Dr. Grossman’s Blog

Image via nei.gov

Fuchs dystrophy is a slowly progressing disease that occurs when endothelial cells gradually deteriorate without any apparent reason.  Eventually, it causes the cornea to swell and makes vision distorted.

A study published in The American Journal of Pathology indicates that oxidative stress plays a part in the onset of Fuchs corneal dystrophy.  People affected with the disease showed much higher levels of oxidative DNA damage in their eyes that the control group that did not have the disease.  Source: http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ajpa/article/PIIS0002944010602817/abstract

Antioxidants are well known to play a vital role in eye health.  Extensive studies have shown that taking antioxidants in the form of food and nutritional supplements can help prevent and even reverse such eye conditions as macular degeneration,and cataracts.

Learn more about how to treat Fuch’s dystrophy naturally.

The CEO of a Texas based biotech company, Craig Benson, was a father who thought that his five year old daughter needed new glasses. It turned out that she had the rare, and eventually fatal Batten’s disease. Batten’s disease is a disorder of the nervous system that leads to blindness, seizures, mental and physical impairment, and, eventually, premature death in the teens or early 20s.

Craig Benson has made it his mission to determine a way to develop DNA testing that will help potential parents determine if they are carriers of such debilitating diseases as Batten’s disease, muscular dystrophy, and other immune deficiency related conditions. For less than $400, parents can be checked to see if they are carriers of any diseases and whether the combination of their DNA and that of their partner make it likely that offspring would be born with any of the hundreds of conditions that can be picked up via this test. Source: ABC NEWS.

Batten’s disease affects an estimated 2 to 4 of every 100,000 U.S. born babies. It can be diagnosed by a neurologist with a number of tests including electrical studies of the eyes. Source: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/batten/detail_batten.htm

Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) has unveiled its wide-view neurostimulator concept – a prototype bionic eye that will be implanted into Australia’s first recipient of the technology. BVA says that the prototype will deliver improved quality of life for patients suffering from degenerative vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The implant, which consists of a miniature camera mounted on glasses that captures visual input, transforming it into electrical signals that directly stimulate surviving neurons in the retina, is currently undergoing testing. Says BVA, the device will enable recipients to perceive points of light in the visual field that the brain can then reconstruct into an image.

For more information, go to www.bionicvision.org.au

For more information on nutrition and vision, go to www.naturaleyecare.com

Hemianopia is a blindness in one half of the visual field due to damage of the optic pathways in the brain. This damage can result from brain injuries caused by stroke, tumor or trauma.  A patient with hemianopia may be unaware of what he or she cannot see and may frequently bump into walls, trip over objects or walk into people on the side in which the visual field is missing.

Prism eyeglasses were invented by Dr. Eli Peli of the Schepens Eye Research Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, to assist patients with hemianopia.  Dr. Peli attached small high power prisms on the top and bottom of one spectacle lens, leaving the center of the lens untouched. The prisms pull in images missing from the visual field above and below the line of sight on the side of the vision loss.  The prisms alert the patient to the presence of a potential obstacle, so that the patient can then move his/her head and eyes to examine the prism-captured image directly through the clear center of the lens.

In the trial, 32 of 43 participants (74%) who were fitted with prism glasses continued wearing the glasses at week six; at 12 months, 20 (47%) were still wearing the spectacles eight hours daily and rating them as “very helpful” for obstacle avoidance.

A larger study is currently underway to evaluate a newer model of the eyeglasses. 

SOURCE: “Community-Based Trial of a Peripheral Prism Visual Field Expansion Device for Hemianopia”, Bowers, et al, Archives of Ophthalmology, 2008, vol. 126, no5, pp. 657-664.

NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE (NEI) SURVEY: Most Americans do not know the risks and warning signs of diseases that could cause blindness without timely detection and treatment, according to recent findings of the Survey of Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Eye Health and Disease, sponsored by the National Eye Institute and the Lions Clubs International Foundation.

More than 3,000 adults were selected randomly to participate in a national telephone survey conducted between October 2005 and January 2006. Seventy-one percent of respondents reported that a loss of their eyesight would rate as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 (meaning that it would have the greatest impact on their day-to-day life); however, only eight percent knew that there are no early warning signs of glaucoma.

Fifty-one percent were aware that people with diabetes are at increased risk of developing eye disease, but only 11 percent knew that there are usually no early warning signs of diabetes-associated eye disease. Only 16 percent had ever heard the term “low vision.” Hispanic respondents reported the lowest access to eye health information and knew the least about eye health; they were also the least likely to have their eyes examined among all racial/ethnic groups in the survey.

NEI plans to use the survey results to raise public awareness of eye disease and the importance of early detection and treatment; it will also expand its educational outreach to Hispanics and increase its efforts to educate healthcare providers on how to communicate with patients about preserving and protecting their vision.