Bedford Eye Care Centre News

Blog is moving!

2011-10-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

Note to my blog followers: I have officially moved my blog to our office website: http://bedfordeyecarecentre.ca/learning
I will leave the posts from this site up for a few months; however, no new posts will be appearing.
I look forward to your comments.
Happy reading!
Toby (Mandelman)

An Apple a Day Really May Keep the Doctor Away Fruits and vegetables with white flesh associated with drop in stroke risk, study finds

2011-09-30T04:24:00.000-07:00

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Sept. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Fruits and vegetables whose edible sections are white may lower your risk of stroke more than other fruits and vegetables, Dutch researchers report.

Every 25 grams per day of white fruits and vegetables consumed led to a 9 percent decrease in the risk of stroke, and apples and pears were the most commonly consumed "white fruit," according to the study, published in the November issue of Stroke.

"Green, orange/yellow and red/purple fruits and vegetables weren't related to stroke. However, the risk of stroke incidence was 52 percent lower for people with a high intake of white fruits and vegetables, compared to people with a low intake," said study author Linda M. Oude Greip, a postdoctoral fellow at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

But, Oude Greip pointed out that the findings don't mean it's OK to stop eating other fruits and vegetables. First, she noted, the findings need to be replicated. And, even if future research confirms these findings, "because other fruit and vegetable color groups may protect against other chronic diseases, it remains of importance to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables," she stressed.

Oude Greip said past research has shown that higher fruit and vegetable consumption can lower the risk of stroke, but none of that research looked at specific fruits and vegetables to see if any contributed more to the reduced risk than the others.

For her study, Oude Greip used data collected by the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment of the Netherlands that included more than 20,000 people. Study participants were between the ages of 20 and 65 at the start of the study, and none showed any signs of cardiovascular disease.

All of the study volunteers completed a 178-item food frequency questionnaire. The study then included 10 years of follow-up information on the participants' health. During the follow-up period, 233 people had a stroke.

Fruits and vegetables were divided into four color groups, each based on the color of the "fleshy" portion of the fruits and vegetables: Green, orange/yellow, red/purple and white.

The only group that was associated with a statistically significant decrease in stroke risk was white fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables included in the white category were apples, pears, apple juice, apple sauce, bananas, cauliflower, chicory, cucumber and mushrooms. White fruits and vegetables were the most commonly consumed produce, with 36 percent of fruit and vegetable intake coming from the white group. Within the white group, apples and pears were the most commonly consumed, representing 55 percent of what was consumed.

For every 25-gram increase in the amount of white fruit consumed each day, the risk of stroke went down by 9 percent, according to the study. A typical apple is 120 grams, the researchers added.

Oude Greip said it's not clear exactly what components in white fruit might be protective for stroke, but she suspects that the dietary fiber and the flavonoids play a role. Apples and pears are high in a flavonoid called quercetin.

Jessica Shapiro, an associate wellness dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said, "Apples and pears are very good fruits. They're available year-round and are almost consistently good.

"As with any study, there are limitations. One is that the food intake was self-reported. Food frequency questionnaires are inherently biased because it's hard to remember exactly what you've eaten in the past. But, the positive thing to take from this is that everything we've been saying is confirmed again. Fruits and vegetables are good for you," she said.

Shapiro also said it would be difficult to single out what it is about white fruits that might reduce the risk of stroke. "It's really the whole foods. There's fiber and phytochemicals and flavonoids, and these all work together synergistically. I don't think you can single out one nutrient."

She said that she wouldn't recommend limiting your diet to just white fruits and veggies. "Eat the rainbow of fruits and vegetables," she added. "Each fruit and each vegetable provides certain nutrients that combine and interplay with others."

myVisionTrack App in Development To Test Vision Changes in People With Macular Degeneration

2011-09-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

DALLAS, August 2011 — An upcoming iPhone/iPod Touch appcalled myVisionTrack will give macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy patients the ability to monitor changes in their vision over time. This in turn can help their eye doctor adjust treatment as needed.

The 90-second test displays three circles, one of which is different from the others. You would cover one eye, then touch the circle that looks different. The differentiation becomes more subtle as the test progresses, and your scores are formulated and stored in the device. Then you test the other eye.

If your scores indicate that your vision has changed significantly, then you are instructed to visit your eye doctor.

Usually people with degenerative eye disease use an Amsler grid which looks like graph paper with a dot in the middle. When focusing on the dot, they may see distortions or blurriness in the lines of the grid, and recording these can help track their vision changes. But the developers of myVisionTrack say their device is twice as sensitive as Amsler grids in detecting subtle vision changes.

Prototypes are still in testing now, and the app is expected to be available sometime in 2012.

The plastic eye implant to replace reading glasses

2011-09-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

By Victoria Lambert
8:00AM BST 11 Sep 2011
The Telegraph

It is one of the signs of reaching middle-age: the need to wear reading glasses.An estimated 23 million Britons suffer from presbyopia, or age-related longsightedness.Now a revolutionary new treatment, involving an operation to insert a plastic implant into the eye, could allow millions to abandon their spectacles.

The procedure will be available to private patients in Britain for the first time from tomorrow. Its promoters predict up to four million Britons – one in six of those who now use reading glasses – will have the operation over the next decade.

Independent experts say that the early signs from trials are promising, although one side effect is a worsening of night vision and there is not yet evidence of what long-term effect the operation might have.

In the procedure, a laser is used to make an incision in the cornea – the front lens of the eye – so that an inlay thinner than a red blood cell can be inserted by hand.

Looking like a flattened black polo mint, and smaller than a contact lens, the implant sits around the iris and pupil.

Working like a pinhole camera, it reduces the amount of light allowed through the pupil to reach the retina, the part of the eye where rays of light are turned into images.

By allowing through central beams, which produce the sharpest images, and blocking out those on our outer range of vision, which are useful for seeing in dark light but do not produce clear pictures, the implant can restore the perfect vision most of us were born with.

"Finding a treatment for presbyopia is important," said ophthalmologist Dr David Allamby, who specialises in the condition.

"As we age, the crystalline lens, which sits behind the cornea and acts like a zoom, stiffens from a squashy gel-like substance to a fixed structure. This makes it harder for eye muscles to squeeze it into shape, in order to get a clear image.

"Most over 45s will know that feeling: suddenly, struggling to read menus or maps. We squint at text messages, but our longer sight for driving, say, remains good.

"By the age of 50, 90 per cent of your lens flexibility is lost. The only people who will still read easily are those who were born short-sighted, but who already use glasses for distance work."

He added: "This is like granting immunity from the ageing process – at least for your eyes."

The procedure, called Z Kamra, was developed at a cost of $70 million (£44 million) in California where it is still in clinical trials. It has been available in Japan and parts of Europe since last year, with 6,000 treatments carried out so far.

Theresa Ferguson, 53, a health worker from south east London, was the first in the UK to have the treatment.

The mother-of-three said: "I had brilliant eyesight until I was 45. Then I began struggling with newspapers; I need to read small print on medical forms for work so I tried reading glasses and then varifocals."

A specialist suggested she might join a Z Kamra trial instead, and she had the surgery last month.

"I was nervous," she admitted. "But it was painless, although uncomfortable. It took 15 minutes."

During the procedure, the eye is anaesthetised by drops and held open to prevent movement.

Dr Allamby said: "I use a laser to even out the corneal surface and create a flap then, using high magnification tools, insert the implant by hand. The flap heals without stitches, but we give steroid drops for up to eight weeks to prevent rejection."

Mrs Ferguson's eyes were blurry and sore on the day of treatment, but the following morning she awoke with perfect vision. "I read a text message in bed without even thinking," she said. "It was amazing."

Dr Allamby said: "We believe this will be permanent as long as your near sight remains stable.

"The Kamra inlay is made of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF), a pure thermoplastic fluoropolymer, used for years for replacement cataracts, known to be safe and inert in the body."

Early trial patients have had implants, studded with 8,400 perforations to allow nutrients to pass through, for six years with no reported problems.

Those with a high degree of short or long sight, such as prescriptions of minus six or plus three, or those over 70 might not be suitable for the treatment as their cataracts may be close to needing replacement.

The procedure costs £2,800 for one eye but 90 per cent of patients will need both eyes treating for £4,600. Equivalent laser surgery would cost £4,000.

Dr Larry Benjamin, an eye surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire and chair of the Royal Society of Ophthalmologists education committee, was cautious.

He said: "This is an interesting concept. But it won't suit everyone and I imagine certain professionals such as pilots, where night vision is important, would not be allowed it, but the research so far shows it works reasonably well.

"However, I would like to see more follow-up data in terms of complications and visual symptoms."

One Drink A Day May Be Beneficial For Middle-Age Women.

2011-09-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

September 6, 2011, 4:19 p.m.

Moderate drinking has been linked with various health benefits, and now a study finds that middle-age women who indulge in one drink a day or less on a regular basis may have a better chance of being healthier when they're older.

The study, released today in the journal PLoS Medicine, looked at data on alcohol consumption among 121,700 femalenurses who were part of the Nurses' Health Study. Of those participants, 13,894 lived to the age of 70 or older. Among them, 1,491 were considered to have aged successfully, defined as having no heart disease, diabetes or other chronic diseases, and no substantial cognitive declines, mental impairment or physical limitations at age 70 and older.

Among the study participants, about one-fourth were non-drinkers, about 62% drank one drink per day, almost 10% drank one to two drinks per day, and 3% drank two to three drinks per day.

Overall, moderate drinking was linked with having better odds of successful aging. Looking at both the amount and frequency of drinking, women who drank five or more grams of alcohol (between one-third and one drink) per day and spread their drinking out over three to seven days a week had better odds of successful aging compared with non-drinkers.

Looking just at frequency, researchers found that spreading out drinking throughout the week was linked with better general health, but drinking just one to two days a week was not.

Compared with teetotalers, women who drank several days out of the week had a 50% better chance of overall good health later in life.

Chocolate (but not too much of it) may be good for your heart

2011-09-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

August 29, 2011, 9:42 a.m.

Eating chocolate could benefit the heart, a study finds, possibly lowering heart disease by 37%.

The results come from a meta-analysis released online Monday in the British Medical Journal. Researchers from the United Kingdom and Colombia focused on seven studies looking at the link between eating chocolate and a reduction in heart disease that included 114,009 people.

Of those seven, five showed an association between higher levels of chocolate consumption and a lowered risk of cardiometabolic illness. The highest levels were linked with a 37% drop in cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke, compared to the lowest levels. There was no significant association seen between chocolate consumption and heart failure, and only one study drew a link between eating chocolate and a lowered risk of diabetes. None of the studies, including the meta-analysis, were funded by a chocolate company or a related industry.

But before you dash to the supermarket to buy that five-pound bag of M&Ms, the study authors caution about eating chocolate with abandon. After all, they point out, chocolate isn't exactly calorie-free. Although the participants in the studies ate a variety of chocolate products, including chocolate bars, drinks, nutritional supplements and desserts, all chocolate is not created equal, and eating too much of the stuff that's filled with fat and sugar can put on pounds, possibly upping the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes -- the very stuff that can lead to cardiovascular problems.

The study authors noted that among the studies there was no obvious dose-response relationship between chocolate and the risk of cardiometabolic disorders, so for now, everything in moderation, as they say.

And although the studies reviewed did control for a number of factors, including age, body mass index, physical activity, smoking and aspects of diet, there still may be other factors at work causing the heart benefits.

If chocolate is the root of these heart-healthy advantages, it may be due to its polyphenol content, anti-oxidants that could improve endothelial function (which may affect the risk of stroke and heart attack) as well as have a positive effect on blood pressure and insulin resistance.

More studies are needed, the authors wrote, to go beyond just an association and determine causation. We guess that means scientists will need more study participants willing to eat chocolate. That's going to be tough.

Mouse-eye view may lead to gene therapy for blindness

2011-08-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

By SELENA ROSS
Wed, Aug 17 - 4:54 AM

Chronicle Herald

IF YOU’VE EVER wanted to look through someone else’s eyes, you can do it right here in Halifax at Dalhousie’s medical school.

Or, more specifically, you can look through the retina of a mouse. The retina is being kept artificially alive in a dish, fed with oxygen and glucose, and its optic nerve is hooked up to a computer. If you visit Dr. Gautam Awatramani’s lab, you can watch the computer screen and see what the mouse would see if it still had its retina.

Sounds like sci-fi? In fact, Awatramani’s research into vision is so cutting-edge that he was turned down for grants only a few years ago. He said the Canadian Institute of Health Research told him he was crazy and should stick to basic science. Now the neurobiologist’s work, which offers some of science’s best prospects for restoring sight to the blind, is feeding into a booming academic field that is slowly being taken up by biotechnology companies around the world.

Awatramani’s specialty is called optogenetics. Like it sounds, it combines optics, or light, with genes that are tweaked to respond to that light.

In 2008, with friends in a lab in Switzerland, he was part of a scientific breakthrough when his team took genes from green algae, a plant that responds to light, and injected them into the retinas of mice that were predisposed to go blind later in life.

The mice that had been treated with algae genes kept some of their vision while the others went completely blind. The effects of the gene therapy also lasted in the long term as the part of the eye that had degenerated began to express the new gene on its own. Down the road, Awatramani said, he hopes to see a new surgery developed that could do the same for human eyeballs.

"The operation should be very simple. That’s the beauty of the system," he said. "I think it’ll form its own niche, for sure."

The business world might take some time to catch up. Companies have been busy over the last few years developing visual prosthetics, or implants that can help stimulate parts of the eye.

It’s a small field but has attracted a fair amount of attention and investment.

The commercial leader in visual prosthetics, Second Sight Medical Products Inc. in California, made Fast Company magazine’s top-10 list of innovative health companies this year and counts billionaire bioengineer Alfred Mann, who helped develop the cochlear implant for the deaf, among its investors.

