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Eyes Are Essential To Everyone. The Intricate Workings Of The Human Eye Are Remarkable, But What Happens When They Don’t Work Properly

21st March, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

The eye is an extraordinary piece of optical equipment and the extent to which it has adapted over a very long period of time to make sure that different variants of animals have the ability to see proportional to their needs is quite remarkable. The different vision needs varied and eyes have changed over time to make sure that they provide their owner with the right kind of sight for their environment.

In simple terms, an eye detects light and converts it in such a way that it means something to the lifeform to whom the eye belongs. So how does the human eye in fact work? As you would expect, our eyes are a little more complicated than the basic eye. The light reaches the front of the eye, which then uses a diaphragm to alter how intense the light is and focuses it onto a lens to produce an image. The image is then changed into electrical instructions and forwarded to the brain through the optic nerve, and then the brain can determine what to do with the data it has collected about what the eye is seeing.

So, instantly, the human eye will register what kind of shapes are available to see and what colours the shapes are, and the whole process of assessing the information so that the brain works out how to react takes so very little time we don’t even register that there is any kind of process occurring.

It is obvious that it is a good idea to look after your eyes as well as you can, and to remember that things like too much sunshine or spending too much time in front of a computer screen without allowing your eyes a rest can cause a negative effect on them. But, along with the rest of the human body, the eyes themselves can be, or can become, flawed. Some vision difficulties might be genetic defects passed on by your parents. Some may be caused by or aggravated by environmental factors. And some just develop over the years as the human body becomes older. After all, the impact of wear and tear applies just as much to parts of the body such as the eyes and ears as it does to arms and legs.

The good thing here is that most eye complaints are easier to treat than a damaged spine or arthritic knee joints. A huge number of people wear corrective lenses if they have short or long sightedness – both of which can also be improved using Laser eye surgery. These complaints, plus astigmatism, are caused by the front of the eye (the cornea) being shaped incorrectly so that the light which connects with it becomes distorted and once the image is converted and directed to the brain, the image is out of focus. As the cornea is an accessible part of the eye it is simple to use Laser eye treatment to amend its shape so that it works more accurately.

Other eye complaints, such as cataracts and presbyopia tend to develop later in life. With a cataract, the eye lens starts to become cloudy so that seeing becomes harder. Presbyopia is a condition where the lens cannot focus as well as it should and objects which are near to the eyes will be blurred.

At present, the main solution for a cataract is to extract the cloudy lens completely and replace it with a man-made one. This is a very simple procedure with a very high success rate. Presbyopia, on the other hand, is often treated with corrective lenses. However, Laser eye surgery processes do exist that can help the sufferer, when considered along with other health factors relating to the eyes.

So it is reassuring to be aware that, unlike a lot of parts of the body, the eyes are a comparatively simple thing to diagnose and treat to make sure that we can still carry on with our daily activities and be capable of seeing what we are doing. And the numerous treatments available, such as simple reading glasses, contact lenses, surgery and Laser eye treatments, mean that quite often there is even a choice of solutions to solve your vision problems.