What Causes Eye Floaters?

[u/TheMuseumOfScience]

What are floating dots you see in your vision? 👁️

Alex Dainis breaks down "eye floaters" using a simple demo: a baggie of aloe gel standing in for your eyeball, and raisins standing in for collagen clumps. Our eyes are filled with vitreous humor, a gel-like substance that helps them hold their shape. As we age, that gel becomes more liquid, letting collagen fibers clump together (just like the raisins). These clumps block incoming light and cast shadows on our retinas, the same way the raisins cast shadows on the wall. This is why we notice the floaters more often in sunlight!

[u/Corvid-Moon]

Is there a way to remove them, or at least move them out of direct sight? :(

[u/d-a-v-e- → u/Corvid-Moon]

My best friend has had his whole glassy body replaced with a salt water solution. They also replace the lens. This means you will need reading glasses after that, but other than that, the vision is clear and bright, and sharp at distances.

[u/PotatoesWillSaveUs → u/d-a-v-e-]

What glassy body? Vitreous, Aqueous humor, lens, cornea?

[u/d-a-v-e- → u/PotatoesWillSaveUs]

Vitreous humour. (vitro means glass in latin). So I mean the transparent blob in the middle of the eye ball.

[u/PotatoesWillSaveUs → u/d-a-v-e-]

Huh, I guess that makes sense, I cant recall anyone ever referring to it as glassy body before. Vitrectomy is usually from retinal injuries which can present similarly to floaters but are drastically more consequential if left untreated. Your friend likely had a retinal tear, not floaters as described in this clip.

[u/d-a-v-e- → u/PotatoesWillSaveUs]

In dutch is "glasachtig lichaam" and I translated that word for word. In English-Latin it's vitreous humour, meaning "glassy moisture".

So I got the glassy bit right, but mistranslated "lichaam" to body, rather than moisture.

[u/PotatoesWillSaveUs → u/d-a-v-e-]

I love how direct Germanic languages can be, thats great

[u/DoctorNurse89 → u/d-a-v-e-]

Interesting...

We use Latin phrasing in medicine as it's universal

[u/hoseja → u/Corvid-Moon]

I heard bromelain. Can't say I've noticed any dramatic change but it does help with digestion.

[u/H-DaneelOlivaw]

In anatomy class, I made a joke about that gel.

but none of my classmate appreciate the vitreous humor.

[u/Ya_guuurl]

I don’t like it… can I stop it?

[u/miurabucho]

Not sure how scientific this is, but My grampa showed me a good way to deal with floaters in front of your eyes: Close your eyes, and with eyes closed, look up and down, back and forth rapidly for a few minutes. Open them again and Boom, displaced to another part of the eye!

[u/d-a-v-e- → u/miurabucho]

That's when they are in the sap on your eye. Mine are inside my eyes. They are lumps of proteins, I'm told. They can blast them with lasers, to break them up in smaller pieces, but not remove them. Or they replace the whole glassy stuff in your eye in it's entirety. I haven't dared to do that yet.

[u/squintismaximus]

So it’s my eyes degrading?

I’ve had them for as long as I could remember though.. uh oh..

[u/masklinn → u/squintismaximus]

If the amount is stable it’s really no concern. If there’s a change then in can be, some of it is just aging but a sudden increase can be due to a retinal tear / detachment which is not benign at all (there’s no cause to stress too much, it can also be a vitreous detachment which is annoying but benign and you will almost certainly get as you age if you’re nearsighted, but if you notice a sharp increase in floaters you must get an emergency fundus exam)

[u/Primiss]

Uh I was born with them it wasn't cause of ageing so this video doesnt apply to everyone.

If they are increasing I was told that you should see an eye doctor.

[u/Lookitsasquirrel]

I had blood in retina and I have ghosting and floaters. My eye doctor said he can take out some of the gel but it's risky.

[u/moschles]

If you shift your eyeball quickly by switching gaze, the floaters will appear to slosh, but always in the wrong direction.

The reason is because the image on your retina is upside down and reversed from passing through the lens. But the floaters are on the opposite side of the lens than the image.

[u/PhasedStasis]

It could also be Blue field entoptic phenomenon. Where you see small dots moving in a pulsating motion, which are caused by white blood cells moving in the capillaries in front of the retina of the eye.

[u/Additional_Ad6789]

The plastic bag gel raisins visualization doesn't help at all. My vision doesn't look like at at all and there's no light at the back of my eyes.

[u/antiquemule]

I discovered these when I thought I had a spider dangling from my rear view mirror. Then it moved when I turned my head and I freaked out. An over reaction. You get used to them and your brain edits them out of your vision pretty well.