I'm Kristen Sansburn.

I'm an optometrist with Bay Eye Care Center in Bay City and Midland.

And I'm here to talk to you today about your eyes after the age of 50.

I've been an optometrist for 30 years, so I'm going through this, these changes right along with you when we talk about the aging process of the eyes.

We can break it into two different categories.

Refractive changes and ocular health changes.

The refractive changes is the natural decrease in the focusing ability of the eyes as the years go on, and that is improved or treated with optical devices like glasses and contact lenses or magnifiers.

The second category is ocular health changes that would include eye diseases like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration.

dry eyes, Let's start with the refractive changes that can occur inside the eyes It's something called presbyopia, which is the age related difficulty in focusing on near objects due to some changes in the natural lens inside the eyes.

There's a natural lens that, that is right behind the iris or the colored part of the eye, and that lens starts off nice and clear, just like a clear lens and a pair of eyeglasses.

In that lens, when you're young, is flexible and it can change shape.

And that is how you focus from distance to near.

There's a muscle that surrounds that lens.

And when you look far away, that muscle can contract and restrict to become less curved.

When you need to see up close that muscle changes the shape of that lens to be able to focus at near.

And what are the symptoms of presbyopia?

It is trouble with your vision up close.

It is needing more light to be able to see at near.

It's maybe starting to push things back a little bit further to be able to see them clearly.

What are the causes?

Just age.

Eventually everyone will start to notice those changes in the focusing of the eye.

And how is presbyopia treated?

We treat presbyopia with glasses.

To start, if there's minimal or no prescription for far away, you can reach for reading glasses.

Whether they're prescription reading glasses or even the over-the-counter reading glasses work well for a lot of patients.

If you do have significant distance prescription or you want to be able to put glasses on and keep them on, you can go with some type of a bifocal, whether it's the regular line bifocal or the progressive, the no line bifocal that will allow you to put glasses on and keep them on and see clearly in the distance and up close again.

Someone who's nearsighted may find that they take their glasses off for reading.

There are options and contact lenses as well.

For someone that wants to continue to wear contact lenses, you can keep using your distance prescription and then use reading glasses over the top.

There are options in mono vision contact lenses, which is focusing one eye for distance and one eye for reading.

There's also multifocal contact lenses that can allow you to see distance and near.

So as far as prevention for presbyopia, it is a normal age related change in the eyes.

And I would recommend regular eye exams to help with the symptoms of presbyopia.

Another important area for eyes over the age of 50 is blue light sensitivity.

It is difficulty while working with digital devices.

It can cause fatigue headaches, discomfort.

sensitivity to light, dry eyes, with extended use.

Treatment starts with blue light blocking filters.

So that can be in the form of prescription glasses with blue light filters.

You can even get non prescription glasses that have the blue light blocking properties to them.

Contact lens manufacturers are also paying attention to this issue, and starting to put some blue light blocking filters in contact lenses as well.

There are filters that you can put on computer screens.

Even phones and digital devices often have apps that have that blue light blocking filter to them.

One important, treatment would be to take breaks while you're working at digital devices.

And to make that easy, there is the 20 2020 rule.

what that means is at least every 20 minutes, you look at least 20ft away or out a window for at least 20 seconds.

So that gives you time to relax the eyes, look away, blink a few times, and then get back to your digital device.

One important, tips would be limiting screen screen time, especially later in the evenings the blue light can affect your natural sleep rhythm.

it can interfere with your quality of sleep and being able to fall asleep.

And now let's talk about different eye diseases that can affect eyes after the age of 50.

The first would be dry eye disease.

It is a change in the quality of the tears with time and with age, where the eyes are either not producing enough tears, are not producing a good quality of tears, so that they are evaporating quickly.

So what are the symptoms of dry eye disease?

It would be irritation to the eyes, maybe a feeling like the eyes are gritty or sandy, maybe a little bit itchy can cause some sensitivity to light.

