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All Vision Special Reports
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Glaucoma: A Family Matter
When it comes to glaucoma, family ties might not be a good thing. Open-angle glaucoma, which accounts for 90% of glaucoma cases, has a familial component and, therefore, is in part due to heredity. However, blood relatives of people with glaucoma often don't realize that they, too, are at risk. If you or someone in your family has glaucoma, you'll want to read and share this Special Report – it could save a loved one's… More...
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How the Eye Works
If you are age 50 or older, there's a good chance you're concerned about eventually developing one of the four common eye diseases that affect older people -- cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and – for those with diabetes -- diabetic retinopathy. Yet most of us rarely consider the complex process that enables us to see the world around us – until our vision is threatened. In this Special Report, Johns Hopkins illustrates how the eye works. More...
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Advice To Help You See Better When You Drive
Each time drivers in the United States renew their driver's license a vision test is required. Right? Wrong. Surprisingly, regular vision tests aren't required everywhere. And according to a recent report by the Vision Council of America, of the 10 states with the highest number of fatal car crashes, four require no vision screenings after the initial license application and four only require screenings every eight or more years. … More...
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Learning More About Antioxidants and Age-Related Macular Degeneration
The National Eye Institute is sponsoring a second study – AREDS 2 -- to learn more about the impact of high-dose vitamin and mineral supplements on the progression of age-related macular degeneration.
Age-related macular degeneration has early and late forms. The late forms can cause gradual or abrupt central vision loss, and until recently this vision loss was irreversible in most people. These late forms of age-related macular degeneration are estimated to affect over 1.75… More...
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Farsighted? LASIK Isn’t Your Only Option
More than one million LASIK surgeries are performed in the United States each year. But despite LASIK’s widespread use, for those 12 million Americans with farsightedness, it’s no longer the only -- or always the best -- option.
LASIK, which stands for laser-assisted in-situ keratomileousis, is a surgical procedure that uses a laser to reshape the cornea. When people have hyperopia, better known as farsightedness, they also tend to have flatter corneas than people who… More...
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Herpes Virus and Vision Loss
In May 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new vaccine for people over the age of 60 who have had chickenpox. Why is this good news for your vision? Because the herpes virus that causes chickenpox also causes shingles, a very painful rash that could break out on your face and threaten your vision. … More...
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Artificial Vision -- New frontiers in sight
Two new devices -- versions of an artificial retina -- hold the promise of restoring vision to the blind.
For blind people, recovering even the slightest bit of vision would be a revolutionary step. Just being able to see the outline of a doorway would propel blind people into a different world. … More...
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Special Genetics Update -- The role of heredity in age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma
The Conundrum of Research
One day, research in molecular genetics will open many doors in terms of the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Overall, however, we’re not there yet. Challenges include the following:
Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma: We have a gene, but no test. For many years, ophthalmologists have known that age-related macular degeneration tends to run in certain families. The strongest evidence yet of a genetic component to macular degeneration came last spring, when four independent teams of researchers came up with the same finding: People who inherit a particular form of one gene have a 3–7 fold greater risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.
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Cornea Thickness -- A Risk Factor for Glaucoma
Glaucoma, a condition that can lead to blindness by damaging the optic nerve, was once thought to be caused by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP)—the pressure exerted by fluid within the eye. But even people with normal IOP can suffer damage to the optic nerve, and IOP is now considered a risk factor for—rather than a cause of—glaucoma. Recently, researchers also discovered a new risk factor for glaucoma—cornea More...
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Relief for Dry Eye
An estimated 10 to 14 million people in the United States suffer from dry eye syndrome. Dry eye is a condition characterized by a decline in the quantity and/or quality of the tears that normally bathe the eyes and wash away foreign particles. A 2003 study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology involving almost 40,000 women estimated that about 8% of American women over age 50—more than 3.2 million people—are affected More...
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Dealing with a Detached Retina
Nearly everyone experiences floaters—small dots, lines, clouds, or “cobwebs” across the visual field—from time to time. This phenomenon is caused by shadows cast on the retina by microscopic structures within the vitreous humor (a thick, gel-like substance that fills the back of the eyeball behind the lens). Seeing flashes of light, which occurs when this fluid shifts, is another common ocular phenomenon. More...
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For Presbyopia -- A New Procedure to Replace Reading Glasses
Derived from the Greek words for aging eye, presbyopia refers to age-related refractive changes in the eye that occur when the lens of the eye (which focuses light on the retina) hardens and loses elasticity.
As presbyopia develops, typically starting at age 40, focusing on objects that are up close becomes increasingly difficult —and so people with presbyopia typically reposition
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Deciding Whether To Have Cataract Surgery
A cloudiness or opacification of the lens is called a cataract. Derived from the Latin word meaning “waterfall,” the term cataract arose from the ancient misconception that cataract symptoms were caused by evil liquids that mysteriously flowed into the eye.
Ordinarily, light rays reflected from an object enter the eye through the cornea and lens, which together focus the light onto the retina to produce a sharp image. When a cataract develops, however, light rays are no longer precisely focused. Instead, the rays are scattered before reaching the retina.
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