﻿Vitreous floaters are an age related phenomenon that develop in the aging
of vitreous humor as we all get older, or at least that's what we're led
to believe now in the last 20 years of being an optometrist.
I've never come across so many young
people or been aware of so many young people talking about vitreous
floaters than I have in the short period of starting this YouTube channel.
So the question is,
is this a new phenomenon or is it just the way things have always been?
I've got some thoughts on it.
What's happening,
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I've had a growing number of young people
that have messaged me with the fact that they are distressed to be developing
and having to live with the condition of vitreous eye floaters
as an optometrist that has eye floaters myself,
I am very much aware and can relate to the condition and just how distressing it is.
So there seems to be a growing number of young people that have thought just
by looking around at some of the new Facebook groups that are popping up
with
so many topical issues and discussions on vitreous floaters.
It doesn't take long to realize that most
of the participants in these groups are young people.
And I'm talking about people of age 20 and perhaps a little bit less.
So what's going on?
Well, the common thinking is that vitreous floaters
develop at a young age and may be due to head trauma from sports or
accidents, causing a premature breakup of the vitreous humor.
And that then leads to the vitreous
be more fluid and therefore prone to vitreous eye floaters
developing early, however,
as I've spent more time studying the vitreous and also the significant
phenomenon of my eye floaters in younger people.
You know, I can't really want to propose
another possibility, and that's what we're going to do in this video.
I won't be doing a big recap of what eye floaters
For more information on that, then please check out
my previous videos on that and I'll leave a link in the corner just over here
the space inside the eyes filled with a fluid that we call the vitreous humor.
And this is the site where floaters form and where they also stay
and the younger eye, this fluid is like a firm gel that doesn't move around.
The vitreous, as we call it, is made up of 99% water.
And the remaining 1% is a combination of collagen filaments
of vitreous cells and other supporting molecules.
And I believe that the secret to what is going on to cause floaters in the
eye lies in the composition of this 1% of vitreous,
that is not water.
From my research, it appears that the content of the 1%
non-water part of the vitreous body or the vitreous humor
plays a significant part in supporting the integrity of the vitreous body
to stop the formation of floaters through clumping together of collagen filaments.
So what's in this 1% non water component of the vitreous body?
Well, as I said earlier,
it's made up of a collagen filaments that are superfine vitreous cells,
but also contains hyaluronic acid and some other supporting cells.
So it is the collagen filaments
in the vitreous body that causes eye floaters when they clump together or stick together
to cause noticeable clumps that then move around.
And however, when everything is working as
it should and the vitreous body is nice and firm, no floaters will be seen.
Because although you have collagen filaments naturally in the vitreous,
the chemical makeup of the vitreous humor is believed to cause the collagen
filaments to be spaced out nicely so that they don't stick together.
They don't come together to form these bigger fibres, which then cast shadows
on the retina that we then go and perceive as floaters.
In my research, hyaluronic acid appears to be the holy grail, if you like.
That makes the difference between your vitreous being
nice and firm and nice, firm semi-solid that leaves you free of floaters
or a more liquid suspension that leaves you with a vitreous eye floaters.
So what is hyaluronic acid?
Well, firstly, it's worth mentioning that they are from a family of molecules
known as Mucopolysaccharides or to give them their more modern name.
They are also called glycosaminoglycan.
Now, Mucopolysaccharides are large
chains of sugar amino acid blocks that when they're dispersed
in the presence of water, they effectively create mucus type of fluids.
So the largest amount of these are found
in human skin, in the connective tissue and also in the eyes.
The main function of it is to retain water, to keep the area nice and hydrated
and moistured.
It's also why the cosmetic industry, for example, uses a huge amount of
hyaluronic acid in skin care products and some of the best.
And the latest dry eye products
use a form of hydraulic acid called sodium chlorinate to keep your eyes and your skin
lubricated and well moisturized.
And when the vitreous of the eye, hyaluronic acid
even in small amounts like there is appears to be critical to keeping
everything nice and firm and keeping it a semi-solid gel.
And the vitreous cells, they are located at the outer edges close to the retina.
And 90% of these are type
of cell that we call Hyalocytes or the Hyalocytes of Balazs.
After the work of Balazs in 1968,
Hyalocytes in the vitreous are quite unique amongst other similar cells
in the body and therefore capability is not yet clear.
However, the work of Balazs suggests that
the vitreous hyalocytes are responsible for contributing
to the breakdown and the renewal of hyaluronic acid in the vitreous.
So this is critical to my thinking about what might be going on
to cause floaters in the younger person's eye.
And I'll summarize my thinking very shortly.
The remaining 10% of vitreous cells,
which are also found at specific points in the outer edges of the vitreous,
are called fibrocytes and also a neuroglial cells.
Fibrocytes are likely
to be inactive cells that once helped to produce the tissues that form the eye.
And also neuroglial cells are likely
to have played a part and may still play a part in the metabolic role and nutrition
between the nerves and blood vessels in the eye.
So in conclusion,
and to summarize my thinking, I suspect that the presence of hyaluronic
acid is critical to the presence of vitreous eye floaters.
As we age may be the case that know
hyalocytes cells in the vitreous start
to fail to produce fresh supplies of hyaluronic acid.
and also to remove old hyaluronic acid.
Now, as a result of that, the regular vitreous starts to lose its
semi-solid mucus type form and then we'll start to separate from the water mixture.
And this makes the vitreous more fluid.
And then the nicely spaced out vitreous
collagen fibers may then now start to clump and stick together
to form bigger strands and specks.
And as these clumps swim in the vitreous
in which is obviously now the more mobile, this causes collagen fibres to cast
shadows the back of the eye, which we perceive as floaters.
So that's all very well in the case of the aging eye.
But what's going on in the young person's eye?
Well, you know, I suspect that the same
thing is happening, but for some reason, this is happening a lot earlier.
So the question is,
could something be interfering with the normal functioning of these
vitreous hyalocyte cells, causing them to fail a lot earlier?
And if so, what is going on? What is causing it?
I'm not going to attempt to answer
the question directly, because in all honesty, I don't really know.
But I do think that the vision science,
a community at large needs to consider whether the things like the national diet,
electromagnetic radiation, blue light from computer screens, etc.
and so many other factors could be playing a part in this.
Now, unfortunately, there's not too many people doing this
kind of research out there and things probably haven't moved on,
you know, too much from a research point of view from when I did my undergraduate
dissertation research on the effect of mobile phones on the visual system,
you know, some 20 years ago now, you know, nevertheless, there is hope out there.
And some people are doing research
into the vitreous eye floaters and trying to find cures for it,
which I hope to bring you more information on in forthcoming videos.
So please make sure you don't miss that by hitting the subscribe button.
And also the notification bell as well.
So question for you is just let me know in the comments section below.
What do you think is causing so many young people to develop eye floaters?
What's your thoughts on that and what's your theory?
I'm sure many people out there have their suspicions as well.
Thank you for watching.
And until the next video, I look forward to seeing you then.
Take care.