Color blindness:
Occurs when a person cannot see colors in the normal way. Color blindness often occurs when certain colors cannot be distinguished, usually green, red, and sometimes blue. There are different degrees of color blindness, where some people with a mild color deficiency can see colors normally in good lighting but have difficulty in dim light Others cannot distinguish certain colors in any light the most severe form of color blindness is when the sufferer sees everything in shades of gray (uncommon). Color blindness usually affects both eyes equally and remains stable throughout life. Color blindness usually occur from birth but can also develop later in life. Color blindness usually runs in families and there is no cure, but special glasses and contact lenses can help.
Causes:
Most sufferers are born with color blindness as a congenital condition. Congenital color vision defects are usually passed on from mother to child. These defects are caused by a partial or complete deficiency in the cones (a type of retinal cell responsible for distinguishing red, green and blue colors) of the retina. Most problems Color vision that occurs later in life is a result of:
- Illness
- Eye injury.
- Toxic effects of drugs
- Metabolic disease, or vascular disease
Risk factors:
- Gender: Men are more likely to be colorblind than women, who rarely suffer from this problem.
- Having a family history of color blindness.
- Glaucoma (blue water).
- Diabetic
- Age-related macular degeneration.
- Alzheimer's disease or multiple sclerosis.
- Parkinson's disease
- Alcohol addiction
- Leukemia
- Sickle cell anemia
- Some medicines, for example, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Symptoms:
Symptoms of color blindness can range from mild to severe. Many people experience very mild symptoms. Parents may only notice a problem with a child when he is learning colors. Symptoms include:
- Trouble seeing colors and brightness of colors in the usual way.
- Inability to distinguish between shades of the same or similar colors. This happens mostly in red and green, or blue and yellow.
- People with advanced cases of color blindness may also have other symptoms, such as rapid side-to-side eye movements or sensitivity to light.
When to see a doctor:
When noticing a change in color vision.
Diagnosis:
Diagnosis can be made through a comprehensive eye examination. However, additional tests may be needed to accurately determine nature and degree of color deficiency. It can be difficult to diagnose color blindness in children, so a child should be tested if he has a family history of color blindness or if he seems to be having trouble in learning colors.
Treatment:
There is no cure yet, but if the cause is an eye disease or injury, treating these conditions may improve color vision. Using specially tinted glasses or wearing red colored contact lenses in one eye can increase some people's ability to distinguish colors, although nothing can make them see the deficient color normally.
The most important problems that the patient may face:
- Difficulty in school if colors are used in learning.
- Mixing up medicines if they are not clearly marked.
- Trouble identifying safety warnings or signs.
- Limited functionality (e.g.: pilots, air traffic controllers, accurate color recognition in general, they can do most normal activities including driving.
Instructions for color blind people and their families:
- Organize and mark clothes, furniture, or other colored objects (with the help of friends or family) for easy identification.
- Remember the arrangement of things rather than their color, for example a traffic light has red at the top, yellow in the middle and green at the bottom.
- Take advantage of technology. Computers and other electronic devices often have settings that can be changed to make them easier to use, and there are a number of mobile apps available that can help identify colors.
- Asking friends or family for help (e.g.: checking if food is safe to eat).
- installation of high-quality lighting in the house; To help distinguish colors.
- Color blind children need help with some classroom activities.