Seeing Clearly: How Diet and Lifestyle Choices May Help Delay Cataracts

The lens of your eye is the last point before light reaches your retina where light is focused. As lenses wear with age, cataracts can cloud this part of the eye causing blindness without proper treatment.

As many as 20 million people deal with this eye disease affecting one or both eyes. Eye health is important all year, but June is Cataract Awareness Month. This month, we look at the effects of this illness on vision and review the steps you can take to slow down its progress.

If you're struggling with cataracts or other eye diseases, come to the staff of doctors at Bronx Eye Associates in the Pelham Gardens area of The Bronx, New York. 

Understanding cataracts

The breakdown of the proteins in the lens (called crystallins) is typical during aging, but it doesn’t always lead to issues like cataracts. When cataracts form, the experience starts like seeing the world through an unclean window as things become harder to make out over time. 

The type of cataract you have varies with the area of your lens affected:

• Nuclear sclerotic: the type affecting the center of the lens

• Cortical: when it strikes the area around the center of the lens

• Posterior subcapsular: a type affecting the back of the lens

While this is common in aging adults, cataracts can affect other age groups, like pediatric cataracts in babies and children, traumatic cataracts from eye injuries, and even a secondary type that can happen due to cataract surgery.

How your lifestyle affects your risk

Here are some factors in your current lifestyle that can increase the chances of cataracts:

Preexisting conditions

If you’re already coping with diseases like diabetes or have other eye problems like uveitis or retinitis pigmentosa, you have a greater chance of dealing with cataracts. 

Bad habits

Smoking, alcohol abuse, and excessive direct ultraviolet (UV) exposure put you at a higher risk of cataracts.

Medications

Corticosteroids treat several issues, like rheumatoid arthritis, and many types of joint inflammation. They're also known to increase the risk of cataracts.

Genetic predisposition

A family history of a disease doesn’t necessarily mean you'll develop it, but it’s something to consider as it only compounds the risk.

Prevention methods

Changing your routines and habits won’t completely reverse cataracts, but they work to reduce their progression. Here are some steps you can take to help get control over this eye disease:

Diet and supplements

A diet rich in antioxidants provides excellent benefits for your eyes. Vitamins C and E, lutein, zeaxanthin, and Omega-3 fatty acids can slow down the formation of cataracts. Foods with such antioxidants include oranges, grapefruits, bell peppers, broccoli, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, spinach, kale, and fish. 

Eye protection

Sunglasses with UV protection reduce the amount of dangerous UV radiation to the eyes and minimize the glare from the sun. Avoid direct sunlight and wear wide-brimmed hats when possible.

Avoid smoking and reduce drinking

Smoking damages your body in so many ways, there’s no safe way to do it. Drinking also does a lot of damage in excess, so lower consumption reduces your chances of cataracts and many other problems.

Controlling your blood sugar

Hyperglycemia forms a key component of diabetes and leads to many problems in your bloodstream that cause eye problems, where cataracts can develop. Getting blood sugar under control benefits your overall health, including reducing cataract risks.

Routine exams

Regular vision testing and eye exams can make all the difference in tracking cataracts and many other eye problems, so this is crucial if you’re in the early stages.

Cataracts can be treated in various ways, but how we approach your needs will depend on their effect on your vision and unique health needs. To manage and control this eye disease, make an appointment with the Bronx Eye Associates team today.