March is Save Your Vision Week/Month – 2013 Update

By Terry Orr

Now that I use desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone throughout the day, every day – headaches are more frequent and severe.  It took me a little while to connect all those dots to understand what was causing my headaches.  Doing my research for this article – I found the name associated with this problem: Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). 

Staring at a computer monitor for hours on end has become a part of the modern workday. And inevitably, all of that staring can put a real strain on your eyes.

The name for eye problems caused by computer use is computer vision syndrome (CVS). CVS is not one specific eye problem. Instead, the term encompasses a whole range of eyestrain and pain experienced by computer users.

Research shows computer eye problems are common. Somewhere between 50% and 90% of people who work at a computer screen have at least some symptoms of eye trouble.

There's no evidence that computer vision syndrome causes any long-term damage to the eyes -- for example, cataracts. However, regular computer use can be the source of significant eyestrain and discomfort.

If you have computer vision syndrome, you may experience some or all of these symptoms:

·      Blurred vision

·      Double vision

·      Dry, red eyes

·      Eye irritation

·      Headaches

·      Neck or back pain

How many of these do you experience?

Making a few simple changes in your work environment can help prevent and improve computer vision symptoms:

·      Cut the glare. Change the lighting around you to reduce glare on the computer screen. If a nearby window is casting glare on your screen, move the monitor and close the shades until the glare disappears. Ask your employer to install a dimmer switch for the overhead lights if they're too bright, or buy a desk lamp with a moveable shade that distributes light evenly over your desk. Putting a glare filter over the screen monitor also can help protect your eyes.

·      Rearrange your desk. Researchers find that the optimal position for your computer monitor is slightly below eye level, about 20 to 28 inches away from the face. At that position, you shouldn't have to stretch your neck or strain your eyes to see what's on the screen. Put a stand next to your computer monitor and place any printed materials you're working from on it. Then, you won't have to look up at the screen and back down at the desk while you type.

·      Give your eyes a break. Look away from the screen every 20 minutes or so and either gaze out the window or scan the room for about 20 seconds to rest your eyes. Blink often to keep the eyes moist. If eyes are getting overly dry, try using lubricating eye drops.

·      Tweak your computer settings. You don't have to live with the factory-installed settings on your computer if you're uncomfortable. Adjust the brightness, contrast, and font size until you find the best settings for your vision.

[Source: WebMD]

Now that we know the source of our problem is and helpful hints to reduce the issue, we have one more thing to do.  Tell our eye and primary care doctors!

References and Links:

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/computer-vision-syndrome

http://www.aoa.org/x5072.xml

http://www.aoa.org/documents/Vision-Lifestyle-Fact-Sheet.pdf

[All images from  Google]

Eye Safety

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest, RN

When I was growing up it seems like all the boys I knew had bb guns.  For every boy with a BB gun you could hear his mother say, "Be careful, you could put someone's eye out with that!"  I never knew anyone who had their eye put out, but I did know that all the boys were taught safety with their bb guns.

(Google Image) 

Eyes are a precious and vital organ.  Protecting your eyes and sight are extremely important.  Accidents are always around the corner and can happen at any time.

Below are some facts and myths about eye injuries:

• Men are more likely to sustain an eye injury than women.
• Most people believe that eye injuries are most common on the job — especially in the course of work at factories and construction sites. But, in fact, nearly half (44.7 percent) of all eye injuries occurred in the home, as reported during the fifth-annual Eye Injury Snapshot (conducted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Ocular Trauma).
• More than 40 percent of eye injuries reported in the Eye Injury Snapshot were caused by projects and activities such as home repairs, yard work, cleaning and cooking. More than a third (34.2 percent) of injuries in the home occurred in living areas such as the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living or family room.
• More than 40 percent of eye injuries every year are related to sports or recreational activities.
• Eyes can be damaged by sun exposure, not just chemicals, dust or objects.
• Among all eye injuries reported in the Eye Injury Snapshot, more than 78 percent of people were not wearing eye wear at the time of injury. Of those reported to be wearing eye wear of some sort at the time of injury (including glasses or contact lenses), only 5.3 percent were wearing safety or sports glasses.

Thousands of people are blinded each year from work-related eye injuries that could have been prevented with the proper selection and use of eye and face protection. Eye injuries alone cost more than $300 million per year in lost production time, medical expenses, and worker compensation.

