Contact Lens Fitting Success: What is the Best Age?

Parents often wonder what the best age is to fit their children with contact lenses in order to give them the most successful and safest wearing experience. Researchers reporting in Eye & Contact Lens: Science and Clinical Practice  studied differences  in current symptoms, compliance, ocular health and adverse events between current successful long–term contactlens wearers fit as children or as teenagers. They found that successful contact lens wearers who were fit as children are no more likely to report previous contact lens–related adverse events, problems with compliance, decreased wearing time, or worse ocular health than those fit as teenagers.  Their findings suggest that parents should not rely on age as a primary determinant in fitting children with contact lenses, but should rely on their eye doctor’s recommendations and evaluation of their child.

If you or someone you know has questions about what age to fit children or teenagers with contact lenses for best success might be, please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or www.facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Early Menopause Increases Glaucoma Risk

Women who go through menopause early may be at greater risk of developing glaucoma according to a study at the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute in Amsterdam. In a study of more than 3,000 women, those who went through natural menopause before the age of 45 were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma as women who went through menopause at age 50 or older. The results indicate that female hormones may be protective against open-angle glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness.  Of interest is that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is thought to reduce fluid pressure inside the eye. Similarly, as hormone levels rise during pregnancy, fluid pressure inside the eye decreases significantly, the researchers noted. This is the first study to examine the relationship between female sex hormones, as indicated by age of menopause and open-angle glaucoma.

If you or someone you know has questions about glaucoma risk with early menopause,  feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

What Cause a Bright Red Eye?

Have you or someone you’ve known ever experienced having a “bright red eye” or “bleeding eye”? It seems to come on with a cough or a sneeze-or sometimes with some heavy lifting-or for no reason at all-and has no pain, blurry vision or discharge. What could it be? As is true with any sudden change to your eye or your vision, we will ask you to come in so we can evaluate the problem, but it is possible that it is a subconjunctival hemorrhage.

What is Subconjunctival Hemorrhage?

Subconjunctival hemorrhage is a benign disorder that is a common cause of acute eye redness or “bright red eye”. The major risk factors include trauma and contact lens usage in younger patients, whereas among the elderly, systemic vascular diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis are more common. In patients in whom subconjunctival hemorrhage is recurrent or persistent, further evaluation, including a workup for systemic hypertension, bleeding disorders, systemic and ocular malignancies and drug side effects, is warranted.

If you or someone you know experiences a “bright red eye”, please call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Eat Fish to Decrease AMD Risk

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of vision loss in seniors. Seniors and others at risk for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) may want to eat certain fish as a way of helping to decrease their risk of developing this eye disease. Recently, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that the disease may be associated with a high dietary fat intake. The results of their study found that eating fish, such as tuna, four times a week, may reduce the risk of macular degeneration. The subjects of the study were participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who did not have AMD when the study commenced. After 12 years of follow-up, 567 people with a visual loss of 20/30 or worse were identified. Fat intake was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire. 

The study found:

·  Those patients whose total dietary fat intake was in the highest quintile had over one and
         a half times the risk of AMD as those whose fat intake was in the lowest quintile,

·  Linolenic acid consumption was directly associated with the risk of AMD,

·  High intake of docosahexaenoic acid was associated with a modest reduction in the risk of AMD.

·  Those who ate four or more servings of fish a week were at a 35% lower risk of AMD
         when compared to those who ate fewer than three servings of fish a week.

The researchers concluded that dietary fat intake was associated with an increased risk of age related macular degeneration (AMD) and that this may have been due to the presence of Linolenic acid in the fat. They added that a high intake of fish such as tuna, a rich source of docosahexaenoic acid, may reduce this risk.

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about how eating fish can decrease your risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island.