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Understanding Cataracts

What causes cataracts?

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Laura D. Cook
Assistant Professor of Opthalmology, University of Virginia-Department of Opthalmology
www.healthsystem.virginia.edu  
434-924-5485

The Ophthalmology Residency Training Program at the University of Virginia was separated from Otolaryngology in 1947. Since 1978, it has been under the leadership of a full-time academic faculty. The Department currently serves as the ophthalmic referral center for central and western Virginia and parts of West Virginia, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

What causes cataracts?

The lens of your eye functions very much like the windshield of your car. Laura D. Cook, M.D., Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, explains how cataracts affect your vision.

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Host: What causes cataracts?

Dr. Laura D. Cook: Normally, just aging causes cataracts. Every year of age changes the clarity and the consistency of the lens. There are certain other disease processes or conditions that can cause that as well. Diabetes is one, been highly nearsighted is another or high myopia, inflammation inside of the eye, having been on steroids in the past topically, periarticularly Depo shots or even orally can actually accelerate cataract formation.

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