(Google Image) 

OSHA requires employers to ensure the safety of all employees in the work environment. Eye and face protection must be provided whenever necessary to protect against chemical, environmental, radiological or mechanical irritants and hazards. But for those injuries that occur at home, the few seconds to put on safety glasses while performing a task could make a huge difference in preventing injury.  My husband enjoyed woodworking in his shop.  That required cutting wood, sanding wood, and shaving wood on a lathe.  Using a lathe sends tiny wood particles out into the room, and the chances of it getting in his eyes were great.  he never worked out in his shop without putting his goggles and face mask on.  The same precautions are also necessary when out in the yard cutting or weed eating grass.

Not only do you need to protect your eyes from foreign particles, but also from dangerous chemicals and even the sun.

(Google Image) 

If you don’t have any safety goggles or glasses, stop by the store to pick up a few pairs, it’s a small investment to protect your eyesight, which is irreplaceable.

Eye Problems with Diabetes

(Google Image) 

By Akindman,

If you have diabetes, regular visits to your ophthalmologist for eye exams are important to avoid eye problems. High blood sugar (glucose) increases the risk of diabetes eye problems. In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults age 20 to 74.

If you have eye problems and diabetes, don't buy a new pair of glasses as soon as you notice you have blurred vision. It could just be a temporary eye problem that develops rapidly with diabetes and is caused by high blood sugar levels.

High blood sugar in diabetes causes the lens of the eye to swell, which changes your ability to see. To correct this kind of eye problem, you need to get your blood sugar back into the target range (90-130 milligrams per deciliter or mg/dL before meals, and less than 180 mg/dL one to two hours after a meal). It may take as long as three months after your blood sugar is well controlled for your vision to fully get back to normal.

Blurred vision can also be a symptom of more serious eye problem with diabetes. The three major eye problems that people with diabetes may develop and should be aware of are cataracts, glaucoma, and retinopathy.

Cataracts and Diabetes

A cataract is a clouding or fogging of the normally clear lens of the eye. The lens is what allows us to see and focus on an image just like a camera. Although anyone can get cataracts, people with diabetes get these eye problems at an earlier age than most and the condition progresses more rapidly than in people without diabetes.

If you have a cataract with diabetes, your eye cannot focus light and your vision is impaired. Symptoms of this eye problem in diabetes include blurred or glared vision.

Treatment is usually surgery followed by placement of a lens implant, with glasses or contact lenses as needed to further correct vision.

Glaucoma and Diabetes

When fluid inside the eye does not drain properly from a buildup of pressure inside the eye, it results in another eye problem with diabetes called glaucoma. The pressure damages nerves and the vessels in the eye, causing changes in vision.

In the most common form of glaucoma, there may be no symptoms of this eye problem at all until the disease is very advanced and there is significant vision loss. In the less common form of this eye problem, symptoms can include headaches, eye aches or pain, blurred vision, watering eyes, halos around lights, and loss of vision.

Treatment of this eye problem in diabetes can include special eye drops, laser procedures, medicine, or surgery. You can prevent serious eye problems in diabetes problems by getting an annual glaucoma screening from your eye doctor.

Diabetic Retinopathy

The retina is a group of specialized cells that convert light as it enters though the lens into images. The eye nerve or optic nerve transmits visual information to the brain.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the vascular (blood-vessel related) complications related to diabetes. This diabetes eye problem is due to damage of small vessels and is called a "microvascular complication." Kidney disease and nerve damage due to diabetes are also microvascular complications. Large blood vessel damage (also called macrovascular complications) includes complications like heart disease and stroke.

The microvascular complications have, in numerous studies, been shown to be related to high blood sugar levels. You can reduce your risk of these eye problems in diabetes complications by improving your blood sugar control.

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in industrialized nations. The duration of diabetes is the single most important risk for developing retinopathy. So the longer you have diabetes, the greater the risk of this very serious eye problem. If retinopathy is not found early or is not treated, it can lead to blindness.

People with type 1 diabetes rarely develop retinopathy before puberty. In adults with type 1 diabetes, it is also rare to see retinopathy before five years' duration of diabetes. The risks of retinal damage increase with progressive duration of diabetes. Intensive control of blood sugar levels will reduce your risks of developing retinopathy. The DCCT, a large study of people with type 1 diabetes showed that people with diabetes who achieved tight control of their blood sugars with either an insulin pump or multiple daily injections of insulin were 50%-75% less likely to develop retinopathy, nephropathy (kidney disease), or nerve damage (all microvascular complications).

People with type 2 diabetes usually have signs of eye problems when diabetes is diagnosed. In this case, control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol with diabetes have an important role in slowing the progression of retinopathy and other eye problems.

