In addition to protecting your eyes from accidents, early detection and treatment of eye problems is the best way to keep your healthy vision throughout your life.

By age 65, one in three Americans has some form of vision-impairing eye disease. Most do not know it because there are often no warning symptoms or they assume that poor sight is a natural part of growing older.

In many cases, blindness and vision loss are preventable.

• Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States, and the most common cause of blindness among African Americans. More than three million people have glaucoma, but half do not realize it because there are often no warning symptoms.
• Approximately 16 million people in the United States have diabetes and one-third of them do not know it. Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness among adults and people with diabetes are 25 times more likely to become blind than people without it. By detecting and treating diabetic retinopathy early through annual, dilated eye exams, people with diabetes can preserve their sight.
• Age-related macular degeneration  (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in people 65 years or older in the United States. It affects more than 10 million Americans according to the National Eye Institute.