What is Color Blindness?
Color Blindness, or color vision deficiency, is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under normal lighting conditions. Color Blindness affects a significant percentage of the population. There is no actual blindness but there is a deficiency of color vision.
Signs and Symptoms
- Difficulty distinguishing between colors
- Inability to see shades or tones of the same color
- Rapid eye movement (in rare cases)
Causes and Risk Factors
Color blindness is a genetic condition caused by a difference in how one or more of the light-sensitive cells found in the retina of the eye respond to certain colors. These cells, called cones, sense wavelengths of light, and enable the retina to distinguish between colors. This difference in sensitivity in one or more cones can make a person color blind.
How is it diagnosed?
Inherited color vision deficiency is usually diagnosed in early childhood using simple screening tests. The Hardy-Rand-Rittler (H-R-R) and Ishihara Color Plates are used to evaluate the type and degree of color deficienc
Treatment
Curing color blindness is currently impossible. 99% of color blind males and females are color blind as a result of defective genetics on the X chromosome. To cure this color blindness would require some form of gene therapy, repairing the damaged chromosome. However even this is only educated circumspection, there is no scientific method available at present that shows any signs of promise of a cure for color blindness