Types of Retinopathy in Diabetes:

Background retinopathy. Sometimes the blood vessel damage exists, but there is no vision problem. This is called background retinopathy. It's important to carefully manage your diabetes at this stage to prevent background retinopathy from progressing to more serious eye disease.

Maculopathy. In maculopathy, the person has developed damage in a critical area called the macula. Because this occurs in an area that is critical to vision, this type of eye problem can significantly reduce vision.

Proliferative retinopathy. New blood vessels start to grow in the back of the eye. Because retinopathy is a microvascular complication of diabetes, a disease of small vessels, this type of retinopathy develops because of an increasing lack of oxygen to the eye from vascular disease. Vessels in the eye are thinned and occluded and they start to remodel.

Here, it is important to address the risks factors that can worsen the occluded vessels. Smoking cessation, high blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and blood sugar control must take place in order to stop the progression of new vessels from forming into the orbit of the eye. These are fragile vessels that can bleed and eventually cause a clot to form in the orbit, which scars and causes detachment of the retina. This eventually leads to irreversible vision loss.

Treatment of diabetic retinopathy may involve laser procedures or surgery. In a study of people with diabetes with early retinopathy, laser therapy to burn the fragile vessel resulted in a 50% reduction of blindness.

To prevent retinopathy with diabetes, have your eye doctor screen your eyes annually. Women with diabetes who later become pregnant should have a comprehensive eye exam during the first trimester and close follow-up with an eye doctor during the rest of their pregnancy to avoid serious eye problems with diabetes. (This recommendation does not apply to women who develop gestational diabetes, since they are not at risk for retinopathy.)

Preventing Eye Problems with Diabetes

The American Diabetes Association offers these eye care guidelines for people with diabetes to help prevent eye problems:

• People with type 1 diabetes should have a dilated eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist within three to five years after diagnosis.
• People with type 2 diabetes should have a dilated eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist shortly after diagnosis.
• Annual eye exams should be done with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes by an ophthalmologist or optometrist; more frequently if necessary.
• When considering pregnancy, women with a history of diabetes should have an eye exam prior and during pregnancy. This does not pertain to women with gestational diabetes.
• To prevent eye problems in diabetes, you should:
• Control your blood sugar
• Control high blood pressure

When to Contact Your Doctor About Eye Problems in Diabetes

If you have diabetes, contact your doctor about any eye problems in if any of the following occur:

• Black spots in your vision.
• Flashes of light.
• "Holes" in your vision.
• Blurred vision.

American Diabetes Month - Diabetic Eye Disease

By Akindman,

Eye Problems and Diabetes

If you have diabetes, regular visits to your ophthalmologist for eye exams are important to avoid eye problems. High blood sugar (glucose) increases the risk of diabetes eye problems. In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults age 20 to 74.

If you have eye problems and diabetes, don't buy a new pair of glasses as soon as you notice you have blurred vision. It could just be a temporary eye problem that develops rapidly with diabetes and is caused by high blood sugar levels.

High blood sugar in diabetes causes the lens of the eye to swell, which changes your ability to see. To correct this kind of eye problem, you need to get your blood sugar back into the target range (90-130 milligrams per deciliter or mg/dL before meals, and less than 180 mg/dL one to two hours after a meal). It may take as long as three months after your blood sugar is well controlled for your vision to fully get back to normal.

Blurred vision can also be a symptom of more serious eye problem with diabetes. The three major eye problems that people with diabetes may develop and should be aware of are cataracts, glaucoma, and retinopathy.

A cataract is a clouding or fogging of the normally clear lens of the eye. The lens is what allows us to see and focus on an image just like a camera. Although anyone can get cataracts, people with diabetes get these eye problems at an earlier age than most and the condition progresses more rapidly than in people without diabetes.

If you have a cataract with diabetes, your eye cannot focus light and your vision is impaired. Symptoms of this eye problem in diabetes include blurred or glared vision.

Treatment is usually surgery followed by placement of a lens implant, with glasses or contact lenses as needed to further correct vision.

Glaucoma and Diabetes

When fluid inside the eye does not drain properly from a buildup of pressure inside the eye, it results in another eye problem with diabetes called glaucoma. The pressure damages nerves and the vessels in the eye, causing changes in vision.

In the most common form of glaucoma, there may be no symptoms of this eye problem at all until the disease is very advanced and there is significant vision loss. In the less common form of this eye problem, symptoms can include headaches, eye aches or pain, blurred vision, watering eyes, halos around lights, and loss of vision.

Treatment of this eye problem in diabetes can include special eye drops, laser procedures, medicine, or surgery. You can prevent serious eye problems in diabetes problems by getting an annual glaucoma screening from your eye doctor.

