Deuteranopia: It doesn't get any greener
Deuteranopia is referred to as green blindness, a genetically caused color vision deficiency. Those affected cannot perceive the color green. It is a form of red-green blindness. If there is only a weakness in green perception, it is called deuteranomaly.
What you absolutely need to know about deuteranopia:
In deuteranopia, there are no sensory cells in the eye for perceiving the color green. The color spectrum of green-blind people mainly consists of the colors red and blue.
- True color blindness is extremely rare; usually, there is only a reduction in the intensity of perception.
- Significantly more men than women are affected by this color vision deficiency.
- Deuteranopia always affects both eyes.
- Green blindness is congenital and does not worsen over a lifetime.
- Our glasses for colorblind people from Colordrop promise help
Green blindness mainly affects men
Deuteranopia mainly affects men. 0.01% of women suffer from green blindness, whereas about 1% of men do. Deuteranomaly, the green color weakness, occurs much more frequently. It affects 0.35% of women and 5% of men. The unequal distribution of color vision deficiency is related to our chromosomes.
The responsible gene is located on the X chromosome. Women have two of these, unlike men. If there is a defect, the second X chromosome can compensate for a malfunction. Men do not have this option and are therefore more often affected by color vision deficiency. For women to develop deuteranopia, both chromosomes would have to contain the defective gene.
Can you suddenly become green-blind?
Deuteranopia is hereditary. You are born green-blind and perceive all green rather as gray. But often it takes several years before this color vision deficiency is noticed. In rare cases, skull injuries, tumors, or neurological diseases can cause a disturbance in sensory perception, and colors are not processed as usual. However, this is not deuteranopia in the strict sense.
Because its cause is to be found in the eye, more precisely: on the retina. There, photoreceptors enable you to see at all. The so-called rods allow vision even in twilight, and the cones provide a colored image that is ultimately assembled in the brain. Healthy people have three types of cones: red, green, and blue. Each cone captures light of a specific wavelength. If one of these cones does not function, color blindness occurs.
Why can you not see green, but blue?
The human eye can distinguish millions of color nuances. Every tiny insect in our environment reflects light that falls into our eye. In the eye, it hits the retina, where the light stimuli are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. The light enters our eye at different wavelengths and thus stimulates different cones. Red cones react to long-wavelength light, green to medium-wavelength, and blue to short-wavelength.
The cones trigger certain processes and give the brain the information: Here comes something red. If one of these cell types is defective, it is called color blindness. This can be red blindness (protanopia), blue blindness (tritanopia), or green blindness (deuteranopia), depending on which cones are non-functional. If the colors are perceived but strongly limited, it is a color weakness. In this case, the corresponding cones can do their job but not fully.
How is deuteranopia (green blindness) diagnosed?
It is not unusual for a color vision deficiency to remain unnoticed for a long time. For those affected, what they see is normal since they have known the world no other way since birth. However, if there is color blindness of one – or even two or three – colors, it is usually noticed in kindergarten. Apart from the now common tests that check children's skills according to their age, educators soon become aware when a child randomly grabs crayons even though it should take the green one.
Anyone who wants clarity about their color vision should take a test at the optician or ophthalmologist. Only they can definitively determine if deuteranopia is present. Using the colorful Ishihara plates, on which colorful circles of different colors hide symbols or numbers that only people with normal vision immediately notice, a first suspicion can be confirmed. The colorful images rely on the ability to clearly distinguish colors from each other.
These tests are performed for deuteranopia
Certainty is then provided by the anomaloscope at the ophthalmologist. Here, the patient looks through a tube at a halved circle, with both halves looking different. Using rotating knobs, an attempt is made to match the color intensity. Healthy people have no difficulty with this. But those with a color vision deficiency, where colors are hard to distinguish, quickly get confused. This especially applies to green-blind people, for whom the entire green spectrum appears in shades of gray.
Besides the pseudoisochromatic Ishihara plates and the anomaloscope, deuteranopia can also be diagnosed with color arrangement tests. In the Farnsworth-D15 test, patients are asked to sort caps or chips by color. For children, the Color Vision Testing Made Easy test was developed, which uses simple symbols like circles or stars. It is usually performed on every child at least once before starting school.
And what helps with green blindness now?
Deuteranopia cannot be treated, as it is a genetic defect. But most people are not impaired by green blindness, even if we with normal vision spontaneously assume so. But if you don't know any different, you cannot miss green. It is only unfortunate for those affected whose career wishes may be hindered by color blindness. Anyone who wants to operate vehicles professionally, whether excavators, ships, buses, airplanes, or fire trucks: that is too dangerous. Also, professions for which colors are essential – like florists, hairdressers, or salespeople – are unfortunately not an option.
And what about our innovative glasses for colorblind people?
To work, a certain number of photoreceptors must be present in the eye. Otherwise, the retina cannot process the color information. Those affected only by a color vision weakness will achieve amazing results with the special glasses. For people with a red-green weakness, specially coated lenses can intensify contrast colors by filtering out part of the adjacent color spectrum. This makes it possible to distinguish the two colors again, and they are optically better separated.
- That means – try our colorblind glasses from Colordrop. You can train your brain to recognize colors again. Even small successes are usually very good for those affected. We also offer a 30-day return policy.