What is color blindness?
Colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency, is the inability to clearly distinguish between colors. The common cause of color blindness in men is a special type of retina pigment called “deep white”. This pigment absorbs most light waves other than the red and green wavelength. When you are color blind, it means that the colour blind person has a problem with their retina pigment layer. Color blindness has nothing to do with your physical or optical eyesight and is not caused by any disease of the eye itself, nor does it affect your ability to see in black and white.
Here are the most common causes of color blindness:
1. Congenital color vision deficiencies
This type of deficiency is genetic and is caused by having two different types of genes for color vision. One gene gives you one information, while the other gives you another information, which is located on chromosomes X and Y respectively. If your mother has normal color vision but your father has color blindness, your only choice will be to follow the male orientation. And vice versa.
2. Acquired color vision deficiencies
This type of deficiency happens after birth and is caused by age, disease, or injury to the retina, optic nerve, or higher-order visual areas in the brain. The disease includes glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts, a tumor, a hemorrhage, multiple sclerosis, and others. Injury includes chemical toxicity, X-rays, and accidents.
3. Defective color vision development
This is the least common type of color blindness. It happens after birth with sudden changes in one’s visual environment or due to an illness such as measles.
How is color blindness diagnosed?
Color blindness is generally detected with a set of evaluation tests. In the past, most doctors used a special type of chart called ” Ishihara ” to detect red and green color vision deficiencies. But it now has been replaced by another easy testing method which is made from computer-generated images, also known as pseudoisochromatic plates. The colors in the images are changed from normal colors to a muted palette. A colour blind person’s ability to see these “impossible colors” will confirm a diagnosis of a color vision deficiency.
What is the treatment for color blindness?
Unfortunately, there is no cure for congenital or acquired color blindness. However, color blindness caused by injury can be helped or reversed with surgery to restore vision.
What are the symptoms of color blindness?
Most cases of color blindness are mild and do not cause any noticeable symptoms in everyday life. The effect on someone varies depending on how much their vision is affected. For example, a person with red-green color blindness will have difficulty distinguishing between red and green objects, but this will not affect their ability to read or work.
The following are a few general symptoms of color blindness:
1. UV light can cause significant damage to color vision
2. The sun may seem uncomfortably bright due to the reduced perception of light colors like blue and violet. 3. Colorful objects and artwork may lose their contrast and appear softer than normal
4. Traffic lights could become rather difficult to see, especially during nighttime hours. However, the symptoms of color blindness vary according to the kind of deficiency a person has.
Color blindness is an inherited condition that cannot be cured. Fortunately, special types of glasses can correct red-green color blindness so that people who are otherwise physically healthy can live normal lives. New methods for dealing with color blindness are being developed all the time.