Mar 09 2011
Infantile Glaucoma Linked to Maternal Opioid Painkiller Intake
Image via odh.ohio.gov
Pregnant women who take opioid pain killers are more likely to give birth to babies with birth defects, including infantile glaucoma.
The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, describes how women who took drugs like codeine or hydrocodone were twice as likely to have babies with severe heart problems. In addition to heart defects and glaucoma, when mothers-to-be took opioid drugs their children were more likely to have spina bifida, hydrocephaly, and gastroschisis.
It is very important to note that these birth defects were not only related to drugs mothers took while pregnant – researchers have connected maternal opiod intake and these conditions in children born to mothers who took these prescription medications three months before they were pregnant.
Source: Modern Medicine
Learn more about how prescription drugs can be harmful to your eyes and your overall health.
Comments Off
Nov 13 2010
Children’s Eye Conditions Can Influence Socialization
image by woodleywonderworks
Being accepted as a kid can be tough sometimes, especially if you have a “squint.”
According to a study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, young children whose eyes are obviously affected by conditions like strabismus are less likely to be invited to birthday parties than their unaffected identical twins. The preference was much stronger after the age of six when nearly 50% of kids looking at pictures of children with squints noticed immediately that they were “different.”
The results of this study lead researchers to conclude that “schoolchildren with strabismus seem less likely to be accepted by their peers, so corrective surgery for strabismus should be performed before the age of six years, when negative social implications may arise.” Source: http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=17753
Learn more about other binocular conditions that can affect adults and children.
Comments Off
Sep 17 2010
What is Stargardt’s Disease?
Photo courtesy of wa.gov
Stargardt’s disease is the most common inherited form of macular degeneration that strikes late in childhood. This disease strikes 1 in 20,000 children over age six and generally leads to legal blindness.
Stargardt’s disease causes a progressive loss of central vision. The main signs and symptoms are loss of visual acuity or sharpness of vision, decreased color vision and small blind spots. Other symptoms may include blurriness and visual distortion, difficulty adapting to the dark after sunlight exposure, and/or light sensitivity. Sufferers with severe vision loss may also experience visual hallucinations and are the result of the brain trying to make sense of impaired visual input.
Nutrients such as lutein, zeaxanthin and mesozeaxanthin may help slow the progression of Stargardt’s Disease and/or prevent further vision loss. Patients with Stargardt’s disease are cautioned against taking vitamin A because researchers believe gene mutations lead to abnormal synthesis of the vitamin in the eyes, resulting in increased loss of vision.
Comments Off
Aug 20 2010
Infants Respond to Eye Contact
In a study of the brains of infants in response to various stimuli, it was found that babies experience increased brain activity when making eye contact with an adult. The results, published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, help scientist understand more development of social perception and suggest that a part of the brain is specifically programmed to process eye gaze even at a very early age.
Researchers measured “increased early evoked gamma activity at occipital channels indicating enhanced neural processing during the earliest steps of face encoding” when babies looked at pictures of women whose gazes were directed at them. Pictures of women with their faces tilted downward or who were looking away from the viewer did not elicit the same response, “confirming that the gamma band oscillations observed in response to gaze direction are specific to upright faces.”
So, look deep into those baby blues and help the development of next baby you meet!
Source: Medscape Today
Comments Off
