Sunday, July 19, 2009

Healthy life with Glaucoma

1.Smoking does increase the eye pressure, and will make your glaucoma worse. It also increases the risk of retinal vein occlusion (which occur in glaucoma), macular degeneration, cataracts, stroke, and heart attacks.

2. Exercise lowers the eye pressure, 'an hour a day (walking) will keep the doctor away', and half an hour will help a lot. See. Any exercise will do... walking or swimming.

3. high blood pressure will be harmful as this may, together with the glaucoma, cause a retinal vein occlusion. A blood pressure of 140 systolic or less, may be best, and may be lower the better as long as you feel well. See But there are other views. We now know that eye pressure and blood pressure are related; the implication of this is that lowering blood pressure will help in the treatment of glaucoma. So keeping your blood pressure reaonably low is an important part of the treatment, although too much medication may cause problems.

4. Oily fish will help the circulation and probably help prevent retinal vien occlusions. Red meat (including pork/ham) increase blood pressure; they are best replaced, at least in part, by fish, and pulses such as lentils and beans. Nuts have some healthy fats, and may be helpful in small amounts...but they are 'fattening' and help to put weight on.

5. 9 portions of vegetables or fruit a day will also help to keep your retinal veins and macula healthy, and prevent cataract formation...9 a day (men) 7 (women) keeps the doctor away...

6. A high saturated fat diet is very harmful as it will contribute to many conditions. A balanced diet is recommended. Saturated fat comes from full-fat diary products such as milk, cheese, many cakes and biscuits, and red meat.

7. Salt will increase blood pressure.

8. binge drinking, e.g. 4 pints of beer in one day, or more that 3 glasses of wine/day, will cause a rise in blood pressure, again contributing to all these conditions.

9. Obesity results in high blood pressure, lack of exercise, and indirectly will cause problems. Many obese patients suffer from sleep apnoea....

10. Sleep problems. New research links sleep apneoa with glaucoma. Sleep problems are very common in obesity...these are likely if you snore a lot. Logically if you are overweight, it is important to lose weight to help your glaucoma. So if you do snore a lot, do lose weight, and ask your doctor if you need to be tested for sleep apnoea.

11. Steroid medication puts eye pressure up. Even inhaled nasal steroids can increase the pressure 2.5mmHg. If you use nasal steroids (eg for allregic rhinitis), ask your doctor if you can reduce or stop them. Steroid tablets certainly may put eye pressure up; ask your doctor if you can reduce the dose (Do not reduce steroid tablets without seeking advice.).

12. Retinal vein occlusions: patients with glaucoma are much more prone to retinal vein occlusions. The risk of a vein occlusion is reduced by control of the glaucoma, blood pressure, and all the other general health risk factors immediately above.

13. Smoking will be harmful. The exact risk is not known, but in some patients 20 ciagettes / day will increase loss of vision by 400%. Passive smoking 20 a day is equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes a day, and increase visual loss 100%.

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