Latest news with #visionproblems
The Independent
29-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Dear Vix: Are these worrying symptoms a sign of dementia?
I'm at a crossroads in my life and in need of some guidance. I've been married to my wife for 50 years. We met at a party in 1971 and have been inseparable, ever since. We've raised three tremendous kids together. My wife is a former nurse. She's compassionate, caring and tirelessly selfless, but over the last year she's been experiencing some disturbing changes and I'm now very worried about her. We moved to a new home a little over a year ago and it wasn't too long afterwards that these changes started. At first, she couldn't read the headlines of newspapers, which was strange as she could read the smaller text just fine. She said the words looked 'jumbled up'. She went to the optician ,but they couldn't say what the problem was. A few months later, she reversed the car into the garage wall. She's lost her confidence – so now either stays at home or asks for me to give her a lift. She's also suffered with depression for a while now too, but the medications or talking therapies aren't making a difference. She's finding it increasingly hard to read. She can't do any household admin, like paying the bills, because she can't read them anymore. She's never been dyslexic and has always been an avid book reader, so I'm worried that if there's nothing wrong with her eyes, then perhaps there could be something going on in her brain instead? My sister-in-law said she heard of a type of dementia that starts with problems with vision and has urged me to persuade my wife to go and see her GP. She's terrified of what they might say and together with her depression, she's having real trouble making the appointment. She keeps saying she'll do it tomorrow, but then tomorrow comes and goes and nothing happens. I certainly don't want to cause my wife more distress but we can't go on like this. We need answers. How do I make my wife see that going to the GP will help to provide answers and get her any support she might need? Worried Dear Worried, Firstly, let me say I hear you loud and clear. You've raised a family and been side-by-side with your wife for over 50 years, so to see her experiencing these changes without an obvious explanation must be incredibly difficult and stressful. It is understandable that your wife might be fearful of what the doctors may find. It's very common to want to pretend, at least for a while, that everything is fine. However, if her condition continues to get worse then at some point she will have no choice but to face it – and the sooner this happens, the quicker she can get any treatment or support that might be available. It's really important to say that until your wife gets a proper assessment and diagnosis, we don't know what might be causing her symptoms. Problems with vision and low mood are very common, particularly as people get older. However, in answer to your question about dementia, there is indeed a type that mostly causes problems with vision during its early stages. It doesn't tend to cause problems with memory and thinking at first, which means that it's rarely picked up early as a type of dementia and is often diagnosed as something else for several years before the person eventually gets a correct diagnosis. It's called posterior cortical atrophy, or PCA. The most important thing though is that your wife takes the next step and sees her GP. Until she gets a diagnosis, neither of you will know what's happening or how you're supposed to cope with these changes. If it does turn out to be a problem with the brain, such as PCA, then most people with this condition say that they wish they'd been able to get a diagnosis earlier. Obviously, it's not a diagnosis that anyone would ever choose to have. However, if someone does have the condition then getting an early and accurate diagnosis can help her get the support she needs, rather than continuing to live in fear of the unknown and waiting for an inevitable crisis to happen. If you want to know more about PCA or other rarer types of dementia, you can call a support line such as the Alzheimer's Society, which has dedicated dementia advisors who can listen to your situation and provide advice on the best course of action for both of you. You can also use a symptoms checklist to help you know how to talk to your family GP – or to help your wife talk to them about how she's been feeling. Facing the unknown is never easy, but remember – you are doing the right thing in supporting your wife and seeking advice. It may be the first step in this journey, but it is the most crucial one and I wish you all the best for whatever the future may hold. Tom (standing in for Vix)
The Drive
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
I Loved Driving at Night, Until a Rare Condition Changed Everything
