September 12, 2020 - EyeClarity Blog
Glaucoma is a very serious eye disease. You can actually go blind from glaucoma, and what makes it more dangerous is that it’s porgressive and often silent. People usually don’t know that they have glaucoma until it’s too late. Glaucoma is a circulation problem in our eyes that does severe damage to the optic nerve, which is a plexus of nerve fibers that come together in the back of the eye and connect to the brain. Signals from the retina are passed back to the brain through a fiber optic pathway and then are sent to many different areas, such as the endocrine system, the nervous system, and the fluid body. So, the optic nerve is a really, really important connector to not only our eye health, but also our brain health. With glaucoma, pressure starts to build up between the cornea and the lens, and this creates peripheral vision loss and can eventually lead to blindness.
How common is glaucoma? 120,000 people in the United States become blind from glaucoma, which accounts for about 9 to 12 percent of all cases of blindness. And while almost three million Americans have glaucoma, only half of them know they have it. The populations most at risk are Latinos and African-Americans, but really, anybody with conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, physical trauma to the eye, heavy computer use, thyroid imbalances, heavy metal toxicity, toxicities, estrogen deficiency, Alzheimer’s disease, and smokers have the highest risk to get glaucoma.
When someone develops glaucoma, as the circulation is cut off in the optic nerve, they start to lose their peripheral vision, which is our safety vision. Our side vision is important because it helps with balance, orientation, depth perception and night vision. There are also secondary side effects that come with the development of glaucoma, such as glare issues, light sensitivities, and contrast issues. As people move towards the end stages of glaucoma, things like blurred vision that they can’t correct for, eye redness, itchiness, burning and some kind of an inflammatory response can occur. With narrow angle glaucoma, people may experience nausea and vomiting, the appearance of rainbows around bright lights, and eye or head pain.
I’ve had many patients over the years who developed narrow angle glaucoma as a result of a traumatic event, such as a car accident, where they hit their head or suffered a concussion. What eye doctors will typically do is prescribe eye drops, which supposedly can sometimes help circulation in the short term. If that doesn’t work, they’ll suggest a series of laser based surgeries to try to increase the outflow. These surgeries don’t work very well in the long term because they just treat the symptoms rather than the causative factors.
One thing I like to make sure to do when I am seeing a new client is to take a comprehensive history of their pharmaceutical use. I have seen many patients who are taking pharmaceutical drugs like antihistamines, steroids, amphetamine drugs, and sulfur-containing medications who develop glaucoma. These medications can impede the fluid flow by interfering with the meshwork that helps the fluid flow in and out of the eye, thus reducing circulation. Lots of people are prescribed long term steroids, which can increase their Interop killer pressure in the eye and can also cause cataracts. It’s always helpful to do your own research on the Internet where you can look at the different drugs that you’re taking and seeing if they, in fact, affect the pressure inside the eyes.