Is Women's Vision Worse Than Men's?

A guest article by Orlin Sorensen of Rebuild Your Vision

While women have made plenty of strides toward equality in the workplace, when it comes to healthy vision, it seems, there's still a division of the sexes. According to the National Eye Institute, twice as many women as men are diagnosed with vision-threatening diseases each year.

Women's Vision Issues

Across the globe, women are more likely to suffer blindness and vision loss. Of the common eye diseases, dry eye syndrome is two to three times more common in women than in men at any age because of differences in hormones.

Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and certain forms of cataract are more prevalent in women than in men. (More than half of Americans age 65 and older have a cataract, but for unknown reasons, women are at a higher risk of getting the cortical form of cataract.)

These risks - as well as age-related afflictions such as macular degeneration - increase with age, affecting women more often because women tend to live longer. In developing countries, infectious diseases such as trachoma are more prevalent in women, perhaps because in those regions, women have less access to medical care than men.

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation

As if that weren't bad enough, the Mayo Clinic ophthalmology department found that sleep deprivation can lead to blurred vision and eye discomfort; if those conditions are allowed to persist, in chronic stages they can bring about major vision problems, such as glaucoma, the second most common cause of blindness. While men as well as women suffer from sleep deprivation, Health Day News reports that women are in a category of their own.

Dr. Meir Kryger, director of the Sleep Disorder Clinic at St. Boniface Hospital Research Center at the University of Manitoba, notes that, "There are many sleep problems that men don't ever have, like the sleepiness of pregnancy, waking up for breast-feeding, and hot flashes. Further, the most common sleep problem is insomnia, and in every single age group beginning at adolescence, women are two times more likely to have insomnia than are men."

To help protect women's vision and keep your eyes healthy, Kaiser Permanente recommends the following:

• Do not smoke
• Wear a hat or sunglasses in the sun
• Avoid sunlamps and tanning booths
• Maintain a healthy diet, including lots of green vegetables
• Limit alcoholic drinks
• Keep diabetes under control

To learn more about women's vision issues, visit Women's Eye Health, a non-profit education and outreach program.

About The Author

Orlin Sorensen is the creator of Rebuild Your Vision, an eye exercise course designed to help anyone improve their natural vision. With vision training routines designed for high degrees of myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism, Rebuild Your Vision can help you overcome your need for glasses and contact lenses for life.

Read My Full Rebuild Your Vision Review Here