Age-related Cataract

World-wide, age-related cataract is the primary source of impaired vision in the elderly and humanity's major cause of blindness. This study represents a detailed analysis of all of the evidence bearing on the origin and consequences of this disease.

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World-wide, age-related cataract is the primary source of impaired vision in the elderly and humanity's major cause of blindness. This book represents the first analysis of all of the evidence bearing on the origin and consequences of this disease. The progressive deterioration of the human lens is described in unprecedented detail and examined from the perspective of the general principles of aging. Causal factors that have been implicated in cataract formation are then evaluated by the criterion of whether they are capable of producing the specific cellular and molecular changes which take place during aging and cataract formation. Three major causal factors - heat, oxygen, and ultraviolet radiation - account for all of the major features of cataract development. Epidemiological evidence concerning the distribution of age-related cataract among human populations shows that the prevalence of cataract is positively correlated with exposure to the ultraviolet radiation present in sunlight. The book concludes with a detailed proposal for a simple, safe, inexpensive, and practical program of prevention to reduce the prevalence of age-related cataract.