The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Vitamin-rich diet key to check low vision Health & Lifestyle

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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Vitamin-rich diet key to check low vision Health & Lifestyle

R. Sujatha

Low vision could be caused by factors such as injury to
the brain, glaucoma

. — PHOTO: S.R. Raghunathan

Watch it: Testing the eyes regularly helps to ensure the health of the eyes

CHENNAI: As people live longer, the need for low vision aids is going up. Such aids are needed for people whose retina gets damaged either due to ageing or disease. People with genetic defects or diabetics with scarring in the retina also need low vision aids.

Ophthalmologists say people with low vision give up routine activity but a regular test at an eye clinic could detect the problem. The ability to read the last row in the vision chart with or without glasses means a person has normal vision. “The object of screening is to know if we have normal vision with or without glasses and without having to visit an eye doctor. Since computer is now available at home, we can do a simple check for ourselves,” says ophthalmologist P. Kanthamani. “6/6 is an assessment of how well a person can see from a certain distance. This is considered normal vision.”

Two types

Low vision could be caused by an injury to the brain, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa (poor night vision) or be due to age (macular degeneration). “Low vision is of two types – field reduction or central vision reduction. Some children who undergo cataract operation may suffer from low vision,” says K. Vasantha, head of Corneal Surgery at Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore.

Persons with low vision can see only a few meters or have tunnel-like vision. Sometimes simple measures such as improving the lighting at home and office, reducing the glare and using brighter and larger fonts both on the computer and on paper is enough. As the condition could gradually worsen, eyes must be tested regularly.

For each of the low vision conditions, aids such as binocular or telescopic glasses are available. Another visual aid is the hand-held magnifier or magnifying screen to blow up the writings on paper and project them to a screen. Often, most elderly persons can do well with hand-held magnifiers, says Dr. Vasantha.

But other aids are expensive and some people refuse to wear binocular or telescope mounted glasses though they may improve eyesight, she says. Though at least three per cent of the general population may need help, even at the government eye hospital only five to six patients come in a month for low vision screening.

Amar Agarwal of Agarwal Eye Hospital says: “We have fitted a person with mirror telescope in intraocular lens that works like a low vision aid and the person does not need a hand-held magnifier.”

Age-related macular degeneration could be delayed by eating lots of fruits and vegetables, exercising regularly and maintaining normal blood pressure, say doctors. Studies conducted in the United States on a controlled population have found that eating food rich in vitamins and minerals delays ageing of the eyes.

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