Optogeneticists’ attempts to do the same thing — restore some vision to the blind — are slowly starting to win some of that attention, Awatramani said. While the prosthetics stimulate an entire layer of the retina more indiscriminately, feeding the brain information that it finds harder to decipher, algae genes work in a more specific and natural way since they build on the retina’s existing structure.

"It’s a little bit of a crazy idea, but I think people find it less crazy now than they did a handful of years ago," said Alan Horsager, co-founder of a tiny Los Angeles firm called Eos Neuroscience Inc., one of the only companies trying to usher the research through clinical trials.

Horsager said some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies are also looking at gene therapy for the blind. Incorporating genetics into medicine is becoming a more common idea, he said, although no type of gene therapy has been approved for humans yet.

He and his two co-founders at Eos are talking to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could bring research like Awatramani’s to market in five to eight years.

"People are coming around and saying, OK, gene therapy isn’t so weird," Horsager said. "You have some data here."

For the medical industry, being able to "light up" specific neurons has far-reaching applications, especially understanding the brain’s more complex patterns.

"The retina’s a piece of brain," Awatramani said in his lab.

"It’s the most accessible part of the brain. We can get to it fast and easily, and from a business perspective, that’s why it’s so attractive for treating neurological disease, because you don’t have to open the skull to get to it."

( sross@herald.ca)

Sunglasses should be worn all year to protect eyes from UV rays

2011-08-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

By Carolyn Butler, The Washington Post Published: July 4

We all know the importance of guarding your skin with sunscreen, but what about protecting your eyes on these long, bright summer days? When I think about shielding my peepers with sunglasses, it’s mostly from a style perspective: Can I really pull off those trendy oversize frames? But really, sunglasses should be seen as a health topic.

“We should all be protecting our eyes from both visible light and UV light, throughout our lifetimes, because [sun exposure] can damage structures in the cornea, the lens of the eye and the retina, as well as the skin around the eyes or eyelids,” says Michael Repka, a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He notes that studies have shown that ultraviolet exposure can result in increased risk for a range of vision-related problems, from heightened sensitivity to light and irritation to cataracts andpossibly macular degeneration and skin cancers on the eyelid.

Indeed, at my last yearly eye exam, my ophthalmologist informed me that I’d developed pingueculum, small changes to the surface of the eye that look like tiny yellow spots, probably due to chronic UV exposure — perhaps the result of a three-year stint living on a small island, during which I spent a lot of time on boats and only infrequently donned shades. Luckily the condition isn’t usually serious, but my doctor said wearing sunglasses would help prevent it from getting worse.

Eye protection is important all year long, no matter the weather. “Thirty-one percent of UV light still comes through on cloudy days,” says Dora Adamopoulos, an optometrist in Alexandria, who adds that snow-covered surfaces reflect up to 80 percent of UV rays, as opposed to the quarter that are reflected off sand or water.

And certain people run an elevated risk for UV damage, says District optometrist Michael Rosenblatt, who points out that those of us with light-colored irises are particularly susceptible: “If you easily burn in the sun, you should think of yourself as a person who suffers greater damage from UV light in all areas, including your eyes.” Geography is another factor, with people living in the south and at higher elevations tending to get the greatest levels of UV exposure.

Children are also a major concern. “It amazes me that kids go to the beach and their moms are spraying on all this suntan lotion, but they’re running around with no sunglasses on,” says Rosen-blatt. He says that not only are young ones outside often, but that their pupils are larger than adults’ and that, unlike adults, their lenses aren’t able to filter out some UV rays. So just as with skin exposure, “by the time you’re 18 or so, you’ve pretty much done most of the sun-related damage to your eyes,” says Adamopoulos.

That’s not to say that these experts are unsympathetic to the challenges of trying to get children to don shades — children such as my 2-year-old, whose new favorite game involves ripping off his tiny sunglasses and hat as soon as I put them on him, throwing them on the ground, running away and then repeating this action about a thousand times during any park, beach or pool outing. “But you’ve just got to try,” says Rosenblatt.

The best thing we can do to protect ourselves from the cumulative effects of UV exposure on the eyes is to buy properly fitting, comfortable, quality sunglasses — and then wear them as much as possible, along with a wide-brimmed hat. Rosenblatt, for one, recommends frames that extend from the eyebrow to the cheek and wrap around the contour of face, along with lenses that have 100 percent UVA and UVB protection. He also points out that while some contact lenses come with different levels of UV coating, they should all still be worn with sunglasses.

Also be aware that specialized sunglasses can help when you’re engaged in outdoor pursuits such as skiing, sailing or even biking, says Adamopoulos. He says that yellow- and brown-tinted lenses are best on the water, for example, while gray, brown and amber tints work well for field activities, and mirrored coatings are good for snow sports; polarization is a lens treatment that can help reduce glare.

In general, darker isn’t necessarily better, if the lenses don’t have proper UV protection. Says Adamoponous: “You can actually damage your eyes if there isn’t proper UV coverage, because darker lenses cause your pupils to get bigger to see,” which results in increased UV exposure in the retina.

As for the cost of sunglasses, know that you don’t always get what you pay for. “Sometimes the most expensive glasses are worse than cheapest, in terms of filtering UVA and UVB light,” explains Repka, so checking those sticker labels on lenses about UVA and UVB protection is key.

I just invested in a pricey pair of designer, Jackie O-style sunglasses with polarized lenses that seem to make the world appear quite a bit crisper, as if my vision has actually improved. My hope is that looking good will inspire me to wear them more often — and inspire my kids to follow suit with their own shades. If not, at least I can count on the cardio benefits of chasing after my little one with his sunglasses and hat.

Type 2 diabetes in newly diagnosed 'can be reversed'

2011-08-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study.

Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal.

Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal.

More research is needed to see whether the reversal is permanent, say experts.

Type 2 diabetes affects 2.5m people in the UK. It develops when not enough insulin is produced in the body or the insulin that is made by the body doesn't work properly.

When this happens, glucose - a type of sugar - builds up in the blood instead of being broken down into energy or fuel which the body needs.

The 11 participants in the study were all diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes within the previous four years.

They cut their food intake drastically for two months, eating only liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables.

Fat loss

After one week of the diet, researchers found that the pre-breakfast blood sugar levels of all participants had returned to normal.

MRI scans of their pancreases also revealed that the fat levels in the organ had decreased from around 8% - an elevated level - to a more normal 6%.

Three months after the end of the diet, when participants had returned to eating normally and received advice on healthy eating and portion size, most no longer suffered from the condition.

Professor Roy Taylor, director of Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle University and lead study author, said he was not suggesting that people should follow the diet.

"This diet was only used to test the hypothesis that if people lose substantial weight they will lose their diabetes.

"Although this study involved people diagnosed with diabetes within the last four years, there is potential for people with longer-standing diabetes to turn things around too."

Susceptibility question

Dr Ee Lin Lim, also from Newcastle University's research team, said that although dietary factors were already known to have an impact on Type 2 diabetes, the research showed that the disease did not have to be a life sentence.

"It's easy to take a pill, but harder to change lifestyle for good. Asking people to shift weight does actually work," she said.

However, not everyone in the study managed to stay free of diabetes.

"It all depends on how much individuals are susceptible to diabetes. We need to find out why some people are more susceptible than others, then target these obese people. We can't know the reasons for that in this study," Dr Lim said.

Professor Edwin Gale, a diabetes expert from the University of Bristol, said the study did not reveal anything new.

"We have known that starvation is a good cure for diabetes. If we introduced rationing tomorrow, then we could get rid of diabetes in this country.

"If you can catch people with diabetes in the early stages while beta cells are still functioning, then you can delay its onset for years, but you will get it sooner or later because it's in the system."

But Keith Frayn, professor of human metabolism at the University of Oxford, said the Newcastle study was important.

"People who lose large amounts of weight following surgery to alter their stomach size or the plumbing of their intestines often lose their diabetes and no longer need treatment.

"This study shows that a period of marked weight loss can produce the same reversal of Type 2 diabetes.

"It offers great hope for many people with diabetes, although it must be said that not everyone will find it possible to stick to the extremely low-calorie diet used in this study."

Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said the diet was not an easy fix.

"Such a drastic diet should only be undertaken under medical supervision. Despite being a very small trial, we look forward to future results particularly to see whether the reversal would remain in the long term."

Virtual White Cane for the Blind

2011-08-04T12:32:00.001-07:00

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently unveiled a new "virtual cane" that allows blind users to reconstruct a more accurate image of their surroundings than with a traditional white cane.

Its basic operating principle is quite simple. The cane emits a beam at objects around the user and transmits the information to him or her as a gentle vibration. The cane's sensors allow the blind person to assess the height and distance of the surrounding objects. The accuracy of the reconstruction of the person's surroundings increases his or her safety. Moreover, the virtual cane is quite small, making it easier to carry than a white cane, and it can function for up to 12 hours before needing to be recharged.

Dr. Amir Amedi's team has tested the virtual cane in a variety of situations, including a maze. While ensuring that the cane was effective was an objective, the research primarily aimed at studying how the brain of the blind functioned, particularly with respect to brain reorganization. The tests demonstrated that using the virtual cane was very intuitive and could be mastered in just a few minutes.

Source: http://recherche.lefigaro.fr/recherche/access/lefigaro_fr.php?archive=BszTm8dCk78atGCYonbyznOpCuYiExBfqW166xtrGBZ0WSag1w0w3qkV%2BZ8voyUKu2IGtjAq08M%3D

Daily aspirin may protect against melanoma

2011-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Long-term use cut risk of deadly skin cancer by almost half, study finds

By Linda Carroll

msnbc.com contributor

updated 6/23/2011 8:58:48 AM ET

An aspirin a day may keep melanoma at bay, a new study suggests.

After scrutinizing the medical records of 1,000 people, an international team of researchers have determined that the risk of melanoma was cut by almost half when people took a daily dose of aspirin for at least five years.

“Our data at least support the hypothesis that long-term steady aspirin use has an effect,” said study co-author Dr. Robert Stern, a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and chief of dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Previously, the only melanoma prevention advice cancer experts could give was for people to stay out of the sun and get their skin checked for early warning signs of the disease. If melanoma isn’t detected early, it can be deadly.

Stern and his colleagues compared data from 400 melanoma patients to that from 600 healthy volunteers. The healthy volunteers were matched in age and gender to the cancer patients, some of whom ended up with more than one matched group.

The 1,000 study participants were interviewed and asked about lifestyle habits and known risk factors for melanoma, such as light skin color and history of sunburns. They were also questioned about medication use.

While melanoma is not as common as other types of skin cancer, it is the most dangerous and most likely to spread to other parts of the body. It killed nearly 9,000 people in the U.S. last year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The researchers focused on usage of anti-cholesterol statins and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, or NSAIDs, because some earlier population studies had suggested that these medications might have an impact on melanoma development.

Although the study found no beneficial effect associated with statin use, it did find a substantial reduction in risk associated with the use of aspirin, which is an anti-inflammatory. There was also a hint that other NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen (marketed as Advil and Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve), might reduce melanoma risk if taken regularly over a long period of time. But the data on these drugs wasn’t as strong.

Stern suspects that may be because far fewer people take these NSAIDs on a daily basis. Many middle-aged people take a daily baby aspirin to protect their hearts, he said. The use of other NSAID painkillers tends to be more sporadic.

Melanoma isn’t the only cancer that appears to be affected by NSAIDs. Other research has shown that the medications can lower the risk of colorectal cancer .

Nobody knows why NSAIDs might prevent cancer, but there are theories. Some researchers suspect that cancers like melanoma hijack the body’s inflammatory response to a growing tumor to bring more blood to the site and to help cancer cells slip past the body’s defenses and attach elsewhere, said Dr. John Kirkwood, director of the Melanoma Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Kirkwood hopes that the new study will spur researchers to do a long-term study to look at the impact of NSAIDs prospectively, since the protective effect seen here might not be the result of the medication, but rather something that people who take daily aspirin have in common.

Until that happens, doctors can’t counsel patients to take aspirin to protect against melanoma. Still, this is one more possible benefit to consider if you’re advised to take aspirin to prevent heart disease, he said.

For now, this is the first piece of good news on the melanoma prevention front.

“The hope,” Kirkwood said, “is to stop the disease before it gets out of the starting blocks.”

A Testimonial From a Very Happy Patient!

2011-07-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

To the Bedford Eye Care Team,

I remember being 16 years old and walking into the Bedford Eye Care Centre. My senses at the time didn’t pick up specifics… just general faces, people’s voices and another optometrist. After a few normal appointments (and years) I switched over to Dr. Avila Cox. I was taken aback by her subtle quiet manner that made me feel comfortable as a patient. Without a lecture like a dentist, she quietly but subtly reminded me of proper eye care and how it was important for my well being. Perhaps a bizarre thing to say but I’ve been wearing glasses my whole life and she by far was the first people to ever make me feel proud to wear them!

The years go by, life happens and at 25 years of age I make the decision to travel across Canada. It was a breathtaking adventure with experiences and joys that every Canadian would be proud of. Through this journey I discovered the capital city of Ottawa. Beautiful, clean, economically sound and so much more to offer, I made the decision to be move there.

I have spent the last 5 years of my life in Ottawa. I have made a few trips back to Bedford but always for occasions like Christmas or a family graduation. In the recent months I had noticed that there was a change in my eye sight. The thought of hunting down another optometrist gave me a sick feeling. I’m not a big fan of any type of doctor, dentist or optometrist. I put it off for months. A recent trip back to Bedford due to a family emergency gave me a one day window. I arrived in to town on Tuesday, had to fly elsewhere for Wed and Thursday and was headed back to Ottawa Saturday. I had Friday free that was it. When I arrived on Tuesday I decided to pick up the phone. Weirdly enough I still knew the number. I called and simply asked “Hi, I have a weird question… I moved to Ottawa 5 years ago and I am wondering if there was any way I could get an appointment on Friday.” The lady that answered the phone pleasantly took my name and confirmed that I was with Dr. Cox and that it was no problem to get an appointment Friday morning.

