HWN Suggests

How to Live With Floaters, Those Tiny Ghosts in Your Eyes

When floaters first showed up in my eyes about five years ago, I didn’t think it was a medical condition; I thought it was a superpower. Honestly—my adolescent brain read the little transparent particles that were suddenly floating around my field of vision as little clues to the molecular makeup of the universe that I was somehow, luckily, witnessing. I felt like Neo at the end of the first Matrix when he sees all those cascading green numbers.

read full article

Featured

 When Shadows Float Before Your Eyes

It is these clumps of protein and water, of varying shape, meandering unpredictably within the vitreous cavity, that are the source of most floaters. As light passes through the vitreous, floaters cast annoying shadows on the retina, the eye's movie screen. Most adults experience this type of floater at some time. Much less common is a second type, floaters caused by specks or globs of blood, the result of bleeding brought on by rips in the retina or as a complication of diabetes. In each case, the brain almost always gets used to the floaters or they migrate out of view. The third kind of floater, however, caused by a posterior vitreous detachment, is far more likely to impair vision.

 Why Do I Sometimes See Annoying Floating Spots?

People with just a few floaters and none of the other worrying symptoms basically have to try to forget about them. If the spots are really bothersome, they can be corrected with surgery, but it’s only an option for someone who’s had them for a long time and is at their wit’s end,

Articles of Interest

Health Rant: Eye Floaters--So Annoying (and Also Weird, Once You Find Out What They Really Are!)

I had an annoying little speck floating in the corner of my vision all weekend--do you ever get one? It's the tiny little dot that moves when your eye moves, so you can never actually see what the heck it is. It seems like it could be easily explained as a piece of dust on the surface of your eye or something--but the truth is, it's much weirder.

The laser beam that can get rid of those pesky eye floaters

Floaters can appear at any age but become more common after the age of 50. Most floaters are caused by changes in the vitreous – the clear gel that fills the eye and helps to maintain its shape. With age, the vitreous gel becomes more liquid and collagen fibres that form part of the vitreous shrink, forming clumps or strings that can cast shadows on the back of the eye (the retina). It is these clumps and strings that we see as floaters.

The Science of Eye Floaters

They manifest as black dots, cobwebs, squiggly lines, or even circles are relatively harmless to most of the population. The main questions is how does this occur?

Those Weird Floating Particles in Your Vision Are Eyeball Crud

Ever look up at the sky and see greyish objects floating around? Or what about those weird geometric figures and colors you see when you rub your eyes? Both these phenomena, and more, are caused either by particles in the eyes or originate in the brain.

What The Hell Are Eye Floaters And Why Am I Seeing Them All The Time?

If you've ever noticed small, dust-like specks or squiggly lines floating around in your field of vision, you have eye floaters. Tons of people have them, and they're completely normal. Most of the time, while they can be annoying, they're also nothing to worry about.