The latest car news, reviews, and features. The night my vision changed, I was driving home from my girlfriend's place. Lights became cloudy streaks; letters and numbers on green highway signs repeated in trails. It was a lot like waking up really dehydrated, when you're acutely aware of how dry your eyes are. In such situations, I'd typically rub them, but I had contacts in and no backup pair of glasses, so that wasn't going to work here. No amount of blinking set things back in alignment. I drove for about 40 minutes, got home, and got into bed. My eyes would feel better in the morning, I thought. Why wouldn't they? It's been three-and-a-half years since then, and my eyes still don't feel right. Fixing them has entailed so many doctor's visits that I've lost count, and eye drops made from my own blood that insurance doesn't cover. But that's skipping ahead. Ever since I began driving, I loved to do it at night. That's become less fun over time due to the onset of LEDs and everyone driving trucks, but this condition has pretty much ruined one of my greatest pleasures. When I woke up the morning after that drive home, I couldn't immediately tell anything was amiss until I sat down at my desk to write. Had my monitor always been this bright? And why did simply looking at it give me a headache? Clearly, I needed to rest my eyes, so I went for a walk outside. Breaks didn't help, and after a few days of this, I realized something was seriously wrong. Driving home on that very first night, my vision kind of felt like this. Mint Images via Getty Images What I'd come to learn (but not before several erroneous diagnoses) was that I had something called corneal neuropathy. Confocal imaging, using a special microscope that could get a look at the nerves that sheet the surface of my eye, showed an alarming lack of them. Nerve endings are supposed to show up like straight-ish squiggles, and mine were faint, kinked, or marred with fuzzy, balled-up clusters; these had responded to whatever trauma my eyes had undergone by regrowing malformed. But in a less technical sense—and the words of one of my ophthalmologists—the nerves in my eyes were ' pissed off .' Corneal neuropathy is like any kind of neuropathy, in that it presents in strange, unique ways for every individual because the human body is a pseudopredictable mess. If you're looking for yet more ways to depress yourselves on the daily, peruse the r/dryeye subreddit. Some folks there have classic dry eye syndrome, which can be debilitating enough on its own; three doctors diagnosed me with the condition while noting that I was far too young to have it. Others in the community have unrelenting, excruciating pain, despite tear ducts that behave perfectly normally, which sometimes goes hand-in-hand with cluster migraines. Corneal neuropathy happens to go by many names, and one of them is neuropathic dry eye; a patient might feel like their eyes are dry, when every possible form of examination indicates that they aren't. Fortunately, my neuropathy does not present as debilitating pain. My eyes feel gritty much of the time, sure, but for the most part, it's a minor annoyance I can deal with by wearing glasses instead of contact lenses and liberally applying over-the-counter tears. Unfortunately , it presents as perpetual sensitivity to highly concentrated, artificial sources of light, more so than broad sunlight. And this brings us to why my experience is here on The Drive , rather than in a case study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Though if you look hard enough on Reddit, you might be able to find my story there, too. You may have noticed that modern headlights are bright. They're so bright that even people with healthier eyes than mine are fed up. The problem is twofold. On one hand, today's LED headlights are indeed brighter and emit cooler light than the halogen lamps of 20 years ago. But—and this part tends to get lost in the conversation—car design also plays a role. As vehicles get larger and ride taller, their lights that used to mostly point downward, illuminating the path ahead, now project directly into the retinas of anyone driving anything smaller and lower. You could fight fire with fire and replace your daily with something equally elevated, but that doesn't really fix the problem, and besides, we enthusiasts like to drive what we like. All that is to say that right now is a seriously frustrating time to drive at night for many people. For some dry-eye sufferers, phantom or otherwise, it's harder still. Teenagers appreciate the freedom of driving when they get their learner's permits but of course, after a while, you take it as a given that a car enables you to go anywhere, at any time, limited only by distance and fatigue. But when every streetlamp has a hazy glow to it; when every road sign seems just a touch less sharp; when you can't seem to make the interior lights dim enough; when you have to start positioning your car with a generous buffer zone before oncoming traffic passes because you know you're about to be effectively blind for a second or two; when the night seems darker than you can ever recall, you start avoiding things. One strange side-effect for me through all this is that driving in the rain actually makes my eyes feel more normal. An expert might be able to tell me why, but I'd guess that rain gives my brain an explanation for its cloudy or distorted vision. RifatHasina via Getty Images Sometimes I'd be aware of my avoidance, and sometimes I wouldn't. If I needed to run around the corner to a grocery store to get that one ingredient we'd forgotten for dinner, I might ask my partner to drive. It was the same for long trips through the night. Sometimes, my eyes might feel a little more comfortable than usual, and I'd be more willing to try. Other times, I'd wonder if I was a danger to myself, anyone riding with me, and anyone I shared the road with. Those are depressing questions to ask yourself. But the especially insidious part was how early on in this journey, dread would set in every night, and I never knew why. It might hit me with the passing of the day, or when I'd go to take out the trash. Of course, I didn't realize what I'd actually been dreading—the loss of freedom and the inability to easily do something I love. Through most of my 20s, I'd guess more than half of my driving happened after the sun went