June 17th, 2011 - I am 30 years old; I opened the door to the Bedford Eye Care Centre. I pleasantly smiled and recognized the face smiling back at me. Forgive me for not remembering her name - but I know her face, and she would know who she is - greeting the customers. I looked over in the middle chair (behind the counter) and also recognized the face sitting there. I made a comment to the ladies that it was funny that I hadn’t been there in probably 6 years or more but the faces hadn’t changed. That said something good about where they worked and the dedication they had. After some paperwork and a few more smiles it was my ticket in. Two fabulous ladies helped me through 2 of the main exams. Again pardon me for not remembering your names; I know you both took the time to introduce yourselves to me. Both of you ladies made my tests relaxing and almost pleasurable. I enjoyed being there and believe you me you both made an impact on me. Then in walks Dr. Cox. Once again I really had a good time at my appointment. Just an extremely comfortable atmosphere that relaxed me and made my appointment enjoyable. Understanding my eyes and what I need to do to protect them are again the focus of my time with Dr. Cox and let me tell you I made that first leap for the first time by purchasing myself a pair of prescription sunglasses….My whole life I thought that buying glasses from the optometrist was so overpriced. I didn’t see any value and by passed that section every time before. This time I even had a solid excuse… I didn’t live here. I had a plane to catch in the morning. Dr. Cox has said it was possible for sunglasses to be mailed to me. My scapegoat is now gone.

Enter Judy.

Judy I don’t know how much time we spent together, maybe an hour - I think it was definitely around 30 to 45 minutes - either way it didn’t matter. My time with you was awesome. Through your own experience and stories of your husband :) which I know you haven’t told him you tell, it really encouraged me to buy a pair from someone that spoke from experience and satisfaction. The option to have my glasses mailed to me was suitable. Through trial and tribulation Judy nailed a nice set of Nike sunglasses for me. She walked me through picking out the frames, deciding on tint and polarization - I was shocked that she was willing to spend that much time with a client. After phone calls to the Alberta lab over what could be done I was sold on the Nike sunglasses. I declined on the polarization due to cost but was super excited about owning my first pair of prescription sunglasses. Judy then takes me over to the counter. She again confirms my order and reminds me it will be a few weeks. After ringing through my appointment and my glasses I left the Bedford Eye Care almost speechless. I’m back in Ottawa now and I haven’t stopped talking about the customer service I got from your wonderful team. The decision to keep my eye doctor in a different province is simple. The team is a cut above the rest.

Since departing Bedford I had received a message from Judy indicating that after I had left, the Alberta lab informed her in order to do my glasses they had to polarize them, but she wasn’t going to charge me. I couldn’t believe the good news. I appreciate the very kind gesture as I am aware the fundamentals of business and understand giving items away for free does not keep you in business. It was an excellent customer service decision and just made me very happy and even more excited. The next business day I received my sunglasses in the mail and let me tell you I am beyond happy. I don’t squint anymore while I’m riding my bike in the sun. Weekends at the cottage and my day at the water park have been experiences that are almost new again as for the first time I can see at the same time as wearing proper sunglasses.
Since the day I have gotten these sunglasses I have been ecstatic about them. I love my bike ride that much more and even a simple beer in the back yard on in the summer is now different. I can’t say thank you enough. Every penny I spent at the Bedford Eye Care Centre Team was a proud penny spent. Thank you to the whole team for your outstanding customer service, your infinite wisdom, knowledge and experiences. I honestly and truly am shocked by the level of service you have provided on all levels. The whole team, from answering the phones, greeting at the door, testing, selling glasses - WOW! I’m not sure what your secret is but I know the rest of the customer service world would use it. My only regret… Not buying my regular every day glasses there.

Thank you for your fantastic work,
Sincerely,

Stacey Paul

P.S. Judy I also got your thank you card in the mail today. Again words can’t say enough about your fantastic service.

In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light

2011-07-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

By LAURA BEIL

Published: July 4, 2011

New York Times

Just as the ear has two purposes — hearing and telling you which way is up — so does the eye. It receives the input necessary for vision, but the retina also houses a network of sensors that detect the rise and fall of daylight. With light, the body sets its internal clock to a 24-hour cycle regulating an estimated 10 percent of our genes.

The workhorse of this system is the light-sensitive hormone melatonin, which is produced by the body every evening and during the night. Melatonin promotes sleep and alerts a variety of biological processes to the approximate hour of the day.

Light hitting the retina suppresses the production of melatonin — and there lies the rub. In this modern world, our eyes are flooded with light well after dusk, contrary to our evolutionary programming. Scientists are just beginning to understand the potential health consequences. The disruption of circadian cycles may not just be shortchanging our sleep, they have found, but also contributing to a host of diseases.

“Light works as if it’s a drug, except it’s not a drug at all,” said George Brainard, a neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and one of the first researchers to study light’s effects on the body’s hormones and circadian rhythms.

Any sort of light can suppress melatonin, but recent experiments have raised novel questions about one type in particular: the blue wavelengths produced by many kinds of energy-efficient light bulbs and electronic gadgets.

Dr. Brainard and other researchers have found that light composed of blue wavelengths slows the release of melatonin with particular effectiveness. Until recently, though, few studies had directly examined how blue-emitting electronics might affect the brain.

So scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland tried a simple experiment: They asked 13 men to sit before a computer each evening for two weeks before going to bed.

During one week, for five hours every night, the volunteers sat before an old-style fluorescent monitor emitting light composed of several colors from the visible spectrum, though very little blue. Another week, the men sat at screens backlighted by light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. This screen was twice as blue.

“To our surprise, we saw huge differences,” said Christian Cajochen, who heads the Center for Chronobiology at the University of Basel. Melatonin levels in volunteers watching the LED screens took longer to rise at night, compared with when the participants were watching the fluorescent screens, and the deficit persisted throughout the evening.

The subjects also scored higher on tests of memory and cognition after exposure to blue light, Dr. Cajochen and his team reported in the May issue of The Journal of Applied Physiology. While men were able to recall pairs of words flashed across the fluorescent screen about half the time, some scores rose to almost 70 percent when they stared at the LED monitors.

The finding adds to a series of others suggesting, though certainly not proving, that exposure to blue light may keep us more awake and alert, partly by suppressing production of melatonin. An LED screen bright enough and big enough “could be giving you an alert stimulus at a time that will frustrate your body’s ability to go to sleep later,” said Dr. Brainard. “When you turn it off, it doesn’t mean that instantly the alerting effects go away. There’s an underlying biology that’s stimulated.”

Still, nobody is suggesting that we all turn off the lights at dusk and sit in the dark; research into this area is in its infancy. “We are only beginning to understand what really happens under natural conditions,” said Mark Rea of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

Artificial light has been around for more than 120 years. But the light emitted by older sources, like incandescent bulbs, contains more red wavelengths. The problem now, Dr. Brainard and other researchers fear, is that our world is increasingly illuminated in blue. By one estimate, 1.6 billion new computers, televisions and cellphones were sold last year alone, and incandescent lights are being replaced by more energy-efficient, and often bluer, bulbs.

In January in the journal PLoS One, the University of Basel team also compared the effects of incandescent bulbs to fluorescents modified to emit more blue light. Men exposed to the fluorescent lights produced 40 percent less melatonin than when they were exposed to incandescent bulbs, and they reported feeling more awake an hour after the lights went off.

In addition, the quantity of light necessary to affect melatonin may be much smaller than once thought. In research published in March in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, a team at the Harvard Medical School reported that ordinary indoor lighting before bedtime suppressed melatonin in the brain, even delaying production of the hormone for 90 minutes after the lights were off, compared with people exposed to only dim light.

What do these findings mean to everyday life? Some experts believe that any kind of light too late into the evening could have broad health effects, independent of any effect on sleep. For example, a report published last year in the journal PNAS found that mice exposed to light at night gained more weight than those housed in normal light, even though both groups consumed the same number of calories.

Light at night has been examined as a contributor to breast cancer for two decades. While there is still no consensus, enough laboratory and epidemiological studies have supported the idea that in 2007, the World Health Organization declared shift work a probable carcinogen. Body clock disruptions “can alter sleep-activity patterns, suppress melatonin production and disregulate genes involved in tumor development,” the agency concluded.

Blue light’s effects might be particularly pronounced for shift workers and others who get little natural daylight, some researchers say. Consider one small trial that appears the June issue of The Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Among 28 elderly nursing home residents, those exposed to just 30 minutes of blue light on weekdays for four weeks showed improvement in cognitive abilities, compared with patients exposed only to red.

Researchers like Dr. Brainard hope the science may lead to a new generation of lights and screens designed with wavelengths that adjust according to the hour of the day.

Among those interested are officials at NASA, who have approached the neurologist about designing light on the International Space Station in a way that promotes alertness during waking hours and encourages sleep during times of rest.

“I think we’re on the verge of a lighting revolution,” said Dr. Brainard. If the hormone-sparing lights can be made to work during spaceflight, he said, “people will use it here on the ground.”

Buying 'cheap' sunglasses can be hazardous to your health.

2011-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Seizure of 560,000 pairs of unsafe sunglasses
01-07-2011

Allegedly hazardous eyewear made in China was confiscated in Venice
As part of an operation that involved numerous provinces in Italy, the Venice Guardia di Finanza (Italian tax police) seized about 560,000 pairs of sunglasses made in China and valued at 10 million Euro: the lenses were considered to be an extreme health hazard.
The operation was triggered by a display of eyeglasses in a Venice store with price tags that were well below market prices: a subsequent check of the goods revealed that the labels and CE markings had been illegally applied.
Technical analyses of the material demonstrated that in addition to not having UV filters, the lenses also released nickel on contact with perspiration. Also seized were 3.2 million labels that would have been applied to products imported from China to Italy.

Nickel can cause nasty rashes and allergic reactions if it comes into contact with skin and nickel dust is a carcinogen if inhaled. Sunglasses that do not have proper UV protection actually expose you to higher levels of UV light since your pupils remain dilated behind the sunglass lens and allow even more light and UV rays to enter the eye. Excessive exposure to UV can lead to earlier development of cataracts and macular degeneration.
The seven Chinese and Italian importers involved paid less than ten Eurocents a pair for the seized eyewear, which was placed on the market at prices ranging from 8 to 15 Euro.

Giant Weed Can Cause Blisters, Even Blindness

2011-07-08T04:45:00.001-07:00

Officials urge people to steer clear of the giant hogweed

Note**** This is a US post, but this weed IS present in Nova Scotia and the Halifax area... beware!!

THURSDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Call it the import that nobody wants.

Experts are urging residents of several states to beware of the "giant hogweed," a tall plant native to Central Asia with umbrella-size flowers containing toxic sap that can cause burns, blisters and, in some cases, even blindness.

"Avoid it at all cost," Jodi Holt, a professor of plant physiology at University of California, Riverside, toldABC News.

"The sap causes something called phytophotodermatitis when it touches humans," causing scars and potentially blindness if it comes into contact with the eyes, Holt said. Some cases of blindness occurred after children used the hollow stalks as telescopes.

Heracleum Mantegazzianum, as hogweed is botanically known, is already a concern in the Northeast and spreading fast. Patches of giant hogweed have also been sighted in the Pacific Northwest.

With white blossoms a foot or larger in diameter, giant hogweed towers up to 15 feet tall and thrives in wet, cool places. It is often spotted near homes, roadways, railroad beds and streams, ABC News said.

Crews in several states, including New York, have been charged with seeking out and destroying the invasive species. New York has also set up a giant hogweed hotline -- 845-256-3111-- for people to identify sightings.

Typically, large quantities of herbicides are needed to vanquish the plant when found in large patches. Smaller patches can be controlled by hand-cutting the roots, according to published reports.

Giant hogweed has been found and destroyed in three counties of Vermont -- Bennington, Washington and Windsor, state plant pathologists reported. And officials in Washington, D.C., are asking residents to be on the lookout for giant hogweed so they can weed out the botanical terrorist, according to news reports.

According to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, reactions can occur within 15 minutes when skin contact occurs in conjunction with sunlight. The sap contains a photosensitizing chemical that accelerates sun damage and can result in a serious sunburn. Perspiration can increase the reaction, officials said.

If you spot giant hogweed, don't try to remove it yourself, experts said. Instead, report the sighting to your state or local department of invasive species control.

"The importance of learning what the plant looks like cannot be overstated," Holt told ABC News.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put the giant hogweed near the top of its Federal Noxious Weed list. The agency said the plant has been reported in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Vermont.

More information

To learn more about poisonous plants, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

-- HealthDay staff

SOURCES: New York state Department of Environmental Conservation; ABC News

Last Updated: July 07, 2011

The Sun Is the Best Optometrist

2011-06-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

By SANDRA AAMODT and SAM WANG

Published: June 20, 2011

WHY is nearsightedness so common in the modern world? In the early 1970s, 25 percent of Americans were nearsighted; three decades later, the rate had risen to 42 percent, and similar increases have occurred around the world.

There is significant evidence that the trait is inherited, so you might wonder why our myopic ancestors weren’t just removed from the gene pool long ago, when they blundered into a hungry lion or off a cliff. But although genes do influence our fates, they are not the only factors at play.

In this case, the rapid increase in nearsightedness appears to be due to a characteristic of modern life: more and more time spent indoors under artificial lights.

Our genes were originally selected to succeed in a very different world from the one we live in today. Humans’ brains and eyes originated long ago, when we spent most of our waking hours in the sun. The process of development takes advantage of such reliable features of the environment, which then may become necessary for normal growth.

