Did you know there are many different ways that people can be color blind and not realize it because to them it is normal? Due to three different types of cones, we have in our eyes that send the brain messages in color. But some people only have two working cones because the third one is faulty which causes a problem called color blindness which can greatly decrease color perception.
Did you know that color blindness affects 8% more men worldwide than women which are only 0.5%?
Let us see how many colors are involved or not involved.
Red and Green Colors
Normal color vision is called Trichromacy (tri) allows us to see all the beautiful colors, because of the cones that send the color message to the brain, but if one is not working then we fail to see all the colors.
Scientists call this a trichromat to a dichromate. Why you may ask? Because the number of color combinations drops to ten thousand. Most color-blind persons are men. The genes involved in color vision are called X Chromosomes wherein men only have one.
The color red and green blindness has a grouping of a few disorders. It reduces the sensitivity to red lights due to missing or defective L-cone or longwave cones known as Protanomaly respectively and reduces sensitivity to green light or the medium- wave cone which is known as deuteranomaly respectively.
It makes it hard to see red, green, and orange but easy to see blues and yellows.
Blue and Yellow Blindness
Tritanomaly respectively is an absent or weakened S-cone or short wave cone. One in thirty to fifty thousand are affected by this and it is rare to be able to distinguish some colors like blues from greens and some yellows from violet.
Total Color Blindness
Achromatopsia is when you can not see any color whatsoever, everything is seen in black and white. Due to the non-functional or absent retinal cones.
Total color blindness is extremely rare. One out of thirty-three thousand has color blindness. Some are born this way by genetic inheritance, others are caused by illness, medications, chemicals, or accidents.
At this time there is not a cure for color blindness. But it is good to check your children at the age of three or five years of age to see if they have trouble with colors before they start going to school.
Just because they call it color blindness does not mean they can’t see. They can see things in black and white and grays like the old-time movies before there was color.
They may see things differently and have a hard time choosing what color of clothes to were because they are the same color to them, “black and white.” The same goes for the fruits, so they really can’t pick a good one unless they can tell by the mark on the fruit like a watermelon, or the smell of it.
If taught at an early age some things to help distinguish and tell the difference, they will be fine.
If you get color blindness as an adult would it be