lifestyle

True change is possible. I have done it and I am still doing it -- and it is responsible for my healing. Change brings about healing. Only change brings true healing - everything else covers up the source of the dis-ease.

If you have glaucoma or elevated intraocular pressure, do you believe it is "in your genes?" If you believe glaucoma is entirely genetic, do you also believe you are stuck with glaucoma the rest of your life?

Welcome to FitEyes.com! I am Dave and I founded FitEyes.com in 2006. This site publishes original articles about intraocular pressure and vision health from participants in our unique self-tonometry research program. I and certain other members of our research group are conducting cutting-edge research using high-frequency self-tonometry to gain new insights into intraocular pressure. You will not find this content on any other website. You will not find these insights into intraocular pressure anywhere else.

FitEyes.com is intended only for individuals under the care of a medical doctor! Furthermore, the information discussed here is only applicable to individuals participating in supervised research. See our disclaimer at the bottom of every page. The information we discuss on FitEyes.com can be powerful -- and that cuts both ways. If you were to misuse this information, you could damage your vision. Therefore, we restrict this information to only those who agree to work closely with their medical doctor prior to acting on any information found here. The information here is for experimental research under the supervision of a medical professional only!

FitEyes.com is a community site with many blogs and forums. Please register with us to gain access to all the content and to enjoy the full features of the website such as posting comments to blogs and asking questions in our forums. It is free and you will never receive spam from us. (You are notified by email when new content is published here. We never share your email address with others.) FitEyes.com does not exist to sell you a bunch of vitamin supplements or other pills, powders and potions with dubious claims.

FitEyes.com exists to educate you and your doctor, to empower you and to inspire you. In the articles on FitEyes.com we share our latest research insights and we discuss experimental ideas regarding how we successfully manage our own intraocular pressure. We invite you, working closely with your doctor, to take advantage of our new knowledge to improve your own visual health.

Here at FitEyes.com, you will learn amazing things about your eyes and your health!

Welcome. If you are new to FitEyes.com, please read about how to revolutionize your glaucoma management here.

Posture can have a profound effect on intraocular pressure for glaucoma patients. I have even found that lying down, which is something we all do almost every day, can elevate my intraocular pressure from normal to high levels.

Hi

I am under confusion and stress after my last visit to the Glaucoma Specialist So need advise from experienced members like you.

Here is my Case history:

Over the last year I have been telling my friends and my wife that I'm finding enlightenment though high-frequency intraocular pressure research and self-tonometry. For a while my wife watched me monitor my intraocular pressure up to one hundred times a day (or even two hundred) and she thought I was focused on glaucoma and the disease. My wife understands The Great Secret and The Law of Attraction and naturally she was concerned - she didn't want me focusing on disease.

Let us celebrate and enjoy everything that comes into our lives. Everything comes for a reason (and the reason is usually that, on some level, we have created all the situations in our life). So whether we are dealing with glaucoma or another health issue or another life issue, we should own it, claim it, bless it and even be thankful for it.

Question: Often I see GERD and other stomach / esophagus problems on the Glaucoma website. I too have a modest GERD problem. Would there be a possible relation between Glaucoma and GERD? Might be lifestyle influances?

It is time to start Chapter Two of my blog. I believe there will be many more chapters. However, it feels like Chapter One has come to a close.

Paresh posted an excellent message about dealing with glaucoma in the FitEyes.com forums. He asked seven great questions. I decided to do my best to respond to each question. I'm going to take them one at a time. Paresh's first question was , "what we can do in daily life to limit further damage to eyes?" This blog post is my first response.

Today the following email arrived in my inbox via a post to a glaucoma support group. This email gives me an opportunity to answer some questions, including the original of the name of my (former) blog, The IOP Querent.

 I've written several articles about the very clear relationship between my eye pressure and my stress levels. As I pointed out (in the comments to that article), the standard medical opinion is that stress does not affect eye pressure (intraocular pressure).

This is my plan for overcoming glaucoma: embrace, evolve and exceed.

I had to start embracing my glaucoma because to do otherwise implied aversion. Aversion is defined as "antipathy: a feeling of intense dislike." Obviously, we resist that which we dislike. And that which we resist persists - this is a law of health. This law is the basis for the radical acceptance paradox: radical acceptance is the first step toward change.

Furthermore, aversion is one of only five root causes of suffering in life. Patanjali says, "Aversion is clinging to pain." Therefore, I have embraced glaucoma. When I think about glaucoma, I now feel acceptance. I also feel thanks and appreciation for it. I feel love for what glaucoma is doing for me.

In my first true 24-hour eye pressure monitoring period, where supine eye pressure measurements were taken, I found out that my eye pressure is much higher at night than expected. I also found out that my blood pressure is much lower. That's a bad combination of pressures for the health of the optic nerve.

A little more than 60 days ago, I wrote a blog post and asked, "Does Stress Increase My Eye Pressure?" At that time I looked back and noted that my intraocular pressure had increased as my business situation had gotten more stressful. Since then, we have collected a lot more data. I think it will prove interesting to compare two similar days and see what we can learn about stress and eye pressure given the additional data.

 Today I compared several eye pressure measurements on the basis of a normal measurement vs. a measurement after 1-2 minutes of relaxed breathing. I wanted to see if my eye pressure is lower when I do simple deep breathing as a form of relaxation.

Today's Lesson: It requires both medication and lifestyle to fully control my IOP. Either one alone is not enough right now. This is the middle way. I would like to control my IOP without medication (or even without Timoptic), but attempting that right now would be too extreme. (I have a tendency to go to the extreme, and that's most likely a subtle personality factor underlying my glaucoma.)

 Today was not a typical day! For one thing, we took 200 IOP measurements today! For another thing, my IOP values were not well controlled. It was like my emotions were directly connected to my IOP today, and my emotions were varied. Consequently, today's data shows a large range from the maximum value to the minimum value. That range is 16.7, way above yesterday's value of 11 (which itself was above previous values of 9-10).

 Today's values seem to show that when I stop thinking about business (or other financial issues), my IOP is lower.

Today's overall averages are:

Left 15.2; Right 15.2 (differential 0)

The differential is going in the opposite direction from what I have seen in the past. Normally, it increases slightly with each extra day since the last time I used Timoptic in my right eye. It has now been 6 days since I used Timoptic and things are looking good.