Director of the Stem Cell and Retinal Regeneration Program at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute (GHEI), Henry Klassen, MD, Ph.D., leads life-changing research that will affect and influence vision-saving treatments for years to come.
Watch below to hear from Dr. Klassen on his recent stem cell research:
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Awareness Month is observed annually every February. It’s an awareness month targeted at spreading information about AMD and other sight threatening diseases that could lead to visual impairment.
AMD is a disease that is a leading cause of low vision in Americans older than 50 years of age. The macula is the part of the eye affected by this disease, a pigmented, oval-shaped part of the retina. About 5mm in diameter, it is responsible for the central vision required for driving, reading, and fine detail. AMD, is a progressive disease that causes retinal cells to slowly die, though it causes no physical pain.
Medical experts have been able to identify some risk factors that might lead to the onset of AMD, including high blood pressure, high levels of blood cholesterol, obesity, and smoking. Other risk factors that a person has no control over are age, heredity, race, and gender. Symptoms of the disease include blurry vision, blind spots, straight lines appearing wavy, doorways seeming crooked, and objects appearing farther away or smaller. When any of these symptoms present themselves, the concerned individual is advised to immediately visit an ophthalmologist.
For more information on AMD and other visual impairments – EYE CONDITIONS
The Discovery Eye Foundation is committed to finding a treatment for Dry AMD which makes up 85% of AMD cases and for which there is no FDA approved treatment as yet. This could preserve the vision of millions of people. Luckily, there are treatments for Wet AMD. Right now, research supported by DEF at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, Medical School is on the cutting edge of promising breakthroughs that could make the difference in the lives of so many.
January is Glaucoma Awareness Month and the perfect time to raise awareness about this disease. Early on there are no symptoms. In fact, many people with glaucoma don’t even know they have it. Learn about glaucoma and the steps you can take to reduce your risk of vision loss.
There are several types of glaucoma, although the most common type of glaucoma is age-related Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma. It affects people starting at age 40, but can develop anytime later in life.
So, the way to detect if you have it is to get regular thorough eye examinations every two years after age 40.
ARE YOU AT RISK?
Anyone can get glaucoma, but certain groups are at higher risk. These groups include African Americans and Hispanics over the age of 40, and all people over the age of 60. Since it is hereditary, people with a family history of glaucoma and people who have diabetes are at higher risk.
4 GLAUCOMA GUIDELINES TO REMEMBER
1. Glaucoma can affect people of all ages – Although it is generally associated with seniors, glaucoma can strike anyone.
2. Demographics do play a role – Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness among African Americans; it’s also highly prevalent in Hispanics over the age 65.
3. Is glaucoma hereditary? – The risk of developing primary open–angle glaucoma is up to nine times more likely if parents or siblings have the disease.
4. Hope for future glaucoma patients – Although there is no cure for glaucoma, early diagnosis and treatment can help control the disease and slow or stop the process of vision loss and blindness.
There are many steps you can take to help protect your eyes and lower your risk of vision loss from glaucoma.
Thank You to all who helped support DEF this year!!Discovery Eye Foundation has been successful in 2022 and all because of very loyal and dedicated donors that continue to support sight-saving research.
We are thankful for every gift you have given to the Discovery Eye Foundation.
Harsh weather conditions can reduce the natural moisture in your eyes and the irritation usually results in a burning or itching sensation that often leads to rubbing or scratching your eyes which can worsen the symptoms. Sometimes it feels like there is a foreign object in your eye and for some, dry eyes can even cause excessive tearing, as your eyes try to overcompensate for their lack of protective tears. Prolonged, untreated dry eyes can lead to blurred vision as well. Between the harsh winter winds outside and the dry heat radiating inside, our eyes are very quickly irritated and dried in the winter months. The result is itchy, dry eyes that may cause pain, blurred vision, a burning sensation, or even watery vision as our eyes try to compensate for the dryness.
What Are The Symptoms?
Whatever the symptoms, dry eyes can cause significant discomfort during the long winters and relief can seriously improve your quality of life.
If you find that after following these tips you continue to suffer, contact your eye doctor.
Thanksgiving is almost here; a meal that nourishes the family bonds and traditions. It’s the one time of the year where you can guarantee your eyes will be bigger than your stomach. This meal also has another added bonus — almost every item on the Thanksgiving table is healthy for your eyesight!
Here are several of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes and their corresponding benefits to your eye health:
No Thanksgiving is complete without a turkey, roasted golden brown and stuffed with fresh vegetables and herbs. Turkey is loaded with zinc and B-vitamin niacin, which helps prevent the formation of cataracts. Cataracts are the leading cause of vision loss in the United States, so gobble up! You are “preventing” cataracts with every bite.
