Aging Process Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

The Impact of Aging on a person’s Eyesight
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The Impact of Aging on a person’s Eyesight
As a person ages, his/her sight deteriorates due to some eye defects. In other words, human eyes experience some degeneration as an individual grows old. Precisely, when a person ages, he/she starts complaining of blurred vision, which can result in total blindness. These changes are caused by one or multiple eye defects, especially those affecting the retina. Mainly, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma are some of the eye defects that affect the retina of the elderly.
Diabetic retinopathy affects the retina of a person as he ages. Dansinger (2018) demonstrates that a person’s chance of getting type 2 diabetes is high when he/she gets to 45 years of age, a condition that ushers diabetic retinopathy. Mayo Clinic Staff (2018) reechoes the fact that diabetic retinopathy is a diabetes complication that damages the retina. As a person ages and develops type 2 diabetes, too much sugar in his/her blood blocks retinal capillaries, thus cutting off the blood supply to the retina (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2018). Due to this defect, the eye attempts to grow new vessels that do not develop properly, thus leading to blurred, fluctuating, and impaired color vision (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2018). Therefore, diabetic retinopathy is a retinal defect that affects the elderly through type 2 diabetes.