7 ms·

I’m optimistic that at some point, I’ll be able to get a treatment to take care of my red green color blindness. I’m well aware that it’s very much a first wor

I’m optimistic that at some point, I’ll be able to get a treatment to take care of my red green color blindness. I’m well aware that it’s very much a first world problem, and rightfully should be very low on the totem pole of medical issues to cure. But goddamnit, I want to see red.

moduspol 2y ago
If it makes you feel better, red is overrated.
- noman-land 2y ago
  I think it's rated pretty appropriately.
  - santoshalper 2y ago
    I think whatever it is rated, by definition, is the appropriate rating.
- Auracle 2y ago
  Sure. Green though? It’s the best. You know, I’ve never thought of this: does anyone with a type of color blindness consider their “favorite color” to be the ones they can’t distinguish?
silverquiet 2y ago
I don't really know enough of the medical details - I thought people with color blindness lacked the proper receptors in their eyes, so it's not like in the article where a connection is restored; you'd have to grow new infrastructure in the eye which seems a bit more complicated. Nevertheless, would be very cool if possible - I know lots of men with color blindness.
- coolspot 2y ago
  Instead of modifying existing eyes, they should grow additional one/two.
  - KingMob 2y ago
    Not sure why you're being downvoted for advocating for spidermen.
- thehappypm 2y ago
  It's the cones in the eye -- they have a defect and make them less receptive to red wavelengths. If you gene-edited them, you could have new cells without that defect.
- ggreer 2y ago
  In color blindness, the cone cells produce an incorrect opsin protein that isn't sensitive to red (or is sensitive to a frequency close to green). Gene therapy would fix that, though it'd probably take a while for the brain to understand the new information. The main reason this therapy isn't available is because the FDA has decided that the risks of gene therapy aren't worth the benefit of curing color blindness. I agree with that evaluation, but I also think mavericks should be allowed to try curing their own colorblindness (assuming they had informed consent and paid for the therapy themselves).
  - trebligdivad 2y ago
    The 'though it'd probably take a while for the brain to understand the new information' is an interesting question; on one hand people say you need to fix stuff early in development while the brain is still very plastic (so great for this kid); but then again there is that demo of people getting used to vertically flipped vision with weird glasses; so perhaps something is flexible?
    - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
      yeah I'd be pretty surprised if your brain didn't figure it out in a week.
    - wizzwizz4 2y ago
      The brain is good at re-mapping things where it can make a distinction, but it seems to only learn distinctions in so-called "critical periods". See doi:10.1038/228477a0 for a famous 1970s experiment on the subject.
      - lupire 2y ago
        There are lots of examples. Phonemes for language and are a very common example of things that can't be learned easily or at all later in life. But huge changes like a major color might overcome that. Humans learn to recognize new major objects they've never seen before.
delinom 2y ago
Have you tried color blindness glasses (e.g. EnChroma)? I am not familiar with them but some reaction videos were pretty heartwarming.
- tantalor 2y ago
  Those videos are fake the glasses don't do very much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-NF_7R-pk&t=559 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-NF_7R-pk&t=559
  - swozey 2y ago
    Well that was eye opening
  - yakovsi 2y ago
    Colorblind person here. This debunking video is piling on more BS, like oh, colorblind people learned to be amazing at detecting slight color changes! No, we are not. We learned what names are attached to what color, but we see them differently, much poorer (save for blues). Enchroma apparently helps with separation, as parent comment suggests. That being said, the fake dramatic videos are definitely shameful scam, agreed.
    - jerf 2y ago
      What boggles my mind a bit is that true colorblindness glasses don't seem that difficult to me. Standard red-blue 3d glasses almost do it, it's just you need red-green differentiating glasses. I don't think this would Open the World of Color!, but it would with a bit of practice probably allow you to at least perceive a difference. But the glasses need to be visibly-differently (to a non-color-blind person) tinted. If they look the same, they're not going to work. Just like a "blue-reducing" pair of glasses needs to look visibly yellow, or it clearly (in all senses of the term) isn't doing anything. A truly optimal pair would take some sciencing but bashing something prototype-quality with something like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0928YT83C https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0928YT83C would be a matter of holding up the cyan-ist of the films up to one eye and the magenta-ist of the films to the other, and looking at some red and green things, concentrating on which eye the object is bright in.
tejtm 2y ago
And I want to see UV like our proto progenitors, enough of these little brown birds we can't tell apart.
- jfengel 2y ago
  The problem there isn't your receptors, which are UV sensitive. The problem is your lens, which filters it out. Remove the lens and you can see UV just fine. Until you get eyeball cancer, that is. UV is mutagenic. That's why you filter it out. People with cataracts get replacement lenses, and some exist that don't filter the UV. I think they're hard to get, what with the whole "eyeball cancer" thing. But if I get to my 70s and need replacement lenses (I do have a family history), I'm going to campaign to see if I can spend a couple of decades looking at the pretty birdies.
  - foota 2y ago
    Are you eyes more sensitive to UV than the rest of your body? I guess melanin absorbs UV in the skin, so this serves a similar purpose in the eye?
    - Analemma_ 2y ago
      I'm not sure about more sensitive, but I know the immune system (which cleans up a lot of pre-cancerous cells before they become a problem) is much less active in the eyeball, so it probably pays to have extra defense against cell damage.
    - lupire 2y ago
      "Sensitivity to light" is the primary function of the eye.
  - capitainenemo 2y ago
    It's not just cancer right? UV light will damage those sensitive photoreceptor cells, so you would end up seeing less and less of anything over those couple of decades. Even non-UV blue light is hard for the eyes to deal with. Personally I'd just prefer wearing glasses that shift the UV to some other part of the spectrum.
yodiggity 2y ago
[flagged]
dekhn 2y ago
I am really curious what the subjective experience of a color-blind person undergoing gene therapy gradually being able to perceive the difference between two colors that previously appeared the same. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument
- eternauta3k 2y ago
  I guess the person would have no associations with the pure color red. Non-colorblind people have a life full of memories where red is associated with blood, lipstick, flushed cheeks, race cars, etc. plus the associated feelings. I'm guessing they only really get the full effect of the therapy after they've lived without colorblindness for a while and made those associations. Do you think there's a fundamental difference between getting a new color receptor and training yourself to recognize/differentiate more of the colors you already have the receptors to distinguish?
  - interloxia 2y ago
    Red is a great. I hope that it would be like the reaction videos of kids having their Cochlear implant turned on for the first time.
  - dekhn 2y ago
    I'm not attempting to speculate, I'm just saying I wonder what the subjective experience would be like. I stopped trying to think what it would like to be a bat a while ago.
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    I think most people misunderstand color blindness in that most red-green colorblind can see red, it's just muted. I know what red looks like, but it needs to be plain old bright red.
    - dekhn 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
culopatin 2y ago
Im the same way with my keratoconus. Tired of seeing two balls in tennis, two red lights at night, etc.

