You will get cataracts, unless…
Like you, when I first saw this title and read it, I was frightened. And if it seemed threatening when you read the title, you should’ve seen how it was written originally, with letters cut out of different magazines and newspapers. But after some thinking, and with no demand attached on what I would have to do to avoid getting cataracts. It’s true, most of us will eventually get cataracts if the lens in our eye gets old enough. And the idea isn’t to avoid cataracts by an untimely death, but to avoid cataracts by having a lens that doesn’t age.
As much as people wish there was a diet or a pill or an eye drop that could keep cataracts from forming, it just doesn’t exist. I’m among those who would be happier than I can say if that kind of prevention or cure for cataracts existed. I’d be out of a job in cataract surgery, but if the number one cause of blindness in the world was cured, I’d be the happiest unneeded cataract surgeon on Earth. We just don’t have a way to do it yet. The same thing is true of every suspiciously labeled miracle cure for cataracts you’ll find online and at organic food stores. They’re all either the product of ignorance or of greed.
At the current stage, scientific achievement can boast exactly one successful method of acquiring an ageless lens. The intra-ocular lens designed to replace our natural lens—usually made of very impressive specialty acrylic—is for all intents and purposes, ageless. If you get a lens replacement, then happen to stumble on the Fountain of Youth, your new IOL will serve you perfectly well into your hundreds. This factoid was once only useful for people undergoing cataract surgery, but it is now relevant to a much wider audience. Refractive lens exchange uses modern technology to allow us to accurately choose different types of IOLs to replace the natural crystalline lens before it ages into a cataract. It aims at getting people out of reading glasses and bifocals, but because the new lens doesn’t age, it fixes a problem before it ever starts. The need for future cataract surgery is avoided entirely. You’ll never get a cataract if you’ve got a lens that can’t get cloudy.
Like to learn more? If you are interested in refractive lens exchange, please give us a call at 301.896.0890, or email info@voeyedr.com to schedule a consult.
