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People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

nbcnews.com

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Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#3
post #2

The one thing I maybe missed, is there anything that can be done to reduce the risk of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

I don't know, probably not. My dad has wet macular degeneration, and it's treated with injections into the eyeball every few months. The treatment works well, but timing the injections is tricky. Too often and the side-effects become significant. Not often enough and you can get a retinal bleed, which my dad did. Fortunately he regained most of the vision lost in the bleed, and now they've increased the frequency of the injections. He'd probably be blind by now without them. Not to mention the cataract surgery and the glaucoma...

It isn't carrots.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#5
post #2

The one thing I maybe missed, is there anything that can be done to reduce the risk of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

Wearing sunglasses apparently helps. You just need to make sure they have a proper UV rating, a lot of the cheap ones you get online don't do a good job of blocking UV.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#6
post #2

The one thing I maybe missed, is there anything that can be done to reduce the risk of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

Wearing sunglasses apparently helps. You just need to make sure they have a proper UV rating, a lot of the cheap ones you get online don't do a good job of blocking UV.

Those that fail to block uv can leave your eyes exposed to more UV than if you were not wearing any sun glasses.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wearing sunglasses apparently helps. You just need to make sure they have a proper UV rating, a lot of the cheap ones you get online don't do a good job of blocking UV.

Those that fail to block uv can leave your eyes exposed to more UV than if you were not wearing any sun glasses.

My layperson understanding is this happens because the mechanism that dilates the pupil responds to visible light so glasses cause it to open wider, but if they don’t block UV then you end up with more UV exposure than if you didn’t wear anything

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#9
post #2

The one thing I maybe missed, is there anything that can be done to reduce the risk of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

Wearing sunglasses apparently helps. You just need to make sure they have a proper UV rating, a lot of the cheap ones you get online don't do a good job of blocking UV.

Years ago I saw on TV a report where people bought several sunglasses sold in the street in Brazil and compared to the expensive brands and they all cut UV quite effectively.

Not that I would trust national TV test methodologies and risk my vision but it was a curious result.

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