Oct
27
2010
Image via nei.nih.gov
Glaucoma patients are more likely to suffer from and die from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and accidents.
A study of over 300,000 people in Taiwan with and without glaucoma revealed that those with open-angle glaucoma were much more likely to be afflicted by comorbidities that adversely affect their quality of life. Source: http://www.osnsupersite.com/view.aspx?rid=76960
Since we consider eye health to be a reflection of overall health, it makes sense that the health those with glaucoma would be compromised as well. It’s not that eye disease is causing these other conditions; it may be that both glaucoma and the other conditions are just the outward signs that a person is unwell.
For a complete listing of wellness tips to prevent and treat glaucoma and to keep your whole body healthy, look to this page.
Jan
23
2010
New study shows smokers have increase risk of getting glaucoma. Specifically, inflammation and apoptosis marker levels increase with smoking in the aqueous humor and plasma samples of POAG women. Smoking could be an important additional risk factor for glaucoma progression in elderly women.
SOURCE: Zanon-Moreno V, Garcia-Medina JJ, Zanon-Viguer V, et al. Smoking, an additional risk factor in elder women with primary open-angle glaucoma. Mol Vis 2009;15:2953-2959.
Editor’s Note: Chronic inflammation and related cell death (apoptosis) due to smoking is implicated in many chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, macuclar degeneration and cancer. Eye disease is often related to poor circulation, chronic systemic inflammation and/or the lack of availability of nutrients. For more related information, go to
www.naturaleyecare.com
May
28
2009
Although open-angle glaucoma (OAG) has been previously associated with some of the risk factors of stroke development, researchers at the Taipei Medical University in Taipei, Taiwan have now linked OAG with an increased risk of stroke development.
Researchers collected data from the 1,073,891 subjects in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. They compared 4032 patients with a diagnosis of OAG to 20,160 patients without OAG over a five year period.
Of the group of patients with OAG, 14.9% had strokes within the 5-year follow-up period, compared with 9.5% of patients in the comparison group. After adjusting for patients’ demographic characteristics, patients with OAG were found to have a 1.52-fold higher risk of having a stroke than the matched comparison cohort.
Study authors concluded that patients with OAG demonstrated a significantly increased risk of stroke development during the 5-year follow-up period.
Learn more about glaucoma including self-help tips
Read other studies about glaucoma
SOURCE: “Open-Angle Glaucoma and the Risk of Stroke Development. A 5-Year Population-Based Follow-Up Study”, Ho, et al, PubMed, 2009 May 21, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19461039
Sep
23
2008
New study shows that supplementing with bilberry can helps lower intraocular pressure (IOP). Uncontrolled high IOP is the major cause of vision loss for those with glaucoma.
In a study performed by researchers from the University of Chieti-Pescara in San Valentino, Italy, thirty-eight subjects with IOP were either given bilberry and French maritime pine bark (20 subjects) or were not treated (18 subjects)1. The visual acuity, IOP, and ocular blood flow were measured at two, three, and six months. After two months of supplementation the mean IOP decreased. No side effects were observed and ocular blood flow improved. An improved ocular blood flow may contribute to the prevention of glaucoma. The results of this study indicate that bilberry and pine bark may represent a safe preventative intervention for lowering the risk for developing symptomatic glaucoma by controlling IOP and improving ocular blood flow. This helps to support research for other preventative nutritional approaches to major eye health, such as cataract, age-related macular degeneration, and retinopathy.
For more information on nutrition and glaucoma, go to www.naturaleyecare.com
