Understanding Glaucoma - The Eye Disorder

Glaucoma is an eye-disorder, which often causes blindness, if not prevented beforehand. Glaucoma can damage the eye’s optic nerve and deteriorate vision over time. This is associated with abnormally high pressure inside the eye.

Causes of glaucoma

According to theories, glaucoma might be due to abnormal eye development, eye infection, drugs, or no supply of blood to the eye. However, the exact reasons behind optic nerve damage are still not certain.

Symptoms of glaucoma

Gradual loss of vision is a major symptom of glaucoma. A few other symptoms that might also cause glaucoma include-

• Severe headache
• Sudden loss of eyesight
• Nausea and vomiting
• Flashes of light
• Redness of eye
• Severe eye or eyebrow pain
• Hazy or Blurred vision
• Appearance of rainbow colored circles around bright lights

Risk factors of glaucoma

As signs and symptoms are not easily apparent, it is difficult to know if anyone is suffering from glaucoma. Following are a few possible risk factors about which one should be aware-

• Age – People around the age of 40s or 60s and above are at a risk of glaucoma.

• Family history – This is a genetic problem. If anyone in a family is suffering from glaucoma, then it is possible that other members in the family may also develop this disorder.

• Medical conditions – Medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart diseases are also the reasons behind glaucoma. People suffering from these health issues are prone to the glaucoma problem.

• Long-term medication use – Intake or use of medicines such as eye drops for a longer duration of time can also cause glaucoma.

• Other risk factors – Besides the above mentioned risk factors, a few other risk factors that can cause this problem include-
• Contraceptive medications
• Nearsightedness
• Sleep disorders
• Migraine

Diagnosis process

Medically there is no cure for glaucoma eye disease. The only way to prevent is regular examination of eyes. Eye specialists recommend people to go for regular eye tests in every three to four months.

Glaucoma tests include following medical testing procedures-

• Tonometry - Examining the inner eye pressure
• Ophthalmoscopy - Examining the shape and color of the optic nerve
• Perimetry -Examining the complete field of vision
• Gonioscopy –Examining the angle in the eye where the iris meets the cornea
• Pachymetry –Examining the thickness of the cornea

Why Cholesterol Screening is Important?

Cholesterol is an important part of everyone’s body composition. However, too much of cholesterol can have a serious impact on one’s health. It can put you at risk of heart disease, heart attack, or stroke.

Therefore, it is very important for you to check your cholesterol level regularly. If you live in Glen Oaks you can check it with a simple cholesterol screening in Glen Oaks from a reliable health care facility and work on the required treatment and prevention options to remain safe and healthy.

One reason why getting your cholesterol checked is so important because high cholesterol does not show any symptoms. Without routine check-up, a person may not even know that he has high cholesterol until some serious problem arises. Often called the silent disease, high cholesterol can result in very serious problems, as it takes just seconds for a clogged artery to cause a heart attack or a clot-forming stroke.

Another important reason to get a regular cholesterol screening is that if you are already a patient of high cholesterol you can continue to consult your doctor to develop a better prevention and treatment plan.

A person with high cholesterol should always prefer a diet that is low in saturated fat. Along with this, a healthy body weight, a regular exercise, healthy lifestyle changes can also help keep cholesterol in control.

However, if you have many risk factors or have high cholesterol caused by genetics, the doctor may also prescribe you certain medications to keep it under control.

There are a number of things that can affect the cholesterol level. Some of them are mentioned below.

• Diet

• Weight

• Exercise

• Age and gender

• Genes

• Medications

Checking your cholesterol level is very easy. So, make sure to get it checked regularly to avoid any serious health problems in future.