More than 50 percent of people over the age of 60 (and quite a few younger than that) suffer from cataracts. Almost everyone develops cataracts as they grow older. Cataract formations occur at different rates and can affect one or both eyes.

It is easiest to think of the eye like a digital camera. Just like a digital camera, the eye has parts that help focus the image. The cornea is the front covering (lens) of the eye. Inside the eye the iris acts like the aperture of the camera. The eye has a flexible lens inside called the natural lens.  When we are young, the natural lens is flexible (allowing for focus from far to near), as we get older the lens hardens and clouds (cataract). Behind the natural lens is the film of the eye, which is known as the retina. The image formed on the retina is then transported to the brain via a cable (optic nerve).

Having cataracts can be like looking through a foggy or dusty car windshield. Things may look blurry, hazy or less colorful. Cataract surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear artificial lens. A cataract is a progressive clouding of the eye's natural lens. It interferes with light passing through the eye to the retina (film). Aging and other factors cause proteins in the eye's lens to clump together forming these cloudy areas. Early changes may not disturb vision and may be treated with a change in glasses, but over time cataracts typically result in blurred or fuzzy vision and sensitivity to light.

People with progressed cataracts often say they feel as if they're looking through a waterfall or a piece of wax paper.  Other symptoms of cataract include trouble seeing in low light, trouble distinguishing colors, trouble seeing a golf ball, increasing glare, difficulty seeing street signs, trouble driving at night, amongst others. If you are having any of these symptoms, you should have your eyes examined.