One of the inevitable side effects of aging includes the wearing down of your senses. If you feel as if you don’t hear things as loudly, or food doesn’t taste like it used to, don’t worry! There’s nothing wrong with you. This is just the natural process of getting older.
You may not notice because it happens gradually, but age affects your color vision, too. A new study found a surprising number of older adults who have increased difficulty seeing subtle differences in color.
Decreased color vision also has long-term side effects, including lower energy and deteriorating vision as a whole.
One of the first things to happen to your eyes as you age is increased yellowing of your eye’s lenses. This causes your vision to appear as if you were wearing a pair of yellow-colored sunglasses. When this occurs, your “blue-yellow” vision is impaired, so it becomes harder to distinguish blue from purple or yellow from green. The more pastel the color is, the harder it is to make this important distinction.
A color vision study tested nearly 900 non-colorblind people aged 58 to 102 from California. The results showed issues in the blue-yellow spectrum of 45 percent of the participants, and 66 percent of people who had reached their mid-90s.
The study included non-colorblind people because decreased color vision is different from colorblindness; that condition affects the red-green spectrum of your vision. (Hardly any of the participants in the study had issues seeing colors in the red-green spectrum.)
Is There a Cure?
Some people turn to cataract surgery to remove the yellowish film from their lenses. This can make a major difference in sight, and many people have found success after having this surgery.
However, until researchers figure out what exactly causes decreased color vision, there’s no definite cure. Many doctors believe that decreased color vision stems from a problem in the cataracts, but more research is needed to find out the exact cause.
Can You Treat Color Vision Deficiency?
One of the best things you can do to help decreased color vision is to maintain a healthy diet of foods rich in omega fatty acids. Include leafy green vegetables, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E in your everyday diet.
Additionally, foods that are rich in zinc help treat decreased color vision. Include oysters, nuts, and beans in your meals. You also want to make sure your diet has plenty of Omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in oily fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, and anchovies.
Other natural ways to take care of your eyes include:
- Give your eyes a break. Every 20 minutes, remove your eyes from your computer screen, a book, or other concentrated activities and look off into the distance. You may close your eyes, too. It’s recommended to get five minutes resting time for every hour of concentrated eye activity.
- Don’t forget to blink! When you blink, you reduce the evaporation of the film that protects your cornea. Blinking helps reduce eye strain and stress, especially if you’re involved in a concentrated activity.
- Change focus during long drives. When on the road for long periods of time, change focus from the dashboard to a distant object every so often. Make sure you’re concentrated on your driving, but a quick glance on another object will relax your eye muscles and prevent eyestrain.
These natural eye care practices strengthen your eyes and ensure they stay healthy for many years. Color vision loss is unavoidable, but you can prepare and train your eyes to manage it better when it happens.
For more natural health best practices, give us a call at (704) 708-4404 or email us at info@carolinasnaturalhealth.com. We’ll be happy to get you set up with a well-balanced and nutritious diet plan to keep you strong and healthy for years to come.
Photo Credit: Pilottage