moduspol 2y ago

If it makes you feel better, red is overrated.

noman-land 2y ago
I think it's rated pretty appropriately.
- santoshalper 2y ago
  I think whatever it is rated, by definition, is the appropriate rating.
Auracle 2y ago
Sure. Green though? It’s the best. You know, I’ve never thought of this: does anyone with a type of color blindness consider their “favorite color” to be the ones they can’t distinguish?

silverquiet 2y ago

I don't really know enough of the medical details - I thought people with color blindness lacked the proper receptors in their eyes, so it's not like in the article where a connection is restored; you'd have to grow new infrastructure in the eye which seems a bit more complicated. Nevertheless, would be very cool if possible - I know lots of men with color blindness.

coolspot 2y ago
Instead of modifying existing eyes, they should grow additional one/two.
- KingMob 2y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted for advocating for spidermen.
thehappypm 2y ago
It's the cones in the eye -- they have a defect and make them less receptive to red wavelengths. If you gene-edited them, you could have new cells without that defect.
ggreer 2y ago
In color blindness, the cone cells produce an incorrect opsin protein that isn't sensitive to red (or is sensitive to a frequency close to green). Gene therapy would fix that, though it'd probably take a while for the brain to understand the new information. The main reason this therapy isn't available is because the FDA has decided that the risks of gene therapy aren't worth the benefit of curing color blindness. I agree with that evaluation, but I also think mavericks should be allowed to try curing their own colorblindness (assuming they had informed consent and paid for the therapy themselves).
- trebligdivad 2y ago
  The 'though it'd probably take a while for the brain to understand the new information' is an interesting question; on one hand people say you need to fix stuff early in development while the brain is still very plastic (so great for this kid); but then again there is that demo of people getting used to vertically flipped vision with weird glasses; so perhaps something is flexible?
  - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
    yeah I'd be pretty surprised if your brain didn't figure it out in a week.
  - wizzwizz4 2y ago
    The brain is good at re-mapping things where it can make a distinction, but it seems to only learn distinctions in so-called "critical periods". See doi:10.1038/228477a0 for a famous 1970s experiment on the subject.
    - lupire 2y ago
      There are lots of examples. Phonemes for language and are a very common example of things that can't be learned easily or at all later in life. But huge changes like a major color might overcome that. Humans learn to recognize new major objects they've never seen before.

