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Weight Lifting Lowers My Eye Pressure
As little as 5 or 10 minutes of weight lifting gives me a post-exercise effect that results in reduced eye pressure after the workout.
The weight lifting doesn't have to be super intense, but it can't be too easy either. There have been a few studies that have looked at this effect in the past. Here are some (but not all) of the links:
Effects of Different Intensities of Exercise on Intraocular Pressure
The effect of continuous strenuous exercise on intraocular pressure
The effect of exercise on intraocular pressure (pdf)
In my experience, a short weight lifting program often brings my eye pressure down to around 14 or 15 (or less). Sometimes the effect is not very dramatic. For example, if my eye pressure is around 17, the workout might bring it down to 15. Other times, the post workout effect is fairly impressive. Here are some examples:
The Comfort That Comes From Monitoring Your Eye Pressure
With the recent website upgrade to FitEyes.com, I decided to send an email to all registered member. While writing the email I was inspired to discuss more of my experiences with self-tonometry, the process of monitoring my own eye pressure. After I wrote and sent the email, I realized that we have a lot of visitors to FitEyes.com who are not registered and who would not be able to see the experiences and thoughts I shared with the registered members. Therefore, because I feel very passionate about the benefits of self-tonometry, I decided to post the entire email on my blog. Here it is (and now it is updated to reflect recent events such as my grandmother's most recent birthday).
Meeting To Discuss Non-medical Management of Eye Pressure and Self-Tonometry
This year the World Glaucoma Congress (WGC) is taking place in the United States (Boston, MA) from July 8th to 11th. Dr. Ritch will be there, as will Marcel and I.
I believe all of you know, or know of, Dr. Ritch. Marcel is a key founder of the International Society for Self-Tonometry (ISST), of which Dr. Ritch is Honorary Chairman. Marcel is a driving force behind getting me and several other self-tonometrists together in Boston.
New iCare ONE Tonometer Designed for Home Eye Pressure Monitoring
This is the new iCare ONE tonometer designed for home eye pressure monitoring (self-tonometry). Click the image for a larger view.
Waking Up In Order To See Fully
In order to come to a fuller use of the senses, the organism has to be in a state of balance, in a state of rest. At the same time, the organism has to be in a state of alertness. So these two necessary things seem to contradict each other: restfulness and alertness. Restfulness is a state of quiet. Alertness is a state of dynamism, aliveness and receptivity. Restfulness allows the impressions to reach us; alertness allows the impressions to be sensed.
Restful alertness is a natural quality of healthy states of consciousness. These states of consciousness are characterized by absense of strain. This is called effortless being.
An Improved Technique for Glaucoma Eye Drop Administration
Correct instillation of eye drops is crucial for successful treatment of eye disease. Many patients have difficulties instilling eye drops, especially patients with loss of fixation, who cannot see the tip of the bottle. These patients may turn to harmful techniques, such as touching the dropper tip to the eye, or wasteful ones, such as feeling the sensation of drops hitting the eye or lower lid.1 Non-compliance may become an issue as well, resulting from a combination of poor drop administration and frustration. The frustration stems from an inability to see the bottle tip.
We describe a new method of drop instillation which increases the accuracy with which eye drops are dispensed, thereby decreasing the incidence of harmful techniques, and possibly increasing compliance.
Introduce
I guess that's the most suitable place to tell my story. So I'll put it piece by piece. It will be about pigmentary glaucoma.
Status of FitEyes.com Website Upgrade
FitEyes.com is now running on a new website platform that is open source and that offers lots of enhanced features. We have invested a very large number of hours, for several months, in this upgrade so that you, the reader, can get more from your FitEyes.com experience.
However, even with all the time we have invested, there may still be some pages of pre-existing content that are less than 100% correct after the upgrade. If you notice any missing links or other issues, please let us know.
Does reading a computer monitor and feeling eye strain raise your eye pressure?
Question: Does reading a computer monitor for an hour and feeling eye strain raise your IOP?
My Answer: The question of computer use and intraocular pressure is a common topic with my clients. Many report that using the computer (even for several hours) for relaxing activities does not raise intraocular pressure. I have found this to be true for myself as well.
However, when a feeling of eye strain or psychological stress is involved, it is a different issue in my opinion.
Renowned glaucoma researcher dies at home in Neb.
Carl Camras, a renowned glaucoma researcher who helped develop latanoprost, has died at only 55 years of age.
The Chicago native died of heart failure Tuesday at his home in Omaha.
The glaucoma eye drop latanoprost, sold under the trade name Xalatan, has become the most effective drug to treat glaucoma. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, affecting more than 2 million Americans.
Camras is survived by his wife and two daughters, as well as his mother and three siblings.
Effect of Exercise on Intraocular Pressure
Read the abstract or download the article here...
Effect of Continuous Strenuous Exercise on Intraocular Pressure by Isaac Ashkenazi, Shlomo Melamed, and Michael Blumenthal
Novel Metabolism of Docosahexaenoic Acid in Neural Cells
Introduction
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are highly enriched in the nervous system. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3),in particular, is the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid in the brain and is concentrated in aminophospholipids of cell membranes. Numerous studies have indicated that this concentration of DHA in the nervous system is essential for optimal neuronal and retinal functions (1).
Although the underlying mechanisms of its essential function are still not clearly understood, emerging evidence suggests that unique metabolism of DHA in relation to its incorporation into neuronal membrane phospholipids plays an important role. In this review, biochemical mechanisms for enriching and metabolizing DHA in neural cells are discussed in the context of their biological significance in neuronal function.
Effect of Yoga (Shavasan) on Vascular Response to Cold Stress
Read the abstract or download the article here...
Botanical lipids, inflammatory disorders, glaucoma
Read the abstract or download the article here...
Energy Psychology: A Review of the Preliminary Evidence
Read the abstract or download the article here...
How To Measure Your Eye Pressure At Home And Change the World Too!
I'd like to share my thoughts and experiences with you. I believe that monitoring my eye pressure closely has been invaluable for me. I also monitor a lot of other things, but intraocular pressure is still considered the most important risk factor in glaucoma. And I believe intraocular pressure is misunderstood. Therefore, we, the community of glaucoma patients, have two important opportunities in regard to monitoring our intraocular pressure right now.
- First, we can improve the management of our own glaucoma and give ourselves better odds for maintaining good vision. On this blog I discuss many examples of how monitoring my own eye pressure closely has helped with the management of my glaucoma. This has been a good thing for me, so I'm enthusiastic about sharing my experiences. In fact, my experiences with monitoring my own eye pressure led me to get involved in intraocular pressure research and I am now collaborating with one of the most respected scientists in this field.
- Second, by doing closer monitoring of our eye pressure and then sharing that data, we might be paving the way to insights that benefit many other glaucoma patients. One example is the discussion about how Weight Lifting Lowers My Eye Pressure and another is my Postural Changes and Eye Pressure. The best example may be the connection between stress and intraocular pressure. Those of us who are doing high-frequency intraocular pressure monitoring in conjunction with the research projects FitEyes.com is promoting are helping advance medicine's understanding of eye pressure.
The Air Puff Tonometer Is Not Very Accurate
I believe that, when used skillfully, the air puff tonometer can be very accurate in a wide variety of conditions. It is a powerful instrument for self-tonometry. Naturally, I had something to say when I saw a message where someone wrote the following:
The air-puff [tonometer] is not very accurate at all.
I suggested they see this previous article on tonometers. In this current article, I will elaborate on my tonometer experiences.
