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How scientific knowledge helps understand a health condition accurately

by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

on Wednesday

Recently an interesting thing happened. One of my friends came along with her sister and her sister's daughter ( niece) to my house. The girl is five and very active. 
But I noticed something peculiar about her immediately. Whenever she wanted to see something in front of her, she 's turning her head to one side and looking at the thing in a peculiar way. 
She did this a few times.
Then I asked my friend whether there was any problem with the child. My friend said, there wasn't any problem. 'My brother M used to do this. She 's also following him. It just 's a play'.
Something instantly hit me then. 
Her brother M is not here. He is working in Canada and stays there. There is no way the girl could learn this from him. 
Another thing is her brother M has a Macula problem. The macula is a small, central part of the retina responsible for detailed vision, colour perception, and reading. When the macula is affected, the central vision is typically the first to be impacted. While central vision might be blurry, distorted, or have dark areas, side (peripheral) vision is generally not affected in many cases. 

Several conditions can cause macula problems in children, including 

Juvenile Macular Degeneration (JMD) - This is a group of genetic conditions that can cause damage to the macula, leading to central vision loss. 

Stargardt Disease: A form of JMD that primarily affects central vision. 

Best Disease (Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy): Another type of JMD that can cause central vision loss. 

This impacts everyday Life. While side vision may be preserved, children with macular degeneration may still experience difficulties with reading, recognizing faces, and other activities that require detailed central vision. 

So it is important to detect it early  and manage it. Early diagnosis and management can help slow the progression of these conditions and improve the child's quality of life. 

How can you identify it? 

Regular eye testing by specialists.

And how did I identify it? 

Children with macula problems may sometimes see from the side when their central vision is affected. This is because the macula is responsible for central vision, and damage to it can lead to a loss of central vision while leaving side vision relatively intact. This is a common feature of various juvenile macular degeneration conditions. 

This girl 's trying to see from one side by turning her head in a peculiar way very frequently. 

Doing this once  or twice is okay and you can think it 's a child's play, but doing it so many times? Every time she wanted to see something in front of her? Something is wrong, my mind screamed.

I immediately told my friend to take her niece to an eye specialist,which she did.

Know what? My educated guess was correct!

My friend thanked me for identifying her niece's eye condition accurately just by observing her only one time. Although they saw her doing this all these years, they couldn't do that!

This is the difference between knowledge and ignorance. What my friend and her sister thought was a 'child's play'  turned out to be a health condition that needed to be treated and managed efficiently.

Need more evidence?