Researchers suspect that bright outdoor light helps children’s developing eyes maintain the correct distance between the lens and the retina — which keeps vision in focus. Dim indoor lighting doesn’t seem to provide the same kind of feedback. As a result, when children spend too many hours inside, their eyes fail to grow correctly and the distance between the lens and retina becomes too long, causing far-away objects to look blurry.

One study published in 2008 in the Archives of Ophthalmology compared 6- and 7-year-old children of Chinese ethnicity living in Sydney, Australia, with those living in Singapore. The rate of nearsightedness in Singapore (29 percent) was nearly nine times higher than in Sydney. The rates of nearsightedness among the parents of the two groups of children were similar, but the children in Sydney spent on average nearly 14 hours per week outside, compared with just three hours per week in Singapore.

Similarly, a 2007 study by scholars at Ohio State University found that, among American children with two myopic parents, those who spent at least two hours per day outdoors were four times less likely to be nearsighted than those who spent less than one hour per day outside.

In short, the biological mechanism that kept our vision naturally sharp for thousands of sunny years has, under new environmental conditions, driven visual development off course. This capacity for previously well-adapted genes to be flummoxed by the modern world can account for many apparent imperfections. Brain wiring that effortlessly recognizes faces, animals and other symmetrical objects can be thrown off by letters and numbers, leading to reading difficulties. A restless nature was once helpful to people who needed to find food sources in the wild, but in today’s classrooms, it’s often classified as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. When brains that are adapted for face-to-face social interactions instead encounter a world of e-mail and Twitter — well, recent headlines show what can happen.

Luckily, there is a simple way to lower the risk of nearsightedness, and today, the summer solstice — the longest day of the year — is the perfect time to begin embracing it: get children to spend more time outside.

Parents concerned about their children’s spending time playing instead of studying may be relieved to know that the common belief that “near work” — reading or computer use — leads to nearsightedness is incorrect. Among children who spend the same amount of time outside, the amount of near work has no correlation with nearsightedness. Hours spent indoors looking at a screen or book simply means less time spent outside, which is what really matters.

This leads us to a recommendation that may satisfy tiger and soccer moms alike: if your child is going to stick his nose in a book this summer, get him to do it outdoors.

Fog Has Lifted for Spectacle Wearers

2011-06-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Researchers in Canada have developed the first permanent anti-fog coating, according to a study in the March issue of Applied Materials and Interfaces. They suggest that this development could be used indefinitely to eliminate the buildup of fog on eyeglasses, windshields, goggles and camera lenses.

Researchers at Laval University in Quebec City applied a polyvinyl alcohol compound to a series of glass surfaces. The polyvinyl alcohol coating allowed moisture to spread more uniformly across a glass surface instead of forming dispersed vapor droplets. To promote better surface adhesion, the researchers applied four successive layers of molecules, which also enhanced the coating’s durability.

The final result was a thin, transparent, anti-fog coating that did not alter the optical properties of the surface on which it was overlaid. And best of all, the specialized coating did not wash off even after 24 hours of water immersion.

“Existing anti-fog treatments don’t have these properties and won’t withstand washing, so the product application must be repeated regularly,” says lead author Gaetan Laroche, Ph.D., professor of sciences and engineering at Laval. “Our coating, on the other hand, is permanent.”

Negotiations are currently underway with a major eyewear company that is interested in obtaining a license for this technology.

Chevallier P, Turgeon S, Sarra-Bournet C, et al. Characterization of multilayer anti-fog coatings. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2011 Mar;3(3):750-8.

Consuming more olive oil may protect against strokes

2011-06-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

June 15, 2011, 1:55 p.m.

Pour some more of that EVOO on your plate -- a study finds that eating more olive oil could be linked with lower stroke risk in older people.

Medical records of 7,625 people 65 and older who lived in three French cities were examined by researchers to determine how their olive oil consumption affected their chances of having a stroke. The participants had no history of stroke at the beginning of the study.

Olive oil is a component of the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in healthy fats (like olive oil and nuts), plus whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish and chicken. Red meat and wine are consumed in moderate amounts, and regular physical activity is part of the regimen as well. Other studies have linked the Mediterranean diet with a lower risk of heart disease, but scientists are still assessing the roles various portions of the diet and lifestyle play.

In this study, participants were surveyed about how much olive oil they consumed: About 23% used none, 40% were moderate users (cooking with it or using it as a dressing or with bread) and about 37% were intensive users (using it in cooking and as a dressing or with bread).

In an average 5.25 years of follow-up, 148 strokes occurred. Those who were intensive users had a 41% lower stroke risk compared to those who never used olive oil. Researchers arrived at that number after adjusting for such factors as body mass index, other stroke risk factors, diet and physical activity. The results were statistically significant for ischemic stroke (caused by blockage of an artery to the brain) but not hemorrahagic stroke (caused by the rupture of a blood vessel).

The authors noted that the findings could be used to make dietary recommendations for older people at risk for stroke. The study was published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

Scientists make eye's retina from stem cells

2011-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

By Michelle RobertsHealth reporter, BBC News
A part of the eye that is essential for vision has been created in the laboratory from animal stem cells, offering hope to the blind and partially sighted.

One day it might be possible to make an eye in a dish, Nature journal reports.

The Japanese team used mouse stem cells - immature cells that have the ability to turn into many types of body tissue.

With the right mix of nutrients, the cells changed and began to grow to make a synthetic retina.

Ultimately, scientists hope they can use this approach to make endless supplies of retinal cells or indeed whole retinas that can be transplanted into patients with visual impairment.

Eventually, it may even be possible to create a whole eye.

A US biotech company has already been granted a license to begin human trials of a stem cell treatment for blindness.

'Landmark discovery'

The retina is the name given to a diverse group of cells that line the inside of the back of eye.

Rays of light enter the eye and are focused onto the retina which produces a picture that is then is sent along the optic nerve for the brain to interpret.

The eye and the brain together produce the images that we see.

Retinal diseases can cause severe vision loss or blindness if left untreated.

Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the most common causes of blindness in old age, and involve the gradual and normally irreversible destruction of retinal cells.

In the Japanese study, the cultured stem cells spontaneously organised themselves into a complex structure that resembled the developing embryonic eye.

The three-dimensional, layered structure was reminiscent of the optic cup, a two-walled pouch-like structure, which ultimately develops into the inner and outer layers of the retina.

The scientists said they were surprised at how well the cells organised themselves with little intervention from them.

They said: "Self-formation of fully stratified 3D neural retina tissues heralds the next generation of generative medicine in retinal degeneration therapeutics, and opens up new avenues for the transplantation of artificial retinal tissue sheets, rather than simple cell grafting."

Professor James Bainbridge of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "Generation of a synthetic retina from embryonic stem cells is a landmark discovery that will help enormously our understanding of blinding eye disease.

"It is particularly exciting that this could also provide a source of cells for transplantation."

Barbara McLaughlan of the RNIB charity said: "This piece of research contributes to the ongoing efforts to harness stem cell research to benefit patients with a number of eye diseases.

"We welcome these efforts particularly where they move from early laboratory research in mice to trials in humans that are an essential part of developing safe and effective treatments."

Revolutionary new X-ray treatment that could save the sight of thousands

2011-05-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

By Sophie Borland

UK's Daily Mail

An X-ray treatment that could save the sight of thousands is being trialled on the NHS.

The 15-minute procedure has been shown to halt wet age-related macular degeneration, one of the most common forms of blindness in the elderly.

Around 250,000 suffer from this debilitating condition which, if not treated, can cause loss of sight in just three months.

Currently sufferers have to undergo monthly injections in their eye for the rest of their lives to prevent them from going blind, and they are often unable to read, drive or live independently.

But early trials of the new procedure have shown that it could halt the progression of the condition immediately, saving the NHS £300million a year.

The trials on 60 people in Mexico showed that half did not need any more treatment while the remainder needed infrequent injections – only a few each year.

Wet AMD is caused when blood vessels grow over an area in the middle of the retina called the macular, which is at the back of the eye.

It is currently treated with several drugs, including Lucentis and Avastin, which temporarily stop the vessels from growing.

But the powerful new procedure, called iRay, can destroy the blood vessels completely. Patients sit at the front of a machine and place their chin on a rest while X-rays are beamed into the back of their eye.

The procedure lasts between 15 and 20 minutes and is estimated to cost around £4,000 a time. A year’s worth of the monthly injections costs £12,000.

The procedure, developed by U.S. firm Oraya Therapeutics, is being tested at London’s Kings College Hospital and doctors are hoping to recruit 50 more patients to take part in the trials.

If successful, it could be rolled out in hospitals nationwide and researchers believe it could save the NHS up to £300million a year.

Consultant ophthalmic surgeon Tim Jackson, who is leading the trial, said: ‘This is an exciting new technology that targets one of the most common causes of blindness in the UK.

‘If the initial results are borne out in these important larger studies then a majority of patients will have something to look forward to – an easily administered, one-off treatment that maintains or improves vision, and fewer injections into their eye.’

There are around 20,000 new cases of wet AMD in Britain every year, mostly Occurring in the over-60s.

The condition is more common among women, and is thought to be linked to smoking and heavy drinking.

PAINLESS PROCEDURE

Jonny Gathorne-Hardy, 77, is one of the first British patients to undergo the treatment.

He was diagnosed with wet AMD in his right eye last June and had been receiving injections of Lucentis almost every month.

But since undergoing the treatment at the beginning of December he has not needed a single injection. Mr Gathorne-

Hardy, an author of children’s books, described the procedure as ‘painless’.

He lives in Binham, near Fakenham in Norfolk, and had to travel more than 20 miles every month to Norwich for the injections.

Mr Gathorne-Hardy said: ‘The Lucentis injections are fairly frightening. I’ll be delighted if I never need any more.’

Researchers Devise Process To Create Ready-Made Blood Vessels For Kidney, Heart Patients.

2011-05-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ready-made and easily stored, bioengineered transplants did well in animal trials

By Maureen Salamon
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists say they have devised a process to create ready-made, easily stored blood vessels that may potentially be used for patients undergoing heart surgery or kidney dialysis.
Using donor tissue cultured on biodegradable tube-shaped frames called scaffolds, researchers spent more than five years engineering the "off-the-shelf" blood vessels, which cannot be rejected by patients' immune systems and are resistant to infection or clotting. The bioengineered vessels can be refrigerated long-term in a saline solution.
The study was conducted in baboons and dogs by scientists from Duke, East Carolina and Yale universities, along with Humacyte Inc., a private company based in Durham, N.C. that develops products for vascular disease and soft-tissue repair.
"We're very encouraged by the results," said study author Shannon Dahl, who is co-founder and director of scientific operations at Humacyte. "This type of technology has the potential to help more than 500,000 patients each year. The next step is to lay the groundwork . . . that can bring this to the clinic."
While engineered blood vessels can be grown using patients' own cells, the process can take nine months or longer, making it unfeasible for those needing more immediate heart bypass surgery, which is performed in the United States about 400,000 times each year. Doctors can also graft veins from other body areas, particularly the legs, but the ready-made vessels can help those whose veins are unsuitable, Dahl said.
Additionally, the bioengineered veins can be made in sizes large enough to use in kidney dialysis patients, half of whom lack the healthy vessels needed for bloodstream access to dialysis machines and receive grafts made of infection- and obstruction-prone synthetic material, according to the study, reported in the Feb. 2 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, about 320,000 Americans depend on regular dialysis treatments to remove waste products from their blood because of kidney failure.
"I think this is a very nice example of translating a scientific advance into a clinical application in an area in which we have a very large patient population," said Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University in New York City and director of its Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering.
"What they offer now is essentially making a piece of native vessel without adverse effects on the patient," Vunjak-Novakovic said. "It's almost like a medical device, providing a really native-looking and native-functioning vessel."
Dahl and her team produced 37 vascular grafts using smooth muscle cells of 19 human donors. Once the blood vessels were fully formed, detergent was used to strip the muscle cells away, ensuring they would not cause an immune response in transplant recipients.
The vessels were then implanted in baboons and dogs during coronary artery and carotid artery bypass surgeries, where they experienced low rates of complications and became similar to the animals' natural arteries over several months. When the vessels were removed for examination, there was no evidence of fibrosis or thickening of the vessel walls.
Dahl said the ability to create large supplies of ready-made vessels from a cell bank will someday lead to lower production costs for each vein segment. She said she could not speculate on what those costs might be, however, or when the veins will be tested in humans.
"But the approach we're using is quite unique," Dahl said. "We use large banks of cells, where many approaches to tissue engineering are focused on one patient at a time. So, the approach we use offers an economy of scale."
Vunjak-Novakovic said she believes it might be only several years before the vessels could be available to patients.
"Now they need to do the next step -- study them in humans," she said. "But I don't think any major, critical problems are left. It's very promising."
More information
For more about tissue engineering, visit the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
SOURCES: Shannon Dahl, Ph.D., director, scientific operations, and co-founder, Humacyte, Durham, N.C.; Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D., professor, biomedical engineering, Columbia University, and director, Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering; Feb. 2, 2011, Science Translational Medicine
Last Updated: Feb. 02, 2011
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

People With Type 1 Diabetes May Eventually Be Able To Grow Their Own Insulin-Producing Cells, Research Indicates.

2011-05-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

Researchers Say Advancement May Lead to Cure for Type 1 Diabetes

By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News

Dec. 13, 2010 -- New research suggests it may be possible for people with type 1 diabetes to grow their own insulin-producing cells -- an advancement that could lead to a cure for this form of diabetes.

The preliminary findings are slated to be presented at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia.

“The goal here is to cure diabetes, not to treat it,” says study author G. Ian Gallicano, PhD, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology and the director of the Transgenic Core Facility at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Islet cells in the pancreas are responsible for producing insulin, but these cells are destroyed in people with type 1 diabetes.

