What is it?
Color blindness or also known as color vision deficiency is a disorder in the eyes where the retina is not able to comprehend greens and reds correctly. Eyes use cones and rods to perceive color well, and if one of those cones is absent then you aren’t able to fully and accurately perceive light and color well. Rods detect are very sensitive to low light and can sense light and dark. Cones however are able to detect color when some are missing or one doesn’t work. If only one of the three cones doesn’t work properly, you have mild color blindness but if all three are absent then your color blindness is incredibly severe.
Symptoms?
Now although the symptoms seem pretty obvious seeing as the disorder is called color blindness, there is actually a bit of symptom and other disorders that this blindness could be linked to. For instance, color blindness can be associated with amblyopia, or better known as a lazy eye. Color blindness can affect the sharpness of vision when at its most severe state, and can lead to poor or worsening vision. Sensitivity to light is also found in this condition as well as a condition known as Nystagmus where the eyes move and shift randomly and rapidly.
How do you get it?
Color blindness is usually passed down from generation to generation, for example, if a mother has color blindness her son would probably be diagnosed with it as well. This is known as a congenital condition. If someone were to be diagnosed with it later in their life with no history of it in their family, it would most likely be from one of these causes.
- Toxic Buildup from drug usage
- Metabolic or Vascular disease
- Ordinary diseases
- Or Trauma
Strangely, the color blindness received from diseases works differently from congenital color blindness. While when it is received congenitally, both eyes are affected more or less the same, but if it is contracted through disease then it can affect both eyes differently. If it is contracted congenitally, then the disorder will most likely keep its severity for its lifetime. Although, if it is contracted through a disease then the condition could worsen over time.
Who is more at risk?
Men are usually at a bigger risk than women when it comes to being diagnosed with color blindness. In fact, a single man in every ten will have color blindness and most of those men come from Northern European descent. There are also conditions that may put people at risk for color blindness. These include,
- Glaucoma
- Diabetes
- Macular Degeneration
- Alzheimer’s
- Parkinson’s
- Chronic Alcoholism
- Leukemia
- Sickle Cell Anemia.
There are also drugs that can encourage the diagnose of color blindness including Plaquenil. Plaquenil, which is also known as hydroxychloroquine helps with rheumatoid arthritis and other similar conditions.
Treatment?
A popular way to test someone for color blindness is a simple test that your ophthalmologist can conduct which includes finding a number hidden in vibrant dots.
They are able to diagnose someone based on their ability to read and discover the number hidden inside. Now although it is fairly easy to find if someone has congenital color blindness, it is difficult to find how to treat them. Although we can’t necessarily fix it, there are special contact lenses and glasses that can fix the problems in the eyes.
One of the tests here:
How Is Color Blindness Tested?
As written above, an easy and reliable way to test yourself is by using color “plates”. These plates are known as the Ishihara method and it is incredibly easy to test yourself. The only activity needed is to discover the number embedded into the shapes. There is no need to worry if you can’t decipher the plates though as according to Jane Edmond MD “it very minimally impacts everyday life”. Jane C. Edmond is an ophthalmologist at the Texas Children’s Hospital. Usually, color blindness doesn’t actually mean that someone cannot see colors. They can actually see colors quite clearly, but just don’t see them correctly. The most common kind of color blindness is red-green where the eyes can’t perceive these two correctly. This kind of blindness affects from 5% and up to 8% of males and only a small 0.5 % in females.
Conclusion
Although color blindness can be severe, it is usually solely congenital and can be easily helped with some special prescribed lenses. Even if color blindness cannot be remedied, it can be fixed by a trusted ophthalmologist.