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Inflammation in Glaucoma
All glaucomas have a final common pathway of retinal ganglion cell death involving low-grade inflammation, oxidative damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and glial hyperactivation.
Mental, emotional and lifestyle factors are the powerful IOP influencers
I am learning so much more about these patterns and their effect on my IOP all the time. Recently, I had a major emotional crises with my family of origin concerning a simple misunderstanding and lack of communication. As a result my only sibling (sister) said she wasn't speaking to me again, and we have generally been fairly close. Interestingly, my eye pressures did not rise in the first couple of days (though the stress was off the charts). However, after a couple of days, my eye pressures went crazy, and even with lumigan, I could hardly get them below 20s.
Why guess about your eye pressure when you can know?
I have had my tonometer for almost 6 months. It has answered a multitude of questions about how my daily routine affects my health. I didn't know, for example, that just taking a walk outside for a half hour or so would reduce my eye pressure, sometimes by as much as 50%. I also didn't know that I wasn't one of the people whose pressures are higher at night--in fact my lowest pressures are at night. (That was good news. I was tired of sleeping with my head elevated).
I have found no supplements that had any effect on lowering my IOP, but I have found that some supplements will raise my IOP quite significantly. I know that out of control thoughts and periods of stress significantly raise my IOP in spite of the two drops I am using or any other healthy lifestyle choices I am making.
Read more...
Buy A Tonometer Through FitEyes.com
UPDATE: we have an exciting announcement coming soon. If you want to know about it now, please email me.
For those of you who have been thinking about joining our self-tonometry program and purchasing a tonometer, I want to let you know that we can help you purchase your tonometer. This is done through an exclusive arrangement supported by a glaucoma patient who has been a benefactor to the FitEyes community from the earliest days. His company has arranged for our self-tonometry group to receive large discounts on tonometers (through an exclusive arrangement with a top tonometer manufacturer).
I love my new Reichert 7CR
First of all, from the bottom of my heart, I have to thank Dave for leading me to my purchase of the Reichert 7CR; what a fantastic instrument!
Several years ago, my ophthalmologist said that I probably had what is called "normal pressure" glaucoma; my pressure was usually 15-16 whenever he checked me, and the highest he ever recorded was 19 on my right eye. He told me to find a glaucoma specialist, so I did.
I went to the specialist for a couple of years, but several things discouraged me from continuing to see him. I found another ophthalmologist; she was somewhat younger and, I thought, perhaps less apt to be running a Speede Oil Change type of service, to see how many people she could get through her clinic in a day. She was a bit better at the latter, but she refused to give me a prescription for a tonometer. I left her and quickly acquired a tonometer prescription; and by the way, the requirement for a prescription for a non-contact tonometer is as silly as the need for me to have a real estate broker's license to sell real estate, or for a city to have building inspectors.
Are handheld or portable tonometers appropriate for home eye pressure monitoring?
In any tonometer (based on today's technology), you can have some, but not all of, the following:
- ease of use
- accuracy (reliability and validity of data)
- low cost
- portability
People tend to give a priority to portability and low cost. New products aimed at this feature set have recently been announced. Does it make sense to utilize those devices for self-tonometry?
We have to agree that any trade off that doesn't include reliability and validity of IOP data invalidates the whole endeavor of self-tonometry. Not only is it meaningless to do it if the data is not of sufficient quality upon which to make important decisions, but it could actually be detrimental to do self-tonometry in that case.
With today's technologies, portability entails user-alignment (in the context of self-tonometry). Proper user-alignment to produce a valid measurement, by definition, depends upon user skill as well as various specific conditions of each measurement. User-alignment, regardless of the tonometer, is difficult! (User-alignment is defined as the operator of the tonometer having to align the tonometer with the eye manually. Alignment is a very precise process requiring a steady hand, good eyesight, training and practice.)
Therefore, the requirement of user-alignment conflicts with the requirement of reliability and validity of IOP data. We cannot guarantee reliability and validity of IOP data when variable user skills are required to produce that data.
