Night blindness is also called nyctalopia.It's a type of vision impairment. People with night blindness experience poor vision at night or in dimly lit environments. It is not a disease in itself, but rather a symptom of an underlying problem, usually a retina problem.

What Causes Night Blindness?
A number of eye conditions can cause night blindness, including:
1. Nearsightedness or blurred vision when looking at faraway objects.
2. Cataracts or clouding of the eye's lens.
3. Retinitis pigmentosa, which occurs when dark pigment collects in your retina and creates tunnel vision.
4. Vitamin A Deficiency
5. Zinc Deficiency
6. Dry Eyes
7. Diabetes

Are the Symptoms of Night Blindness?
The sole symptom of night blindness is difficulty seeing in the dark. You're more likely to experience night blindness when your eyes transition from a bright environment to an area of low light, such as when you leave a sunny sidewalk to enter a dimly lit restaurant. You're likely to experience poor vision when driving due to the intermittent brightness of headlights and streetlights on the road.

How can I Prevent Night Blindness?
You can't prevent night blindness that's the result of birth defects or genetic conditions, such as Usher syndrome. You can, however, properly monitor your blood sugar level and eat a balanced diet to make night blindness less likely. 

Orange colored foods are excellent sources of vitamin A, including:
1. Cantaloupes
2. Sweet potatoes
3. Carrots
4. Pumpkins
5. Butternut squash
6. Mangoes

What are the Treatment Options for Night Blindness?
The treatment will depend on its causes.
1. Nutrient deficiency (Vitamin A and Zinc) is the easiest to treat. 
2. If the cause is cataract, you can go for cataract surgery to remove the clouded lens and replace it with artificial intraocular lens. Vision is usually dramatically improved after surgery. 
3. For dry eye syndrome, lubricate your eyes with artificial tear drops as they provide instant relief. Just make sure that they are without preservatives. 
4. Diabetic retinopathy can be prevented with tight control over blood sugar, active lifestyle and good dietary habits.
5. As for retinitis pigmentosa, unfortunately there are no treatments available. Thankfully, new research is showing that vitamin A might have a slowing effect on the progression of this eye disease.

Night Blindness: Causes and Symptoms

Cataract is generally associated with old age. However, in some unfortunate cases, children could be affected by cataract as well. A cataract can be defined as a cloudy or opaque layer that forms on the eye's natural lens that lies behind the iris and the pupil, leading to eventual loss in vision. Cataract can affect children in one eye or both eyes.

Cataract can be a congenital birth defect or can develop as the child grows older. The latter case is known as pediatric cataracts. The exact cause of cataracts in children is not known, but it has been associated with a number of genetic disorders, low birth weight and infections during pregnancy. Traumatic events such as an injury to the eye can also cause cataracts.

The earlier a cataract is diagnosed and treated, the better it is. It is easier to identify a cataract that affects both eyes than a cataract that affects only one eye. If a congenital cataract is not treated in time, the part of the baby's brain used for sight may not develop properly. Hence it is crucial to recognize cataract symptoms.

Here are a few you should look out for:

    Not looking directly or responding to large, colourful objects.
    Not being able to find small objects while crawling.
    Excessive squinting or shielding their eyes to bright sunlight.
    Eyes that do not focus on the same point.
    White reflex instead of a red reflex in photographs.
    Uncontrolled movement of the eye.

Cataracts that are too small to affect sight can be treated with eye drops to dilate the pupil. However, this provides only temporary relief. Surgery is the most preferred form of cataract treatment. This surgery can be performed even in the first few weeks of a baby's life. The child is put under anesthesia and a microsurgical instrument is used to break the lens into small pieces and remove it.

This surgery is followed by the use of lenses or glasses to help the eye regain its power to focus again. In some cases, the lens may be implanted to replace the natural lens. In cases where cataract affects only one eye or one eye is more severely affected than the other, there may be a tendency to develop amblyopia or lazy eye syndrome. In such cases, it becomes necessary to patch the good eye shut and stimulate vision in the eye that has undergone surgery.

Cataract in Children

Bloodshot eyes indicate the reddening of the eye vessels. They can cause irritation and make the eye swollen. The condition may arise due to allergies, eye infections, allergies, fatigue and other illness of the eye. It does not signify a disease but indicates an eye condition which might have caused the eye to redden. Bloodshot eyes can be encountered in one or both the eyes.

