Cataracts: Overview

Cataracts are a part of the aging process, but they do not have to interfere with your life style. A cataract is a cloudiness of the crystalline lens inside your eye. As your lens gets cloudier, your vision will gradually become more blurred.

The human eye may best be compared to a camera. When you take a picture, the lens in the front of the camera allows light through and focuses that light on the film. When the light hits the film, a picture is taken. The eye works in much the same way. The lens of your eye is clear and allows light to pass through. Light is focused by your cornea and lens onto a thin layer of tissue, called the retina. Your retina works like the film in a camera. When the focused light hits the retina, a picture is taken, and sent to your brain. While a dirty camera lens blurs a picture, any significant cataract in your lens will blur what you see.