Causes and How to Overcome Color Blindness

Color blindness is a lifelong condition. So that color blind people can adapt, doctors will recommend how to deal with color blindness according to the type and severity of color blindness suffered.

The severity of color blindness is divided into three types, namely:

• Mild color blindness, i.e. the eye can still see colors normally in bright conditions, but has difficulty in dim conditions
• Moderate color blindness, i.e. the eye cannot distinguish certain colors even in bright conditions
• Severe color blindness, i.e. the eye sees everything in gray, but this is rare

Causes of Color Blindness

Color blindness occurs when the cone cells, which are cells that detect color, are damaged or malfunctioning. Cone cells are sensitive to 3 color pigments, namely red, green, and blue. This is what makes color blind people have difficulty distinguishing colors, especially these colors.

Color blindness can be caused by the following:

• heredity factor
• Diseases such as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, and leukemia
• Consumption of drugs such as drugs to treat autoimmune diseases, heart disorders, high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, infections, nervous disorders and psychological disorders
• Chemical exposure
• aging

How to Overcome Color Blindness

Until now, there is no treatment for color blindness caused by hereditary or congenital factors. Meanwhile, in the condition of color blindness caused by disease, doctors can provide treatment to overcome the disease.

If your color blindness is caused by taking certain medications, your doctor may adjust the amount of medication you take or replace it with another type of medication.

The main way to overcome color blindness is to make sure the sufferer can still move independently, such as:

• Use good lighting to help distinguish colors more clearly
• Using contact lenses or special glasses to help distinguish colors
• Practice remembering the color of objects or the order of colors like at a traffic light
• Ask for help from family or friends who have normal vision to distinguish one color from another, for example in choosing clothes
• Using special applications on mobile phones or digital devices that can help identify the color of an object

In addition to the above methods, experts are developing another method in the form of gene therapy to treat total color blindness. Generally, total color blindness occurs due to genetic or hereditary factors. How to overcome this color blindness is done by adding a gene that plays a role in distinguishing colors in the cone cells in the eye.

In studies conducted on animals and humans, gene therapy has been shown to improve cone cell function. This makes gene therapy a promising way to treat color blindness. However, this method is still being studied further to determine its effectiveness and side effects in treating color blindness.

If you have difficulty distinguishing colors, you should consult a doctor so that a color blind test (Ishihara test) can be done. That way, you can get the appropriate treatment if you have color blindness.