Cataracts

Every year my employer offers an annual benefits enrollment. This is when all employees make their elections on what type of coverage they are going to have the proceeding year. Our choices are from a wide array of categories such as medical, dental, vision, life insurance, your spouses life insurance, as well as flexible spending - an excellent pre-tax benefit - which is used for out of pocket medical expenses or medical dilemma's not covered by your normal coverage. When we are young, electing insurances other than medical seemed less important. But as we age, certain insurances will be cost saving considerations. One very important insurance is vision when you consider the most performed surgery in the United States is cataract surgery.

The condition of cataracts effects 3,000,000 Americans annually. This is a condition where abnormal proteins form within the lens of the eye. The cause of cataracts is still very unclear, but few studies point toward lead poisoning among many other culprits such as people working in high altitudes making them more susceptible to a higher exposure of ultraviolet radiation.

As a flight attendant I work in an environment where my risk of developing cataracts is a strong possibility. It is important for me to choose a vision plan, thus protect my pocket book, and provide a means to determine whether I have certain conditions which are detrimental to my vision.

Some eye care professional believe we can reduce our risk by eating foods high in antioxidants and by reducing our sodium intake. Wearing sunglasses can also reduce the amount of ultraviolet exposure to our eyes. Along with causing many other health problems, smoking and high alcohol consumption are considered to be risk factors for developing cataracts.

Treatment for cataracts can range from wearing a more magnified pair of glasses to surgery when it appears the use of glasses is not effective. 9 out of 10 people regain normal vision after this relatively fast and painless surgery while if not normal vision, better vision is a satisfactory result nevertheless.