down. I honestly preferred it that way. That was partially down to having a job at a newspaper production office, where I wouldn't go home until we sent content to the presses. But those first few years out of college were full of late hangs with friends, impromptu Wawa runs, and trips to and from basement shows. I usually had the most fun when I was going somewhere at night. And when I had the car to myself, it was therapeutic. There's still no greater solitude to me than being alone on a back road; that's when I most deeply feel the joy of driving. I don't necessarily have to be going fast either, and trust me, along the Delaware River, that's the perfect way to inadvertently control the deer population. At night, the world is only ever as large as what my headlights can see, and that's a pretty comforting feeling. Corneal neuropathy almost destroyed it, and for the last several years, I doubted I'd ever get it back. When I was diagnosed with this condition, a doctor told me the only thing that was likely to help was autologous serum eye drops (ASEDs). These drops are a combination of serum from the patient's own blood, and saline. Doctors prescribe different concentrations of serum and recommend different regimens for every patient (for what it's worth, I'm on a 20% concentration eight times a day), but the principle here is that, unlike artificial tears, ASEDs 'share many of the same biochemical properties as real tears,' per Medical News Today , and contain even higher concentrations of biological nutrients like vitamin A, proteins, and transforming growth factor than natural tears do. That stimulates healing when nerves in the eye struggle to heal on their own. I tried ASEDs, alongside fancy glasses, occasional steroids, and a host of different drugs that target chronic nerve pain, on and off, for two years. Serum tears are expensive—I pay $400 for a three-month dose, and insurance doesn't cover them, because why would they? I'd pass on refills because I wasn't seeing the results I hoped for, and couldn't stomach the expense. It already angered me that I was ripping through $20 bottles of normal eye drops every three weeks; $400 for a treatment I wasn't sure was helping and made travel an absolute pain (you've got to keep them cold all the time , and I fly a lot) was an indignity for someone who used to pride themselves on needing nothing but coffee and Advil in the morning. Every three months, I get a box of these little vials full of eye drops made from my own blood serum. They arrive frozen, and when I travel, I put a bottle or two in that insulated tumbler and fill up the rest of the space with plastic ice cubes. TSA hasn't given me grief yet! Adam Ismail It took a long time to admit that this was just my life now, and I might see results if I just stayed the course of treatment. I shifted to a different ASED and drug regimen, and today, I feel like I'm doing a little better. Imaging of my corneas backs that up—more squiggles, less fuzzy balls. If you asked me precisely what 'a little better' feels like, it's definitely not 'healthy.' Headlights still have clouds and feel like they take up too much space and create too much noise in my visual field. But it's all a smidge less overwhelming. My doctor isn't even satisfied with my pace of improvement and believes I should be further along than I am now. At this point, I'm just content to be improving at all. All this has been a tremendous inconvenience at best, and a deeply personal, often unrelatable-feeling source of anxiety and panic at worst. It's impacted every facet of my life, but it's notably reshaped my relationship with something I love to do, which I've also essentially based a career around. I have regrets that I wish I'd taken better care of my eyes, or somehow enjoyed those late drives more than I knew to at the time, but those feelings are illogical and unrealistic. Being grateful is good, but it isn't natural—it's learned, and it's work. It's also taken me years to get to this point of acceptance, and I still haven't perfected it yet. To anyone who enjoys driving and, for whatever reason, finds it more difficult now than ever before, my heart goes out to you. So too if you know exactly the treatment you need and can't afford it. There are plenty of people suffering from the same condition I am, but it's still not terribly well researched, and 'many clinicians are unfamiliar with [its] existence,' let alone how to manage it, per The Scientific Journal of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists . Also, it should go without saying that none of this is medical advice; I encourage you to see a doctor if you have similar concerns. What you've just read is something I've wanted to write for a long time. Whenever I tried, I'd get stuck on what purpose it'd serve. Frankly, I'm still not sure, but it's always cathartic to vent. And if it gets even a few more people talking about things like this—hell, if it gets more attention on how scorchingly bright today's headlights are—I'll take it. We could all use some relief. Have your own story about struggling with night driving? Comment below or contact the author directly: Adam Ismail is the News Editor at The Drive, coordinating the site's slate of daily stories as well as reporting his own and contributing the occasional car or racing game review. He lives in the suburbs outside Philly, where there's ample road for his hot hatch to stretch its legs, and ample space in his condo for his dusty retro game consoles.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
Time for older drivers to have regular eye tests? Crash data suggests so...