It may cause someone to not be able to wear their contact lenses as they used to wear them.

It can also cause some watering of the eyes as well.

Age is a big cause, as well as some hormonal changes, especially for women.

Certain systemic diseases can cause an increase in dryness.

Extended computer use and digital devices, eyelid diseases such as bluff varieties, which is basically an a lid infection disease.

The initial treatment is artificial tears.

Moisturizing drops that can improve the quality of your tears.

We recommend that you don't use a drop that gets redness out that can cause more irritation and redness over time.

If you're using the artificial tears on a regular basis two, three, or four times a day and still having trouble with the dryness, there are prescription drops that can also help improve the quality of the tears.

There's a drop that, if used on a regular basis, improves the layer of tears that keeps them from evaporating too quickly.

There's also an artificial tear, a supercharged artificial tear that has more of an oily layer to it to help improve the quality of the tears.

If you're still not having good success with those drops.

There are options.

As far as something called punk tail plugs, tiny silicone plug that we put in the drainage canal, where the tears drain out of the eyes to keep your tears and the artif And it's important to make some lifestyle adjustments as far as to point fans away from you.

Make sure you drink plenty of water.

A lot of patients can benefit from a fish oil supplement or a good quality, omega three supplement.

Another common eye disease after the age of 50 And that is cataracts.

There's different forms of cataracts.

There is a natural yellowing of the lenses inside the eyes.

You can also have some areas of opacity that occur in the lenses.

Symptoms of the cataract would be changes in your vision all around.

So trouble with your vision far away and up close, it can cause more trouble with your vision at night.

It can cause more trouble as far as glare, especially with driving at night The biggest causes?

Age.

But also, smoking is a risk factor.

UV light exposure as well is is definitely a factor.

Certain medications can cause certain types of cataracts.

Some cataracts can also be genetic and be more hereditary in nature.

Initial treatment would be regular eye exams to refract the eye, to get a good prescription for glasses.

Because as those cataracts change, it can affect the prescription that you need.

And that we find when the cataracts get to the point where they're affecting your daily activities, they're starting to affect your driving, they're starting to affect your reading.

That's when we talk about the option of cataract surgery And if cataract surgery is needed it is a very common procedure.

The risk for cataract surgery is quite low.

And the surgeons that are now performing that have a lot of experience.

And typically you get excellent results after the surgery.

Preventative measures for cataracts would be to reduce UV light exposure.

Wearing sunglasses when you are outside.

Not smoking.

And then also a good healthy diet.

What's good for the body is good for the eyes.

As well.

and then regular eye exams to monitor for cataracts and changes.

Another important eye is to consider after the age of 50 would be glaucoma.

And glaucoma is when the pressure that's naturally inside the eyes pushes on the optic nerve.

And it can cause some changes in the nerve that can cause an eventual decrease in peripheral vision over time.

for the most common form of glaucoma, there are no symptoms.

And so you definitely want to continue with regular eye exams to monitor for any signs of glaucoma.

The treatments are initially drops in the eyes that help to lower the pressure.

some of the drops will improve the flow of fluid into the eyes.

Some will slow down the production of the fluid that goes into the eyes.

If those drops are not keeping the pressure under as good a control as we need, there is a laser procedure that can be done to help improve the flow of fluid out of the eyes.

If there's still some damage occurring to that optic nerve, there are other surgical procedures that can be performed.

Prevention.

The most important thing is regular eye exams to monitor for any signs of glaucoma.

So our next eye disease topic is macular degeneration.

It is the number one cause of blindness in older individuals.

It is a change in the retina, the light sensing layer of the eye that can cause a disruption in your central vision over time.

The symptoms would be just a decrease in your central vision.

blurry vision, Maybe distortion in your central vision.

The straight line is not looking straight.

Additional symptoms would be a darkening in your central vision.

Difficulty in distinguishing facial features.

Causes A macular degeneration would include age.

It is called age related.

