Your eyes (From Salisbury Journal)

Your eyes

12:37pm Monday 1st October 2007 in Your Health

You have two amazing eyes which work together in a wide range of lighting conditions to give you a focussed, colour image, with a sense of depth, of the world around you.

The eye is structured something like a camera but of course all its parts are alive!

The front of the eye is called the cornea which helps target light on the lens. The lens can slightly alter its shape in order to focus light on the retina at the back of the eye.

In the retina light is converted into electrical signals and sent to the brain through the optic nerve where it is processed as the image we see.

Common problems with the eye include cloudiness of the lens or cataract' which can nowadays be removed and replaced with an artificial lens.

Another common problem is glaucoma. This is the name given to a group of eye conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged where it leaves the eye.

This affects about 2 in 100 people over the age of 40, although it can affect people of any age.

It is estimated that more than 500,000 people suffer from glaucoma in England and Wales.

The great majority of those with glaucoma have a slowly developing form of the condition called primary open angle glaucoma (POAG).

The treatment of glaucoma has developed considerably over recent years and it is estimated that around 95 per cent of those diagnosed early with glaucoma in the UK will retain useful sight for life.

It is imperative it is diagnosed early as any damage that has already occured to the nerve at the back of the eye as a result of glaucoma is irreversible. This requires eye tests as this condition is silent until damage has begun.

Please follow the links below for more information about your eyes and glaucoma:
www.eye-care.org.uk/
www.glaucoma-association.com/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=176&=fromcfc&tt=article&lang=en&site_id=176