Of Mice and Men

In the new study, however, researchers were able to take cells from men’s testicular tissue, isolate stem cells, and turn them into insulin-secreting islet cells. These islet cells were then re-injected into mice with diabetes.

And it worked. “These cells behave a lot like beta-islet cells,” Gallicano says. “They secrete insulin in response to glucose, and we were able to secrete insulin in mouse models to reduce high blood sugar or glucose levels.” The effects lasted for one week.

The next step is to see if these cells can produce enough insulin to cure diabetes in people. If this occurs, clinical trials in humans can begin, he says.

Today, islet cells can be transplanted from donors into people with diabetes, but there is the risk of rejection. This risk is eliminated when the islet cells are derived from the recipient. There is also a shortage of available islet cell donors.

Gallicano says there are many unanswered questions, such as how to best deliver these bioengineered cells back into the body, and whether it will work in women.

Energy Drinks May Be Harmful To Children

2011-04-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Some young people gulp drinks such as Red Bull, Full Throttle and Rockstar to boost their energy, concentration and athletic performance.

But the caffeinated energy drinks don't appear to provide the purported benefits and can cause problems, including serious medical complications, says a review of the scientific literature published online today in Pediatrics.

The paper is already drawing criticism from the beverage industry, which says energy drinks have no more caffeine than a cup of coffee and aren't widely used by kids and teens.

Steven Lipshultz, chair of pediatrics at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and colleagues reviewed 121 scientific studies, government reports and media sources on energy drinks — different from sports drinks, vitamin waters and sodas.

Energy drinks usually contain 70 to 80 milligrams of caffeine per 8-oz. serving, more than double many cola drinks. Energy drinks also may contain guarana, a plant that contains caffeine, taurine (an amino acid), vitamins, herbal supplements and sweeteners.

Surveys show that 30% to 50% of teens and young adults consume energy drinks, but "we didn't see evidence that drinks have beneficial effects in improving energy, weight loss, stamina, athletic performance and concentration," Lipshultz says.

And the research shows that children and teens — especially those with cardiovascular, renal or liver disease, seizures, diabetes, mood and behavior disorders and hyperthyroidism — are at a higher risk for health complications from these drinks, says Lipshultz, a pediatric cardiologist.

He encourages pediatricians and parents to talk to kids and teens about whether they should be drinking such beverages.

Maureen Storey of the American Beverage Association, an industry group, said in a statement that "this literature review does nothing more than perpetuate misinformation about energy drinks, their ingredients and the regulatory process."

She says government data indicate that the "caffeine consumed from energy drinks for those under the age of 18 is less than the caffeine derived from all other sources including soft drinks, coffee and teas."

Red Bull said in a statement that the study "largely ignores in its conclusions the genuine, scientifically rigorous examination of energy drinks by reputable national authorities. ... The effects of caffeine are well-known, and as an 8.4-oz. can of Red Bull contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee (80 milligrams), it should be treated accordingly."

Stem cell injection 'reverses glaucoma'

2011-04-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

People with glaucoma could receive a simple injection in the near future to halt - or even reverse - the eye condition.

From The Telegraph

By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent 8:00AM GMT 12 Mar 2011

Scientists at Cambridge University believe the technique, which uses stem cells, could even cure blindness one day.

They have already had success in rats and hope to start trials in humans within five years.

The method involves taking stem cells from bone marrow and injecting them in a solution into the back of the eye.

There, they help existing optic nerve cells from degenerating further. They can also transform theselves into new optic nerve cells, reversing damage and improving eyesight.

Professor Keith Martin, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and an eye surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, said: "Finding treatments to reverse blindness is no longer in the realm of science fiction.

"We are doing it in animal models and results are so encouraging that we hope to move forward to testing on humans soon.

"Stem cell treatment is moving forward very fast in many branches of the medicine and we are seeing some of the best results in eyes."

He added: "We have concentrated on glaucoma because it is so common, but there are quite a few diseases that affect they optic nerve, such as inflammatory diseases, so it could be used here too."

While the team has had success in halting glaucoma in rats and reversing its decline to some extent, they are still working on the ultimate objective - how to cure blindness.

There are 300,000 people in Britain diagnosed with glaucoma, although the total number of sufferers is thought to be double that. Most are over 40.

The condition is usually caused by raised eye pressure and damage to the optic nerve, which transmits signals from the retina to the brain. The field of vision slowly narrows over years or decades.

Prof Martin said the new technique could help two groups in particular: those diagnosed with advanced glaucoma and those who developed it early in life.

The existing treatment, lowering eye pressure, worked well for most people but as it was a preventative strategy it was useless for those with advanced glaucoma, he said. In addition, lowering eye pressure alone could not stave off glaucoma over many decades.

The project is funded by a £320,000 grant from charity Fight for Sight, which is supporting today's (SAT) World Glaucoma Day.

Dr Dolores Conroy, research officer for Fight for Sight, said: "Advances in stem cell technology are likely to revolutionise treatments for diseases like glaucoma.

"We must invest in this research field now so treatments to save, and potentially restore, the sight of millions of people are available in the future."

Acupuncture Might Treat Certain Kind of Lazy Eye Small Chinese study found it worked better than an eye patch in older kids with condition

2011-04-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Acupuncture may be an effective way to treat older children struggling with a certain form of lazy eye, new research from China suggests, although experts say more studies are needed.
Lazy eye (amblyopia) is essentially a state of miscommunication between the brain and the eyes, resulting in the favoring of one eye over the other, according to the National Eye Institute.
The study authors noted that anywhere from less than 1 percent to 5 percent of people worldwide are affected with the condition. Of those, between one third and one half have a type of lazy eye known as anisometropia, which is caused by a difference in the degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness between the two eyes.
Standard treatment for children involves eyeglasses or contact lens designed to correct focus issues. However, while this approach is often successful in younger children (between the ages of 3 and 7), it is successful among only about a third of older children (between the ages of 7 and 12).
For the latter group, doctors will often place a patch over the "good" eye temporarily in addition to eyeglasses, and treatment success is typically achieved in two-thirds of cases.
Children, however, often have trouble adhering to patch therapy, the treatment can bring emotional issues for some and a reverse form of lazy eye can also take root, the researchers said.
Study author Dr. Dennis S.C. Lam, from the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences and Institute of Chinese Medicine at the Joint Shantou International Eye Center of Shantou University and Chinese University of Hong Kong, and his colleagues report their observations in the December issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.
In the search for a better option than patch therapy, Lam and his associates set out to explore the potential benefits of acupuncture, noting that it has been used to treat dry eye and myopia.
Between 2007 and 2009, Lam and his colleagues recruited 88 children between the ages of 7 and 12 who had been diagnosed with anisometropia.
About half the children were treated five times a week with acupuncture, targeting five specific acupuncture needle insertion points (located at the top of the head and the eyebrow region, as well as the legs and hands). The other half were given two hours a day of patch therapy, combined with a minimum of one hour per day of near-vision exercises such as reading.
After about four months of treatment, the research team found that overall visual acuity improved markedly more among the acupuncture group relative to the patch group. In fact, they noted that while lazy eye was successfully treated in nearly 42 percent of the acupuncture patients, that figure dropped to less than 17 percent among the patch patients.
Neither treatment prompted significant side effects, the authors said.
The team nonetheless pointed out that their study's tracking period was relatively short, and that acupuncture is a complicated system that may lend itself to different success rates, depending on the skills of the particular acupuncturist.
And while theorizing that the apparent success of this alternative approach may have something to do with stimulating blood flow, retinal nerve growth and visual cortex activity, the authors acknowledged that the exact mechanism by which it works remains poorly understood.
Dr. Richard Bensinger, a Seattle-based ophthalmologist and spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said that the finding is "certainly suggestive and worth following up."
"This is kind of cool," he said. "But I will say that I don't know of any study looking at acupuncture and vision. There are studies based on symptomatic things such as pain, and I think there's pretty good evidence that it does have benefit in that respect. But for vision therapy this is the first I've heard of it, and I don't know that anyone has ever tried this before. So this is like a teaser."
"Of course people in those parts of the country, like where I live, where there's fairly wide acceptance of alternative medicine might receive this type of treatment better than others," Bensinger cautioned. "And no question patients will gravitate towards treatments that are covered by their insurance even if it's not the best treatment. And as an alternative approach, this may not be covered."
"But if it works," he added, "people will certainly be excited -- although it certainly needs further testing and further studies to decide if it's really beneficial or not."
For his part, Dr. Stanley Chang, chairman of the ophthalmology department at Columbia University in New York City, did not seem to hold out much promise for acupuncture's potential as an alternative lazy eye therapy.
"Acupuncture I think definitely works for pain amelioration, but I'm not sure it works for some of these other things," he cautioned. "They've tried it for the treatment of myopia and glaucoma, without much success. And so although there haven't been any really good trials comparing acupuncture with conventional therapies, my guess is that it's probably not going to do much for the treatment of lazy eye."
"However, I think it's worth considering or trying," Chang added, "because nothing else seems to work very well for patients of that age, including patch therapy. But what will need is a very carefully controlled study that accounts for all the variables that might have an impact on the outcome of this approach."
More information
For more on amblyopia, visit the National Eye Institute.
SOURCES: Dennis S.C. Lam, M.D., department of ophthalmology and visual sciences and Institute of Chinese Medicine, Joint Shantou International Eye Center of Shantou University and Chinese University of Hong Kong; Richard Bensinger, M.D., Seattle ophthalmologist, and spokesman, American Academy of Ophthalmology; December 2010 Archives of of Ophthalmology.
Last Updated: Dec. 13, 2010
Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Laser Treatment of Eye Floaters

2011-04-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Some people call them floaters. Eye doctors call them "vitreous opacities." Emily Flynn of Dunedin, New Zealand, called hers "a little fuzzball." She flew halfway around the world to have it removed.

After more than 100 pinpoint zaps from a laser beam during a half-hour visit to a northern Virginia office park, the fuzzball was gone, obliterated within the clear, gelatinous goo that fills the eyeball.

The surgeon, John Karickhoff, has done the same procedure more than 1,400 times over the past 15 years and claims a success rate of better than 90%, with minimal risk of complications. Still, many ophthalmologists have never heard of the procedure — and most would recommend against it. The procedure has drawn regulatory scrutiny in Florida.

Nearly everybody has floaters or will develop them at some point in life, especially older and nearsighted people. Sometimes shaped like specks or snakes, they float through a person's field of vision, and are most easily seen when you look against a light background like a blue sky or a white wall.

They are harmless, usually just bits of membrane that have become dislodged from other parts of the eye. Karickhoff estimated that 95% of people who have floaters ought to leave them alone. But for that 5%, they can be a legitimate problem.

"I've had musicians who couldn't read the sheet music quickly enough because the floater would get in the way," said Karickhoff, who has tried for years to get the procedure accepted into the medical mainstream. "It can ruin a patient's quality of life."

Only a handful of doctors in the United States — perhaps as few as two — regularly treat floaters with laser surgery.

"Patients usually are told to learn to live with it," Karickhoff said. "By the time they come to see me, they've already seen two or three other doctors."

Richard Bensinger, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said most ophthalmologists believe the procedure is unnecessary. He acknowledged the laser treatment is often successful and carries little risk, but most doctors believe any risk is unacceptable for treating a benign condition like floaters.

If patients insist on treatment, Bensinger said the laser treatment can be a better choice than the more common alternative, a vitrectomy, which involves removing most or all of the eyeball's internal fluid.

The vast majority of patients can learn to live with floaters, Bensinger said. Those patients who demand treatment, he said, "are mostly obsessive-compulsive types" who allow the floaters to drive them to distraction.

But Oliver Hill, 60, of Waynesburg, Pa., said many eye doctors are too dismissive of how irritating a floater can be. He compared it to trying to read a book while holding a pencil directly in front of one of your eyes.

"It just drove me right up the wall," said Hill, who had his left eye treated in June 2005 and returned to Karickhoff in November to treat a floater in his right eye.

In Flynn's case, her optometrist in New Zealand had told her that floaters were common and not harmful, and that she should learn to live with it. She learned about Karickhoff from his website.

Before having the surgery, Flynn said she would get headaches as she read and often tried to read with one eye shut to keep the floater out of her line of sight.

"That eye was effectively dysfunctional," Flynn said.

Karickhoff said he knows firsthand that floaters can be troubling — he had what he called "a whopper" of a floater in his own eye.

He was skeptical when, on a Florida vacation, he saw a newspaper ad touting laser surgery for floaters. But he sat in on a surgery performed by Fort Myers ophthalmologist Scott Geller and later allowed Geller to operate on his eye. The procedure was a success.

Not long after, Karickhoff began performing the procedure himself. Both Geller and Karickhoff have since operated on thousands of patients.

Last year, the Florida Board of Medicine investigated a complaint against Geller filed by a 72-year-old woman who complained that the surgery merely broke up one large floater into a bunch of smaller floaters. But the board dismissed the complaint after hearing testimony from Karickhoff on how the procedure works.

Karickhoff, who has a clean record with the Virginia medical board, said he can tell by examining the patient's eye if the floater is a serious distraction or a minor annoyance. He declines to treat those "who are making a mountain out of a mole hill" because such patients will almost never be satisfied.

There is little peer-reviewed literature about the procedure. What does exist shows the procedure to be generally safe, but the results about its effectiveness are mixed.

Karickhoff said studies have not replicated his success rate because they have not fully emulated his technique, which requires a laser beam of a specific intensity, and because they have not always chosen ideal candidates for surgery.

Karickhoff said there is a theoretical risk of serious complications, including a detached retina, but that he has never seen it happen. He said his own rate of complications is about a tenth of a percent, usually involving increased pressure within the eye.

