SEEING YELLOW
Spring has sprung around here! There are beautiful vibrant pinks, purples, and greens popping up in the flowers around us, and it brings to mind that we all may see colors so differently from one another, especially if color differentiation is not your forte. Color vision is not a topic that is often discussed, so much so that most people still believe “color blindness” is the correct term for someone who is actually just color deficient. Did I confuse YOU already too?? We’d like to give you a crash course on all things colors and color deficiency that proves just how incredible our eyes truly are.
The Myths BUSTED
We got in the bad habit of using the term “color blindness,” but in fact, when patients have difficulty differentiating colors, they actually aren’t blind at all! They still see everything, but each object in color may look slightly different than what the majority of the population sees for that particular color. This is why we like to use the term color deficient now.
But what is that exactly?
For most people, light enters our eyes and creates an image on the retina, or tissue of the back of our eye. That image is then transferred to our brains, which is how we know what we are seeing, whether it’s shapes, colors, letters, or you name it! Color deficiency is a breakdown in this process. The cells in the retina that respond to color are called cones in this case. There are actually three different types of cones as well: one to determine blue colors, one for green colors and the third for distinguishing red colors. When someone has a color deficiency, it often means they are lacking certain cones, so a lack of that color is distinguished. For example, someone who is red-green color deficient (the most common), is lacking red and green cones in their eye. When an image is seen, the retina fails to process the red and green colors. The brain interprets this information from the retina, and we perceive that image as lacking red and green pigment. It actually will take on more of a yellow hue instead!
How do you become color deficient?
The main cause of color deficiency is genetics, and to be more specific, maternal genetics. Thanks, mom! Think back to biology class here… color vision is a recessive gene on the X chromosome. Men only have one X chromosome, so they either are color blind or they have normal vision. It’s a 50/50 shot on that one! Women can be carriers of a recessive gene but still have normal vision, have no color deficient genes and have normal vision, or be color deficient. Although, it is only a 25% chance that they are color deficient, which is why we see this issue more commonly in men.
There are some other ways you can acquire color vision problems and some that will actually affect the blue cones of your eyes. However, these cases account for less than 5% of the population, so we are not going to go into detail on those here.
Can you fix my color deficiency?
First, we need to get you in for a comprehensive eye exam to see if you are in fact color-deficient! Good thing all new patients at Spectacle get screened for color vision issues. Ok now that we did that (whew!), let’s say we noticed a red-green color deficiency, what can you do now? Unfortunately, there is no treatment for color deficiency issues. However, we do have special contacts and glasses that can help those with color vision issues differentiate colors much more clearly. These lenses block certain wavelengths of light to allow for a clearer separation of different colors that is much easier for our brains to comprehend.
Color deficiency is not something that gets talked about much, so we can see why it can be such a mystery for most! We hope this helped to put things into perspective for you the next time you look at those wonderful spring colors blooming outside. Hopefully we could shine a light on those cones of your eyes and just how crazy amazing they truly are. If you are now wondering if you or your kiddos have color deficiency issues, we’d love to see you at Spectacle for a comprehensive eye exam so that we can know for sure!
