Your Vision in Adulthood and Middle Age
What it could be: Rising and falling blood sugar levels.
Uncontrolled diabetes can affect your whole body, including your eyes. Over time, high blood sugar from diabetes damages the delicate blood vessels in your eyes. These damaged vessels can leak and affect your vision.
What to do: See your doctor for a checkup, even if you don't think you have diabetes. Many people have diabetes and don't know it.
What it could be: Glaucoma.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve. It often starts without any symptoms. You may not realize that you have it until you're losing vision.
What to do about it: See your eye doctor for an eye exam that includes a glaucoma test before you develop any eye problems. If you have glaucoma, eye drop medication and surgery can keep it from stealing your sight.
What it could be: Cataracts.
This clouding of the eye's lens becomes more common as you get older, as protein inside your lens starts to clump together. Cataracts can also create a halo effect around lights at night and make your eyes more sensitive to glare, even during daytime.
What to do about it: Until the cataract causes severe vision problems, you can increase lighting and change your eyeglass prescription to help you see more clearly. Once the haze gets bad, talk to your doctor about surgery to remove the clouded lens and replace it with an artificial one.
What it could be: Migraine headaches.
Migraines don't just make your head hurt. They also can affect your vision, creating a light show of auras and flashes. You can even briefly lose sight from certain types of migraines.
What to do about it: If this is a new problem for you, call your doctor. If you're diagnosed with migraines, learn what triggers your headaches. That way, you can avoid those triggers, and that can make your headaches happen less often. Medicine can prevent a migraine or stop one in its tracks. If you temporarily lose sight with your migraines, call your eye doctor right away -- it could be a sign of a more serious vision problem.
Your Vision in Adulthood and Middle Age
In this article
- You have to hold books and newspapers farther away to read them.
- Your eyes feel dry and irritated all the time.
- You have diabetes and your eyesight changes from day to day.
- Your vision is fine, but you're over 60 and you have a family history of glaucoma.
- There's a film over everything you see.
- You've got a raging headache that started with distorted vision and flashes of light.
- Spots and objects float through your vision.
- Eye Exams: When Do You Need Them?
You have diabetes and your eyesight changes from day to day.
What it could be: Rising and falling blood sugar levels.
Uncontrolled diabetes can affect your whole body, including your eyes. Over time, high blood sugar from diabetes damages the delicate blood vessels in your eyes. These damaged vessels can leak and affect your vision.
What to do: See your doctor for a checkup, even if you don't think you have diabetes. Many people have diabetes and don't know it.
Your vision is fine, but you're over 60 and you have a family history of glaucoma.
What it could be: Glaucoma.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve. It often starts without any symptoms. You may not realize that you have it until you're losing vision.
What to do about it: See your eye doctor for an eye exam that includes a glaucoma test before you develop any eye problems. If you have glaucoma, eye drop medication and surgery can keep it from stealing your sight.
There's a film over everything you see.
What it could be: Cataracts.
This clouding of the eye's lens becomes more common as you get older, as protein inside your lens starts to clump together. Cataracts can also create a halo effect around lights at night and make your eyes more sensitive to glare, even during daytime.
What to do about it: Until the cataract causes severe vision problems, you can increase lighting and change your eyeglass prescription to help you see more clearly. Once the haze gets bad, talk to your doctor about surgery to remove the clouded lens and replace it with an artificial one.
You've got a raging headache that started with distorted vision and flashes of light.
What it could be: Migraine headaches.
Migraines don't just make your head hurt. They also can affect your vision, creating a light show of auras and flashes. You can even briefly lose sight from certain types of migraines.
What to do about it: If this is a new problem for you, call your doctor. If you're diagnosed with migraines, learn what triggers your headaches. That way, you can avoid those triggers, and that can make your headaches happen less often. Medicine can prevent a migraine or stop one in its tracks. If you temporarily lose sight with your migraines, call your eye doctor right away -- it could be a sign of a more serious vision problem.