July 25, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
Ocular Melanoma in the eyes is a very rare but serious form of cancer that I want to discuss today. It develops in the cells that produce pigment. Today I will cover how it forms, what to look out for, and what steps you can take to treat it. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.
Wed, 7/20 11:06PM • 13:48
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eye, melanoma, called, doctor, diagnosed, develop, dilated, test, important, retina, ocular melanoma, pigment, travel, tumor, condition, talk, today, eyelid, antioxidant, vision
Hello, everyone. It’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.
Hey, everybody, it’s Dr. Sam. And I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So it’s great to have you in today. Before I start, I want to make a few announcements. So first of all, I’m going I’m going to be teaching a three day online retreat, we call it the vision sanctuary retreat. And this will occur October 7th-9th 2022. And we’re getting ready to put the announcement up on my web store. So if you want to register for that, the last time I did it, it was so successful, and people made some really great shifts in their vision and their health. So go to my website, drsamberne.com. And click on classes and you will see the vision sanctuary retreat. Again, we’re putting it up right now. So it should be available for registration by the end of July. So today’s show, I want to take a question on a condition called ocular melanoma. I received this question from a listener on Instagram. Her father has been diagnosed with this condition and she wants to know what I recommend. So briefly, an ocular melanoma is a type of cancer.
And I want to just say at the beginning, this is a very serious cancer. And that develops in the cells that produce pigment. Now pigment gives us the color of our skin, our hair, even our eye color. And you can develop melanomas anywhere in your body, but you can also develop melanomas inside your eye. And although they are pretty rare, they are a very serious condition. Now usually, ocular melanomas begin in the middle of the I called the UV. And it can then travel either to the innermost layer, the retina, or it can travel to the outer layer of the eye, called the sclera. That’s the white part of the eye. It’s made of connective tissue. Rarely will you see an eye melanoma that occurs on the inside part of the eyelid which we call the conjunctiva. Now, because most II melanomas form in the part of the eye that you can’t see, if you look into a mirror, it is very difficult to self diagnose because there are not any signs or symptoms at least early on. And so that’s why it’s important to get a regular eye exam. Because as an exam, the doctor can recognize if there are pigment cells that are abnormal. And we’ll talk a little more about that. So what causes melanomas?
Well, a couple of things that we need to note that if you’re a fair skinned person, if you develop moles on your skin, if you’re light sensitive, you probably have a little higher risk of developing melanomas in the eye and I want to stress this is a very rare condition. So it’s not anything that you have to necessarily worry about. But certainly, when there’s a shift in the skin pigmentation, especially in the eyelids, or inside the eye, it’s important to identify is it actually a melanoma? Or is it just what we call a Naevus? You know, it’s a benign discoloration. And again, usually, at least in the early stages, you don’t have any symptoms. Now later on, you can develop conditions like blind spots in your peripheral vision, blurred vision, distorted vision, flashing lights, a change in the shape of the pupil, that’s the gatekeeper, which dilates and constricts based on light. So the way you’re diagnosed and diagnosed in high melanoma is by doing a dilated eye exam and I know many of you write me and say, Oh, I don’t want to get a dilated exam. I don’t like the side effects, I’m just not going to do it. And I would say this, that it’s good to get a dilated exam, at least every couple of years. Now, if you don’t have a risk of developing eye conditions, you don’t have to get dilated at every exam. And in fact, there are now scanning devices that can take pictures of the back of your eyes without needing to do dilated drops. But in this particular case, if the doctor recognizes that there’s a pigmentation change somewhere in the eye, the next stage might be to order what we call an ultrasound.
05:50
And many of you have probably had ultrasounds, there are high energy, they’re high energy sound waves that bounce off the internal tissues of the eye, and they make echoes. And so they used to draw an eye dropped and anesthetizes your eye. And then the small probe sends and receives the waves gently on the surface of the eye, and the echoes will make a picture of the inside of the eye and those images can be analyzed by your doctor to measure the size of the melanoma. Another way to diagnose melanoma is by injecting the eye with a dye called fluorescein angiography. You actually inject it into your arm, which then it travels to the eye. And there’s a special camera that takes pictures inside of your eyes to see if there’s any blockage or leakage that’s usually used more. There’s a retina problem if you’ve got macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and the doctor wants to see if there’s any retinal damage.