These foods and other leafy greens are loaded with lutein and zeaxanthin, two nutrients that protect the retina, which may also help reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Healthy Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Sweet potatoes are full of Beta-carotene, which is a carotenoid and antioxidant that promotes night vision and overall good eyesight. Sweet potatoes are also loaded with vitamins C and E. Diets that are rich in these vitamins can help prevent or delay the development of cataracts and macular degeneration. Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Cranberries contain bioflavonoids, a large class of antioxidants. Bioflavonoids are found in the pulp, skin and rinds of foods that contain vitamin C. Both flavonoids and vitamin C help protect the eyes from free radical damage caused by pollution and the body’s normal metabolic processes.
Pumpkin is one of the best sources of vitamin A, so pumpkin pie is an eye-healthy dessert. In fact, one cup of cooked, mashed pumpkin contains more than 200 percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin A. Vitamin A provides nourishment and protection to the eye’s lens, cornea and macula (part of the retina), so it improves night vision.
A diet that’s full of the right nutrients is a great start to keeping your eyes healthy, but don’t forget that regular eye exams are equally important! We hope you enjoy a happy and delicious Thanksgiving with family and friends.
*For more eye healthy recipes click here EYE COOK
You may be surprised to learn that more than 1 million people suffer an eye injury every year in the United States. You may be even more surprised to learn that most of these eye injuries happen at home and can be avoided and for that reason the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) has set aside the month of October for a public health awareness campaign aimed at preventing eye injuries.
Unfortunately, only about three out of ten people wear protective eyewear during home projects that can cause an injury to their eyes. Wearing protective eye wear will reduce your risk for eye injury by 90 percent! The AAO urges every household to have at least one pair of ANSI-approved protective eyewear. (“ANSI-approved” means the protective eyewear is made to meet safety standards of the American National Standards Institute.)
The AAO has listed some of the most common places that eye injuries happen as well as prevention tips for these indoor and outdoor activities:
In the house: When using household chemicals, read the instructions and labels carefully, work in a well-ventilated area and make sure to point spray nozzles away from you. Many chemicals are extremely hazardous and can permanently damage the surface of your eyes, resulting in some loss of vision or even blindness.
In the garage/workshop: Wear protective eyewear to shield your eyes from flying fragments, fumes, dust particles, sparks and splashing chemicals. Power tools can also send wood chips or other substances flying into the air. Many objects can fly into your eyes unexpectedly and cause injury.
In the yard/garden: Put on protective eyewear before you use a lawnmower, power trimmer or edger and be sure to check for rocks and stones because they can become dangerous projectiles as they shoot from these machines.
Learn how to recognize an eye injury and get the right care when you or a family member is injured at home. If you or a family member experiences an eye injury, seek immediate emergency medical attention or call an ophthalmologist near you.
As your body ages, it’s common to experience changes to your eye health and vision. According to studies, over 10% of Americans over age 40 will experience permanent age-related vision loss — and almost everyone experiences normal age-related changes such as loss of close vision so that they require reading glasses. As the U.S. population gets older, it’s important to spread the word about ways to prevent vision loss in older adults.
Genetics and the natural aging process play a role in long-term eye health. But research shows that there are controllable factors that help either lower your risk of visual impairment or slow its progress.
Over time your eyes will experience physical changes that will affect your vision. On average, these changes begin around age 40 and impact the eye’s focusing ability — a natural change in vision called presbyopia. The most common effect is experiencing more difficulty in clearly seeing nearby objects, especially in dim lighting.
It’s normal for the age-related eye changes to cause:
Eye Floaters: Floaters are tiny spots or specks that drift throughout your field of vision. They occur when the vitreous, a jelly-like substance inside the eye, becomes more liquid as you age. This causes ocular fibers to clump, casting tiny shadows. If there is a sudden appearance of many new floaters, you should seek a dilated eye exam to rule out retinal detachment.
Dry Eye: As you age, your eye tear production decreases and this is called ‘dry eye’. Lack of enough lubrication to the surface of the eye can cause blurred vision and light sensitivity. Dry eyes can also cause uncomfortable stinging, scratching, or burning sensations.
Cataracts: As you age the clear proteins within the lens of your eye slowly become more and more cloudy interfering with the images that reach your retina. The cloudy lens causing poor vision is called a cataract. Luckily, modern eye surgery can remove the clouded lens material, which is then replaced with a man-made substitute lens that clearly focuses the image on the retina, restoring normal vision.
