With age comes inevitable decrease is health as well as an increase in ones tendency to contracts diseases and medical conditions such as memory loss, slower reaction times, insomnia, heart disease and others. In the article, “ Aging of Eyes is Blamed for Range of Health Woes,” Dr. Patricia Turner and Dr. Martin Mainster of the University of Kansas School of Medicine discuss how these conditions are a direct result of the aging of the eye. As you get older, your pupil narrows and therefore less sunlight is allowed in. In the retina, there is a cell that regulates the body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms help you go through the daily process of waking up, working, then calming down in the evening. Studies have found that when out of sync, people are at greater risk of disease. Exposure to light helps cells connect with a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus or S.C.N for short. In the morning, your body knows to release the hormone cortisol and at night, melatonin. Melatonin is very beneficial to our health and without a regular amount of it in our bodies, we are much more likely to contract diseases. The cells in the retina that send messages to the S.C.N. respond best to the blue light, the same blue light that is filtered by an aging lens as we get older. By the time and adult reaches the age of 55, they receive only 37% of the light necessary for the circadian system to function correctly. In other studies, it has been seen that adults who have had cataract surgery to remove their clouded lenses reduce the chance of contracting diseases associated with old age. By removing these lenses and replacing them with clear ones, more light is absorbed and therefore more melatonin is produced.
This article is very relevant to the human race because as time passes and we advance scientifically, I think this information will eventually help to extend the life span of human beings and prevent many from contracting these diseases. I also believe this will help to promote cataract surgery and more people will opt to undergo this surgery.
I really enjoyed the way this article was written and organized. While providing enough detail to explain the scientific terms and processes, the author did not bombard you with too much information. This article was also very well organized, the author split up his paragraphs into concise summaries of each chunk of information.
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Citation:
Tarkan, Laurie. "Aging of Eyes Is Blamed for Range of Health Woes." Www.nytimes.com. 20 Feb. 2012. Web.
Posted for M. Donovan
In my opinion, this was a very informative review. I believe this because Merry presented the idea of the circadian rhythm well. The idea that the eyes' retina contains this circadian cell that regulates this "clock" was interesting to find out. She also made me more informed of the hormone of melatonin, which beforehand, I only thought made me sleepy during school. Lastly, the point made about cataract surgery was interesting due to the fact it can improve the amount of melatonin you produce, meaning you are more resistant to disease.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the procedure of the cataract surgery could've been explained a little bit more in detail. Mostly because, as a reader, I don't know what cataract surgery actually does to help your eyesight or what is done in said surgery. Also, maybe a bit more on the extent of the diseases you could contract from the lack of melatonin in your system.
I really was surprised at the importance of melatonin in the human body. previously, I thought melatonin was a hormone that made me extremely tired during the school day despite getting a good amount of sleep. Now I see that it provides protection from disease, therefore it's importance is much greater in my mind, although I still dislike it for my consistent lack of energy during the week.
I found that my classmate, Meredith Donovan, presented the article, “Aging of Eyes is Blamed for Range of Health Woes,” very well. There were many aspects of the review that were particularly well presented however, there were some things she could have done to improve. One aspect that I found particularly well presented was how Meredith presented the information, and how much she chose to include from the article. For example, she didn’t include any information that a person not informed on the subject would not understand. I found all of the details to be quite clear and understood them all without much confusion. I also thought the way she related the article to everyday life was impressive, as the subject will eventually impact me. She described how as mankind progresses, we will most likely be doing things in order to attempt to increase our lifespan. And since the narrowing of the pupils decreases the amount of sunlight let in, which makes a better chance for getting disease according to the article, humankind will most likely be resorting to this cataract surgery in order to increase their life span. Lastly, I found her critique of the article to be very good, as I also agreed that there wasn’t too much complicated information.
ReplyDeleteOne way the review could have been made slightly better however, was if Meredith explained slightly more in some parts. For example, melatonin was frequently talked about and its effects were clearly displayed, but we were not informed why this lack of melatonin was bad for a person. I found this review to be very good so there wasn’t much else I could critique.
From this article, I learned that a cataract surgery could in fact be quite helpful in extending one’s life. This is because it will let in more sunlight which will make a person less prone to common injuries and diseases that people of the older age tend to experience.
I thought that Meredith Donavon’s review of this article was very concise and informative. I liked how she used simple language to describe the circadian rhythm, which is the body’s internal clock. Before reading this review, I had no idea such a mechanism existed in our bodies. Meredith was able to explain clearly how as people get older, their pupils narrow and cannot absorb as much sunlight. I also found that her review on the article itself was agreeable, since the authors did not use scientific jargon to prove their point. Another thing that I found interesting was how Meredith discussed how this discovery will influence cataract surgery. She explains that more people might undergo cataract surgery because of the health hazards associated with aged eyes.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I thought Meredith could improve on was defining certain terms, such as melanin and cortisol. Explaining these terms would make this review more informative. I also thought that Meredith could have listed some medical diseases that might result from aging eyes, since she didn’t really list specific ones.
This article was fascinating because of how scientists could find health hazards in something which would be normally considered natural, the human eye. It shows how scientists have the potential to keep making new discoveries and progressing toward better technology and knowledge.
Overall, this was a really solid review. First of all, I really enjoyed reading this because the reviewer paid careful attention to detail. She sufficiently explained all unknown terms and processes so as to make this research easy to understand. Also, I think the reviewer did a particularly nice job of explaining the degradation of the eye’s ability to absorb the needed amount of light. Over time, this ability decreases, and by age 55, adults only receive 37% the light they need in order to keep up a fully functional circadian system. Finally, I also really liked that the reviewer noted other studies that back up the research from this study. Specifically, she notes that adults who have had cataract surgery to remove their clouded lenses reduce the chance of contracting diseases associated with old age.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion on how to improve the review might be to include a little more background on how the experiment was conducted instead of spending more time on the resulting data and conclusions. Also, it might have been beneficial to note that this study might not be fully conclusive because it seems from the review that it only suggests lack of melatonin causes “greater health risk”, a very vague conclusion.
From this review, I learned much more about the eye’s importance in regulating our behavior, instead of just helping us see. I didn’t know before that light is necessary to create enough melatonin to give our circadian systems a steady rhythm.