Color blindness is not an eye disease, but a disability where a person is born without a certain color sensor, or maybe the person’s color sensor does not function at all.
Apart from being congenital, color blindness can also be caused by disease or due to consumption of certain drugs and the following are some facts about partial color blindness.
Also Read: 5 Tips for Running at Night for Beginners, Don’t Just Run!
1. Only limited to certain colors
Color blindness is a case where the human eye has a disability where the eye loses its ability to distinguish colors. Loss of the ability to distinguish colors can occur totally or partially.
Humans have three color cones in their eyes, namely red, green and blue. People with partial color blindness usually only lose one or two color cones resulting in a loss of the ability to see colors. For example, people who have neither red nor green cones see everything in shades of blue. People who have lost all cones of color see the world in black and white.
2. Most experienced by men
male eye illustration (Pixabay.com/Hinnerwaeldler)According to colourblindawareness.org, Color blindness affects about 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women. In the UK there are around 3 million color blind people (about 4.5% of the population), most of whom are male. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are around 300 million people who experience color blindness.
3. Passed down by parents
color blind illustrations (optelec.com)Most cases of color blindness occur due to genetic factors. According to colourblindawareness.orgTypes of red-green and blue-yellow color blindness are usually inherited from parents.
The reason why men experience more color blindness, especially red-green color blindness, is in their chromosomes. The gender of a human is determined by the chromosomes he has. Men have 1 X chromosome and 1 Y chromosome, and women have 2 X chromosomes. The gene that causes red-green color blindness is passed on to the X chromosome.
Because it is inherited on the X chromosome, red-green color blindness is more common in males. This is because:
Males only have 1 X chromosome, from their mother. If the X chromosome has the gene for red-green color blindness (rather than the normal X chromosome), they will have red-green color blindness.
Females have 2 X chromosomes, one from their mother and one from their father. To have red-green color blindness, both X chromosomes must have the gene for red-green color blindness.
In addition to genetic factors, color blindness can also be caused by other factors such as disease factors, age factors, and drug factors.
4. Red-green color blindness is most common
illustration of red-green color blind eye vision on the left and normal eye vision on the right photo (sciencealert.com) Red-green color blindness is the most common Deutan and Protane. This is because color blindness is passed down through the chromosomes.
It is given this name because red and green are the two colors that are usually the most difficult for color-blind individuals with either of these conditions to distinguish. For example, people with color blindness Deutan or green receives too much red and receives too little green. This makes the person unable to recognize some colors such as green, yellow, orange, and red.
Compared inversely with Deutancolor-blind Protane or green is a condition where a person receives too much red and receives a little green which results in the person being unable to see colors such as green, yellow, blue, and purple. Because the symptoms and causative factors are similar, the two color blindness are difficult to distinguish so they are classified into one type, namely red-green color blindness.
5. Incurable
Illustration of total color blindness (indiatoday.in)So far there is no cure for color blindness including partial color blindness caused by genetic defects. For color blindness caused by disease or possibly drugs, reducing drug consumption and curing related diseases can improve the ability to see color again. Experts are still looking for ways to cure color blindness, one of which is by genetic modification.
So those with partial or partial color blindness are not completely color blind, they just can’t see certain colors. This disorder is usually passed from parents to their children, and most color blindness is experienced by males. For now there is no medicine for people with color blindness.
Also Read: 6 Foods Rich in Collagen for the Health of Your Joints and Skin
IDN Times Community is a media that provides a platform for writing. All written works are fully the responsibility of the author.
