Why are eyes afraid of light?

Fear of light is an eye abnormality, which may be caused by eye disease. Many eye diseases can cause fear of light and obvious tearing symptoms. The most common ones are conjunctivitis and leukoderma. In the middle-aged and elderly population, cataracts can also cause the eyes to be afraid of light.

1. Pink Eye

As the name suggests, photophobia caused by conjunctivitis is generally accompanied by red and painful eyes, tearing, foreign body sensation and increased secretions. The patient has no (or slight) discomfort in dimly lit places such as indoors, but becomes obviously afraid of light and has tears in the sunlight, and may even be unable to open his eyes. This type of disease mainly involves inflammation of the eye, such as keratitis, conjunctivitis, iritis and foreign bodies on the ocular surface.

2. White eye disease

The fear of light caused by white eye disease usually causes blurred vision in brighter light, especially sunlight, while the vision is better in dimly lit rooms. The fear of light caused by white eye disease deserves everyone's attention. If the elderly in your family cannot see clearly on sunny days, but have better vision on cloudy days or indoors, the possibility of cataracts should be considered.

3. Cataracts

It occurs in some types of cataracts, such as posterior subcapsular and nuclear cataracts, in which the opacity is located in the center of the lens. In bright places, the pupil shrinks and the central turbidity causes a significant decrease in the amount of light entering the eye, making vision blurry; in dark places, the pupil dilates and the peripheral turbidity is relatively lighter, allowing more light to enter the eye and making vision clearer. Therefore, the patient has poor vision during the day and cannot even open his eyes under sunlight, but his vision becomes good in the morning and evening.

4. Retinal hemorrhage and exudation

Mainly seen in diabetic retinopathy. Irregular bleeding and exudation on the retina cause the light entering the eye to be irregularly reflected on the retina, interfering with vision and causing symptoms of photophobia.