When you concentrate on your health, don’t forget your eyes

I vividly do not forget that late Friday afternoon when my eye pressure spiked and I staggered on foot to my ophthalmologist’s office because the rapidly thickening fog in my sight view shrouded passing cars and traffic lights.

The office was already closed, but the entire eye care team was there waiting for me. One in all them pricked my eyeballs with a pointy instrument, allowing the ocular fluid that had built up to empty. That relieved the pressure and restored my vision.

However it was the fourth vision-impairing pressure spike in nine days, they usually feared it might occur again — heading right into a weekend. So off I went to the emergency room, where I spent the night attached to an intravenous tube that delivered a strong anti-swelling agent.

Later, after I told this story to friends and colleagues, a few of them didn’t understand the importance of eye pressure, and even what it was. “I didn’t know they may measure blood pressure in your eyes,” one among them told me.

Most individuals consider their vision to be vitally essential, yet many lack an understanding of among the most serious eye diseases. A 2016 study published in JAMA Ophthalmology, based on an internet national poll, showed that just about half of respondents feared losing their eyesight greater than their memory, speech, hearing, or limbs. Yet many “were unaware of essential eye diseases,” it found.

A study released this month, conducted by Wakefield Research for the nonprofit Prevent Blindness and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, showed that one-quarter of adults deemed in danger for diseases of the retina, resembling macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, had delayed looking for look after vision problems.

“There may be significantly less of an emphasis placed on eye health than there may be on general health,” says Rohit Varma, founding director of the Southern California Eye Institute at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

Because eye diseases might be painless and progress slowly, Varma says, “people get used to it, and as they age, they start to feel, ‘Oh, that is a traditional a part of aging and it’s OK.'” If people felt severe pain, he says, they might go get care.

For many individuals, though, it’s hard to get a watch exam or eye treatment. Hundreds of thousands are uninsured, others cannot afford their share of the fee, and plenty of live in communities where eye doctors are scarce.

“Simply because people know they need the care doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll afford it or that they’ve the access to it,” says Jeff Todd, CEO and president of Prevent Blindness.

One other challenge, reflecting the divide between eye care and general health care, is that medical insurance, except for youngsters, often covers only eye care geared toward diagnosing or treating diseases. More health plans are covering routine eye exams today, but that generally doesn’t include the form of test used to find out eyeglass and call lens prescriptions — or the fee of the lenses. You could need separate vision insurance for that. Ask your health plan what’s covered.

Since being diagnosed with glaucoma 15 years ago, I’ve had more pressure checks, eye exams, eyedrops, and laser surgeries than I can remember. I should know to not take my eyesight as a right. And yet, when my peepers were filling with that vision-threatening fog last March, I felt oddly sanguine.

It turned out that those serial pressure spikes were triggered by an adversarial response to steroid-based eyedrops prescribed to me following cataract surgery. My ophthalmologist told me later that I had come “inside hours” of losing my eyesight.

I hope my brush with blindness may also help encourage people to be more conscious of their eyes.

Eyeglasses or contact lenses could make an enormous difference in a single’s quality of life by correcting refractive errors, which affect 150 million Americans. But don’t ignore the danger of much more serious eye conditions that may sneak up on you. They are sometimes manageable if caught early enough.

Glaucoma, which affects about 3 million people within the U.S., attacks peripheral vision first and could cause irreversible damage to the optic nerve. It runs in families and is five times as prevalent amongst African Americans as in the overall population.

Nearly 10 million on this country have diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes by which blood vessels within the retina are damaged. And a few 20 million people age 40 and up have macular degeneration, a disease of the retina related to aging that diminishes central vision over time.

The formation of cataracts, which cause cloudiness in the attention’s natural lens, may be very common as people age: Half of individuals 75 and older have them. Cataracts could cause blindness, but they’re eminently treatable with surgery.

In case you are over 40 and have not had a comprehensive eye exam shortly, or ever, put that in your to-do list. And get an exam at a younger age if you could have diabetes, a family history of glaucoma, or should you are African American or a part of one other racial or ethnic group at high risk for certain eye diseases.

And do not forget children. Multiple eye conditions can affect kids. Refractive errors, treatable with corrective lenses, could cause impairment later in life in the event that they aren’t addressed early enough.

Healthful lifestyle selections also profit your eyes. “Anything that helps your general health helps your vision,” says Andrew Iwach, a clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and executive director of the Glaucoma Center of San Francisco.

Minimize stress, get regular exercise, and eat a healthy weight loss program. Also, quit smoking. It increases the danger of major eye diseases.

And consider adopting habits that protect your eyes from injury: Wear sunglasses while you go outside, take regular breaks out of your computer screen and cellphone, and wear goggles when working across the house or playing sports.

The Prevent Blindness website offers information on virtually every part related to eye health, including insurance. Other good sources include the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s “EyeSmart” site and the National Eye Institute.

So read up and share what you have learned.

“While you get together for the vacations,” says Iwach, “should you aren’t sure what to speak about, speak about your eyes.”

This text was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.