Eyes are small organs with many hidden interesting facts you surely were not aware of.
We all know that the most complex organ in our body is the brain. But do you know which organ follows its complexity?
1. The eyes are the direct thrust of the brain associated with visual nerves with more than 20 million work units.
Half of the working capacity of the brain takes up information received from the eyes!
2. The eyes don’t reach their final size at birth!
Contrary to the general view, the eyes are growing over time. Their size is about 18 mm at birth, 19.5 mm during early childhood and 24-25 mm in adulthood. If the eyes are just 1mm longer, this person has about -3 dioptres, and if they are shorter than 1mm that is around +3 dioptres!
3. Your eyes are faster than any camera!
This fascinating body part/organ up to date, which cannot be compared to any camera, (it has 576 megapixels) is the reason for 80% of our memories and experiences we receive on daily basis through the sense of vision. Do a home test: Focus on as many objects as you can at different distances from your eyes. You will notice how quickly you can change the focus from one object to another. The camera takes a couple of seconds to achieve that result!
4. People with blue eyes share one common ancestor!
An interesting study in Denmark has shown that the first person born with blue eyes was born 10,000 years ago with a genetic mutation that changed the color of his eyes in blue. Before we all had brown eyes. According to a particular study, every blue-eyed person can be genetically tracked to that common ancestor!!
5. We will all need reading glasses at some time in our life.
Approximately 99% of the population between 43 and 50 years of age need reading glasses. This is a result of natural ageing of the cylindrical muscle in the eye that sharpens the image up close and distant. This muscle is the smallest but most active muscle in the body!
6. Your ocular muscles do not need to rest!
Your eyes can work day and night without rest. However, your eyelids, like any other muscle in the body, need rest at the end of each day. By using them we blink 12 times a minute, about 10,000 times a day! Did you know that on average women blink two times less than men?
7. The cornea is the only part of the eye that does not have blood vessels bringing food and oxygen and therefore it is transparent.
It gets oxygen directly from the air, and the nutrients by osmosis from the eyewash! Likewise, it is an immune-privileged organ that does not contain the antigen cells responsible for the immune response, making it the organ with the highest rate of transplantation success than all organs in the human body!
8. The retina is the inner tunica of the eye, sized approximately 650 square mm and contains 137 million photoreceptors: 130 million for distinguishing day and night (rods) and 7 million for color differentiation (cones).
That's the reason why the human eye can differentiate 10 million colors, 1 percent of people can see infrared light, and 1 percent can even see ultraviolet rays!
9. Diabetes can be diagnosed by eye examination!
Type 2 diabetes often has hidden symptoms and sometimes first signs can be seen on the eye. Specifically, frequent inflammation of the eyelid, so-called blepharitis and style, premature cataract and vessels bleed on the back of an eye is one of the main signs of diabetes.
10. The surgery of cataract (removal of blurred eye lenses) is the most commonly performed surgery in medicine.
There is no need to wait for the cataract to “mature”. It should be operated as soon as possible to make the procedure easier. After the natural lens is ultrasonically removed, one of intraocular lenses is embedded on its place, (monofocal lens that allows good vision at distance with reading glasses or multifocal lens that allows good vision at all three distances) depending on the patient's needs, wishes and capabilities/possibilities.
dr. sc. Nataša Drača, spec. Ophthalmologist
1. The eyes are the direct thrust of the brain associated with visual nerves with more than 20 million work units.
Half of the working capacity of the brain takes up information received from the eyes!
2. The eyes don’t reach their final size at birth!
Contrary to the general view, the eyes are growing over time. Their size is about 18 mm at birth, 19.5 mm during early childhood and 24-25 mm in adulthood. If the eyes are just 1mm longer, this person has about -3 dioptres, and if they are shorter than 1mm that is around +3 dioptres!
3. Your eyes are faster than any camera!
This fascinating body part/organ up to date, which cannot be compared to any camera, (it has 576 megapixels) is the reason for 80% of our memories and experiences we receive on daily basis through the sense of vision. Do a home test: Focus on as many objects as you can at different distances from your eyes. You will notice how quickly you can change the focus from one object to another. The camera takes a couple of seconds to achieve that result!
4. People with blue eyes share one common ancestor!
An interesting study in Denmark has shown that the first person born with blue eyes was born 10,000 years ago with a genetic mutation that changed the color of his eyes in blue. Before we all had brown eyes. According to a particular study, every blue-eyed person can be genetically tracked to that common ancestor!!
5. We will all need reading glasses at some time in our life.
Approximately 99% of the population between 43 and 50 years of age need reading glasses. This is a result of natural ageing of the cylindrical muscle in the eye that sharpens the image up close and distant. This muscle is the smallest but most active muscle in the body!
6. Your ocular muscles do not need to rest!
Your eyes can work day and night without rest. However, your eyelids, like any other muscle in the body, need rest at the end of each day. By using them we blink 12 times a minute, about 10,000 times a day! Did you know that on average women blink two times less than men?
7. The cornea is the only part of the eye that does not have blood vessels bringing food and oxygen and therefore it is transparent.
It gets oxygen directly from the air, and the nutrients by osmosis from the eyewash! Likewise, it is an immune-privileged organ that does not contain the antigen cells responsible for the immune response, making it the organ with the highest rate of transplantation success than all organs in the human body!
8. The retina is the inner tunica of the eye, sized approximately 650 square mm and contains 137 million photoreceptors: 130 million for distinguishing day and night (rods) and 7 million for color differentiation (cones).
That's the reason why the human eye can differentiate 10 million colors, 1 percent of people can see infrared light, and 1 percent can even see ultraviolet rays!
9. Diabetes can be diagnosed by eye examination!
Type 2 diabetes often has hidden symptoms and sometimes first signs can be seen on the eye. Specifically, frequent inflammation of the eyelid, so-called blepharitis and style, premature cataract and vessels bleed on the back of an eye is one of the main signs of diabetes.
10. The surgery of cataract (removal of blurred eye lenses) is the most commonly performed surgery in medicine.
There is no need to wait for the cataract to “mature”. It should be operated as soon as possible to make the procedure easier. After the natural lens is ultrasonically removed, one of intraocular lenses is embedded on its place, (monofocal lens that allows good vision at distance with reading glasses or multifocal lens that allows good vision at all three distances) depending on the patient's needs, wishes and capabilities/possibilities.
dr. sc. Nataša Drača, spec. Ophthalmologist