Slide show: Vision problems as you age

As you age, so do your eyes. Vision problems usually creep up slowly. You might notice yourself holding text farther from your eyes to decipher what's written. Or maybe you notice it's more difficult to read distant road signs than when you were younger.

This slide show explores common vision problems and more-serious eye disorders in older adults. It also discusses ways to protect your eyes and prevent vision problems. Learning about common vision problems can help you recognize problems as they're just beginning — when they're easier to treat — and it can give you good background for discussing your vision concerns with your eye doctor.

Often by the time you're in your 40s, you'll be wearing some sort of corrective lenses, whether you choose eyeglasses or contact lenses. They can provide correction for some common changes in your vision as you age, including:

• Reduced sensitivity to light. You might notice that you need brighter lighting near your favorite reading chair or at your workstation.
• Decreased visual acuity. Colors appear dim, and glare forms when light shines directly at you. This might cause you to avoid night driving.
• Difficulty reading small print. The lens in your eye becomes less elastic and loses its ability to focus — a condition called presbyopia. You might need reading glasses or a magnifying glass to read small print.

Your eye's lens — a clear, M&M-sized oval — sits behind your eye's iris and pupil. Muscles in your eye change the curvature of your lens to sharpen the focus of whatever you're looking at. If the lens becomes cloudy or if the lens develops opaque areas that block light from passing through (opacities), you have a condition called a cataract. Cataracts are usually associated with blurred vision.

Most cataracts are age related — about half of Americans age 80 and older have cataracts or have had cataract surgery. In early cataracts, the opacities are small and the cloudiness is minimal — you may not notice blurred vision. But as the opacities and the cloudiness become denser, the cataracts can interfere with your vision.

If you have cataracts, you may notice your vision becoming clouded, blurred or dim. You might find it harder to see at night. Some other signs include:

• Sensitivity to light and glare
• Halos around lights
• Fading or yellowing of colors
• Double vision or multiple vision in one eye

Surgery is a common solution for cataracts. Most cataracts can only be detected with special instruments, so make an appointment with your eye doctor if you notice your vision clouding.

Glaucoma is a group of diseases that are usually associated with an elevated fluid pressure inside your eyeball. This pressure can damage your optic nerve — the millions of nerve fibers that carry visual information from your eye to your brain. As your optic nerve deteriorates, blind spots develop in your visual field. This can lead to blindness in both eyes.

Glaucoma is more common with age. Black people are more likely to develop glaucoma than are whites. Other risk factors include:

• Family history of glaucoma
• Certain medical conditions, such as diabetes
• Corticosteroid use

If detected early, glaucoma is treatable with medication or surgery.

You might not notice glaucoma until it reaches an advanced stage. But some signs and symptoms you might notice before then include:

• Sensitivity to light and glare
• Trouble differentiating between varying shades of light and dark
• Trouble with night vision and halos around lights
• Loss of side vision

With certain types of glaucoma, you might experience discomfort or eye pain if the pressure in your eye becomes highly elevated. Seek immediate medical attention if you have severe eye pain, a headache, and nausea and vomiting associated with changes in your vision.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) occurs when tissue in your macula — the part of your retina that's responsible for the center of your visual field — deteriorates. A blind spot forms in the center of your sight as a result.

AMD is one of the most frequent causes of vision loss in people age 60 and older. Though it usually can't be reversed, if AMD is caught early, you might be able to reduce the extent of your vision loss.

AMD leads to a blind spot in the center of your visual field. Other signs and symptoms include:

• The need for increasingly bright light when reading or doing close work
• Printed words that appear distorted or increasingly blurred
• Colors that seem washed out and dull
• A gradual haziness of your overall vision

You might also notice difficulty seeing when moving from a bright room to a dimly lit room. If AMD develops in one eye and not the other, it may not be as noticeable, as your good eye compensates for the weak one. It's when AMD develops in both eyes that your vision is dramatically affected.

Other common age-related eye concerns include:

• Retinal detachment. Sagging vitreous — a jelly-like substance that fills most of your eyeball — can pull strongly enough to tear your retina, causing the vitreous to leak through the tears into the space behind the retina. There it collects, causing the retina to separate from the inner wall of the eye. Detachment can progress, causing total vision loss.
• Dry eyes. Your eyes produce fewer tears as you age. Artificial tears usually help. Dry eyes rarely damage your vision.

As you age, your vitreous can become more liquid than jelly-like, causing floaters, which appear as spots and specks floating across your field of vision (see arrows). They're actually small clumps of gel, fibers and cells floating in the vitreous. Most floaters are harmless, but if you suddenly develop a large number, especially if accompanied by flashes of light, it might signal a retinal tear or retinal detachment. Floaters are also a symptom of eye melanoma, a cancer of the eye. In such cases, seek medical attention immediately.

Take steps to preserve your vision as you age. Have regular eye exams with an eye care professional for a complete eye exam every one to two years.

In the meantime, protect your eyes from the sun by wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat. And make an appointment with an eye care professional if your vision changes suddenly or you have eye pain.