Diabetic Retinopathy

The retina is a group of specialized cells that convert light as it enters though the lens into images. The eye nerve or optic nerve transmits visual information to the brain.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the vascular (blood-vessel related) complications related to diabetes. This diabetes eye problem is due to damage of small vessels and is called a "microvascular complication." Kidney disease and nerve damage due to diabetes are also microvascular complications. Large blood vessel damage (also called macrovascular complications) includes complications like heart disease and stroke.

The microvascular complications have, in numerous studies, been shown to be related to high blood sugar levels. You can reduce your risk of these eye problems in diabetes complications by improving your blood sugar control.

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in industrialized nations. The duration of diabetes is the single most important risk for developing retinopathy. So the longer you have diabetes, the greater the risk of this very serious eye problem. If retinopathy is not found early or is not treated, it can lead to blindness.

People with type 1 diabetes rarely develop retinopathy before puberty. In adults with type 1 diabetes, it is also rare to see retinopathy before five years' duration of diabetes. The risks of retinal damage increase with progressive duration of diabetes. Intensive control of blood sugar levels will reduce your risks of developing retinopathy. The DCCT, a large study of people with type 1 diabetes showed that people with diabetes who achieved tight control of their blood sugars with either an insulin pump or multiple daily injections of insulin were 50%-75% less likely to develop retinopathy, nephropathy (kidney disease), or nerve damage (all microvascular complications).

People with type 2 diabetes usually have signs of eye problems when diabetes is diagnosed. In this case, control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol with diabetes have an important role in slowing the progression of retinopathy and other eye problems.

Types of Retinopathy in Diabetes:

• Background retinopathy. Sometimes the blood vessel damage exists, but there is no vision problem. This is called background retinopathy. It's important to carefully manage your diabetes at this stage to prevent background retinopathy from progressing to more serious eye disease.
• Maculopathy. In maculopathy, the person has developed damage in a critical area called the macula. Because this occurs in an area that is critical to vision, this type of eye problem can significantly reduce vision.
• Proliferative retinopathy. New blood vessels start to grow in the back of the eye. Because retinopathy is a microvascular complication of diabetes, a disease of small vessels, this type of retinopathy develops because of an increasing lack of oxygen to the eye from vascular disease. Vessels in the eye are thinned and occluded and they start to remodel.

Here, it is important to address the risks factors that can worsen the occluded vessels. Smoking cessation, high blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and blood sugar control must take place in order to stop the progression of new vessels from forming into the orbit of the eye. These are fragile vessels that can bleed and eventually cause a clot to form in the orbit, which scars and causes detachment of the retina. This eventually leads to irreversible vision loss.

Treatment of diabetic retinopathy may involve laser procedures or surgery. In a study of people with diabetes with early retinopathy, laser therapy to burn the fragile vessel resulted in a 50% reduction of blindness.

To prevent retinopathy with diabetes, have your eye doctor screen your eyes annually. Women with diabetes who later become pregnant should have a comprehensive eye exam during the first trimester and close follow-up with an eye doctor during the rest of their pregnancy to avoid serious eye problems with diabetes. (This recommendation does not apply to women who develop gestational diabetes, since they are not at risk for retinopathy.)

Preventing Eye Problems with Diabetes

The American Diabetes Association offers these eye care guidelines for people with diabetes to help prevent eye problems:

• People with type 1 diabetes should have a dilated eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist within three to five years after diagnosis.
• People with type 2 diabetes should have a dilated eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist shortly after diagnosis.
• Annual eye exams should be done with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes by an ophthalmologist or optometrist; more frequently if necessary.
• When considering pregnancy, women with a history of diabetes should have an eye exam prior and during pregnancy. This does not pertain to women with gestational diabetes.
• To prevent eye problems in diabetes, you should:
• Control your blood sugar
• Control high blood pressure

When to Contact Your Doctor About Eye Problems in Diabetes

If you have diabetes, contact your doctor about any eye problems in if any of the following occur:

• Black spots in your vision.
• Flashes of light.
• "Holes" in your vision.
• Blurred vision.

Diabetes is the Leading Cause of Adult Blindness!

Eye Safety

Sports and Home Eye Safety Month

In continuing with our theme over the past couple of months of Safety, we highlight Sports and Home Eye Safety in September.  From personal and firsthand experience this topic should be near the top for everyone.

Think Safety First!

It is estimated that 100,000 Americans suffer eye-related injuries from sports activities each year.

What sports are most likely to be associated with eye injuries?

