Seeing The World In Different Colors

Despite its name, color blindness is not a form of blindness, but rather, a deficiency in how someone sees color. This means that the perception of color for those affected is different from how most people perceive it. Color blindness, or more accurately, color vision deficiency, is a disease that affects men more than women.

Approximately 1 in 12 men are affected in the world, while only 1 in 200 women are affected.. While color blindness can be inherited, some people also acquire it through old age, chronic illnesses, or accidents.

There are different kinds of color vision deficiency, and here is a short list of them:

Protanomaly

Protanomaly is also referred to as “red-weakness.” This means that any color with a shade of red in them will be seen more weakly by those with protanomaly, both in saturation and depth of color.

The colors red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green appear somewhat shifted in hue towards the color green, and they also appear paler than they do to compared to those with normal vision.

The red hue in violet and lavender is also weakened. This means that those with protanomaly would only be able to see the color blue when looking at violet or purple. As seen in the picture below, grapes may be seen as fruits that are colored blue instead of its distinct violet.

Deuteranomaly

Deuteranomaly is considered as “green-weakness.”  Similar to those with protanomaly, those with deuteranomaly are poor in discriminating the small differences between the red, orange, yellow, and green. Those affected with deuteranomaly have a hard time identifying the color green since any shade of green would appear to them as a shade of red instead.

The main difference between deuteranomaly and protanomaly, aside from the color that they are weak to, is that in the former, they do not have the brightness problem.

Protanopia

For those with protanopia, the brightness of red, orange, and yellow is much more reduced compared to those with normal vision. In fact, the dimming can be so dark that some hues may even appear black or dark gray to them. People with protanopia are those with severe red color blindness. Violet, lavender, and purple shades are also indistinguishable from various shades of blue because of their dimmed reddish components.

Deuteranopia

Those affected with deuteranopia suffer the same hue problems as those with protanopia, except they do not have the abnormal dimming which those with protanopia have. Those with deuteranopia are people with severe green color blindness.

Aside from these four, there are more kinds of color blindness. The ones stated above are just the  more common forms of color vision deficiency.

If you think that you have color vision deficiency, figuring out which one you have is difficult on your own. So make sure to visit an ophthalmologist to get the opinion of an eye care professional.

And with SeeYouDoc, booking an appointment with your healthcare professional is now made easier! We have various ophthalmologists whom you can filter through based on their location and offered health insurance, providing you your healthcare solution.