Five Fabulous Foods for Your Eyes

Most people are aware that keeping your heart healthy depends in part on what you eat. Fortunately, the same diet that helps your heart is good for your eyes!

Eating a diet low in fat and rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains can pay benefits not only to your heart but to your eyes. The isn't surprising as your eyes rely on tiny arteries for oxygen and nutrients, just as the heart relies on much larger arteries. Keeping those arteries healthy will help your eyes.

Some foods stand out as particularly helpful for eye health. Here are five things you should make sure are part of your diet for healthy vision.

• Leafy green vegetables. Kale and spinach are high in lutein and zeaxanthin, two nutrients found in the healthy eye that may lower your risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Other vegetables with significant amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin include romaine lettuce, collards, turnip greens, broccoli and peas. And while not leafy and green, eggs are also a good source of these nutrients.
• Citrus fruits. Oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and lemons are high in vitamin C, an antioxidant critical to eye health. Research shows that your eyes need relatively high levels of vitamin C to function properly, and antioxidants can prevent or at least delay cataracts and AMD. Lots of other foods offer vitamin C, including peaches, red peppers, tomatoes and strawberries.
• Beans. All kinds of beans (legumes), including black-eyed peas, kidney beans and lima beans, contain zinc, an essential trace mineral that is found in high concentration in the eyes. Zinc may help protect your eyes from the damaging effects of light. Did you know that peanuts are a legume too? Other foods high in zinc include oysters, lean red meat, poultry and fortified cereals.
• Cold-water fish. Research shows that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acid from cold-water fish may help reduce the risk of developing eye disease later in life. These fish include salmon, tuna, sardines and halibut.
• Orange-colored vegetables and fruits. Carrots are high in beta-carotene, a nutrient that helps with night vision, as are other orange-colored fruits and vegetables like sweet potatoes, apricots and cantaloupe. Making them a part of a colorful diet can help you keep your eyes healthy.

You can help to keep your eyes healthy by eating a “heart healthy” type diet. Learn about how diet can impact eye health and vision when you schedule an eye exam at Doctor & Associates-203-227-4113, visit Doctor & Associates in Fairfield County, Google or facebook.com/doctorandassociates to schedule an appointment.

Doctor & Associates offices are conveniently located at 129 Kings Highway North, Westport, Connecticut 06880, 195 Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 and 148 East Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06851.           

Sleep Problems & Glaucoma

A study of more than 6,700 people in the United States over age 40 who were previously diagnosed with glaucoma based on their optic nerve damage and visual field loss, responded to a survey about their sleep that revealed possible connections between glaucoma and sleep problems. Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve. Damage to this nerve-which is responsible for sending signals from the eye to the brain so you can see-often goes unnoticed until an eye exam reveals the nerve damage and related vision loss caused by glaucoma.

Patients were asked and responded to questions about a) amount of time slept, b) difficulties falling asleep, c) sleep disturbances specifically waking up during sleep, d) having diagnosed sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, e) use of sleep medication and f) problems with sleepiness during the day. The results revealed the following interesting information:

• People who slept for 10 or more hours a night were three times more likely to have glaucoma-related optic nerve damage than those who slept 7 hours a night.
• People who fell asleep in 9 minutes or less, or those who needed 30 minutes or more to fall asleep, were twice as likely to have glaucoma than those who took 10-29 minutes to fall asleep.
• The odds of having missing vision were three times higher among people who got 3 or fewer or 10 or more hours of sleep per night, compared with those who got 7 hours a night.
• People who said they had trouble remembering things because of daytime sleepiness were twice as likely to have visual field loss than those who said they were not sleepy during the day and did not notice memory problems.
• People who said they had difficulty working on a hobby because they were sleepy during the day were three times more likely to have vision loss than people who reported no problems working on hobbies and no daytime sleepiness.

