloudy capsule to restore the vision to normal again. This is known as secondary cataract, which is not risky and much safer to remove.
With continuous scientific research and technology breakthrough particular in the medical field, new inventions are constantly introduced into eye cataract surgery. One of the latest and could be considered as the significant development in cataract surgery is the use of topical anesthesia and the introductions of Multifocal IOLs and Toric IOLs.
Topical anesthesia is very helpful as it eliminates the need to bear painful injection by the patient. In the past, surgery was done by getting an injection directly into the eye, which of course caused a lot of pain and risk. With topical anesthesia, the whole operation which usually lasts for around 15 minutes is performed without the need of an injection but instead using only eye drops. The great benefit of topical anesthesia is that the patient does not need to bear the risk and pain which involved in normal surgical procedure. Moreover, the results from using this technique are much faster and satisfying. The patient can even go home after resting for some times at the hospital and without a patch.
Cataracts surgery is the only option that one has in order to completely remove and to treat a cataract; this is particular true when the cataract has reached the latter stage where it could cause blindness. Generally, eye cataract develops in the eyes of people who have reached fifties; it could be said as part of human aging process. However, that doesn’t mean that a cataract would not develop in the eye of a person who is younger, especially when one is an alcoholic, smoker, diabetic or has injured the eye somehow in the past. The possibility of developing a cataract increases with these factors.
Although cataracts surgery is the safest among all surgical procedures (with the average success rate of 95%), that doesn’t mean that there is absolutely no risk involved. Any surgery can be risky or even frightening and so does a cataract surgical operation, only that they are so small and not frequent. In other words, the possibility for it to happen is very small.