If any decent ophthalmologist or scientist (or intelligent thinker) considers a set of IOP data, they must consider how the data was obtained. If patient skill played a critical role in producing that data, as it does when user-alignment is required, the clear thinking person will immediately discount that data. Therefore, the self-tonometrist's efforts may not produce much of value.
Leading Medical Specialists From Around the World Coalesce Around Self-Tonometry
Leading Medical Specialists Support Self-Monitoring of Eye Pressure by Glaucoma Patients;
Self-tonometry has Potential to Transform Glaucoma Treatment, Says Co-Author of Recent Journal Article
Growing recognition among leading ophthalmologists and glaucoma specialists of an alternative option for measuring pressure in the eye may offer new hope for four million Americans – and millions more people worldwide – who risk permanent blindness, says a co-author of a recent article in the Survey of Ophthalmology.
Home Eye Pressure Monitoring Recommended
Millions of people around the world should be monitoring their eye pressure (intraocular pressure) at home, according to health organizations (such as International Society for Self-Tonometry (ISST)) that are issuing recommendations on what to do and how to do it. Many experts, such as Dr. Graham Lee, feel the evidence is quite strong that home eye pressure monitoring leads to better control of intraocular pressure, and the evidence is quite strong that intraocular pressure control lowers the risk of glaucoma progression and optic nerve cell death.
Ocular Pulse Wave Example
This is what eye pressure (IOP) looks like in real time:
Please ask questions and I'll answer them.
The influence of topically applied benzalkonium chloride on ocular flare measurements
About 10 years ago I've visited my ophthalmologist for the first time when I suffered from herpes zoster (also known as zona) in the facial area, close to my right eye. It was then, for the first time in my life, my eye pressure was measured. She noticed an elevated eye pressure and asked me whether I had family members suffering from glaucoma (I dont have any btw). We didn't pay much of attention to the IOP at that time as the primary reason for visiting the ophthalmologist was to treat the herpes zoster infection in order to protect the right eye.
Top 10 Reasons For Not Taking Your Glaucoma Eye Drops
Dr. Amy Hennessy of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore stated "Getting eyedrops into the eye is not the same as asking a patient to swallow a pill, or use a skin cream. It's easier said than done."
Consider 64% of glaucoma patients state they follow physcian's instructions "Extremely closely". Yet :
* 75% admit to some form of non-compliant behavior,
MY EYE PRESSURE
Hi All,
Thank you for enrolling me as a member of FitEyes. My eye pressure was 18/19 during 2008. Doctor said not necessary to apply drops but to be careful with my diabetic. But presently my eye pressure stands at 21/22. This happened as I travel in a coach in the whole night where there was a television playing movie inside a bus. When I reached the destination I found my vision was not alright. So be carefull watching tv in a moving vehicle.
Good luck
Kunchu
Syntonic Light Therapy in the Treatment of Glaucoma
Syntonic Light Therapy in the Treatment of Glaucoma
Presented at the International Syntonic Light Conference held in St. Pete Beach, Fl
April 28th - May 1st
http://www.healingtheeye.com/Articles/Syntonic_Light_Therapy_Glaucoma.html
According to the National Eye Institute, glaucoma is the third leading cause of blindness in the U.S.
Cataracts and macular degeneration rank first and second, respectively. There are an estimated 2,218,000 patients who suffer from glaucoma (approx 1 in 136 or 0.74%).
My story of my trabeculectomy
My drops were stopped when my pressure was 18 every 6 months. My pressure then went up and I kept asking to go back on drops but I was told there is no damage to my optic nerve. When the pressure reached 30 they said so sorry you now have optic nerve damage. And I have been bombarded with drops and my pressure got down to 14. After a while it went back up to 24 and I showed a bit more optic nerve damage. A trabulectomy was given as only option. My sight was 20 20 vision. To keep it I agreed to the operation. The operation has left me blind in that eye and in awful pain. My life has changed. I also have high pressure in other eye and am getting drops of tafluprost and cosopt.
