dave's blog

Sometimes I wonder where all my time goes. I know I volunteer a lot of time to FitEyes that is unrelated to working with my clients or doing other things I "have" to do. So I did a quick check of where my time went on my recent "day off." Here's what it looked like:

1 hour emails (mostly related to FitEyes)

1 hour discussing new FitEyes website work with a developer

3 hours researching backup and storage solutions for the FitEyes website (long overdue)

1 hour to get a replacement computer part

I just received the email below. While I love these emails and each one makes me smile, this is a fairly typical response I see when someone receives their new Reichert tonometer. Keep in mind that the expectation from both of us is that we will have a telephone call when the person's new tonometer arrives and I will explain how to use it. The surprising result is that quite often I don't have to explain anything! That's how easy these Reichert tonometers are to use . This is true even for someone who is not good with technology.

Here's the email that just came today:

The topic of low body temperature, immune system functioning and glaucoma has been of great interest to all of us recently. I would like to summarize what we know and present some feedback that comes to us directly from some of the most respected minds in ophthalmology: Robert Ritch, MD, Martin Wax, MD and Gülgün Tezel, MD. I want to thank each of these experts for taking the time to help clarify this topic for FitEyes's readers. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Ritch for organizing all of this.

This audio file contains an interesting interview with Dr. Ivan Goldberg (University of Sydney). Dr. Ritch recommends that we all listen to it.

Members of the FitEyes self-tonometry group should be regularly utilizing the water drinking test. See this message:

In an upcoming version of the FitEyes Insight software I hope to provide a very easy way to track moods along with eye pressure measurements. In preparation for that, I am working on a list of moods.

If those of us monitoring our own eye pressure at home want to correlate our moods with changes in our IOP, we will need some standardized definitions of moods.

This is a story about my first clues into the role my ego played in my intraocular pressure fluctuations (and spikes). This happened in 2006 or 2007 after I had started self-tonometry and had been doing it long enough to see a clear relationship between stress and my eye pressure.

A long-time friend invited me to an informal dinner with a world-famous celebrity. I had met the celebrity previously and we got along fine. We shared a common interest in health topics, so the conversations were always interesting.

Ellen Troyer and others had a nice conversation about resveratrol in the FitEyes.com mailing list. (I can post the whole conversation below if requested.) 

I enjoyed reading this conversation. There are lots of good points here. However, for me, the single most important statement was the one below by Ellen.

Since resveratrol is only one of the nutrients found in grapes and wine, it makes biological sense that it would be the most effective when presented with a balanced amount of other polyphenols molecules. 

This is the main screen of the new FitEyes Insight tonometer assistant application. It is currently in beta and we are looking forward to releasing it to all tonometer users soon.

Presented at AAO, Chicago

The use of intravitreal injections of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors (anti-VEGF) to treat diseases such as age-related "wet" macular degeneration (AMD), may also put some patients at risk of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) and therefore at risk of vision loss due to glaucoma. According to data presented here October 17 at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), potentially dangerous increases in IOP have been seen in some patients who have had multiple injections of drugs such as bevacizumab and ranibizumab.

I received the following response from a FitEyes reader on another topic. But his last comment prompted something I want to share with everyone. So please read on, starting with an edited excerpt from his comment that inspired me.

[I am on] on a six month trial doing alternate day fasting, twenty minute mindful meditative walks in nature twice a day, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every other day, while detoxing with hexagonal water.

[I am] 10% persuaded that [I] will permanently lower [my] intraocular pressure to 10 mm Hg  in six months.

That last line really caught my attention. Here is my response:

Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(2):209-11. Epub 2006 Mar 10.

The effect on health of alternate day calorie restriction: eating less and more than needed on alternate days prolongs life.

Johnson JB, Laub DR, John S. Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Medical Center, 2547A Lyon Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA. jim@jbjmd.com

Abstract

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

Please ask questions and I'll answer them.

There may not be any ophthalmologist anywhere who is more interested in self-tonometry than Dr. Robert Ritch in New York City. People come from all over the world to see him. He is one of the top glaucoma specialists in the world.

See this blog post for more about Dr. Ritch:

http://fiteyes.com/Robert-Ritch-Glaucoma-Specialist

See these links for more information, including his office locations:

My eye doctor yesterday recommended drops because my eye pressure was at 23 mmHg. He said it was really 25 if you figure in central corneal thickness (CCT).

I have no doubt the the condition of the liver influences our vision. I think subtle (subclinical) liver issues, such as those picked up by Ayurvedic or TCM pulse diagnosis, can manifest as vision problems.

Curcumin has been implicated in the treatment of certain eye diseases and conditions, including chronic anterior uveitis, an inflammatory condition of the vascular layer, particularly the iris. Read about a study that suggests that curcumin may be an effective therapeutic for a variety of inflammatory eye conditions.

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. This optic neuropathy is characterized by an elevated intraocular pressure, which may be attributed to an increased resistence in the aqueous humor outflow pathways.

Histological studies have demonstrated that primary open-angle glaucoma is associated with pathological changes in the trabecular meshwork (TM).

Recent investigations have revealed an accumulation of aged cells in the outflow pathways of glaucomatous eyes as compared to age-matched control eyes. Glaucoma is characterized by increased oxidative stress-induced aging of trabecular meshwork cells, thus leading to elevated intraocular pressure. The goal of this study was to analyse the role of TGF-β2 in the induction of cellular aging in cultured human trabecular meshwork cells.