When you have a problem with your retina, obviously your vision will be impaired  even to the extent of going blind. Some of the eye problems you can have because of retinal disorder are scarring in your macula, yellow specks in that blur your vision,
or retinal detachment which happens when your retina detaches from your eye because of trauma or an accident.

To understand how delicate your retina is, you need to delve further into the structure of your eye. Your retina is made of millions of nerve cells  or photoreceptors that each serve a specific purpose. Some are light sensitive, others are color sensitive. These cells help you recognize color and different degrees of darkness or brightness.

When your retina is exposed to light, the cells will send a message to other nerve cells that are lead to your optic nerve, which then will send electric impulses to your brain, and your brain will translate the message into an image.

Your retina has two kinds of photoreceptors. The first is the rod and your retina has about 125 million of these rods. Rods are responsible for your night and peripheral vision.

The second photoreceptor is the cone. You have less cones than rods, about 6 million and they are in charge of your central vision. With cones working perfectly, you can see colors, distinct and in great detail.

Our lifestyle will affect how our eyesight, and more particularly, how our retina functions. If we are constantly smoking and drinking, we could be severely and directly affecting our retina. It is also a serious risk if we suffer from high blood pressure and do not treat it with proper medication. On the other hand, if we are taking antibiotics or antihistamines, we could be contributing to a condition known as central serious chorioretinopathy (CSCR).

This retinal condition is quite serious because it can lead to total vision loss or at the very least, partial loss because the retinal cells start to die.

Early signs of retinal disorder are blurring, flashes of light stars, yellow specks, or loss of peripheral vision. It can happen because of aging, trauma from an injury or an eye tumor. If you have any of these signs, or a combination of them, do not hesitate to seek medical advice, If left untreated retinal disorder could lead to blindness.

Night blindness may be hereditary, or be caused by cataracts, a problematic liver, insufficient Vitamin A, zinc deficiency, macular degeneration,  Xerophthalmia, or Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), glaucoma drugs, or nearsightedness.

Treatment for night blindness will naturally depend on what is causing it. Sometimes, by wearing eyeglasses or switching to a different drug for your glaucoma is all that you need to do to stop night blindness. However, there are cases when surgery will be required.

Most often, the cause is lack of Vitamin A. If you have a diet rich in dairy products, generally speaking, you will not have a deficiency in Vitamin A. If you do need to increase your level of this vitamin, you can get it from fish liver oil, egg yolks, liver, fruits and vegetables. You can also try supplements which are also effective. However, before you start changing your diet, consult a doctor. For example, pregnant women should not take Vitamin A because it may cause birth defects.

There are 3 kinds of night blindness that one can get. The first is Congenital Stationary which is inherited night blindness. The second is Progressive which can be caused by the Vitamin A deficiency, drugs, or a disease. The third night blindness is from a complication that may happen because of obesity, pancreas or liver surgeries. This kind of operation will change the way your body receives food, and the Vitamin A level can be affected.

If you are starting to get blurred vision, have difficulty adjusting from bright lights to dim lights, or you have dry eyes, you should contact an eye doctor for a consultation. While night blindness is not common in the United States, there are still cases, plus, it could be an inherited condition.

There are alternative methods to treating night blindness such as herbal treatments, colored light therapy, Zinc supplements, and night vision devices, and laser surgery to slow down the production of too much blood vessels.

Some of the herbal products recommended to improve night blindness are  blueberry juice, dandelion, passionflower, bilberry, eyebright, rose eye wash, matrimony vine berries, Queen Anne’s lace, and yellow dock leaves.

Color light therapy is a treatment that tries to stimulate the brain to increase the level of photocurrent transmission from the eye to the brain. A patient is made to look at 11 waves of colors regularly through 25 sessions over a period of 6 weeks.

Night blindness is an eye problem that can become serious quickly if not attended to immediately. According to a survey done a few years ago, one of the top fears of Americans is losing their eyesight, and so, any irritation or changes in your eyesight should be given priority because the effects could be life-changing.

