These are shadows cast by residual substances accumulated in the gelatinous fluid of the eye.
“What are these spots in my eye?” This is a question many of us have asked ourselves at one time or another. Those peculiar worms or dust that we see when we are driving in the car and looking up at the sky, watching TV or even now when we look at the screen of a computer or a mobile phone, are not microbes and do not mean we can see string theory. They are “shadows” and have a name: myodesopsias or muscae volitantes ( flies ).
They are not a danger, but many of us want to know how to get rid of them because, apart from playing with them and watching them jump, they are annoying. The bad news is that we have to put up with them.
Rubbish. I must confess that the first thing I thought when I saw them was ‘I have an insect in my eye’. That was too bad, because there were more than one of them and, what is more, they were in both eyes. Well, it’s not bugs, it’s shadows. Inside the eye we have a gelatinous substance called vitreous which, as we age, makes the rubbish produced by our bodies thicken and float there.
This accumulation of rubbish casts a shadow on the retina, making it much easier to see the ‘flies’ when we are looking at a clear background that reflects light back into the eye. There are a number of factors that cause this, such as myopia, the aforementioned ageing of the vitreous humor, surgery, diabetes, sudden inflammation of the eye, or age itself, but they can also occur in young people.
Killing flies with a hammer. There are many factors that can lead to them and the big question is, can they be eliminated? There are two ways to do it, but the news is not encouraging. One is vitrectomy, an operation in which the vitreous is completely removed and replaced with saline. This not only removes them, but also prevents them from appearing. They can also be disrupted by the YAG laser.
The problem is that vitrectomy carries a risk of infection or retinal detachment. And cannulating the blakes with a laser also runs the risk of damaging the structure of the eye or increasing the risk of glaucoma.
What about supplements? Surgery is not an option, although there are private clinics that promote it, but what about supplements? There is a lot to be said for supplements here, too. As mentioned in The Conversation, there are companies such as Theia Bio that promote supplements to reduce floaters. These supplements contain antioxidants and anti-glycation trace elements which, according to a study published on their website, can reduce the size of these buoys by 70% of the participants after six months of use.
There are a couple of doubts here, as there are with myodescopy. The first is the size of the sample, which was only 26 people, and it is difficult to extrapolate with such a small number of participants. The second is that the vitreous is mobile, so the flies move around and are rarely in the same place, making it difficult to really measure changes in the number of shadows.
A sad conclusion. Unfortunately, those who live with myodesopia have to get used to it. Yes, it’s textbook ‘Are you sad? Well, don’t be” by the book, but there is no evidence that supplements or lifestyle changes help to eradicate these shadows. A diet rich in carotenoids (found in foods such as spinach, broccoli, watermelon and grapefruit) as well as omega-3s is thought to be good for eye health and to stave off the symptoms of ageing, but is generally not geared towards eliminating floaters.
And the best advice given is… don’t pay attention to them, don’t follow them and don’t get distracted. In other words, make peace with those “bugs” that one day decided to appear in our eyes. However, it is also advisable to visit an ophthalmologist if they suddenly appear in large numbers at the same time or if they make it very difficult to see, in which case they could be a symptom of something more serious.