Glaucoma cure/prevention
In the Rome University Eye Clinic in 1966 the usual number of primary open angle glaucoma cases existed who were unresponsive to any combination of medical therapies. In desperation, Virno et al., found an old paper describing a 1mm reduction with 1 gram of ascorbic acid (vitamin C.) Virno must have read the work of Dr. Fred Klenner MD FCCP who cured 59 cases of polio with injected sodium ascorbate for he then administered 7,500mgs 4 times/day (30 grams) orally, and was overjoyed to find the victims' pressures down and saving sight.
Two Ways of Healing Glaucoma
Marketing messages teach us to look for solutions in the form of a pill or an easy fix. Glaucoma taught me that this brand of alternative medicine is fundamentally equal to allopathic medicine. In fact, the business model is identical and many of the same pharmaceutical companies are behind the "natural" supplements and the allopathic drugs. (The mindset is also nearly identical -- it is the mindset of looking for a solution without fundamentally changing ourselves.)
I carefully tested high levels of vitamin C over a number of years. Vitamin C was actually the first thing I focused on after being diagnosed with glaucoma. I used it before beginning self-tonometry and I continued for several years after starting self-tonometry.
In those first two years (before self-tonometry) the vitamin C did not prevent my glaucoma from progressing. And I found out after I got a tonometer that it did not reduce my IOP. I used 30 grams per day while testing its effect on my IOP. My IOP is lower today on zero vitamin C (as a result of the knowledge I gained from self-tonometry).
The reason it is important to focus on IOP is because it is the only treatable risk factor for glaucoma. And it is very important to have metrics. No matter what we are doing (vitamins, diet, etc.), we need to have some way to measure the results.
And the wisely empirical approach advocated by FitEyes does often involve testing one element at a time. That's the way we make discoveries and progress past ignorance. Unlike almost any other patient support group in the world, FitEyes has a track record of discovering new knowledge. (We discovered and documented white coat ocular hypertension, for example.) That's why this is a research community at its core.
Surely its perfectly normal for eye pressure to go up and down
surely its perfectly normal for eye pressure to go up under certain circumstances. Just like our bp goes up and down. anne
We now know that intraocular pressure does respond to events in our lives, to our state of mind and emotions and to stress. However, before FitEyes came along in 2006 (and for several years afterwards) these facts were not recognized.
See this FitEyes article from Feb 2007:
http://fiteyes.com/Does-Stress-Increase-Eye-Pressure-For-Everyone
The standard medical opinion is that stress does not affect eye pressure (intraocular pressure). For example, see "Glaucoma - Frequently Asked Questions" at The Eye Institute states:
"As far as we know, stress does not affect eye pressure or the health of the optic nerve."
Another example of the prevailing medical opinion can be found in a Wills Glaucoma chat transcript on Stress and Glaucoma from July 20, 2005:
Patient: Does being nervous or stressed increase the IOP (intraocular pressure) as it does blood pressure?
Dr. Elliot Werner: Not as far as we know.
Even today many ophthalmologists will deny that stress affects intraocular pressure. They will further deny that non-stressful events such as Bailey described could affect eye pressure.
How emotions affect eye pressure--Excitement
I learned about emotions and eye pressure, in part, by watching my favorite sports and measuring my eye pressure over a period of years. See Watching Tour de France Raises IOP.
Here is what I discovered after monitoring my eye pressure before, during and after watching sports over a period of several years.
- If you watch a sports event that you don't care about at all, it has almost no effect on your eye pressure.
- If you watch a sports event where your ego is caught up in the outcome of the event (i.e., you are attached to an outcome, such as your team should win) the excitement will raise your IOP.
- If you watch a sports event where you appreciate the action, enjoy the skill of the participants, etc. and are not attached to the outcome, your intraocular pressure will be largely unaffected.
List of all the things that affect eye pressure
I'd like to ask everyone with a tonometer and good eye pressure data to contribute comments to this post. What factors have we identified that affect eye pressure? I'm going to start the list informally with things that come off the top of my head. I'll revise and refine this list based on feedback from people with tonometers and good data. Thank you!
Reduces Eye Pressure
