As some of you may know I just returned from a 3 week vacation. While there I read several journals and I thought I would share what I learned.
- Greater physical activity is associated with slower visual field loss in glaucoma. So, if you have glaucoma or are a glaucoma suspect you want to try to exercise at least 30 minutes per day.
- A study was performed to see if coffee or tea consumption lowered intra-ocular pressure. The results were guarded. For some people it seemed to lower pressure slightly and with others it increased pressure.
- Another study for diabetes showed that patients that took a daily fish oil vitamin had less diabetic retinopathy. This is an easy thing to do and if you have diabetes you should consider adding this to your diet and/or eating more fish. They noted that in Japan where there is a high fish consumption, there is much less diabetic retinopathy. And in case you did not know, retinopathy can cause blindness and/or blurred vision.
- Another glaucoma study showed that Ginkgo biloba is one of the most promising supplements for glaucoma treatment. It is known to have antioxidant properties and helps increase blood flow, stabilizes mitochondria and protects neurons from damage.
- For contact lens wearers, to reduce the risk of infection in your cornea, it is recommended to replace your contact lens case at least every 3 months, replace contact lenses as prescribed by the eye doctor, do not swim while wearing contact lenses unless you have good swimming goggles on, do not reuse contact lens solution, do not tap off solution, do not expose contact lenses to water including ponds, lakes, oceans, or homemade saline, do not put lenses in your mouth or put saliva on lenses, and do not sleep while wearing contact lenses unless otherwise instructed by your eye doctor. Removed your contact lenses and call your eyecare provider if symptoms of irritation or infection are present. This includes discomfort, excess tearing, or other discharge, unusual sensitivity to light, a gritty feeling, unusual redness, blurred vision, swelling, and pain.
- For many years we have know that eye pressure (IOP) increases when we sleep. If you have glaucoma or are a glaucoma suspect, you should try to sleep on your back with your heard elevated, which decreases the amount of IOP increase compared to sleeping on your belly or side.