Poor Color Vision or most people refer it to as Color blindness, is the inability of the eye to see certain colors. Unlike true color blindness, wherein everything is in shades of black and white, a person with poor color vision can still see some of the colors. It is the result of lacking one or more light-sensitive chemicals so instead of 3, they only see two of the primary colors.
Poor color vision has several causes, including:
- Inherited disorder. It is more common to men than women. The most common color deficiency is red-green. Blue-yellow deficiency is much less common.
- Disease. Sickle cell anemia, diabetes, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, glaucoma, Parkinson’s disease, chronic alcoholism and leukemia can cause poor color vision.
- Certain Medications. Some medications can alter color vision. Examples of this drugs are used to treat heart problems, high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, infections, nervous disorders and psychological problems.
- Aging. The ability to see colors may be weaken by old age.
- Chemicals. Exposure to some chemicals in the workplace, such as carbon disulfide and fertilizers, may cause loss of color vision.