Basketball leads the list for the sports injuries in this country. Really, most of them occur from basketball and baseball—they make up about a third of all sports injuries in this country. This is followed by swimming and pool sports; and then racket sports and court sports; and then football, soccer, and golf. Now most of the injuries in these sports are caused by getting poked in the eye by a finger, because larger balls like basketballs really don’t fit into the eye socket. But smaller balls like racket balls and golf balls do fit into the eye socket and really give a lot of force directly to the globe. Golf balls, especially, because of their high velocity, cause just devastating eye injuries.

What kind of eye injuries do you see in people who do not wear protective eyewear while playing in sporting activities?

We see sporting injuries involving just about all parts of the eye, and often times people have a scratch on the cornea—and this can occur really from relatively minor trauma to the eye. And these are really painful but they tend to do well with appropriate treatment. But if you have a little more forceful blow to the eye, you’ll tend to get bleeding in the back of the eye or the front of the eye, or a cataract or retinal detachment, or even fractures of the bones—or even worse is a direct rupture of the eye.

If someone is hit in the eye but their eye doesn’t hurt, does that mean that everything will be OK?

Unfortunately, no. It’s a common misconception because anyone whose had a significant blow to the eye really should have an urgent evaluation of the eye. And this is because some minor injuries can be quite painful, but really some potentially blinding injuries are painless.

What should a person do if they get an injury to their eye while playing sports?

First is you really don’t want to touch, rub, or press on the eye because this can cause further damage—especially if the eye has any kind of an opening in it. You’d like to cover the eye up to minimize further damage, and sometimes if you don’t have a protective shield, you can just use either a paper or Styrofoam™ cup and tape it over the eye. If the vision is blurred, you really should get in to see somebody urgently. If you felt something hit the eye with any more than a minor force—either hitting your eye or your eyelids, even if the vision’s normal—you should get a thorough examination to look for silent but potentially blinding injuries to the eye like retinal tears or injuries that predispose to glaucoma. It’s OK to triage damage to go to an emergency room, but if you really need a more thorough examination to look for more subtle or severe damage, you really need to have this by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

How easy is it to prevent eye injuries?

That’s the awesome thing, it’s really very easy. We know that about 90 percent of sports-related eye injuries can be prevented by wearing appropriate protective eyewear. And most of these lenses in this eyewear are made out of polycarbonate, which is an incredibly strong and clear plastic. But the recommendations for the type of protection really vary according to the sport. So, for example, if you have a relatively low-risk sport, such as singles tennis, a sturdy street-wear frame is really adequate protection. But if you have high-risk sport like ice hockey, a helmet and full facial protection is really recommended. And you really need to have these things fit by somebody who knows what they’re doing: an eye care professional who’s knowledgeable in sports eye wear. And I’d really recommend you ask around for a good one before spending the money.

Who needs to wear protective eye-wear?

Ideally, everyone should wear it, but the people that it’s most important for are functionally one-eyed athletes. And by functionally one-eyed, I mean somebody whose visual acuity, despite wearing glasses, can’t be corrected to better than 20/40 in their poorer-seeing eye. If a functionally one-eyed person has an injury to their better seeing eye, it really is a life changing event.

For example, in many states that person could no longer get a driver’s license to drive. Also, there are people who’ve had prior damage to their eye that are especially vulnerable to injury. Or people who are moderately or severely near-sighted because they have about a 10 times greater chance for developing things like retinal detachments following eye trauma if you compare them to a person who is not near-sighted.

And then lastly, another group that’s at high risk for sports injury is children. And this is because children really engage in sports in a fairly fearless manner and they’re also athletically immature so they’re pretty susceptible to sports injuries. And there are several good studies that show that eye injuries are markedly reduced in baseball and hockey youth leagues that have mandated appropriate protective eye-wear.

Do protective lenses hamper athletic performance?

There is a misconception of that and it’s probably the most common excuse for people not wearing protective lenses is that they think they’re not going to do as well. However, these lenses have been designed differently and really are very sports-specific. And there are multiple studies out now that show that properly fitted protective lenses do not impair sports performance. (University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics)  http://www.uihealthcare.com/kxic/2007/september/eyesafety.html

Some of the Home Eye Safety items to remember this time of year are working out in your yard, picking up branches, leaves; trimming and pruning are all excellent examples of working where eye safety is critical.  While those leaf blower work wonders, they also kick up a dust and debris and often find your face and eyes – been there and done that and have learned the hard way to wear my safety glasses while doing those activities.

As adults we also need to set the example for your children – make sure that the kids are wearing protective gear as well – each and every time.

Sparky has it right!