While it is unclear whether the sleep problems are a result of some glaucoma related phenomenon or perhaps whether these sleep problems might be early risk factors for glaucoma, it is important to mention to your eye doctor whether you experience sleep problems. Schedule an eye health exam beginning at age 40 at Doctor & Associates-203-227-4113, visit Doctor & Associates in Fairfield County, or facebook.com/doctorandassociates to schedule an appointment.

Doctor & Associates offices are conveniently located at 129 Kings Highway North, Westport, Connecticut 06880, 195 Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 and 148 East Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06851.          

Fireworks Eye Injuries

The most recent Consumer Product Safety Commission report found that 14% of fireworks injuries were eye injuries. In the most severe cases, fireworks can rupture the globe of the eye, cause chemical and thermal burns, corneal abrasions and retinal detachment -all of which can cause permanent eye damage and vision loss. Children and young adults are frequent victims. Children age 15 and under accounted for 36% of the total injuries, according to the commission's report. And half of the injuries requiring an emergency room visit were to people age 20 or younger. Even sparklers can be dangerous, as they burn at more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Sparklers were responsible for 1,200 of the injuries in the latest report, and a sparkler mishap caused one of the fireworks deaths reported in 2017. The people injured by fireworks aren't necessarily handling the explosives themselves. In fact, 65% of people injured by fireworks were bystanders, according to another study. The statistics don't lie. Children and people not handling fireworks themselves are in as much danger as the people actually lighting fireworks.

Please leave preparing fireworks displays to professionals in order to decrease your risk of fireworks eye injuries. If you or someone you know does experience a fireworks eye injury call us immediately or go directly to the emergency room and have them call us for consultation.

Top 5 AMD Risk Factors

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss among Americans ages 65 and over. To help reduce your chance of vision loss from AMD:

• know the risk factors for AMD,
• know your family eye & medical history, and
• Schedule and keep regular eye exam appointments.

The Top 5 Risk Factors for AMD include:

• Being over the Age of 60
• Having a Family History of AMD
• Cigarette Smoking
• Obesity
• Hypertension

People with any two of these risk factors should schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist and,

People who are at risk should know the symptoms of Wet AMD, the form most likely to cause rapid and serious vision loss including:

• sudden, noticeable loss of vision, or
• sudden distortion of vision, such as seeing "wavy" lines. 

See an ophthalmologist right away if these symptoms occur. Treatments for wet AMD provide an excellent chance of stopping vision loss. They may actually restore some vision when macular degeneration develops. Earlier diagnosis of wet AMD gives a better chance of successful treatment.

You can control some AMD risk factors, such as smoking and diet, to reduce the risk of vision loss. One way to reduce AMD risk is to quit smoking or never start. You can't control all your risks, however. For example, you can't do anything about your genetics. Knowing family medical history and sharing it with your ophthalmologist is an important step to protect your vision. For patients at high risk for developing late-stage wet AMD, taking a specific, AMD dietary supplement lowers that risk by 25 percent. However, patients should check with their ophthalmologist before starting any dietary supplement!

The FDA Warns About Smoking, Eye Health & Vision Problems

We have strongly recommended that patients stop smoking and even avoid second hand smoke as we have reviewed the studies demonstrating the increased risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Cataracts, Diabetic Retinopathy, Dry Eye and even Optic Nerve Damage among those who smoked. This is in addition to full range of cardiovascular problems. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently proposed new warning labels for cigarettes and cigarette advertising in which two of the FDA's 13 new proposed cigarette warning labels feature effects of smoking that are linked to eyes and vision. These two new warnings focus on the leading causes of blindness in the United States-Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Cataracts! Our message to patients remains strong-If you are a smoker-STOP! If you are not a smoker-DON’T START!

If you or someone you know has been a smoker or is around smokers it would be important to schedule an eye exam at Doctor & Associates-203-227-4113, visit Doctor & Associates in Fairfield County, or facebook.com/doctorandassociates to schedule an appointment.

Doctor & Associates offices are conveniently located at 129 Kings Highway North, Westport, Connecticut 06880, 195 Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 and 148 East Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06851.