What is the cause of cataracts?

Answer 1

Opacity of the lens. happens to older folks and avoiding U.V rays (sun) with dark glasses help delay this. There is a genetic factor but mostly it is a degenerative disease that comes with the passing of time.

Answer 2

The cause of cataracts is an area continually being studied. Cataracts may result from injuries to the eye, inflammation within the eye (uveitis), internal diseases that have an effect on the eye such as diabetes mellitus and some cataracts are inherited. Although it may be difficult to name the specific cause of a cataract, cataracts that develop in eyes free of signs of ocular disease are assumed to be inherited. Inheritance is the major cause of cataracts in dogs and cats.

Answer 3

First, there are a number of different types of cataracts that vary dependent upon features, size and localization. The optic lens is a remarkable structure where lens fiber cells differentiate and synthesize large amounts of the proteins known as crystallins and then elongate and produce the refractive lens by aligning themselves within the structure. Cataractogenesis is believed to occur in these cells as a result of oxidative injury, high glucose levels in diabetics, drug reactions, trauma and several others. Anything that causes the alteration in the refractive capacity of the lens and diminishes light transmittance due to opacification is a cataract. They can occur in the cortex, capsule, subcapsular area, etc.

Answer 4

The cause of cataracts is too much collagen in the lens and the pressure this produces causes the lens to fracture along fault lines inside the lens.

The lens of the eye is made up of parallel arrays of collagen, arranged so that it is like a crystal. The crystalline nature of the lens makes it clear.

Each year more and more layers of collagen are added. This makes the lens less flexible and increases its internal pressure.

Flexibility of the lens is needed so that your eye can adjust and allow you to see near objects and far objects by making the lens more and less convex.

The first problem aging brings is loss of this accommodation which is related to the build up of collagen which causes it to become less flexible. We call this presbyopia.

Eventually, so much collagen is added that the lens begins to fracture internally from the pressure.

The areas of fracture do not transmit light very well and it is these that we refer to as cataracts.

Answer 5

I don't know the exact cause medically but I can tell you that I was diagnosed with cataracts at 48 and they said it was because I've worked outside for years without sunglasses.