Focus on eyes in an ageing UK

The nation’s sight is in decline, fuelled by an age­ing pop­u­la­tion and unhealthy lifestyles.  Fore­cast­ers pre­dict that the num­ber of peo­ple liv­ing with sight loss will dou­ble to four mil­lion by 2050.

While there is noth­ing we can do to hold back the sands of time and stop the age­ing process, many recent inno­va­tions will improve the ear­ly detec­tion, pre­ven­tion and man­age­ment of age-relat­ed, hered­i­tary and oth­er sight-threat­en­ing eye con­di­tions. These inno­va­tions include sophis­ti­cat­ed new diag­nos­tic tech­nolo­gies and pio­neer­ing advances in stem cell ther­a­pies.

Some of these devel­op­ments are already in use and oth­ers hold out great hope for the future, but it remains urgent to edu­cate peo­ple about what they can do today to care for their eyes.

Right now, accord­ing to the RNIB, half of all sight loss is avoid­able, yet many of us are reluc­tant to get our eyes exam­ined until we notice that our sight has declined, at which point irrepara­ble dam­age may already have been done.

Poor uptake of sight tests is prob­a­bly the biggest risk to the nation’s eye health. Accord­ing to research con­duct­ed by the Eye­care Trust, 20 mil­lion of us fail to have our eyes checked once every two years, as rec­om­mend­ed, and one per­son in ten has nev­er had an eye exam­i­na­tion.

Sight tests are vital health checks. Not only can optometrists detect eye con­di­tions, such as glau­co­ma before they cause irre­versible sight loss – it’s often pos­si­ble to detect such risks years before you begin to notice that your vision has dete­ri­o­rat­ed – they can also reveal a range of oth­er seri­ous med­ical con­di­tions, includ­ing hyper­ten­sion, high cho­les­terol lev­els, dia­betes, brain tumours and the risk of stroke.

Poor uptake of sight tests is prob­a­bly the biggest risk to the nation’s eye health

Reg­u­lar sight tests are par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for chil­dren, the over-60s, peo­ple with a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of eye dis­ease, those with under­ly­ing sys­temic health con­di­tions and peo­ple of some eth­nic ori­gins who have an increased risk of eye dis­ease.

Hav­ing reg­u­lar sight tests isn’t the only step you can take to save your sight. Mak­ing small changes to your lifestyle can make a sign­f­i­cant dif­fer­ence to your eye health.

Smok­ers have a four-fold increased risk of suf­fer­ing  age-relat­ed mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion (AMD), the UK’s lead­ing cause of blind­ness. The rem­e­dy is obvi­ous.

Your weight can also affect your eye health. A Body Mass Index of 30 or more dou­bles your risk of AMD and sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es your chances of devel­op­ing cataract.

Ear­ly obe­si­ty is also asso­ci­at­ed with dia­betes and 60 per cent of peo­ple with type 2 dia­betes will devel­op dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy.

Eat­ing a healthy bal­anced diet may also ben­e­fit your eye health. Eye-friend­ly nutri­ents found in many fruits and veg­eta­bles can help to pro­tect against AMD.

Cold water fish, such as sar­dines and tuna, are all excel­lent sources of essen­tial fat­ty acids, which have been rec­om­mend­ed for the avoid­ance of dry eye, AMD and gen­er­al­ly bet­ter health.

Pro­tect­ing your eyes from the cumu­la­tive effects of UV radi­a­tion is also vital. Stud­ies show a link between UV radi­a­tion and cataract. When UV lev­els are high, glass­es (clear or dark, or UV-inhibit­ing con­tact lens­es) should be worn.