delinom 2y ago

Have you tried color blindness glasses (e.g. EnChroma)? I am not familiar with them but some reaction videos were pretty heartwarming.

tantalor 2y ago
Those videos are fake the glasses don't do very much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-NF_7R-pk&t=559 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-NF_7R-pk&t=559
- swozey 2y ago
  Well that was eye opening
- yakovsi 2y ago
  Colorblind person here. This debunking video is piling on more BS, like oh, colorblind people learned to be amazing at detecting slight color changes! No, we are not. We learned what names are attached to what color, but we see them differently, much poorer (save for blues). Enchroma apparently helps with separation, as parent comment suggests. That being said, the fake dramatic videos are definitely shameful scam, agreed.
  - jerf 2y ago
    What boggles my mind a bit is that true colorblindness glasses don't seem that difficult to me. Standard red-blue 3d glasses almost do it, it's just you need red-green differentiating glasses. I don't think this would Open the World of Color!, but it would with a bit of practice probably allow you to at least perceive a difference. But the glasses need to be visibly-differently (to a non-color-blind person) tinted. If they look the same, they're not going to work. Just like a "blue-reducing" pair of glasses needs to look visibly yellow, or it clearly (in all senses of the term) isn't doing anything. A truly optimal pair would take some sciencing but bashing something prototype-quality with something like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0928YT83C https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0928YT83C would be a matter of holding up the cyan-ist of the films up to one eye and the magenta-ist of the films to the other, and looking at some red and green things, concentrating on which eye the object is bright in.

tejtm 2y ago

And I want to see UV like our proto progenitors, enough of these little brown birds we can't tell apart.

jfengel 2y ago
The problem there isn't your receptors, which are UV sensitive. The problem is your lens, which filters it out. Remove the lens and you can see UV just fine. Until you get eyeball cancer, that is. UV is mutagenic. That's why you filter it out. People with cataracts get replacement lenses, and some exist that don't filter the UV. I think they're hard to get, what with the whole "eyeball cancer" thing. But if I get to my 70s and need replacement lenses (I do have a family history), I'm going to campaign to see if I can spend a couple of decades looking at the pretty birdies.
- foota 2y ago
  Are you eyes more sensitive to UV than the rest of your body? I guess melanin absorbs UV in the skin, so this serves a similar purpose in the eye?
  - Analemma_ 2y ago
    I'm not sure about more sensitive, but I know the immune system (which cleans up a lot of pre-cancerous cells before they become a problem) is much less active in the eyeball, so it probably pays to have extra defense against cell damage.
  - lupire 2y ago
    "Sensitivity to light" is the primary function of the eye.
- capitainenemo 2y ago
  It's not just cancer right? UV light will damage those sensitive photoreceptor cells, so you would end up seeing less and less of anything over those couple of decades. Even non-UV blue light is hard for the eyes to deal with. Personally I'd just prefer wearing glasses that shift the UV to some other part of the spectrum.

yodiggity 2y ago

[flagged]

dekhn 2y ago

I am really curious what the subjective experience of a color-blind person undergoing gene therapy gradually being able to perceive the difference between two colors that previously appeared the same. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument

eternauta3k 2y ago
I guess the person would have no associations with the pure color red. Non-colorblind people have a life full of memories where red is associated with blood, lipstick, flushed cheeks, race cars, etc. plus the associated feelings. I'm guessing they only really get the full effect of the therapy after they've lived without colorblindness for a while and made those associations. Do you think there's a fundamental difference between getting a new color receptor and training yourself to recognize/differentiate more of the colors you already have the receptors to distinguish?
- interloxia 2y ago
  Red is a great. I hope that it would be like the reaction videos of kids having their Cochlear implant turned on for the first time.
- dekhn 2y ago
  I'm not attempting to speculate, I'm just saying I wonder what the subjective experience would be like. I stopped trying to think what it would like to be a bat a while ago.
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  I think most people misunderstand color blindness in that most red-green colorblind can see red, it's just muted. I know what red looks like, but it needs to be plain old bright red.
  - dekhn 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

culopatin 2y ago

Im the same way with my keratoconus. Tired of seeing two balls in tennis, two red lights at night, etc.