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Roseanne Barr: What’s Causing Her To Go Blind?

Comedienne Roseanne Barr has been through a lot. She has struggled with divorces, weight problems, personal demons and now, she’s fighting a disease that’s slowly robbing her of her eyesight. In a...
Roseanne Barr: What’s Causing Her To Go Blind?
Written by Val Powell
  • Comedienne Roseanne Barr has been through a lot. She has struggled with divorces, weight problems, personal demons and now, she’s fighting a disease that’s slowly robbing her of her eyesight.

    In a recent interview she gave for The Daily Beast, the stand-up comic admitted that she’s suffering from glaucoma and macular degeneration. The disease is progressive and unfortunately, it also can’t be reversed.

    According to Barr, her doctors haven’t given her a definitive time frame on when she’ll lose all visibility.

    “No, they can’t. My vision is closing in now,” Barr describes, while making a narrowing motion with her hands. “It’s something weird,” she admits.

    Glaucoma and macular degeneration have been described as the silent eyesight killers and are the two leading causes of blindness in the world.

    Macular degeneration largely afflicts Caucasians 55-years-old and older and affects the part of the retina that’s responsible for 90% of our vision.

    Glaucoma, on the other hand, is caused by significant pressure placed on the optic nerve.

    Both diseases are genetically influenced and unfortunately, science hasn’t yet found a way to transplant the parts of the eyes that are affected by the disease.

    But along with certain lifestyle changes, there are medications and treatments that can help alleviate the symptoms of glaucoma and macular degeneration.

    In Barr’s case, the feisty funny lady has admitted that she uses marijuana to relieve some of the symptoms, but nothing can stop it from worsening.

    “That one’s harsh,” admits the one-time presidential hopeful. “Cause I read a lot, and then I thought, ‘Well, I guess I could hire somebody to read for me and read to me.’ But I like words and I like looking.”

    Barr has been surprisingly pragmatic about her situation.

    “I just try and enjoy vision as much as possible,” she says. “Y’know, living it up.”

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