Geller likened laser treatment of floaters to "an orphaned surgical procedure" that has been unable to overcome entrenched skepticism.

Despite that skepticism, Karickhoff said the medical community has not been completely unresponsive. He has written a medical book about the procedure, and said he received mostly positive feedback when he presented his work in November at the national conference of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. And insurers frequently cover the procedure, he said.

Manfred von Fricken, chief of ophthalmology at Inova Fairfax Hospital,said he has seen many of Karickhoff's patients who have benefited from the surgery.

"It's an innovative approach," said von Fricken, who agrees that eye doctors are too often dismissive of patient complaints about floaters. "He's thinking out of the box, and I think it's pretty imaginative."

For more information about Dr. Karickhoff's treatment, visit his website at:

http://www.eyefloaters.com/

How to permanently get rid of your red, bloodshot eyes.

2011-03-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

From Dr. Boxer Wachler's website: http://www.boxerwachler.com/whiteeyes/

You can see a sample of his 'before' and 'after' pictures above.

He has invented a surgical technique, called I-Brite Eye Whitening which can permanently remove conspicuous redness and brown or yellow spots from the eyes.

Here is what he has to say:

I-BRITE^® Eye Whitening

Do your eyes look red and bloodshot?
Do people often ask, "Are you tired?"
Do some people say you look like you're smoking pot or are on drugs?
Do your eyes make you feel self-conscious or embarrassed to be around other people?

Are there brown spots on the whites of your eyes?
Does it bother you when you look at your eyes in the mirror?
Do people often ask if you were out late the night before?
Do you notice yellowing of the eyes that makes you look unhealthy?
Do you feel like you're 'addicted' to "get the red out" drops and wish you had white eyes?

Are you disappointed to still have red eyes after LASIK?
Do you avoid making eye contact with other people?
Are you suffering in silence?

If you answered YES to any of the above, you just might be a candidate for

Eye Whitening for whiter eyes. It may have been many years that people have suffered the stigma of how their eyes look. Some people think it is too good to be true that something now can be done.

At last, now something can be done.

The environment can be hard on the eyes. A combination of exposure to pollution, sunlight, dusty environments, or smoking can cause permanent changes in your eyes, making them look bloodshot and unhealthy even though you feel 100% perfect! In addition, patients may also notice a slight yellowing or brown spots on the white eyes over time. This covers the white eyes underneath.

ARE THESE EXTRA BLOOD VESSELS SOMEHOW NEEDED FOR EYE HEALTH? No. In fact, infants and young children have very few noticeable blood vessels.

Bloodshot eyes and eyes with yellowish or brownish growths may keep you from looking healthy, alert and at your best. A typically 20 minute procedure can improve the appearance of eyes.

The delicate procedure involves removing the thin membrane that holds most of the unsightly red veins and yellow or brown material. After removal, a crystal clear membrane (without red blood vessels, yellow or brown spots) grows back in its place. That's how your eyes can become whiter and brighter. Many people even feel their self-confidence is improved afterwards too.

This is a 100% no-stitch, no-graft procedure. It is typically 20 minutes and you can usually resume work and your daily routine the very next day. The whiter eye results are often visible within 2-6 weeks after the procedure. As with any procedure, individual results will vary primarily due to differences in healing responses.

Patients may note a scratchy sensation for a period of days, dryness of the eyes, and light sensitivity which are known risks. In most cases, once the eyes heal patients frequently report their eyes feel more moist and comfortable than prior to the procedure.

I-BRITE^® can also be used to remove pingeculae (raised bumps on white part of eye) or pterygium (red growths on the cornea).

"Dr. Brian" (as patients affectionately call him) is recognized as one of the world's leading pioneers in eye procedures. He is the inventor of I-BRITE^®. He was the first in the United States to perform Eye Whitening for whiter eyes and patients come from all over to see him with the expectations of having life-changing, fresh-looking, "brighter, whiter eyes"!

Close your eyes for a moment and visualize what your life would be like with "whiter eyes". Imagine not needing those "get the red out" drops like you do now. It's not necessarily a dream anymore. It is possible to be your new reality.

ARE YOU A CANDIDATE? You can e-mail a close-up picture of your eyes to find out if you appear to be a candidate for I-BRITE^® Eye Whitening.Simply e-mail to Jen at info@boxerwachler.com and request a "photo review for I-Brite Eye Whitening."

The The I-BRITE^® Report covers "must know" essentials to whiter and brighter eyes. This report will show you how to reveal, refresh and restore your whiter and brighter eyes. Click Here to immediately access the Report.

Girl, 4, sees parents for the first time thanks to miracle stem cell operation

2011-03-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:02 AM on 15th December 2010

A little girl who has been blind since birth has seen her mother and father for the first time - at the age of four.

Izabelle Evans can now see up to three feet in front of her after groundbreaking stem cell treatment in China costing £50,000.

Parents James Evans and Hollie McHugh said nothing could beat the feeling of the first time their daughter looked into their eyes and said: 'mummy' and 'daddy'.

Hollie, 24, of Hayling Island, Hampshire, said: 'The results were better than we could ever have dreamed of.

'If you walk past she can see you and say 'hiya.' It is amazing because doctors here said she couldn't see anything at all before we went.'

Izabelle was blind from birth after being born with Septo Optic Displasia - a congenital condition which affects just five in one million babies and also causes hormone deficiency and mobility problems.

It means she had only a few hundred optic nerves to her brain whereas she needs millions to be able to see.

Her parents decided to send Izabelle for treatment in China after researching her condition on the internet and raised the money needed in just over a year.

Her parents had hoped the controversial stem cell treatment - which is not available in the UK - would improve her sight, speech and mobility.

It involves injecting the spinal canal with cells taken from the umbilical cords of healthy babies. The cells are then used to rebuild the optic nerves.

Hollie said: 'We've seen lots of changes. Her speech has improved a lot. Before she went she could only say one or two words but now we can have a little conversation with her.

'Her walking has improved and she can support her own weight on her legs now.

'Because she has not used her eyes before we have to remind her to use them. She went back to school and they have seen a difference too.

'She picks things up and holds them close to her face. A couple of days after we got back I put the Christmas tree up and she reached out to grab for the lights.

'Last year she wasn't even aware we had a Christmas tree. It's just amazing. I can't wait for her to open her presents and experience it all for herself.

'We're just over the moon and so, so happy. It is better than anything we expected and we can't thank everyone who helped us enough. We are so grateful.'

The month-long stay in China's Qingdao Chengyang People's Hospital was not easy for the family.

Izabelle had to endure gruelling treatment with just two days off a week. She often became very upset when having the stem cell treatment and it was hard for her parents to see her in pain.

Izabelle also had acupressure, standing therapy, physiotherapy and electric wave therapy to stimulate her tight muscles, which is another aspect of her condition.

Her father James, 24, said: 'We're going to wait six months because the stem cells continue to work for six months if she stays healthy.

'We're going to keep an eye on her, see how her vision is, and then decide if we'll go back out there again and see if we can improve even more.'

PAPER EYE LASHES? THE CRAZIEST SPRING BEAUTY TREND

2011-03-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

By Anne T Donahue (www.29secrets.com)

How to wear spring's most avant-garde trend

Spring/Summer Fashion Week 2011 may have showcased relatively minimalist looks, trends and styles, but despite clean lines and bold colours, there's still a place for avant-garde beauty. Pioneered by the likes of Paperself, paper eyelashes are the new way to express one's artistic side, and inspired by the tradition of Chinese paper cutting, the generic false lashes of yesterday have finally been upstaged. Here's how to wear them:

Designs Far from the standard "eyelash" look, Paperself has pioneered small, paper works of art that boast intricate patterns and designs that carry a symbolic meanings rooted in Chinese culture. With the likes of horses representing success, butterflies representing the feelings of "free, beautiful and sensitive" and peacocks symbolizing "auspicious and lucky days", eyelash accessories have become the retro Chinese bracelet equivalent of 2011, using a bold and striking approach to symbolism without being generic.

Daily Wear Of course, with such a strong look it's not recommended to wear paper lashes to the office or on afternoon errands. Since most designs are intricate and three-dimensional, they should be worn alongside a minimalist aesthetic, since the lashes themselves are meant to be the focal point of any ensemble. Sure, bright colours may be in, but as paper lashes are a trend on their own, rely on them to add interest to a neutral-based outfit.

With Makeup Surprisingly, despite the lashes' strong presence, it's best to pair them with bold eye colour to maintain the avant-garde aesthetic they're meant to have. Since styles are worn as a statement, maintain the look through bright shadow, though despite the necessity for balance between colour and lashes, shy away from distinctive eyeliner. Since the paper is so intricate, any other designs would be lost - but remember shadow is still necessary in anchoring the overall look to maintain a distinctive and intentional artistic quality.

How To Naturally, the most important aspect of paper lashes is to establish how to wear them. Applied similarly to standard false lashes, Papershelf offers two sizes: smaller designs meant to accentuate the corners of eyes, and full lashes that make a much bigger impact. However, while smaller styles are meant to extend the eye horizontally, they can be worn in the centre of the lower lashline for a dramatic effect. Though regardless of what design you opt for, focus on either the bottom or the top lashes if you've opted for the full style: that way, you're not overdoing the look or overshadowing your eye with too much paper.

Low Vitamin D Linked to Allergy Risk in Kids

2011-03-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Study Shows Greater Risk of Allergies for Kids and Adolescents Who Don’t Get Enough Vitamin D

By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News

Feb. 25, 2011 -- Children who don’t get enough vitamin D may be at increased risk of developing allergies, new research indicates.

Researchers in New York examined serum vitamin D levels in the blood of more than 3,100 children and adolescents and 3,400 adults.

No association was found between low vitamin D levels and allergies in adults, but the link was significant in children and adolescents.

Children and adolescents aged 1 to 21 with low vitamin D levels were at increased risk of having sensitivities to 11 of 17 allergens tested, including environmental andfood allergies.

For example, children who had vitamin D deficiency, which was defined as less than 15 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood, were 2.4 times more likely to have a peanut allergy than kids with sufficient levels, or 30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood.

Children with low vitamin D levels also had increased risk of allergic sensitization to shrimp, dogs, cockroaches, ragweed, oak, ryegrass, Bermuda grass, and thistle.

Avoiding Vitamin D Deficiency

The data came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006 (NHANES), which is a program of studies aimed at assessing the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the U.S.

The study participants underwent blood tests measuring levels of Immunoglobulin E(IgE), a protein that is produced when the immune system responds to allergens.

Researchers say their findings don’t prove that insufficient vitamin D causes allergies in children and adolescents, but strongly suggests that young people should get adequate amounts of the vitamin.

“The latest dietary recommendations calling for children to take in 600 IU of vitamin D daily should keep them from becoming vitamin D deficient,” researcher Michal Melamed, MD, MHS, of the Albert Einstein College Medicine of Yeshiva University, says in a news release.

The study says vitamin D is thought to have anti-inflammatory effects in the body.

The researchers note that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is increasing in the U.S., and so is the prevalence of food allergies.

The study is published in the Feb. 17 online edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Retina-Damaging Green Laser Pointers Easy To Get Online.

2011-03-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

By CHRISTINE NEGRONI

Published: February 28, 2011

So far, the reports have been scattered and anecdotal. But eye doctors around the world are warning that recent cases of teenagers who suffered eye damage while playing with high-powered green laser pointers are likely to be just the first of many.
“I am certain that this is the beginning of a trend,” said Dr. Martin Schmid, a Swiss ophthalmologist who reported one such case last September in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The pointers, which have also been implicated in a ninefold increase over five years in reports of lasers’ being aimed at airplanes, are easier than ever to order online, doctors say — even though they are 10 to 20 times as powerful as the legal limit set by the Food and Drug Administration.
At the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a spokeswoman said the group was unaware of any increase in eye injuries caused by lasers. But doctors interviewed for this article said they were shocked by the easy availability of high-powered lasers.
Not long ago a high school student went to see Dr. Robert G. Josephberg, a retina specialist at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., complaining of a blind spot in his left eye. The boy, who did not want to be identified, said the injury occurred when a friend waved a green laser pointer in front of his face.(Whether it will heal completely is uncertain.)
Dr. Josephberg said that at first he doubted the story. “I didn’t believe that a green laser was out there that could cause the damage,” he said.
But it turned out the laser put out 50 milliwatts of power, 10 times the F.D.A. limit. And as he investigated his patient’s case, Dr. Josephberg went online and bought a 100-milliwatt pointer for $28. He could hardly believe how easy it was.
“I kept waiting for the error message telling me I could not complete the purchase,” he said.
Like household lights, lasers are measured in watts, but the similarity ends there. A 100-watt incandescent bulb produces about five watts of visible light; the five-milliwatt laser is only one-thousandth as powerful. But because the light from a bulb is diffuse and a laser beam is concentrated, the effect of five milliwatts on the eye is 10,000 times as intense, according to Samuel M. Goldwasser, a laser expert and author of the online guide Sam’s Laser FAQ.
Dr. Jerald A. Bovino of the American Retina Foundation says the way the eye focuses can also intensify the laser.
“It is going to the fovea, the center of the retina,” he said. The darker pigment in the fovea absorbs the light as heat, quickly raising the temperature of the retina the same way a black car seat gets hot as it absorbs the sun.
Dr. Kimia Ziahosseini of the St. Paul’s Eye Unit at Royal Liverpool University Hospital in England says the dangers are so acute that even the F.D.A.’s five-milliwatt limit is too high.
“Laser pointers available for sale to general public should be less than one milliwatt,” she said. “Anything more than this puts people at risk by the criminally minded or those who are unaware of the risks.”
In a consumer update in December, the F.D.A. said it was aware that illegal laser pointers were being sold and warned that “a higher-powered laser gives you less time to look away before injury can occur, and as power increases, eye damage may happen in a microsecond.”
Daniel Hewett, a health promotion officer at the agency, said by e-mail, “There are many noncompliant products available for purchase from retailers, importers and, of course, via the Internet.” He noted that the agency had seized products from Wicked Lasers, an online store based in Hong Kong.
Steve Liu, chief executive of Wicked Lasers, said in an interview that its products did not violate the F.D.A. restrictions because those over the five-milliwatt limit were not called pointers.
Moreover, he added, “we make it extremely clear on our Web pages that these lasers are not only eye hazards but fire hazards.” And he said the company would begin offering laser safety lessons to its customers before online checkout.
Several laser experts say the enforcement of regulations is already insufficient and ineffective. “It’s a whole can of worms,” Dr. Goldwasser said, recalling that he recently received a 100-milliwatt laser as a gift from Wicked Lasers. To rein in all the hazardous products out there — from virtual stores to flea markets — would be impossible, he said.
And any talk of restricting availability is certain to meet resistance from the large community of laser enthusiasts, including those who use them professionally (like contractors and astronomers) and hobbyists like 18-year-old Alex Triano of Staten Island.
Since middle school, with his parents’ permission, Mr. Triano has been building lasers in his home, wearing safety goggles. “You learn so much in a hobby like this: electronics, soldering, physics,” he said. “And you learn about light, you learn about optics. You also learn a lot of mechanical things.”
The laser injuries Dr. Shepard Bryan has seen at his practice in Mesa, Ariz., involved red lasers, which laser fans like Mr. Triano consider passé. Green is more easily perceived by the eye and the beam is visible along its path.
But green lasers are also more dangerous. Green is more easily absorbed by the retina than red, so it requires less exposure to cause damage. (Dr. Bryan’s cases involved an 11-year-old girl who focused on the light as part of an endurance game and a young man who also looked directly into the pointer.)
“Right now I haven’t seen an epidemic of injuries,” Dr. Bryan said, but he added that the potential was there. “In the hands of children it’s a very scary proposition.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 2, 2011
An article on Tuesday about eye doctors’ warnings of hazards from high-powered green laser pointers sold on the Internet misstated the given name of the chief executive of Wicked Lasers, who said his company’s products did not violate Food and Drug Administration restrictions because they are not called pointers. He is Steve Liu, not Sam.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 3, 2011
An article on Tuesday about eye doctors’ warnings of hazards from high-powered green laser pointers misstated part of the name of the physicians’ association whose spokeswoman said it was unaware of any increase in eye injuries caused by lasers. It is the American Academy of Ophthalmology, not the American Association of Ophthalmologists.

