My doctor says I have the beginning of cataracts. How serious is it?

Developing a cataract is not the same thing as getting some sort of disease. Rather, it is the latter stages of the normal aging process of the eye whereby the natural lens becomes harder, less flexible, and discolored. We are not evolved, created, or designed to live much longer than is necessary to pass on our genes to the next generation. So our bodies tend to "wear out" starting in our 40s. The first thing to go in our eyes is our up-close vision, caused by hardening in our natural lenses.

Eventually, as the lens hardens further, it begins to discolor. When this gets "bad enough" we call it a cataract. So, no -don't worry. It is probably not serious at all. If it finally does get to a point of causing you probems, it can be fixed with an artificail lens implant (IOL).

_Written by J. Trevor Woodhams, M.D. - Chief of Surgery, Woodhams Eye Clinic