Calls for older drivers to have their eyesight scrutinised more regularly are set to ramp up as road collision data shows injuries sustained in crashes in which poor vision was a contributing factor reached a six-year high. Department for Transport statistics show 252 people were hurt in road collisions where below-par eyesight was reported in 2023 - the highest number since 2017 when 262 were injured. Among the 252 instances were six deaths - two more than in 2017 - of which three were pedestrians. And with the majority of injuries sustained by passengers in vehicles, it highlights that drivers with poor eyesight are posing grave danger to others as well as themselves. The statistics come as ministers have hinted that a change to rules around eyesight checks for older motorists could be rung in as part of Labour's forthcoming road safety strategy. Under current law, motorists over the age of 70 have to renew their driving licence every three years. This includes declaring they are medically fit to be behind the wheel without any tests. The DfT's data reveals that 42 per cent of incidents involving drivers over 70 were due to sight problems. The figures are expected to mount further pressure on transport ministers to update rules for older drivers to retain their licences, following years of campaigning for over 70s to face compulsory eye tests. As it stands, senior drivers must apply for their licence every three years after turning 70. This includes a declaration to confirm they are medically fit to remain on the road. However, this entirely based on driver honesty and truthfulness, with no requirement to provide medical records or eyesight test results. With concerns regarding older drivers' visibility, police forces across the country launched a nationwide campaign - this involved random checks of motorist eyesight at the roadside. Some 3,010 individuals were pulled over and asked to replicate the practical test requirement for learners to read a vehicle's number plate from 20 metres - the only time any motorists are currently required to prove the quality of their vision. In 50 instances, drivers were unable to read the characters on the registration plate. Based on 1.7 per cent of the nation's 42million qualified motorist having poor eyesight, it means almost 720,650 drivers could be on the road despite not adhering to the legal minimum requirement. The DfT's data reveals that 42% of crashes on the road resulting in injury that involved drivers over 70 was either partly or wholly due to eyesight issues Speaking to The Times earlier this month, Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: 'Good eyesight is necessary for every driver, especially as we watch and use screens and expose our eyes to blue light.' He added that as drivers get older, regular eye tests not only assure they are 'safe to be on the roads' but can also 'identify other potential medical problems'. Some 5,967,076 of all licence-holding drivers in Britain in 2023 were over the age of 70 - a record high and 2 million more than a decade earlier (3,902,135 in 2012), an exclusive report by This is Money revealed two years ago. DVLA figures also revealed that the number of people aged 80 or over with a full driving licence in 2023 had increased by 94,818 compared to the year previous - taking the total to 1,649,277, which represented around 4 per cent of all qualified motorists. It's a similar story for over 90s, with numbers jumping by 93 per cent in a decade to 137,281 individuals in 2023, while there were 510 people at the ripe age of 100 and above legally listed as on the road that year. In 2012, there were only 162 centurions with licences, meaning numbers had increased by 215 per cent in just over a decade. UK's driver licensing system 'laxest in Europe' MPs are already being pressed to clampdown on the number of ageing motorists currently on the road with poor eyesight in a bid to tackle flat-lining road casualty statistics. With the number of killed and seriously injured each year not falling significantly since the early 2010s, road safety experts believe this is one area worth attention to trigger a decline. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Commons Transport Select Committee last week that eyesight tests for older motorists is something she is 'open to considering' as part of the Government's forthcoming road safety strategy. Earlier in April, the MP for Swindon South had received a prevention of future deaths report from HM Senior Coroner for Lancashire Dr James Adeley, which related to the deaths of four people killed by drivers with failing eyesight. Ms Alexander said: 'I know that reading that report will be very distressing for the families of the victims who were killed. 'That, of course, was a situation where the optician had suggested to (four) individuals that they needed to advise the authorities that they had a medical condition which affected their eyesight and where they shouldn't be driving. 'And of course, that didn't happen. So I am open to considering the evidence on this issue.' Dr Adeley described the UK's eyesight rules as part of the licensing system as 'the laxest in Europe'. He wrote: 'Self-reporting of visual conditions permits drivers to lie about their current driving status to those performing an ophthalmic assessment and avoid warnings not to drive. 'Drivers may also admit they drive but then ignore instructions not to drive and fail to notify the DVLA.' He made the remarks at the inquests in Preston of Marie Cunningham, 79, Grace Foulds, 85, Peter Westwell, 80, and Anne Ferguson, 75. Asked when the road safety strategy will be released, Ms Alexander replied: 'We will be publishing the first new road safety strategy in 10 years, and we hope to publish that document later this year.'