Tattoos as Makeup? Read the Fine Print

2011-03-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

By ABBY ELLIN

Published: February 23, 2011

AURI REYNOSO, a hairstylist in Englewood, N.J., says she wanted to roll out of bed “looking beautiful.” So three years ago, she asked Melany Whitney, a certified permanent-cosmetics professional based in New York, New Jersey and Florida, to tattoo eyeliner and defined brows onto her face.

Though the procedure was “a little uncomfortable,” said Ms. Reynoso, now 39, she was delighted with the results. “Everything for beauty,” she said. “It’s amazing how you can wake up looking absolutely fabulous and get ready in five minutes. I just apply blush, lip gloss and mascara and I’m done.”
Permanent makeup, also known as micropigmentation or cosmetic tattooing, dates back to the early 1980s, when it was developed to address alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss (including eyebrows). Since then, the field has expanded to include burn victims and cancer survivors, patients with arthritis and Parkinson’s disease who have difficulty putting on makeup and people like Ms. Reynoso, who would simply rather limit the amount of time spent in front of a mirror.
But while many are thrilled with their outcomes, all is not rosy in the world of needles and ink. The word “permanent” is a misnomer because the color fades with time. Some patients develop granulomas, keloids, scars and blisters, and they report burning sensations when they undergo anM.R.I.
What’s more, although the inks used in permanent makeup and the pigments in these inks are subject to the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration, regulations for practitioners (electrologists, cosmetologists, doctors, nurses and tattoo artists) vary by state. “You can go on eBay and buy machines and pigment and go in the garage and set up shop,” said Dr. Charles Zwerling, an ophthalmologist in Goldsboro, N.C., and an author of the forthcoming book “Micropigmentation Millennium.” He founded the American Academy of Micropigmentation, a nonprofit professional organization that offers certification for practitioners, in 1992.
“We see thousands of faces being destroyed by people who don’t get trained properly, and that’s the biggest problem in permanent cosmetics,” said John Hashey, the owner of John Hashey’s Advanced School of Permanent Cosmetics in Oldsmar, Fla. Mr. Hashey said that 90 percent of his business is fixing mistakes. “Your average cosmetologist who cuts hair has to do 1,200 to 1,500 hours just to do that,” he said. “How is that any more important than taking a needle to someone’s eye?”
The adverse reactions to micropigmentation include infections like H.I.V., hepatitis, staph and strep from dirty needles, and allergic reactions to the permanent dyes, said Dr. Jessica J. Krant, a dermatologist in Manhattan and an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York.
A report in this month’s issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases reported an outbreak of mycobacterium haemophilum, a nontuberculous mycobacterium that causes skin, joint, bone and pulmonary infections, after permanent makeup was applied to patients’ brows. A study last September in Contact Dermatitis, a medical journal, investigated severe adverse reactions like swelling, burning, and the development of papules in four patients who had had at least two permanent-makeup procedures on their lips. “In light of the severe and often therapy-resistant skin reactions, we strongly recommend the regulation and control of the substances” used in the colorants, the authors wrote.
Nancy Erfan, a real estate agent in Monterey, Calif., had a bad experience. In November 2003, Ms. Erfan, now in her 30s, had permanent color applied to her lips and eyes. The technician told her she would be swollen for a few days, and gave her a cream to help. But the swelling worsened, Ms. Erfan said, and soon she had “big bumps” around her eyes and lips.
“I could barely open my mouth to eat or speak,” she said. She visited a variety of dermatologists and plastic surgeons, but found no remedy. “They said I was obviously having an allergic reaction, but they didn’t know what to do.”
It turned out that the colors used in one of the dyes by Premier Pigments, a manufacturer, was tainted; after the F.D.A. received more than 150 complaints, the company eventually recalled the entire line.
Finally Ms. Erfan found Dr. Mitchel Goldman, a dermatologist in San Diego who specializes in laser removal of tattoos. He did six treatments over a year, for a total of about $10,000, which insurance did not cover. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine helped with facial pain and swelling, she said. Dr. Goldman would like greater F.D.A. supervision of permanent makeup. “I’ve had patients who have infections on their lips and eyebrows because these tattoo artists are totally not regulated,” he said. “They use equipment that’s not sterile. A lot of infections also come from the tap water. They dip their needles in and transfer infections. The pigment goes to lymph nodes. Who knows if 20 years down the line patients will have lymphoma or cancer because of these carcinogens in tattoo pigment?”
Mr. Hashey thinks practitioners should be regulated nationally and required to get 600 to 1,500 hours of training.
Elizabeth Finch-Howell, the owner and founder of Derma International, a permanent cosmetics manufacturer in Kempton, Pa., believes a minimum of 100 hours is enough. (She got a tattoo that matched her skin tone to cover up a port-wine colored birthmark on half of her face, performing the procedure herself because “I didn’t trust anyone else,” she said.)
As for Ms. Erfan, she is still angry, years later. It took her more than a year and a half to recover, she said, and she still has scars on her lips. She must wear makeup to cover the scars and white lines above her mouth, and the facial pain persists. “Applying makeup is one thing, but injecting it into your body? I feel stupid,” she said. “But everything I read about permanent makeup was positive, how even Cleopatra was tattooing her eye liner and lip liner. I thought it was safe.”

New Dry Eye Therapy now Available in Canada!

2011-02-25T12:12:00.001-08:00

Restasis now available in Canada to treat dry eye syndrome. Ask the doctors at Bedford Eye Care Centre if you are a candidate!

Cellphone use affects brain activity

2011-02-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY

Holding a cellphone against your ear changes the activity in your brain, according to a new study that shows the brain is sensitive to the phone's radiation emissions.

Whether the increased sensitivity is harmless or hurtful to the brain is still up for debate, say researchers from the National Institutes of Health, who found that less than an hour of cellphone use is linked with increased activity in the part of the brain closest to the phone antenna.

It's not clear yet whether the radiation is potentially carcinogenic or has any other negative health implications — or positive ones, for that matter, says lead author Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about the research in this week'sJournal of the American Medical Association.

The year-long study on 47 people used positron emission tomography (PET) scans — a technique used to map out the brain. Study subjects underwent two injections with a dye that measures brain glucose metabolism, which is an indication of the brain's activity.

The first time around, cellphones were placed on both sides of the head. In half of the participants, the cellphone against the right ear was turned on with the sound muted for 50 minutes and in the other grooup, neither phone was activated. On the second test, the two groups were switched. None of the participants knew which phone was turned on.

The scientists found that metabolism in the brain region closest to the antenna — in the orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole — was about 7% higher when the cellphone was on. The orbitofrontal cortex of the brain — one of the two areas that lit up on the scans — isn't linked to a single function, says Murali Doraiswamy, head of biological psychiatry at Duke Medical Center, who wasn't involved in the study. "It's broadly associated with emotion, sense of smell, memory, eating, aggression — a whole range of behaviors. It's like an orchestra conductor instead of just an individual musician with specific task."

The temporal area is critical to language and memory, says Keith Black, chairman of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"This study raises a lot of questions," says Black, who was not involved in the study. "Will cellphones impact how we remember things, is there any relation to the risk of Alzheimer's? Will it affect our cognitive ability to manipulate language functions?"

Doraiswamy adds, "What would happen if you expose someone's head to a cellphone for three hours a day for six months or against other areas of the head?"

Black says he's concerned about children's increased use of cellphones, since their less developed skulls and brains are more susceptible to the radiation. And he worries about the impact of cellphone radiation over 10, 15, 20 years?

"The important thing to remember about a cellphone is that it's really a microwave radiation antennae. The amount of radiation you get from it is directly related to distance it is from the head," says Black, who recommends plugging in a headset, and says texting is probably OK, too.

On the flip side, "An increase in glucose metabolism doesn't mean it's dangerous," notes Doraiswamy. "Though cancer cells do have higher levels of glucose metabolism, it has also been associated in normal people (and in some animal studies) with some good things, including greater cognitive performance and greater blood flow."

Even so, Doraiswamy says he never uses his mobile phone close to his head. "I always put it on speaker phone."

emPower, the World's First Electronic Focusing Eyewear... coming soon to Bedford Eye Care Centre!

2011-02-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

by Matthew Humphries of Geek.com

If you wear eyeglasses then you know they can’t be perfect in all situations. You have a prescription that solves a problem such as long or short sightedness, but you still find yourself looking over the top of the glasses or having trouble focusing through them for certain viewing tasks.

PixelOptics has turned to technology in order to solve that problem, and claim to have produced some rather intelligent eyewear that automatically adjusts the prescription based on what you are trying to look at.

The new glasses are called emPower. They use a combination of a micro-accelerometer, chip, and small rechargeable battery embedded into the frame of the glasses. That setup controls an LCD layer which covers both lenses.

The accelerometer is used to tell when the wearer tilts their head forwards or backwards, and if in automatic mode, will adjust the lens output to suit. Tilting the head forwards suggests trying to read something so the lower reading area of each lens is activated. Tilt your head back up and the reading area is disabled giving the wearer a clear view in distance mode.

The switching between these modes only takes 7ms making it almost instant. Although a full-automatic mode exists, the wearer can swipe the touch-sensitive frame and switch to manual mode giving them more control.

As the reading area of prescription eyewear is only thought to be used 30-40% of the time, PixelOptics believe emPower will give wearers a much better experience as they don’t have to put up with blurry areas in their vision due to permanent reading areas. They are instead only there when you need them.

The emPower eyewear requires power and therefore ships with a charging cradle it can be placed in when not in use. A single charge is meant to give up to 3 days of use, though. They are also waterproof and have a transitions lens option for those who want them to double as sunglasses. When it comes to frames PixelOptics has turned to well-known eyewear company Aspex who will provide 48 frames in plastic, metal, or memory metal options.

emPower is expected to be available from April this year. As for price, nothing has been confirmed yet, but they will carry a premium of about 30% over the more typical prescription eyewear we buy putting them at around the $1,200 mark.

14 Things Your Eyes Say About Your Health

2011-02-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

By Paula Spencer, Caring.com
Thu, Feb 03, 2011

Looking people straight in the eye may or may not reveal their honesty -- but the eyes *can* tell you about cholesterol, liver disease, or diabetes, if you know what to look for.

"The eye is a unique window into health," says ophthalmologist Andrew Iwach, spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and executive director of the Glaucoma Center of San Francisco. "It's the only place in the body where, without surgery, we can look in and see veins, arteries, and a nerve (the optic nerve)."

The eyes' transparency explains why common eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration can be detected early with regular eye exams.

"Unfortunately, people get busy and delay not only eye exams but regular physicals. That's why eye doctors sometimes discover other issues, like diabetes or high blood pressure," Iwach says. Especially vulnerable, he says: People like caregivers, who worry about others around them while neglecting care for themselves.

Keep your eye out for these 14 problems.

1. Red flag: Disappearing eyebrows

What it means: Shaved eyebrows are a fad (or fashion, if you will) in some circles. But when the outer third of the brow (the part closest to the ears) starts to disappear on its own, this is a common sign of thyroid disease -- either hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland) or hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland). The thyroid is a small but critical gland that helps regulate metabolism, and thyroid hormones are among those critical to hair production.

