Posts Tagged ‘eye disease’

What Is Open Angle Glaucoma?

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

eye exams

If you are serious about the health of your eyes, then you should make sure that you see your optical doctor on a regular basis. Making sure that you have regular optical exam, for example your yearly exam for glaucoma, will go a long way towards insuring that you keep your vision. Open angle glaucoma affects more than 80 percent of the people that contract glaucoma. Glaucoma is an eye disease that can be cured if found in the early stages.

There are other types of glaucoma but open angle is the one that affects the eyesight of most people. The sad fact is that there are more than 3 million Americans who have glaucoma but are not aware of it yet, based on statistical research. Glaucoma works by damaging the optic nerve through pressure in the eye or decreasing the blood supply to the optic nerve. If it is caught early enough by scheduling eye exams, then glaucoma can be arrested, and a person’s vision can be saved. However, any damage that glaucoma has caused up to that point is not fixable. The people who are most at risk of contracting glaucoma are black people, people over 40, or anyone that has a history of glaucoma in their family.

Anyone who discovers that they have contracted open angle glaucoma will be happy to know that they have a good chance of saving their vision. Once glaucoma is discovered doctors can stop it in its tracks. As long as a person has not waited until their vision is so bad that they cannot see well, they will be able to recover from glaucoma. If you are having your regular visits to your doctor, then you should be safe and not have anything to worry about. Additionally, if you feel there are any eye problems, then you should immediately make an appointment with your optical doctor.

Even though having health issues is not something anybody wants, it does happen to people. Glaucoma is one of the most common types of disease that can affect the eyes, and open angle glaucoma is the most common of the group. This disease is the most common and the most treatable, yet at the same time, it is the one that causes the most cases of blindness.

An Overview Of Narrow Angle Glaucoma Symptoms

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

eye problems

Narrow angle glaucoma is a rare form of glaucoma and comes on rapidly. It usually constitutes a trip to the emergency room. The sudden pressure that is created in the eye causes intense pain. This type of glaucoma is hard to ignore, so the person who contracts it has a better chance of saving their vision as they will need to be seen by a doctor immediately.

Glaucoma is a term given to a group of different eye diseases that affect many people in the world today. Glaucoma is the number one cause of blindness in the world and narrow angle is the rarest type. The only good part about contracting it is that it is hard to ignore. Normally, glaucoma is not realized by the patient because there are no symptoms. This is bad because if it is not diagnosed by a doctor it can cause a lot of damage and eventually blindness. However, narrow angle comes on suddenly and causes intense pain. However, this type of glaucoma is a serious condition and if not treated immediately, it has the possibility of causing blindness in three to five days. Most of the time the symptoms are not able to be ignored because there are so painful, so those afflicted will seek treatment.

Narrow angle glaucoma is extremely rare but it is extremely serious. Anyone who contracts this type of glaucoma will know immediately that they are having eye problems. The symptoms for this type of glaucoma come on very quickly and are very extreme. The symptoms include extreme pain and inflammation, high-pressure in the eye, seeing halos around lights, vomiting, blurred vision and extreme sensitivity to light. Narrow angle can be brought about by a few different things such as a hit in the eye, bad eye structure, certain medications and diabetes. If treatment is not commenced immediately, then eyesight could be lost as quickly as three to five days. This disease comes on quickly and severely and can do extreme damage in a short amount of time if not arrested. The optical surgeon will treat this type of glaucoma with a type of laser surgery called laser iridotomy. The surgeon will create a hole in the iris with the use of the laser in order to let fluid flow to the front part of the eye. Once this has been done, the pressure will be relieved and vision will be saved.

If you contract narrow angle glaucoma, then it will be very hard to not know it. The symptoms that come with this type of eye disease are very painful and very severe. They will cause the patient to immediately contact an optical professional for treatment. Once treatment has begun, the rate of success is high for saving vision.

Glaucoma – How Is It Treated?

Friday, March 6th, 2009

eye health information

No one wants to get an eye disease, but unfortunately it can happen, yet glaucoma is a disease that can be treated. Catching the development as early as possible is the best way to get successful treatment for glaucoma. This is why regular eye examinations are crucial to the health of your eyes.

Glaucoma is really the term given to four different but similar diseases of the eyes. All of the different types of glaucoma do basically the same thing; they increase pressure in the eyes. All of the different treatments for this eye disease are aimed at reducing this high-pressure. This is not to say that pressure in the eyes will always cause glaucoma, but once glaucoma has developed, the high-pressure will speed up the process. Some of the different treatments of glaucoma include eyedrops, medication and surgery. The fact that more and more eye health information is readily available to the public about glaucoma and the damage that it can do to eyes, means that treatment will be more widespread and successful.

