Glaucoma: Diet, Health
& Lifestyle: What You Need to Know!
As glaucoma is a chronic eye disease, we are often asked
by glaucoma patients what diet, health and lifestyle factors can helpful or
harmful to their eye health. There is a need to separate fact from fiction on
recommendations and yet we can all take away some useful and practical
information about the effect of diet, health and lifestyle on glaucoma.
Exercise
and Glaucoma
One of
the typical findings in glaucoma is that patients have an elevated intraocular
pressure (IOP). Results from a number of studies indicate that aerobic exercise is
associated with IOP lowering and according to the findings the
change is greater among sedentary individuals than those who were already
active and is independent of exercise duration or intensity. So, even a little
aerobic exercise has a positive impact on lowering IOP! For anyone who feels
they cannot incorporate exercise into their lifestyle-any kind of movement,
even walking, may be beneficial. But, the key is consistency as you have to
maintain your regimen because there is evidence showing as well that the effect
of exercise on IOP does not continue when deconditioning occurs.
Diet and Glaucoma
There
are many studies that suggest eating a healthy diet that includes a variety of
fruits and vegetables-especially green leafy vegetables-is beneficial. This
advice comes from studies showing that consumption of a diet rich in green
leafy vegetables, or with a higher dietary nitrate intake (for which green
leafy vegetables are an excellent source), seemed to protect against glaucoma.
In general there is no harm in increasing your intake of green leafy
vegetables–EXCEPT that for patients taking the blood thinner Coumadin® or
warfarin, you need to be aware that green leafy vegetables are high in vitamin
K and should you should discuss any increase in their green vegetable intake
with their primary care doctor so that medication dosages can be adjusted if
necessary.
Acupuncture and Glaucoma
Today,
many patients express an interest in alternative therapies such as acupuncture
for managing treating their glaucoma. In
general according to the results of a well designed clinical study reported on
acupuncture treatment for glaucoma in the American
Journal of Ophthalmology,
acupuncture is unlikely to be beneficial.