Causes of Bloodshot Eyes:

One of the frequent causes of bloodshot eyes is irritants such as dry air, pollen, pet dander, dust and UV rays of the sun. Shortage of sleep also tends to make the eyes red. Inflammations of the eye can also make them red giving a bloodshot appearance. It can even happen with people who wear contact lens for more than 16 hours without soaking it in the disinfectant. At times excessive dryness can make the eyes red. Some other reasons for the eye to become red include conjunctivitis, blepharitis, glaucoma and corneal ulcer. Another concerning reason of bloodshot eyes is a subconjunctival haemorrhage. While the latter is not dangerous in nature, it can cause significant trouble if proper care is not taken on time.

Symptoms of Red Eyes:

Some of the common signs of bloodshot eyes include watery eyes, foreign sensation, burning feeling, dermatitis, falling of eye lashes, light sensitivity, swollen eyelid, itching of the eye and feeling of irritation of the eye.

The Complications Involved:

In most of the cases, bloodshot eyes do not imply serious complications. In case it happens from conjunctivitis, a person may not be able to go to work, wear cosmetics and come in public places since it is a communicable disease. If bloodshot eyes arise from a serious condition such as glaucoma and trauma, some of the possible complications may involve the following:

Eye scarring

Vision loss due to complete blindness

Spreading of the existing condition to other persons

Eye loss in severe cases

Preventive Measures:

Bloodshot eyes might arise from an array of reasons. While it cannot be totally dodged, some general preventive measures can ensure that such a condition does not arise:

Keeping hands clean by thoroughly washing them with liquid soap

Not sharing personal belongings such as washcloths, linen, and cosmetics

Get immediate medical attention in case of any eye injuries

Stay away from an environment that is full of allergens

Staying away from people who are suffering from infectious eye diseases such as conjunctivitis

Taking a shower immediately after getting in touch with an infected person suffering from conjunctivitis

Wearing eye glasses in a dusty environment

Bloodshot Eyes - Causes, Symptoms and Complications

Glaucoma is a serious eye condition in which the optic nerve gets damaged and the situation gets worse over time. If untreated, individuals may go permanently blind. Most individuals, with glaucoma, have no previous symptoms or warning signs of this disorder and this is the reason why it is important to have regular eye check-ups.

Causes of glaucoma
Eyes have a liquid called aqueous humor. This fluid flows out of the eyes through mesh like channels for proper lubrication of the eye. However, there can be situations in which these channels may get blocked. In such a case, there would be a build-up of this liquid, thereby causing an increase in fluid pressure. This is usually a major cause of glaucoma. Although there has been no elaborate evidence of what exactly causes this blockage, doctors have noticed that this can be inherited.

Other less common causes include:

Any sort of blunt injury or chemical injury to the eye
Blocking of blood vessels inside the eye
Other inflammatory conditions
Improper eye surgery
Types of glaucoma
There are mainly two kinds of glaucoma than can occur:

Open-angle glaucoma: This is the most common kind of glaucoma and is also called wide-angled glaucoma. In this kind, the tubular meshwork through which the liquid flow occurs is normal. However, the fluid flow isn t the way it should be.
Angle-closure glaucoma: This is also known as acute glaucoma or chronic angle closure. In this case, the liquid is not able to drain properly because of the angle between the iris and the cornea being too narrow, thus causing the iris to be in the way. This can cause a sudden build-up of pressure, thereby leading to chronic glaucoma.
Facts about glaucoma

This disorder usually has no previous signs or symptoms and occurs all of a sudden.
This disorder mainly affects individuals above 40 years of age.
Glaucoma can be inherited.
People with diabetes have chances of suffering from glaucoma.
If not treated early, it may lead to permanent blindness.
Symptoms of glaucoma
Usually there aren t many symptoms to warn people about this disorder. However, one of the first signs is definitely losing peripheral or side vision. Other symptoms might include

Chronic vision loss
Visibility of halo around lights
Narrowed vision
Glaucoma is treated by any of the three methods:

Prescription eye drops in order to reduce eye fluid formation, thereby resulting in outflow increase
Laser surgery
Microsurgery

Glaucoma - A Complete Guide on It!

