First off, what is a cataract?

Right behind the pupil in your eyes is one of the most important parts of your eye’s anatomy: the lenses.

Made up of water and proteins, these lenses bend and focus light to create sharp images. Your ability to see depends on these lenses being transparent and flexible.

As we age however, the protein in these lenses slowly begins to get stiff and coagulate. This makes the lenses cloudy, like you are looking through a frosty windowpane. That is what a cataract is.

Cataracts can happen in one or both eyes, but they don’t spread from one eye to the other. By the age of 80, most people either have cataracts or have had surgery for cataracts

Have you ever wondered why we refer to a person as having ‘20/20 vision’?

When you go to an optometrist, the first thing you usually see is one of those charts on the wall with a big ‘E’ at the top. These charts are called ‘Snellen Eye Charts.’ They’re named after the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen, who developed them in 1862 to measure visual acuity.

With these charts, Snellen set a standard for measuring visual acuity that is still in place today all over the world. Globally, almost everyone uses the Snellen chart to check visual acuity.

Measurements of visual acuity are known as ‘Snellen fractions.’ The first number – 20 – refers to the distance between the patient and the chart in feet. The second number refers to a line of text on the eye chart. The big letter ‘E’ at the top of the chart designates 20/200 visual acuity.’

The internet is full of fixes for foggy glasses: some good, some bad and some ugly. Eyecare Plus has sifted through the noise and information to give you the best techniques to help you ‘fight the fog.’

The coronavirus disease of 2019 continues to change and evolve as it sweeps throughout the world, and, as it does our understanding of it is changing and evolving as well.

One of the things that is changing is our understanding of the relationship between COVID-19 and the eyes. For example, we know that COVID-19 can spread through the eyes when an infected person coughs or sneezes near your eye or if you touch an infected object before touching your eye. This is how flu viruses spread as well.