Eye-witness report:

What you should know about cataracts

You’re going about your daily routine, and then it happens. Maybe you notice your vision in one eye is a little different, or you find yourself blinking to clear your vision.

So you make an eye appointment for the first of January and settle into the holidays. New Year’s comes and goes and sooner or later, you find yourself in the office of an ophthalmologist. Sitting in the exam chair, you wait for your eyes to become dilated by the drops the assistant squirts into your eyes — and demands like a drill sergeant — “Blink, blink, blink!”

The following details come from personal experience, supplemented by information developed by the National Eye Institute.

Before the physician makes an appearance, the assistant puts me through a typical eye chart test, and lo and behold, with one eye covered, I can barely make out the big “E” at the top of the chart.

Another test — this time with a noisy machine that’s intimidating, but there’s no pain as you keep your eyes focused on a red dot. Then one more test. “The doctor will be in shortly,” the assistant said. “Is it a cataract?” I asked. “The doctor can tell you more,” they said. Facts about cataracts: A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision. Most cataracts are related to aging, and they are common in older people. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery.

A cataract can occur in either or both eyes, but cannot spread from one eye to the other.

“You’re really ahead of the game,” the doctor said. “We see people as young as 40 with cataracts, and the average age is around 65.”

What causes cataracts? The lens of your eye lies behind the iris and the pupil. It works much like a camera lens. It focuses light onto the retina at the back of the eye, where an image is recorded. The lens, made mainly of water and protein, adjusts the eye’s focus, letting us see things clearly both up close and far away. The protein is arranged in a precise way that keeps the lens clear and lets light pass through it.

But as you age, some of the protein may clump together and start to cloud a small area of the lens. This is a cataract. Over time, the cataract may grow larger and cloud more of the lens, making it harder to see.

Researchers suspect that there are several causes of cataract, such as smoking and diabetes. Or, it may be that the protein in the lens just changes from the wear and tear it takes over the years.

Age-related cataracts can affect your vision in two ways. Most age-related cataracts develop from protein clumpings. When a cataract is small, the cloudiness affects only a small part of the lens. You may not notice any changes in your vision. Cataracts tend to “grow” slowly, so vision gets worse gradually. Over time, the cloudy area in the lens may get larger, and the cataract may increase in size. Seeing may become more difficult; vision may get duller or blurrier. The clear lens slowly changes to a yellowish/brownish color, adding a brownish tint to vision. At first, the tinting may be small and may not cause a problem. Over time, increased tinting may make it more difficult to read and perform other routine activities. This gradual change in the amount of tinting does not affect the sharpness of the image. However, if you have advanced lens discoloration, you may be wearing what you believe to be a pair of black socks, only to find out from friends you’re actually wearing purple socks. The most common symptoms of a cataract are: Cloudy or blurry vision. Colors seem faded. Glare. Headlights, lamps, or sunlight may appear too bright, and a halo may appear around lights. Poor night vision. Double vision or multiple images in one eye. (This symptom may clear as the cataract gets larger.)

Frequent prescription changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses.

These symptoms also can be a sign of other eye problems. If you have any of these symptoms, check with your eye-care professional. At the end of the first visit: After learning I have cataracts, I’m also told I suffer from “dry eye,” which the doctor says is “no big deal.” However, I need to use some eye drops ($18 a bottle) four times daily for a month. I also am given a whopper-sized bottle of vitamins to take three daily for a month. The doc said the “magic ingredient” in these large, bullet-shaped vitamins (around $1.50 per serving) is something called “GLA” — gamma linotenic acid.

According to WebMD, GLA is a fatty substance found in various plant seed oils such as borage oil and evening primrose oil. It is an omega-6 fatty acid the body converts into substances that reduce inflammation and cell growth.

I have another appointment in a few weeks. At that time, I’ll find out if my dry eye has improved. If it has, surgery — the only effective treatment for cataracts — will be scheduled to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with an artificial lens, a procedure the doctor says will take about 15 minutes. My left eye will be first. Then surgery on the right eye will be scheduled. After surgery, the surgeon said I would be amazed at how well I can see.

I’ll report how it goes in a future article in Senior Living.