One of the first treatments for glaucoma is eyedrops. Eyedrops can be used to try and reduce pressure in the eyes by increasing the eye’s ability to drain or by helping to decrease the amount of fluid the eyes produce. These are not the regular eyedrops that can be bought in a drugstore, as they are specialized medicated drops given by a doctor. They can consist of medicines such as beta blockers, prostaglandins, alpha-stimulators, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, miotics and epinephrine. Oral medication is usually used to help lower the production of fluid in the eyes, which can be effective in lowering high-pressure. Because of the fact that these oral medications cause side effects in about 50% of the people who take them, doctors like to try the eyedrops first. The last and most radical treatment is surgery. Surgery can either be the traditional type of surgery or the newer laser surgery. There are different types of surgeries to treat glaucoma, and depending on what type a person has will depend on the treatment. However, this surgery has the same main function as the medications, which is to relieve the pressure in the eyes.

Glaucoma is a disease that can be treated if it is caught early, and this should give anybody the incentive to keep up with their eye health. Making regular visits to get eye exams to screen for glaucoma is essential to keeping your eyes healthy. It would be awful to go blind due to a disease that could have been treated if it had been diagnosed early.

Helping You Take Care Of Your Eyes For Glaucoma Prevention

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

health care

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and many people believe this to be true. So why then do so many people not get regular exams to check their vision? Taking care of our vision health should be one of our first concerns. Many infections and vision problems can easily be fixed if discovered by a doctor in the early stages.

Many people seem to forget about their optical system as part of their health care regime, and do nothing to take care of their vision until there is a problem. Then they are quick to make an appointment with a doctor about their eye health issues. The problem with that is that there are some diseases that are not able to be reversed, so whatever damage has been done up until that point is not fixable. Glaucoma is one such disease. If glaucoma is caught as soon as it starts, then a doctor is able to stop it and vision can be saved. However, if glaucoma is left untreated it will eventually cause a person to go blind. Prevention is the best solution, so putting that important eye exam on your health appointment list is very important if you want updated eye health information.

The eyes are usually the last part of the body that people seem to think about when they have regular physical exams. This seems rather odd if you consider that many people rate vision as the best of the five senses, and think that going blind is the worst thing that could happen to them. Many times people don’t think about a visit to the eye doctor until there is a problem at hand. This is not a good way to keep your vision health because some diseases can cause irreparable damage. Glaucoma is one eye diseases that can cause damage without a person being aware that they have it. The best way to protect yourself is to make sure that you have regular check ups.

Many eye diseases are able to be arrested or even cured if they are caught as early as possible. It is in everybody’s best interest to make sure that they have regular exams for every part of their body. Staying healthy involves making sure that you take care of every part of your body, including your eyes. Your vision will thank you.

No One Wants To Contract Eye diseases

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

eye infections

Eye diseases are a topic that can be found in health news just about every day. Nobody wants to have trouble with their eyesight but it happens to people all the time. You can try to keep your overall health in tiptop shape but sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, you still get sick.

There’s so many diseases that can affect the eyes that it is hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, there are trained professionals, such as eye doctors, who are specialized in this area. Sometimes eye problems can happen due to eyestrain or a person not taking care of their eyes correctly, yet there are others who are genetically predisposed. Open angle glaucoma and angle closure glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, pink eye and eye infections are some of the many things that can affect just about anyone. Some diseases are curable and some are not. There are some that can be stopped in their tracks and stopped from advancing, and there are some diseases that can be reversed totally. If you are having any type of eye trouble, then you need to have an eye exam and determine what your specific condition is. Once determined by an eye specialist, you will gain the knowledge of how to take care of whatever eye health issue you have.

Glaucoma and cataracts are two very serious types of eye diseases. These are the two main diseases that come to mind for most people when they think about diseases having to do with the eyes. While not every eye disease that you can contract is serious and can cause blindness, some can be very annoying and irritating. The good news is that with regular eye exams and taking care of your health, any disease or infection can usually be eradicated totally in a short matter of time. There are some eye problems that cannot be taken care of quickly or easily, and early detection is the key to having the best results. If you’re going to need to have any type of surgery on your eyes, then you’ll want to know that as early as possible, so the surgery can be successful.

No one ever wants to get sick, and especially no one ever wants to contract any eye diseases. However, it can happen to any of us. Make sure that you get regular exams, both for your body and for your eyes. Medical advances are such these days that if any problem is detected early, then a doctor should be able to correct it.