What sort of person is prone to get Nyctalopia?

Question

What sort of person is prone to get Nyctalopia?

Answer 1

Nyctalopia (Greek for "night blindness") is a condition making it difficult or impossible to see in relatively low light. It is a symptom of several eye diseases. Night blindness may exist from birth, or be caused by injury or malnutrition (for example, a lack of vitamin A). The most common cause of nyctalopia is retinitis pigmentosa, a disorder in which the rod cells in the retina gradually lose their ability to respond to the light. Patients suffering from this genetic condition have progressive nyctalopia and eventually their daytime vision may also be affected. In X-linked congenital stationary night blindness, from birth the rods either do not work at all, or work very little, but the condition doesn't get worse. Another cause of night blindness is a deficiency of retinol, or vitamin A, found in fish oils, liver and dairy products. In the Second World War misinformation was spread by the British to cover up the reason for their pilots' successful night time missions. Their success was, in the misinformation, attributed to improved night vision and pilots flying night missions were encouraged to eat plenty of carrots, which contain carotenoids and can be converted into retinol. The actual reason for their success was their use of advanced radar technologies. The outer area of the retina is made up of more rods than cones. The rod cells are the cells that enable us to see in low light situations. This is the reason why loss of side vision often results in night blindness. Individuals suffering from night blindness not only see poorly at night, but also require some time for their eyes to adjust from brightly lit areas to dim ones.

Common cases are:

Vitamin A deficiency

retinitis pigmentosa

congenital night blindness

pathological myopia

peripheral cortical cataract

oguchi's disease

That should give you a good start.