World Glaucoma Week 2018: Are You Losing Your Vision? Watch Out For These 6 Signs of Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness that shows no early symptoms.
Of all our sensory organs, our eyes, and by that extension, our sense of sight is the most important to us. This is because we rely more on our vision than we do on our sense of hearing, taste or touch. It’s most important from the point of view of safety and self-preservation. That’s why, it is important to keep your eyes in the best of shape. The World Glaucoma Week has officially kicked off, focusing the spotlight on glaucoma, a group of eye disorders that cause vision problems and blindness.
The primary cause of glaucoma is the human eye’s failure to drain the fluid build-up inside the eyes. The building pressure from the fluid puts strain on the eye ball, causing damage to the optical nerves. What makes glaucoma particularly terrifying is that it progressively damages the nerves of the eyes, causing irreversible vision loss.
Leaving it untreated can cause inevitably lead to blindness. Sadly, there are no early warning signs of the disease. But if you find your vision waning, watch out for these signs of glaucoma.
1 Blurry vision
One of the most telling signs of glaucoma is blurry vision. The pressure build-up in the eyes caused by acute angle-closure glaucoma is responsible for the vision turning foggy or hazy.
2 Blind spots or dark spots
People who suffer from glaucoma often have blind areas in their field of vision. These blind spots appear near the point of the patient’s sharper vision and can go all the way to the edges of the field of vision. These spots can be very dangerous, because it makes it harder for the patients to see obstacles in their way.
3 Reduced peripheral vision
Among the first signs of glaucoma is reduced peripheral vision. This means, although the patients can see what’s happening right in front of their eyes, but not what’s around them.
4 Rainbow-coloured circles while looking at bright lights
Rainbow colours are a result of light refraction after passing through water droplets. Seeing rainbow colours while looking at light sources can be a telling sign of glaucoma because it could indicate fluid build-up in the eyes, refracting the light.
5 Headache
Headaches or migraines are commonly seen in people suffering from glaucoma. The pain can be felt around the eyes or the forehead and either he mild or severe. It’s also common or people to not seek treatment and mistake glaucoma for migraines.
6 Nausea or vomiting
The pressure build-up inside the eye causes pain, which triggers bouts of nausea and vomiting in sufferers.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 12, 2018 02:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).