How Does the Aging Process Impact a Person’s Eyesight and in Particular the Human Retina? (Essay Sample)

How Does the Aging Process Impact a Person’s Eyesight and in Particular the Human Retina?
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How Does the Aging Process Impact a Person’s Eyesight and in Particular the Human Retina?
Several physiological changes intervene with increasing age to considerably influence the body’s primary functions. Specifically, the aging process attracts many degenerative diseases, which progressively causes loss of eyesight. In pursuit of optimal health among the elderly, researchers in geriatrics have emphasized the importance of continuous examination for multifactorial causes of vision disabilities in old age. Blasiak (2020) implicates retinal abnormalities as he seeks to explore the causes of elderly vision loss. Expressly, elderliness impacts the human retina's function by contributing to Age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathies, and epiretinal membrane disease.
Initially, advanced age is a contributor to Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Although risk factors for the development of this degenerative disease include smoking and family history of the condition, Blasiak (2020) affirms that advanced age is the primary cause of AMD. According to Blasiak (2020), the loss of photoreceptors and the degeneration of retinal pigment epithelium and choriocapillaris aids this condition's stable progression. In addition to multifactorial occurrences, degenerated choriocapillaris contributes to the deposition of materials between the retinal pigment and the Bruch's membrane. Continued deposition leads to the formation of drusen. Notably, researchers believe that drusen formation triggers inflammatory processes, leading to AMD’s development (Blasiak, 2020). Eventually, continuous deposition aids in forming a macular scar, a significant contributor to visual loss.