Understanding Glaucoma: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options
So what exactly is glaucoma and what causes it What is Glaucoma ?” Glaucoma is a condition or disease where the optic nerve dies over time, leading to vision, loss and blindness. Now, let’s stop and break that down into pieces to make more sense out of it. The optic nerve is the chord that connects the eye to the brain Light enters the eye, hits the retina and that information gets sent down the optic nerve to the visual processing centers of your brain, which gives you your eyesight. If something causes damage to the nerve or the nerve dies, blindness can occur. However, most cases of glaucoma are detected very early with comprehensive eye exams and treatment is excellent. Most people who get regular eye exams get glaucoma detected early on so with treatments. Most people never go blind from glaucoma anymore. However, there are some types of glaucoma that are very complicated and severe, so even with the best treatments, some people can lose vision and go blind from this condition.
Understanding Glaucoma: Eye Pressure and Beyond
Now what most people think about when they see their eye doctor and they think about glaucoma – is EYE PRESSURE, because there is this pressure test at any eye exam you will have where we check the pressure to make sure it isn’t too high. It’S true that HIGH EYE PRESSURE is associated with most types of Glaucoma. However, not all of them, You can actually develop glaucoma even with NORMAL EYE PRESSURES, and we call that NORMAL TENSION, GLAUCOMA And just a fun fact for today’s video, a normal eye. Pressure for most people is between 10 and 21 millimeters of mercury. Whether someone develops high eye pressures or normal tension glaucoma, the treatment is really the same. We either prescribe medicated eye drops or surgery to lower that pressure down and for most people the treatment is really good. However, there are people where, even if we bring that pressure really low, they still advance and they lose vision. So early detection is really key when it comes to glaucoma.
Understanding the Role of Eye Pressure in Glaucoma Development
If you haven’t had an eye exam in the last year, I really hope you can call your eye doctor and get seen just to make sure you are not developing this common disease So now “ What Causes Glaucoma ?” Honestly, I don’t know In fact it’s still A medical mystery, We don’t know the exact cause of glaucoma. However, there are many different theories out there and we do know that most types of glaucoma are associated with that elevated eye pressure. So, let’s at least go over what eye pressure is inside the eye and how it damages the nerve and causes glaucoma Within the eye. There is actually a clear fluid that acts like the blood of the eye. It supplies energy and nutrients to the eye to keep it healthy, and we call that fluid the AQUEOUS HUMOUR. This aqueous humour is generated inside the eye by a structure called the ciliary body, and the ciliary body is constantly generating this fluid all the time.
Understanding the Role of Aqueous Humour and Eye Pressure in Glaucoma.
Every day, This fluid actually flows from the ciliary body behind the iris. It goes through the pupil and it drains through a structure called the ANGLE. That’S the junction created by the iris, the colored part of the eye and the cornea the clear window to the eye. If, for some reason, this drain gets plugged up, the ciliary body keeps producing aqueous humour and the pressure starts to get higher and higher The problem with high eye pressure is that you can think of it, like a bike, tire filled with a lot of air. If you keep pumping the air pressure higher and higher the weakest part of the tire will eventually thin and bulge outward, and if you keep pumping the air that bulge will eventually pop The same concept happens with the eye.
Understanding Glaucoma: Causes, Symptoms, and Vision Loss
If the pressure keeps getting higher and higher the weakest part of the eye, will bulge outward and the weakest part is the optic nerve. In fact, we call that optic nerve head cupping, because when the doctor looks at the eye it looks like a cup When that happens, the individual nerves that make up the optic nerve about a million different fibers, actually get pinched off and they eventually die. That’S what causes vision loss, In fact, the vision loss that starts with glaucoma usually develops so slowly that people don’t even realize it’s happening until it’s too late until it’s already in the moderate stages of the disease, The type of vision loss, if you ever experience, glaucoma And you experience the vision, loss happens in your side vision, Your peripheral vision will slowly fade to dark and it usually starts in one quadrant, sometimes forming an arc over the top of your vision. It can then include the lower part of your vision and progress to complete tunnel vision.
Understanding the Risk Factors for Glaucoma: Age, Genetics, and More
If it continues to progress without treatment, it can even affect the central part of your vision until you have none left. Although eye pressure plays a significant role, it is not the only cause of glaucoma. In fact, the disease is associated with many risk factors such as genetics, age, history of trauma and other diseases like high blood pressure and even diabetes. So, who is at the greatest risk for glaucoma Well, the reality is that anybody can get glaucoma, but people with a family history are more likely to get it. So if you have a grandma, grandpa, parent or sibling, who had glaucoma make sure you let your doctor know because they are going to want to know, People of older age are also more likely. So if you are over the age of 60, you are at a higher risk. If you have any African or Hispanic heritage, you are also at a higher risk. Now again, age and risk go hand in hand for glaucoma, but you can actually get the disease at any time.
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Early Detection and Treatment are Key to Preventing Vision Loss from Glaucoma, Even in Children.
Even children can be born with glaucoma and we call that congenital glaucoma, The big takeaway I want from this video is that glaucoma can be detected early on and treated to prevent vision, loss or at least delay it. So it’s really important that you have an eye exam If you haven’t had an eye exam this last year.I hope that you can call your eye doctor and get seen Remember that you only get two eyes so please take care of them. Have you ever been diagnosed with glaucoma? How long Did you find this video helpful Make sure to connect with us in the comment section below? Thank you, everybody. If you would like to do me, a favor hit that, LIKE button down below SUBSCRIBE, if you’re new and SHARE this video with friends and family, Don’t miss other cool videos from Doctor Eye Health, Just click or tap. The screen over here Keep an eye on it and we will talk soon. This is Zelda, Isn’t she cute? What do you think of Zelda
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