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Hello, this is time that i am contacting you. I have recently been diagnosed with Glaucoma in my left eye only. This was very puzzling to my eye care specialist. The pressure in my left eye was 31. He prescribed drops (Cumigan and Lumigan) and stated that the problem could not be reversed but could only be slowed down and definitely not cured. Is there a cure?
There was an interesting article on BBC today about recent advances in neuroprotection for glaucoma. Here are some highlights from the article:
Lead researcher Dr Stefano Bonini said: "Although neuroprotection in glaucoma has already been attempted with several compounds, this is the first time that an improvement in visual function is observed in patients with advanced optic nerve damage."
David Wright, chief executive of the International Glaucoma Association, warned against drawing firm conclusions from such a small study - but said the results were encouraging.
He said: "There have been many false dawns in the search for neuro-protective agents for the treatment of glaucoma and it is a feature of research on other compounds that early promise does not always translate into clinical effectiveness when larger studies are undertaken.
"However, this research would seem to indicate both effectiveness and acceptability as to the means of drug delivery.
"If these early indications are carried through to wider trials and there are no other problems, then this has the potential to open a completely new method of treating glaucoma and of preventing unnecessary visual loss in the future."
| Protection of undamaged but at-risk retinal ganglion cells and axons from noxious stimuli released by proximate damaged tissue and/or prevention of initiation of the apoptosis program |
| N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA)/other excitatory amino acid mantagonists (block excitotoxicity) |
Question (via FitEyes.com contact form): Hello. My father's optic nerve became damaged in 1985. Is there any cure for it?
Regards, nilesh
Reply: Yes, I think it may be possible to reverse optic nerve damage (even though mainstream medicine currently disagrees with that position).
I am reading an interesting article: TREATMENT OF GLAUCOMA WITH CHINESE HERBS by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon
The article quotes the recent compendium English-Chinese Encyclopedia of Practical Traditional Chinese Medicine (4), in which Volume 17 is devoted to ophthalmology. As to cause of open-angle glaucoma, it says:
Emotional depression of a person may cause stagnation of liver qi that will turn into fire. When the fire goes upward to attack the eyes, the disease occurs. Or, if a person suffers from retention of dampness due to hypofunction of the spleen, phlegm will originate from the retention and form phlegm stagnation which will further convert into fire. When the fire moves upward to attack the eye, the disease is caused. Besides, deficiency of the liver and kidney, a condition called consumption of primordial yin, will result in asthenic fire, and attack of the eye by the fire will lead to the disease.
I've never really heard anybody give an educated guess on when we may really have the ability to reverse the damage done by glaucoma.. Whether through stem cells or any other medical advancement ... can anybody reasonably predict a timetable on being able to repair the damaged nerves?
I'm especially interested in this because - at 55, and in good health otherwise - I have pretty bad glaucoma. I lost 90% of the vision in my right eye, and maybe 50% in my left before I even noticed any problems. I sure wish I'd been paying attention ...
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