Highlights

• The lens changes color, density, and clarity and in response to increasing age, trauma, and toxic exposures.

• Age-related cataract development takes several forms, causing varying degrees of visual impairment.

• Smoking, use of smokeless tobacco, and excessive alcohol consumption are modifiable risk factors for developing cataracts; nutrition appears to be less important than previously thought.

Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 11 - Lens and Cataract. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.