Glaucoma: Glaucoma causes damage to the major nerve of the eye called the optic nerve. This nerve is part of the central nervous system, that carries visual information from the eye to the brain. In glaucoma, the eye experiences a symptom-free increase of intraocular pressure due to an imbalance of the fluid produced in the eye and the amount of fluid drained. The asymptomatic increase in pressure over time damages the optic nerve, slowly decreasing your peripheral (side) vision and can result in total vision loss. If you have glaucoma, you may experience changes to your peripheral or side vision as the eye disease progresses. Glaucoma can be detected by a careful eye examination and the loss of vision can be stopped with medication or/and surgery.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD): In the developed world, AMD is the most common retinal disorder and the leading cause of permanent vision loss in people over 50. AMD is due to loss of retinal cells in the macula, an area of your retina responsible for detailed vision, necessary for tasks such as driving, reading and facial recognition. In advanced cases, patients cannot recognize faces or read books without special visual aids. The good news is that there are good treatments for AMD and patients retain “getting around” peripheral vision and don’t go completely blind.
Most age-related visual conditions today can be treated with medicine or outpatient surgery. A dilated eye exam performed by an eye care professional is the only way to find some common eye diseases while they’re easier to treat and before they cause permanent vision loss.
If you don’t have any symptoms or vision problems, doctors recommend getting regular eye exams based on your age:
For people with diabetes, high blood pressure, or a family history of glaucoma or vision loss, the National Eye Institute recommends you get dilated eye exams yearly.
There are many ways you can practice positive aging eye care. Aging may be inevitable, but exercise, a healthy diet, and positive lifestyle changes, such as stopping smoking, can prolong the health of your eyes.
It’s back-to-school time! As your child prepares to start another school year, don’t forget to take care of one of their most important learning tools — their eyes. Find out how you can help keep their eyes healthy, and why an eye exam is so important.
Be aware of vision problems:
Your kid may be spending more time in front of the screen than usual — and that could put him or her at increased risk for certain vision problems or eye conditions.
Watch for behavioral changes that may signal vision trouble, for example:
Help minimize any risk to your child’s eyes by doing the following:
Make sure they take frequent screen breaks. Instead of focusing directly on the screen, encourage your child to look around the room every now and then, or take some time to stare out the window (at least 20 seconds is recommended by the American Optometric Association). You can even remind them to blink.Don’t Forget the Eye Exam
It’s easy for us to forget about our eyes let alone our child’s, but it is very important to get your child’s eyes checked regularly.
It is absolutely critical to ensure healthy eye development and that they have the visual skills necessary for successful learning. No matter where your child will be participating in school this year — don’t skip the trip to the eye doctor.
The American Optometric Association recommends children have an eye exam by the time they reach one year old, at least once between 3 and 5 years old, and once a year after first grade until they graduate. Your eye doctor can recommend the best frequency for your child.
Your child should still receive a comprehensive eye exam, whether or not they have received a vision screening at school or even at their pediatrician’s office. While vision screenings can indicate some vision trouble, they often only test your child’s ability to see things that are far away, such as a classroom whiteboard. Also, keep in mind the school screeners usually do not have all the necessary equipment or training to detect many eye health problems in children.
A comprehensive eye examination looks at complete eye health, and includes tests for the following, in addition to an understanding of patient and family health history:
Specialists state that 80% of what your children learn in school is taught visually. Untreated vision troubles can put children at a substantial disadvantage. Be certain to arrange that your child has a complete eye exam before school starts.
FIREWORK & EYE SAFETY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWFirework injuries cause over 10,000 visits to the emergency room each year, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. As families and communities make plans for a star-spangled Fourth of July, the Discovery Eye Foundation is shining a light on fireworks safety month.
Fireworks are dangerous, and the month around July 4th is the most dangerous time. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s most recent annual fireworks injury report (PDF) fireworks caused twelve deaths and nearly 15,000 injuries in 2020. Two-thirds of the fireworks injuries treated in emergency rooms happened between mid-June and mid-July.
The most recent Consumer Product Safety Commission report found that 15% of fireworks injuries involved eyes. 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 900 of the injuries in the latest report in 2020.
The best way to avoid a potentially blinding fireworks injury is by attending a professional, public fireworks show rather than purchasing fireworks for home use.
If you attend or live near a professional fireworks show:
For those who decide to purchase and use fireworks, follow these safety tips:
Fireworks-related eye injuries can combine blunt force trauma, heat burns and chemical exposure. If an eye injury from fireworks occurs, it should be considered a medical emergency.
Unexpected injuries not only ruin celebrations, but they can also dramatically change lives. Keep fireworks fun by remembering these tips and being smart about how you use fireworks. Stay safe out there!
Real Firework Eye Injuries