Macular degeneration.

Genetics can play a part too.

There's a lot of research going into the exact genetic patterns of macular degeneration.

You're more at risk if you are a smoker or if you have a poor diet.

There are two forms of macular degeneration.

The dry and the wet form.

The dry form.

There's just changes in the pigment in the back of the eye.

The wet form.

There's actually some fluid or new blood vessels that form to cause some leakage.

So treatment for the two forms of macular degeneration are different.

For the dry form, we recommend anti-access and vitamins.

There's a specific formulation called the ER.

It's two formulation of vitamins has been proven to help slow the progression in patients that have lost the vision in one eye.

It helps slows the progression in the other eye, and we've been able to extrapolate that on to say that it can help, to prevent changes for patients that are showing signs of macular degeneration there are further treatments for the wet form of macular degeneration, which includes some anti-VEGF injections to the eye to help resolve some of that extra fluid that accumulates.

if macular degeneration has affected your vision enough.

That normal prescription glasses are not giving you the vision that you need.

We can supplement with low vision aids, which includes magnifiers, telescopes, closed circuit television that can give you extra magnification.

Preventive steps for macular degeneration would be a good, healthy diet.

Antioxidant vitamins can help slow changes in the retina.

We definitely don't want you to smoke.

Smokers risk is higher.

And also wearing UV protection sunglasses outside is helpful in prevention.

So another common change after the age of 50 is an increase of flashes in the eyes, or spots or floaters in the vision.

Floaters are natural debris that's in the jelly inside the eyes.

That jelly starts off nice and thick, but as the years go on, that jelly starts to break down into more of a watery substance.

There is natural debris that's in that jelly and it will start to move around more.

So when the lighting is just right and that debris is in just the right spot, the light comes into the eye.

It hits that debris and will cast a shadow back on the retina.

And that is the spot that you're seeing.

It's a shadow of that debris that's in the center of the eye.

You will notice it more against a bright sky or a white wall.

And again and come.

Floaters are very common.

But you want to monitor for any sudden changes.

A sudden shower of dark spots in front of the eyes.

A dark spot that's right in the center of your vision.

We would definitely want you to be seen for dilated exam, Causes of floaters is more time and age.

Patients that are highly nearsighted are slightly more at risk or someone that's had an injury to the eye could cause a change in the floaters The only treatment for floaters would be removal of the jelly inside the eyes.

But that's a very delicate procedure.

So they won't do that unless the floaters are caused by some bleeding in the eye.

They have tried to do some laser procedures, but what they found is that the laser procedure just breaks that larger floater up into a bunch of smaller floaters.

Another change in the eyes that goes along with the floaters are flashes of lights, and the flashes of lights can occur inside the eyes.

When that jelly inside the eyes starts to change with time.

So that jelly starts out, thick with time.

And with age, it becomes more of a watery type of a substance.

Well, there's a membrane that used to hold that jelly up tight against the the retina as that jelly breaks down.

It's not pushing on that membrane.

And that membrane starts to pull away from the retina.

That membrane is attached to the retina at different spots.

So as that bag starts to pull on the retina, it will show you a flash of light.

And again that is a normal change with time.

However, if you experience a flash that's followed by a sudden shower of dark spots or darkness in your vision that can that can mean that there's a possibility of a hole or a tear in the retina that can cause a detachment.

So whenever you see any sudden changes and in your vision, the flashes of light's followed by a darkness in the vision, a shower of dark spots.

We we need to have a dilated eye exam So we've talked about both the refractive changes and ocular health changes with time.

I would definitely recommend to keep your eyes healthy.

Regular eye exams every year to two years without any history of any eye diseases.

A good, healthy lifestyle.

Good diet.

Quit smoking.

UV protection with sunglasses is when you're outdoors and to limit screen time.

Or at least take those breaks with screen time and limit use of screens before you go to sleep at night.

For more information on eye disease and prevention you can visit the website on the screen.