What You Can Do to Help Prevent Cataracts

With over half of all Americans age 80 or older having cataracts or surgery to get rid of cataracts, it’s a good idea to take steps to reduce your risk for developing the cloudy spots on the lens of your eyes.

While you can actively help reduce your risk for cataracts, they may still develop through the natural aging process. At Precision Eye Institute in Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach, and Daytona Beach, Florida, the board-certified team lead by Orest Krajnyk, MD, and Sean McLoughlin, OD, offer same-day cataract surgery in their in-office surgical suite.

What are cataracts?

The lenses of your eyes are normally clear. The lens helps focus light onto your retina so you can see. If you develop cataracts, the lenses become cloudy due to proteins in the lens clumping together. 

It may seem like you’re viewing the world through a fogged-up window if you have cataracts. Cataracts make it difficult to drive a car, especially at night, can make reading more difficult, and make it harder to see expressions on people’s faces.

Cataracts usually develop slowly and don’t cause eyesight problems in the early stages, but over time, cataracts reduce your vision and cause other symptoms including:

• Sensitivity to light
• Difficulty seeing at night, especially when driving
• Cloudy or blurred vision
• Seeing “halos” around lights
• Having double vision
• Needing frequent eyeglass or contact lens prescription changes

You may only notice cloudiness or blurred vision in a small part of your eye’s lens when cataracts are first developing. As the cataract increases in size, more of the lens becomes clouded and you experience more noticeable symptoms.

Tips for preventing cataracts

While the following tips and lifestyle changes may slow the development or progression of cataracts there are no studies that prove they will prevent cataracts. The experienced doctors at Precision Eye Institute believe the following strategies may be helpful to reduce your risk of cataracts and maintain healthy eyes:

• Keeping regular eye examinations
• Quitting smoking
• Eating a healthy diet 
• Wearing sunglasses
• Managing all other health issues, like diabetes
• Reducing or eliminating alcohol

No matter how much effort you put into healthy aging and caring for your eyes and health, you may still develop cataracts or notice existing cataract symptoms progressing. If you notice the signs and symptoms of cataracts, it’s important to work with your doctor to manage or treat your vision changes.

Treatment for cataracts

When prescription lenses no longer improve your vision, cataract surgery may be necessary. Cataract surgery involves the removal of the clouded lens and insertion of a clear, artificial lens, called an intraocular lens.

The Precision Eye Institute performs outpatient cataract surgery in their state-of-the-art surgical suite with no hospital stays required. If you notice any of the signs and symptoms of cataracts, call the Precision Eye Institute nearest you, or schedule a consultation online.