CATARACTS

Cloudy eyes

Cataracts are cloudy lenses. They’re hard to see through. Glasses won’t help. Cataracts are almost always bilateral. They onset slowly. They make vision blurry, especially seeing far and at night. Some describe halos of light at night (due to light’s diffraction through the cataract). Cataracts are diagnosed by simply looking at them.

The most common causes are old age, diabetes, smoking, trauma and infection. There are congenital causes too: rubella, myotonic dystrophy, neurofibromatosis 2, classic galactosemia, galactokinase deficiency and more. 

Cataracts are irreversible (you can’t un-cloud the lens). But you can cut out the lens and replace it with a synthetic one! Cataracts are treated with a wild surgical procedure. This procedure is apparently one of the most successful and low-risk surgeries around.