Everything you need to know about cataracts (and what causes them)

During the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony, actress Goldie Hawn was presenting an award alongside actor Andrew Garfield. Struggling to read the teleprompter, Hawn told Garfield he'd have to fly solo with the presentation because she couldn't see the text due to having cataracts.

The 79-year-old actress isn't alone as more than half of all Americans age 80 or older either have cataracts or have had surgery to get rid of cataracts, per the National Eye Institute.

"If you live long enough, you're going to get cataracts," says Dr. Laura Di Meglio, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Typically, you can start to visualize the beginnings (of the condition) around age 40, but most of the time, cataracts don’t start to become visually significant until we are in our 70s or 80s."

Here's what the eye condition is, what causes it and how cataracts are treated once diagnosed.

What are cataracts?

Cataracts are a clouding of the lens inside your eye — a lens that is typically clear when we are born. "This results in trouble focusing light and seeing clearly," says Dr. Purnima Patel, an ophthalmologist at ORA Vision in Georgia and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Some of the other symptoms she points to that are associated with the condition include seeing a glare when driving at night or on bright days, experiencing double vision, seeing halos around lights and seeing bright colors as less colorful than they used to appear.

Such symptoms may start out as not noticeable but worsen as the cataracts develop further. One telltale sign of cataracts that eye doctors look out for as a patient gets older is "having to frequently change the prescription of their contacts or glasses," says Inna Lazar, a Connecticut-based optometrist and founder of Greenwich Eye Care.

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What causes cataracts?

The reason cataracts are most commonly age-related, Lazar explains, is because as we age, important proteins in our eyes begin to break down, causing our lenses to become less flexible and thicker, which results in clouding.

But age isn't the only factor at play. Research shows that environmental factors such as prolonged exposure to sunlight can also increase one's risk of cataracts. So can medical conditions like diabetes or hypertension and lifestyle factors such as excessive alcohol consumption, nutritional deficiencies, smoking and prolonged steroid use. "Genetics can also play a role," says Lazar, "and in some cases, cataracts may even be present at birth."

Di Meglio adds that taking certain medications (such as the prolonged use of corticosteroids), sustaining an eye injury or having eye surgery can also increase one's risk of developing cataracts earlier in life.

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Are cataracts treatable?

Regardless of what has caused the condition, there is only one treatment option available once the condition fully develops. "If your cataract symptoms are not bothering you very much, you might find updating your eyeglass prescription to be a helpful, temporary fix," says Patel; "but cataract surgery is the only treatment for cataracts."

During the surgery, Di Meglio explains, an ophthalmologist breaks up and removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with an artificial one. "The procedure is quick, safe and highly effective," says Lazar. And because it's minimally invasive, people usually recover fast, some even noticing improved vision in as little as a few days following the surgery.

While many people understandably bristle at the idea of having any surgery, Patel says the safe and proven procedure is worth considering "when cataracts start keeping you from doing the things you want or need to do in life."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What are cataracts?