CNET
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- CNET
Driving at Night? Use These 9 Tips to See Clearly
Getting behind the wheel of a vehicle always comes with hazards, from deer hurtling into the side of your vehicle, to debris on the roads. However, those hazards become far more dangerous at night when low light makes it difficult to see things clearly. To keep yourself safe while driving at night, it's important to take extra precautions. Many newer vehicles have brighter headlights, causing more glare and afterimages while destroying your night vision. Overly bright LED bulbs and laser emitters make driving more disorienting than ever. Older drivers and anyone with vision problems such as astigmatism, glaucoma or near-sightedness, may also have a harder time seeing on the road because their vision is already compromised. While these problems can affect anyone, there's good news. Cleaning your windshield and taking advantage of high beams can provide a safer driving experience at night. We've collected the best tips to keep you safe -- whether you're driving home from work at dusk or you plan to drive through the night on your next road trip. Getty Images 9 tips for safer driving at night Luckily, there are a few simple ways to reduce vision problems when driving after dark. Keep your windshield clean to reduce glare Glare can increase when your windshield is dirty, as dirt disperses light. Certain treatments, like rain repellent, can also increase glare on your windshield at night. Keep your windshield as clear as possible to reduce glare and help visibility. AAA says a dirty windshield can also limit or obstruct your field of vision, and it recommends cleaning your windshield at least once a week. Keep your headlights clean The Mayo Clinic says you can also help increase visibility by ensuring your headlights are free from dirt and debris. Checking for clean headlights is especially important if you live in a dusty region or are in an area where hitting bugs is common. Use high beams when necessary Be sure to use your high beams on rural roads near forests or fields and, as the National Safety Council recommends, on longer or wider stretches of road. High beams can help you see deer in these instances, but avoid using high beams in rain or fog, as it can reduce visibility. Turn off high beams when going up hills or around bends to avoid shining high beams in other drivers' eyes. Don't look directly at oncoming headlights It may be instinctive to look directly at a flash of oncoming headlights coming over the hill or around a corner but practice averting your gaze. Looking into bright headlights can temporarily impair your vision and may also leave afterimages, making it harder to see once the vehicle has passed. Check headlight alignment during car inspections The Mayo Clinic also recommends working with your mechanic to ensure headlights are correctly aimed. Wear and tear on your car can cause misalignment and some cars are manufactured with misaligned headlights. US laws don't require manufacturers to test alignment after the headlights are installed, according to NBC News. The result can be devastating glare for other nighttime drivers plus reduced visibility for your interior lights Interior lights should always be off or dimmed when driving at night. They make your eyes more used to light, which can reduce your night vision (our eyes typically take a few minutes to adjust to darkness). If your interior lights are on to help you or a passenger)see something inside your vehicle, it may add to the existing distractions. Interior lights are also one more light source to reflect off your windshield. Keep your eyeglasses clean Like dirt on a windshield, smudges on your glasses can disperse light and add to glare problems. Clean your eyewear properly, using a cloth made for eyeglasses, warm water or moisturizer-free mild dish soap, according to Heartland Optical. Wiping your glasses on your shirt may be a common practice but it can also introduce dirt and scratch lenses, obscuring vision further. Read more: Best Places to Buy Eyeglasses Online Wear the right eyeglasses Keep up on those optometrist appointments so your doctor can confirm you're wearing the correct prescription. Also, you can look into anti-reflective lenses, which have a coating that decreases reflective light. Avoid eyeglass styles that obstruct peripheral vision. Other options include night driving glasses, which commonly have yellow lenses designed to reduce glare from headlights. Be sure to talk to your doctor before using them; some professionals think they could make your night vision worse instead of better. Read more: Are You Squinting Right Now? It's Time to Get Your Vision Checked Keep yourself alert for driving Even small time changes can leave us feeling jet-lagged. Daylight saving time can throw off your circadian rhythm (that internal clock that tells you when to go to bed and when to stay up), according to Northwestern Medicine, and being tired can lead to blurred vision. Adjusting to the end of daylight saving time can help you be more alert for driving. Check out our guide to recalibrating your internal alarm clock.