A test that I really like is called the optical coherence tomography or in better known as the OCT. And this is an imaging test that takes very specific pictures inside your eye. And it’s a great way to analyze the optic nerve, the retina and other tissues in the eye, especially if he or she finds something like a melanoma. Now, sometimes, if the melanoma is growing, you can biopsy it. But usually the doctor can diagnose it and can learn about the size of the tumor, and so on. And then the key becomes has the tumor metastasized. And of course, there are tests that can be done to see if this has gone into your lymph system. Usually it’s very localized and it doesn’t travel in the lymph, but that’s definitely something to consider. Now, treatment is either radiation or surgery. Again, you know, as a holistic practitioner, there are times when I need to use pharmaceutical drugs, surgical interventions, and even things like radiation and surgery. Now radiation seems to work very well at shrinking the melanoma and it is quite successful, especially if you catch the melanoma early.
Now in more serious cases, depending on the size and the location, surgery can be recommended. And this of course, we’re removing the tumor at this point, and maybe even some of the healthy tissue surrounding it. So if you do get diagnosed with a melanoma in your eye, it is a serious condition and you want to follow your doctor’s advice, get a very specific diagnosis on the size and the location of the tumor if it is that or if it’s just a pigment, pigment change that he or she can watch it. So on a more integrative medical perspective, there are some things that I like to do number one, make sure you’re getting enough omega three fatty acids I would probably do 3000 milligrams a day of the DHA omega three. Number two, I would really boost your antioxidants. You know we talk about the famous ones vitamin A bill bilberry, gingko, taurine, the amino acid taurine, and of course, things like lutein, Xanth and Astra Xanthan. And of course your trace minerals are really important chromium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, I would probably consider glutathione, the master antioxidant vitamin C. And you know, I like using essential oils, because they tend to oxygenate the body.
10:25
And you could do my eye protocol, that’s the fennel, followed by the carrot seed followed by the frankincense. By the way, Frankincense is highly anti cancer. And you put those above your eyes at the hairline, the temples of the eyes, and the cheeks, one on top of the other fennel than carrot seed than frankincense. So you can do that once or twice a day. Of course, you’re doing a test patch before you apply them to your skin. I do that on the inside part of my wrist to make sure there’s no rashes, no burning. Again, if you feel burning, you can either use coconut oil to get rid of the burning or you can just put them on the soles of your feet. Getting a really good rose essential oil is great for the cancer diagnosis. It’s a high vibrational oil, and you can either apply it to your body, you can get a hydrosol which is a mist, you can you know, it’s something that again, you can apply anywhere in your body, and it will get into your bloodstream. And as one of my teachers, Dr. Hazel Parcells used to say, when you live in a high vibrational state, there’s less chance for disease to be there. Now, this is a little more of the frequency medicine, energy medicine things that we talk about. I think that if you can find a classical homeopath and get a good constitutional remedy, that might be helpful. Obviously, diet wise, eating an anti inflammatory diet is really important. Lots of rainbow vegetables, a little bit of fruits, eliminate sugar, gluten, dairy, and, you know, just be clean with it. I think meditation can be very helpful.
So getting more into the mind, body spirit of your life, and you know what your life’s purpose is. And you know, getting into some of the more spiritual aspects can also be helpful. And I would still consider things like getting 30 minutes of natural sunlight every day. Without any lenses at all, you could do that earlier in the day, you could take a look at red light therapy that actually improves the mitochondria function. You can even look at the red light into your eyes, bring it into your eyes a few minutes a day in the morning, every day. That’s great for the mitochondria in the eye itself. Getting some acupuncture, cranial sacral, some counseling, bodywork, lymphatic health. So in other words, if this comes into your radar screen, there are many things that you can do as a support to raise your health quotient, and that’s the name of the game. So that’s our show for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, take care.
Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.
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