The macula is the central part of your eye’s retina, and it is the part of the eye that controls what we see when we look straight ahead. It helps us read, focus on small details, recognize colors and shapes, and allow us to do normal, everyday things like drive a car, write notes, cook, eat, exercise, etc.

Once the macula starts to deteriorate, it cannot be cured. This is a very serious condition that will lead to blindness, especially among the people who are 50 years old or older. However, macular degeneration can happen to anyone, regardless of age.

Stargardt disease is diagnosed by a doctor when he sees yellow specks in the macula area. These spots are lipofuscin which are fatty deposits from your cells that are accumulating abnormally. 

What lipofuscin does is to hamper your sight so that sharp images start to become blurred, and the colors begin to distort. Initially, the changes will be hazy spots which makes it hard to read or see things clearly. You also start to see objects as gray or black. It will also be hard to adjust from a bright area into a dark area. For instance, going into a theater during the day becomes increasingly difficult to manage.

Most cases of Stargardt disease is inherited, and it can even skip a generation if the gene in the parent is recessive. If a person is carrying a recessive gene but marries someone who also has the recessive gene, this condition could occur in their children.

There are 3 tests used to diagnose Stargardt disease. These are Electro-Oculography (EOG), Electroretinography (ERG), and Fluorescein Angiography.  EOG and ERG test the retina’s response to pattern and light stimuli while the Fluorescein Angiography will entail an injection of dye into the vein and taking photos as the dye goes to the retina area.

As there is no cure for this disease, the best that a doctor can do for a patient with Stargardt disease is to slow down the process as much as possible. One method widely used is to protect the eyes from ultraviolet rays and bright lights. There are some drugs that are being tested to slow down the loss of vision as well as regeneration of healthy retinal cells so that it does not produce too much lipofuscin.

RP causes night blindness and impairs the peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is when you are looking straight ahead, and yet, you can see what is at your side. The reason for loss of peripheral vision and for night blindness is because your retina is degenerating or deteriorating.

The retina is a very sensitive tissue behind the eye that is needed for your vision. With RP, the scope of your vision narrows and this is known as tunnel vision because you can only see what is ahead of you.

This problem can appear at birth if it is a severe case of Usher Syndrome. Most cases though appear at the age of adolescence and the vision problems can be sudden or slowly deteriorate.

Today, Usher Syndrome is the top reason for blindness combined with deafness in the country. According to the statistics, 1 in every 4,000 get RP. The treatment of this condition normally starts with a nutritional therapy which can slow down the progress of this disease. Vitamin A  and an omega-3 rich diet have been widely used to help manage this. However, much of this kind of therapy is limited by insufficient research and clinical study.

There are some precautions that must be taken when trying the Vitamin A therapy. For instance, if you are pregnant, do not even try high dose Vitamin A because there is the risk of birth defects. You also should never take more than the 15,000 IU recommended daily dose.

Retinal implants are also being studied as an alternative. Of course, the implants are artificial and to date, the results have shown some promise. There is also growing interest in gene therapy and retinal cell transplantation. Unfortunately, there is no cure at present for Usher Syndrome, but you can use sunglasses to protect your eyes, and visit the eye doctor regularly. If it will help, he will prescribe treatment for cataracts which is a condition wherein your retina starts to swell.

Most often, it is the children who suffer the most especially when RP progresses to a point where vision is down to a minimum or completely lost. There are many cases of young adults losing their vision before reaching the age of 20. Some lucky ones can maintain partial sight. There is no set rules about RP. The extent of the disease will depend on the genes inherited, which makes each case slightly different.

Couples who plan to have children can get genetic testing to determine if they carry the genes or not. This will allow them time to plan their family, and maybe even prepare them for the possibilities of having a child who will develop RP due to Usher Syndrome.