dave's blog

This is what eye pressure (IOP) looks like in real time:

Please ask questions and I'll answer them.

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 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.

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.

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

The entire following blog post was intially written as a private email to a friend of mine. I decided to share it here.

I grew up doing fast things in a fast way. I raced motorcycles -- and I have always loved anything fast. But I also tried to accomplish the maximum possible number of things each day and I always pushed myself to do things quicker or more efficiently. Then I developed glaucoma.

As I have gotten to know myself more intimately (thanks in part to self-tonometry) I have realized that I actually like to take my time. I enjoy doing things in a non-rushed manner. You could even say that I enjoy being slow! (Something I never would have admitted to myself in my days of racing, even in my most private thoughts.) Even today, I still have a great admiration for people who do things quickly, as if this is an inherently superior way of being.

But I now know that I like to take my time doing things. I still enjoy efficiency. But sometimes it is more efficient to delay the next project's start and finish what was started rather than have to terminate it due to an artificial deadline and then pick it up again at a later time. I like going deep into things (whether discussions, research or building software) and having the time to do it well. And I have found that sometimes I even enjoy doing something in a completely inefficient manner (saying that still sounds sacrilegious). Sometimes I enjoy just plain being slow! (What have I just said! My gosh!)

My evaluation Icare ONE tonometer arrived today. I will compare it to:

    * Icare TA01i
    * Reichert 7CR Tonometer
    * Pascal Dynamic Contour Tonometer
    * Ocular Response Analyzer
    * Reichert AT555 Tonometer
    * maybe another one or two tonometers...

Look for a full review in the near future on FitEyes.com. UPDATE: I have decided not to publish my review of the Icare ONE at this time. Please read Are handheld or portable tonometers appropriate for home eye pressure monitoring?

Let me offer an analogy. If I were reviewing golf clubs, I would not include a review of a baseball bat. A baseball bat is not appropriate for playing golf. During the process of evaluating the Icare ONE, I came to a broader conclusion about all handheld tonometer and their appropriateness for self-tonometry (home eye pressure monitoring). Therefore, I feel it is better to have that general discussion first. You can read my thoughts here: Are handheld or portable tonometers appropriate for home eye pressure monitoring?

There is a related discussion on the Icare ONE here: New iCare ONE Tonometer Designed for Home Eye Pressure Monitoring

For now, here are some pictures of my evaluation Icare ONE tonometer.

Just arriving via FedEx (below). Some tonometers it will be evaluated against are shown in the background.

Here's what one well-respected ophthalmologist told his patient in response to her inquiry about starting home eye pressure monitoring.

Recently here on FitEyes, readers have asked about the relationship between intraocular pressure about meditation. That prompted me to write this post about some of the broader spiritual aspects of what I do as well as how I view intraocular pressure in my own life and in my work as a Serene Impulse teacher.

Meditation and spirituality are often perceived as soft, delicate, wishy-washy, "New Agie", etc. My own approach is hard-core and scientific. It is also great fun. The path is filled with bliss and love -- and lots of IOP data!

From MDLinx Ophthal Newsletter. See number 27 on the list.

Top-Read Clinical Articles of 2009 in Ophthal/Glaucoma

Most read articles from 64 contributor journals (see the list)

For many glaucoma patients, a vacation can present an opportunity to do some good thinking, maybe reflect on our direction in life or mentally solve some important questions that have been in the back of our mind but ignored because of our busy schedules.

On my own recent vacation I started thinking about new career directions. And yesterday I received a phone call from a good friend of mine who was vacationing on a tropical island. He told me all about swimming in the ocean, jogging on the beach and eating healthy food. All of it sounded fun, relaxing and healthy. But he was perplexed by one thing -- his intraocular pressure was going up in spite of being on a relaxing vacation in a tropical paradise.

The following post is adapted from "A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing" By JOHN MARKOFF, published: December 14, 2009 in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15books.html?_r=1&pagewanted=p...

Top computer scientists say we have entered the age of data-intensive scientific discovery. Dr. Gray, who was a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher,  called the shift a “fourth paradigm.” The first three paradigms were experimental, theoretical and, more recently, computational science.

I love responding to questions about self-tonometry. I prefer this to writing blog posts in a vacuum. If you have been a long time reader of FitEyes.com, you have probably noticed that the trend lately is that my detailed responses are coming in the form of replies to posts that other people have made. I prefer it this way. I want to thank everyone who is making posts and asking questions. Please continue to do so!

The only disadvantage of this form of posting is that if you are trying to follow my latest commentary on self-tonometry, you will have to dig down a couple levels in the website content structure to find it.

http://www.facebook.com/fiteyes

Let me know what you think. What is the best way to share content on Facebook?

It has been a long time since I shared a recipe on FitEyes.com. My last recipe was Ayurvedic Pizza. Today I made cornbread for the first time in my adult life. As usual, I created my own recipe and gave it an Ayurvedic slant.

Ingredients:

There is a New York Times article entitled "Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel" By GINA KOLATA published on May 16, 2006. I just read it today. The article is about recent discoveries in exercise physiology. It turns out that the accepted scientific understanding of a fundamental aspect of exercise was wrong for more than 80 years. It ends with a quote by Dr. Brooks: "The scientists were stuck in 1920." He's talking about the entire field of exercise physiology!

Even when the mistake was shown by good research, the entire field continued to fight against Dr. Brooks's discoveries for decades. In some ways it reminds me of the fight against new tonometers such as the Ocular Response Analyzer and the Pascal Dynamic Contour tonometer that we see in ophthalmology now.

In my experience, science (as typically practiced) is wrong so much that I think people who maintain a predominantly scientific (i.e., materialistic) world view are disadvantaged. For example, the article says, "Coaches have understood things the scientists didn't." That is almost always the case in almost every field at all times.

The people who are "in the trenches" understand things scientists don't. Now this isn't to say that the scientific method is bad or that data-driven methodology should be discarded. Good coaches rely on a ton of data and they have excellent observation skills. They do have a scientific approach. The difference is they are not limited by a dogmatic scientific materialism.

Furthermore, the practice of science in today's world is so wrapped up with ego, power, career advancement and money that the altruistic aims of science get pushed aside. And new discoveries get trampled by established scientists who want to hold on to their positions of power and prestige.

I think the following list represents some of the most informative and useful articles on FitEyes.com. There are thousands of articles on FitEyes.com, so many good ones will not be on this list. But this list is a good place to start reading if you are new to FitEyes.com. If you are not new to our site, please make sure you have seen these articles.

Please feel welcome to add comments to this post to mention your own favorite articles on FitEyes.com.