Lehigh Valley Center For Sight

Mother always told you to eat your fruits and vegetables – but why? Modern researchers are finding more and more about antioxidants for health. Scientists publish mountains of peer-reviewed research a year on antioxidants found in fruits and veggies. One type of antioxidant is called “phytonutrients.” Found in plant pigments, phytonutrients are especially good for the eyes and brain. How do phytonutrients slow the impact of aging and reduce disease risk? Which foods contain significant amounts of the best types of phytonutrients?   How Antioxidants Work A particle that lacks an electron is unstable. Called a “free radical,” this particle tries to steal an electron to become stable. In the body, free radicals attack healthy cells, trying to take an electron. The attack damages the cells’ membranes. We can see some of the damage in the form of wrinkles, for example, and diseases associated with aging. Antioxidants act as a defender against free radicals. They donate an electron to ...

There are a number of food sources that lower cholesterol, reduce heart disease and cut the risk of Macular Degeneration naturally. These include olive oil, oat bran, apples, walnuts, red rice yeast, omega-3 fatty acids, and nattokinase. There are several foods that help lower cholesterol levels. Foods that are high in soluble fiber help reduce cholesterol. Soluble fiber draws water into the gut, softening stools and promoting regularity. Gut-friendly bacteria eat soluble fiber. Dietary fiber can be soluble or insoluble. Women should get 25 grams of dietary fiber per day, and men should get 38 grams per day. However, few Americans regularly reach this recommended daily amount (RDA). Oat bran lowers LDL (“bad cholesterol”) because it contains soluble fiber. Certain popular oat cereals have tested very high for the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup). Therefore, eat organic oat cereals if possible. Fruits highest in soluble fiber are apples, pears, figs, nectarines, guavas, and apricot...

Diabetic Retinopathy is damage to the retina from poor blood sugar control. All types of chronic diabetes can cause retinal damage. The retina, at the back of the eye, is neural tissue. Tiny blood vessels, called capillaries, in the retina swell and leak. How often should diabetic patients visit their eye doctors? What are the four stages of diabetic retinopathy?   Eye Care for Diabetes People medically diagnosed with diabetes should visit their eye doctors every one to two years. The optometrist or ophthalmologist will shine a light into each eye. The doctor will try to detect whether diabetes has compromised the retina. This disease is difficult to diagnose. Therefore, regular exams are crucial. Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy may not appear until the disease is well-established. The main symptom is blurred vision when glucose levels are high. Vision changes associated with diabetes include: difficulty seeing colors empty or dark areas in vision seeing dark floaters ...

As parents, there are a million different ways to feel bad or guilty. The amount of time most of us spend on our phone in front of our kids can be one of them. The good news is, changing is easier than you may think. All the details of our lives are held in our phones. Work schedules, texts, and even some relationships are dependent on having our phones on us constantly. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it just shows how busy our lives have gotten. Here’s the kicker – it can turn into an addiction without us knowing it, but our kids certainly do. It may sound extreme calling our dependence on phones an addiction, but scientific studies say otherwise. “Still, there’s plenty of research out there describing the   dopamine effect —a neurotransmitter that sends pulses to your brain’s reward and pleasure centers with every new text or tweet—and the widespread addiction to   that momentary pleasure , which has been compared to cravings for nicotine, cocaine, and gambling.” Kids ca...

Your Eyes And Your Job Your eyes and vision are very resilient but they can only take so much. Whether it’s eye strain due to hours in front of a computer monitor, poor lighting or working with toxic substances, just like other parts of your body, your eyes may be injured at work. Vision is critical to most jobs. Try to find one where sight isn’t required. The American Federation of the Blind estimated in 2010 that 75% of the estimated four million adults in the country who are completely or partially blind are unemployed. Eye strain, fatigue and dry eyes are frequent issues for those of us who routinely work at a computer monitor. It can be more taxing than reading printed text. This “digital” eye strain can result from several issues, including, Screen glare, Bad lighting, Poor posture, Looking at the monitor at the wrong distance and/or angle, and, Uncorrected vision problems. We blink less if we use a computer monitor compared to reading a printed text. This c...

ReNeuron , a cellular therapy developer in the UK, has reported vision improvements in the treated eyes of the first three retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients in the Phase II part of the Phase I/II clinical trial for its proprietary human retinal progenitor cells (hRPC). The Phase I portion of the trial, completed last year, primarily assessed safety in subjects with minimal remaining vision. Phase II patients in the ReNeuron study have more baseline vision and thus have have more potential for visual improvement. The Phase II patients read an average of three additional lines (five letters per line) on a standardized eye chart after receiving the emerging treatment, compared to an average loss of one letter in their untreated eyes. The results demonstrate objective improvement in visual acuity compared with the baseline vision in their treated eyes, and compared to their untreated eyes. The patients have also reported subjective improvements in vision. The trial is being conducted at...

Age-related eye health concerns are an increasing problem in the US. With an aging population, the number of patients coming through eye care practices that have a risk for or have developed age-related eye health concerns continues to grow. According to the National Eye Institute, the number of Americans suffering from these concerns will have grown to 3.66 million, almost a 60% increase from 2010. That number is projected to increase to just under 5.5 million by 2050. A Growing Risk While the number of identified cases of age-related eye health concerns increases, the number of people with a higher risk also grows. There are both modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors for developing age-related eye health concerns, with some being more concerning than others. Age is the primary risk factor, increasing risk from 2% at ages 50-59 to 30% at age 75+. Family history is another heavy-impact risk factor, tripling the patient’s risk of developing vision issues. The Opportunity for Posi...