Lazy eye is an eye condition that is as underrated as some of the most intriguing characters in Marvel s movies like Namor or Daredevil. Indeed, lazy eye or amblyopia is responsible for the majority of loss of vision cases below the age of 40. It even surpasses the loss of vision due to injuries and diseases.  

What Is Lazy Eye?

Amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye, is an anomaly of the eyes where patients get reduced vision, which cannot be corrected by glasses or even contact lenses. It is not even an eye disease. In fact, it is an anomaly where the brain cannot acknowledge and interpret the image formed on the retina. The saving grace is that it mostly affects only one eye. Despite that, it may contribute to reduced vision in both eyes. Cases of lazy eye are prevalent among children; around 3% of children suffer from this disease.

Conventional Treatment

Neither glasses nor contact lenses nor surgery can rectify the eyes.

Early detection offers a better chance for a cure.

Lazy eye can be treated quite successfully under the age of 2. This can be done by even glasses, eye patches, etc. However, it is difficult to treat with such simple measures in older children. Hence, it calls for a neuroscientific approach.

Indeed, neuroscientific studies have revealed that the brain and its various perceptions can undergo a change at any age and it is known as neuroplasticity. This is where Ayurveda can play a major role.

The Role of Ayurveda In Treating Lazy Eyes

The concept of Neuroplasticity dictates that the brain has the capability to change if you make the effort and motivate the brain to learn. It is a perfect preoccupation for a lazy eye condition. You need to motivate the brain to learn that it needs to interpret the image formed in the retina of one or both of his eyes. This can be done with Ayurveda.

Ayurveda is all about the mind-body connection, and it is this connection that gets slack in anomalies like a lazy eye. The ayurvedic interpretation of the neurological system involves a root, also called Mula, a pathway through the body also called Marqa and an opening, also known as Mukha. Each of these is known as channels also known as strotas which help to orient our focus to various stimuli including visual stimuli. Ayurvedic remedies help to restore this balance in these channels with the help of Herbs and Asanas. Ayurveda also takes into account the mental constitution of individuals since different mental constitutions call for a different treatment approach.

Take Away

Despite being no immediate solution for the lazy eye, this condition can be potently cured with ayurvedic treatment. However, it is always advisable to consult an ayurvedic specialist before going for any of ayurvedic treatment.

 

Lazy Eye - How Effective Is Ayurveda In It?

The most common vision problems are shortsightedness and farsightedness. Shortsightedness is when a person sees close objects clearly while distant objects appear blurry. It is more common than farsightedness and affects about 70% of the Asian population.

When there is a refractive issue, the prescription usually has a plus/minus with it and also a number. A  minus  symbol is used to represent shortsightedness; the greater the number of the glasses, the higher the shortsightedness. High myopia is a more severe form of shortsightedness where the power is -6.0 or higher.

Symptoms: 

As mentioned, the person will be able to see nearby objects but will have difficulty seeing far off objects.

Difficulty reading signs and boards
Squinting
Straining to reduce the strain on the eye
Tired and fatigue due to this eye strain, especially when in constant move like playing sports or travelling
How it happens?

Vision can be explained by a physical process where light passes through a lens and falls on the retina in the posterior portion of the eye where it forms an image. This is then sent to the brain where it is read and interpreted as a particular object. When the lens becomes elongated, the image that is formed is distorted in that it is formed in front of the retina and not on the retina. Though it gradually settles down with adulthood, in most cases, it progresses and requires corrective lenses. The corrective lenses ensure the image falls on the retina and visual perception is improved.

Treatment:

Corrective glasses are the most commonly used measure for nearsightedness. The lenses could be used either as spectacles or as contact lenses.
Laser surgery can also be used to correct the problem. A thin layer of the cornea is removed and the image formation is corrected.
Artificial intraocular lenses are also being used to treat this condition. They work like contact lenses and may need periodic replacement.
The most common technique, especially for high myopia is the use of surgery to correct the problem. This is a one-time correction and is a more durable solution than the earlier mentioned options.
Appropriate calculations are done to identify the lens to be used so that proper vision is restored.
Complications: 

Though not common, retinal detachment and variable postoperative refractive error can occur during the surgery.
It is very important to set realistic expectations with the patient in terms of what to expect before, during, and after surgery. If only one eye is going for repair, the chances of mismatch in vision could be present in the early stages. Being clear about what to expect will help in successful correction.

Myopia or Nearsightedness - How It Can Be Treated?

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