More clues: Brows tend to thin with age naturally. But with thyroid disease, the brow-hair loss isn't evenly distributed; it's a selective dropout on the ends. There's usually a loss of hair elsewhere on the body, too, but the brows are so prominent, it's often noticed here first. Early graying is a related sign of a thyroid problem. Women are more often affected than men, and hyperthyroidism especially strikes women in their 20s and 30s.

What to do: Mention this symptom to a dermatologist or your regular doctor. Most other symptoms of both hyper- and hypothyroidism are notoriously broad and general. Before you see a doctor, make note of any other changes you've noticed, possibly concerning weight, energy levels, bowel or menstrual regularity, mood, or skin changes.

2. Red flag: A stye that won't go away

What it means: The vast majority of the time, a small, raised, often reddish bump along the inner or outer eyelid margin is just an unsightly but innocuous stye (also called a "chalazion"). But if the spot doesn't clear up in three months, or seems to keep recurring in the same location, it can also be a rare cancer (sebaceous gland carcinoma).

More clues: Actual styes are plugged-up oil glands at the eyelash follicle. Fairly common, they tend to clear up within a month. A cancerous cyst that mimics a stye, on the other hand, doesn't go away. (Or it may seem to go away but return in the same spot.) Another eyelid cancer warning sign: Loss of some of the eyelashes around the stye.

What to do: Point out a persistent stye to an ophthalmologist (a medical doctor who specializes in the eye). A biopsy can confirm the diagnosis. The stye is usually removed surgically.

3. Red flag: Bumpy yellowish patches on the eyelid

What it means: Xanthelasma palpebra, the medical name for these tiny yellow bumps, are usually a warning that you may have high cholesterol. They're also called "cholesterol bumps" -- they're basically fatty deposits.

More clues: Sometimes people mistake these bumps for a stye, but with xanthelasma, there tends to be more than one bump and they're quite small.

What to do: See your doctor or a skin or eye specialist. A diagnosis can usually be made by sight. An ophthalmologist can also examine the eye and see deposits; for this reason, in fact, sometimes high cholesterol is first diagnosed during a routine eye exam. The problem usually isn't serious and doesn't cause pain or vision problems. A physician will also evaluate you for other signs of coronary artery disease.

4. Red flag: Burning eyes, blurry vision while using a computer

What it means: You might be a workaholic, and you definitely have "computer vision syndrome" (CVS). The eyestrain is partly caused by the lack of contrast on a computer screen (compared with ink on paper) and the extra work involved in focusing on pixels of light. What's more, by midlife the eyes lose some of their ability to produce lubricating tears. Irritation sets in, adding to blurriness and discomfort.

More clues: Does the problem worsen in the afternoon (when the eyes tend to become drier)? Is it worse when you're reading fine print (more eyestrain)? People who wear glasses or contacts tend to be bothered more by CVS. "Sometimes the problem is made worse by a fan positioned so it blows right in the face," the AAO's Iwach adds, noting that the air further dries tired eyes.

What to do: Reduce glare by closing window shades, investing in a computer hood, or checking out antireflective coating for your glasses (if you wear them). Simply tinkering with the contrast of your screen can help, too. White areas should neither glow brightly like a light source nor appear gray. Flat-panel LCD display screens (like those on laptops) cause less eyestrain than older models. Keep reference material close to the same height as your monitor, giving your eyes a break from having to refocus so much.

5. Red flag: Increasing gunk in the eye

What it means: Blepharitis -- inflammation of the eyelids, especially at the edges -- can have several causes. Two of them, surprisingly, are conditions better associated with other body parts: scalp dandruff and acne rosacea (which causes flushed red skin, usually in the faces of fair-skinned women at midlife).

More clues: The eyes may also feel irritated, as if specks have gotten in them. They may burn, tear, or feel dry. The crusty debris tends to gather in the lashes or the inner corners of the eyes, or even on the lids.

What to do: With clean hands, apply a warm, damp washcloth to the eyes for about five minutes at a time to loosen debris and soothe the skin. See a doctor, who may prescribe an antibiotic ointment or oral antibiotics, as well as artificial tears.

6. Red flag: A small blind spot in your vision, with shimmering lights or a wavy line

What it means: An ocular migraine (also called an "ophthalmic migraine," "optical migraine," or "migraine aura") produces this disturbed vision, with or without an accompanying headache. Changes in blood flow to the brain are thought to be the cause.

More clues: The visual distortion starts in the center of the field of vision. It might appear as a bright dot, dots, or a line that can seem to move and disrupt your ability to see properly, as if you were looking through a pocked or cracked window. It's painless and causes no lasting damage. Individuals seem to have different triggers (ranging from chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol to stress). A headache, possibly severe enough to cause nausea, sometimes follows.

What to do: If you're driving, pull over until the phenomenon passes (usually within an hour). Do have an eye specialist check it out if vision impairment lasts more than an hour or so, to rule out serious problems such as a retinal tear; or if you also experience other symptoms elsewhere that could indicate stroke or seizure (such as fever, loss of muscle strength, or speech impairment).

7. Red flag: Red, itchy eyes

What it means: Many things can irritate eyes, but itchiness accompanied by sneezing, coughing, sinus congestion, and/or a runny nose, usually screams "I'm allergic!" When the eyes are involved, the trigger is usually airborne, like pollen, dust, or animal dander.

More clues: An eye allergy can also be caused by certain cosmetics or ointments. Some people, for example, are allergic to the preservative in eye drops used to treat dry eyes.

What to do: Staying away from the allergic trigger is the usual treatment. Antihistamines can treat the itchiness; those in eye-drop or gel form deliver relief to the eyes faster. If the problem turns out to be an allergy to eye drops, look for a preservative-free brand.

8. Red flag: Whites of the eye turned yellowish

What it means: Two groups of people most often show this symptom, known as jaundice: Newborns with immature liver function and adults with problems of the liver, gallbladder, or bile ducts, including hepatitis and cirrhosis. The yellow in the white part of the eye (the sclera) is caused by a buildup of bilirubin, the by-product of old red blood cells the liver can't process.

More clues: "Other tissues of the body would have the same look, but we can't see it as clearly as in the whites of the eye," says ophthalmologist Iwach. (Skin can also turn yellowish when a person consumes too much beta carotene -- found in carrots -- but in those cases the whites of the eyes remain white.)

What to do: Mention the symptom to a doctor if the person isn't already under care for a liver-related disease, so the jaundice can be evaluated and the underlying cause treated.

9. Red flag: A bump or brown spot on the eyelid

What it means: Even people who are vigilant about checking their skin may overlook the eyelid as a spot where skin cancer can strike. Most malignant eyelid tumors are basal cell carcinoma. When such a tumor appears as a brown spot, then -- as with any other form of skin cancer -- it's more likely to be malignant melanoma.

More clues: Elderly, fair-skinned people are at highest risk. Look especially at the lower eyelid. The bump may look pearly, with tiny blood vessels. If the bump is in the eyelash area, some eyelashes may be missing.

What to do: Always have any suspicious skin spots or sores checked out by a dermatologist, family physician, or eye doctor. Early detection is critical, before the problem spreads to nearby lymph nodes.

10. Red flag: Eyes that seem to bulge

What it means: The most common cause of protruding eyes is hyperthyroidism (overactivity of the thyroid gland), especially the form known as Graves' disease. (First Lady Barbara Bush had it.)

More clues: One way to tell if an eye is bulging is to see whether there's any visible white part between the top of the iris and the upper eyelid, because normally there shouldn't be. (Some people inherit a tendency toward eyes that bulge, so if the appearance seems to run in a family, it probably isn't hyperthyroidism.) The person may not blink often and may seem to be staring at you. Because the condition develops slowly, it's sometimes first noticed in photos or by the occasional visitor rather than by someone who lives with the person every day.

What to do: Mention the symptom to a doctor, especially if it's present in tandem with other signs of Graves' disease, including blurry vision, restlessness, fatigue, increase in appetite, weight loss, tremors, and palpitations. A blood test can measure thyroid levels. Treatment includes medication and surgery.

11. Red flag: Sudden double vision, dim vision, or loss of vision

What it means: These are the visual warning signs of stroke.

More clues: The other signs of stroke include sudden numbness or weakness of the arm or leg or face, typically on just one side of the body; trouble walking because of dizziness or loss of balance or coordination; slurred speech; or bad headache. In a large stroke (caused by a blood clot or bleeding in the brain), these symptoms happen all at once. In a smaller stroke caused by narrowed arteries, they can occur across a longer period of minutes or hours.

What to do: Seek immediate medical help by calling 911.

12. Red flag: Dry eyes that are sensitive to light

What it means: Sjogren's (pronounced "show-grins") syndrome is an immune system disorder. It impairs the glands in the eyes and mouth that keep them moist.

More clues: Sjogren's usually affects women over age 40 with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. Usually the eyes and mouth are affected together. The person may also have vaginal dryness, dry sinuses, and dry skin. Because of a lack of saliva, it can be difficult to chew and swallow.

What to do: A doctor can diagnose Sjogren's through testing. Artificial lubricants (such as artificial tears) are usually necessary to protect the eyes, as well as to improve eating. Drinking plenty of water also helps.

13. Red flag: Sudden difficulty closing one eye, inability to control tears in it

What it means: Bell's palsy is an impairment of the nerve that controls facial muscles (the seventh cranial nerve), causing temporary paralysis in half the face. It sometimes follows a viral infection (such as shingles, mono, or HIV) or a bacterial infection (such as Lyme disease). Diabetics and pregnant women are also at higher risk.

More clues: Half of the entire face, not just the eye, is affected. Effects vary from person to person, but the overall effect is for the face to appear droopy and be weak. The eyelid may droop and be difficult or impossible to close, and there will be either excessive tearing or an inability to produce tears. The effects tend to come on suddenly.

What to do: See a doctor. Most cases are temporary and the person recovers completely within weeks. Rarely, the condition can recur. Physical therapy helps restore speaking, smiling, and other tasks that require the facial muscles working in unison, and it also helps avoid an asymmetrical appearance. Professional eye care can keep the affected eye lubricated and undamaged.

14. Red flag: Blurred vision in a diabetic

What it means: Diabetics are at increased risk for several eye problems, including glaucoma and cataracts. But the most common threat to vision is diabetic retinopathy, in which the diabetes affects the circulatory system of the eye. It's the leading cause of blindness in American adults.

More clues: The changes linked to diabetic retinopathy tend to show up in people who have had the disease for a long time, not those recently diagnosed. The person may also see "floaters," tiny dark specks in the field of vision. Sometimes diabetes causes small hemorrhages (bleeding) that are visible in the eye. There's no pain. People with poorly controlled blood sugar may have worse symptoms.

What to do: Someone with diabetes should have a dilated eye exam annually to catch and control the earliest stages of retinopathy, glaucoma, cataracts, or other changes -- before they manifest as changes you're aware of.

Is your computer damaging your eyes?

2011-02-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

More and more women are reporting problems with their vision—and their computers are to blame.

By Jennifer Goldberg
From BestHealthMag.ca

Moira Saganski's computer gives her a headache every day—and it's not from the amount of e-mails in her inbox. The 54-year-old chief financial officer from Toronto suffers from computer vision syndrome, a condition that's becoming increasingly common among middle-aged women who spend a lot of time looking at computer screens.

"Computer vision syndrome [C.V.S.] describes eye and vision symptoms that are associated with digital screens, including computers, Blackberrys and televisions," says Dr. Mira Acs, an optometrist based in Toronto. "We're seeing a higher volume of baby boomers complaining of eye strains and fatigue, and C.V.S. has become more frequent over the past five years as technologies have evolved. We all stare at screens of all kinds for long periods of time."

A recent study by Leger Marketing found that baby boomer women are spending more time in front of computer screens than ever before—more than four hours a day, on average—and 43 percent of them suffer from ailments related to screen-viewing.

Saganski spends anywhere from six to 13 hours working on a computer every day, and it's taking a toll on her vision. "I first realized that my eyes were getting blurry and very achey," she recalls. "My vision was changing and I had a lot of headaches that were related to strain on the eye."

Those are the symptoms of C.V.S., says Acs, as are light sensitivity and dry eyes. However, as these ailments are often associated with general fatigue, she says that many people don't even notice they have a problem. But left untreated, these symptoms could persist and even worsen.

"Sometimes [C.V.S.] requires vision correction," says Acs. "You may need to have your glasses or contact lenses fit for how you use a computer." An optometrist may recommend computer glasses, which have a different prescription on the top part of the lenses that allows you to focus on a computer screen. You may also get a prescription for artificial tears to relieve dry eyes.

Saganski says that after being diagnosed with C.V.S., she has become more aware of how her computer affects her vision, and what she can do for the uncomfortable symptoms. "Because I'm aware of it, I do try to take a break [when using a computer]. I go totally out of my office and take a walk around the work stations," she says.

Here are some steps you can take to help protect your eyes from computer-induced strain:

Take breaks

Saganski is certainly on the right track with her short office walks: When working on a computer, the Canadian Association of Optometrists recommends following what they call the "20-20-20 rule": Take a 20-second break from using your computer every 20 minutes and focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away. This gives your eyes a chance to rest and recover from strain.

Adjust your screen

Be screen smart, says Acs. "Take a few minutes to adjust the brightness and contrast of your screen, and make sure it's positioned correctly—about arm's length [about 50 cm] from your eyes." The screen should also be places at 20 degrees below eye level.

Get the right light

"The lighting in the room is also very important," says Acs. Unfortunately, not everyone has the freedom to adjust the lights in their work environment, but you can cut glare and reflections on your home computer by diffusing the light that hits the screen. This will help reduce the amount of squinting you do.

Visit the eye doctor

Make regular appointments with your optometrist to ensure that you're wearing the appropriate corrective eyewear. You also want to make sure that what seems like C.V.S. symptoms aren't the result of another vision problem.

Web exclusive: October 2009