The Cause of Color Blindness Information
 |
 |
|
| |
 |
|
There is only one predominant cause of color blindness, and that's through a genetic link. The gene that is responsible for the color pigments in the eye are carried through the male X chromosome, and as such most color blindness is found in men. In fact, nearly every case of color blindness is diagnosed in a male, and it's incredibly rare for a female to be born colorblind.
While it's not exactly rare in men, it's not extremely prevalent either, with an estimated 10 out of every 100 men being born with some level of Color Blindness, or 10% of the male population.
Some estimates have this number at 8%, but you can get a general idea of how often it shows up in the general population. In other words, if you know 30 people, chances are at least 3 of them are color blind in at least some way.
The thing with Color Blindness is that sometimes it's hard to even tell that you have it, especially if the Symptoms of Color Blindness are extremely light.
Out of that 10% of the population, very few cases are considered extreme Color Blindness , which is when the eye can see only around 20 different hues. Compared to the normal 100 hues or more that other people can see, that's quite a big drop.
So what's the medical cause of color blindness?
Think about the way the eye normally sees light and different colors. Colors are the result of the visual spectrum of colored light. Most of the time we only see the reflection of this light – an apple is red because it absorbs all the other wavelengths and reflects the red. If you look at a prism or a rainbow, you can see all of the different colors – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
When these colored wavelengths enter the eye, they go into The Retina, which is the area of the eye that's responsible for processing and making use out of light.
| |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
Inside the Retina is a type of cell called a cone, which handles the colors. There are three different kinds of cones that are genetically triggered to react to different wavelengths. When light of that wavelength hits them, the pigments inside will change, signaling the visual cortex that that color is present.
So when light enters, some cones react to high wavelengths of light, some of them react to medium, and the rest change when short wavelength light hits them. If these are working correctly, the eye will see the entire visual spectrum of wavelengths the way it normally should.
If some of these cones aren't working correctly, you get color vision deficiency. This is the cause of color blindness. Even if only one single pigment in the cones is missing, you're going to get dramatically different effects when all of these little pieces are put together.
Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to Protect Your Eyesight when it comes to the Causes of Color Blindness, but most of the time it won't make any difference in your lifestyle.
|
|
Subscribe to EyeSight Vision Care! , our monthly newsletter with in depth information to help you keep up to date on how to Protect Your Eyesight with a free bonus. Fill out the form below. You'll then receive an email asking you to confirm that you subscribed. You'll always have the option to unsubscribe at the click of your mouse.
Cause of Color Blindness to Protect Your Eyesight
