Annual Wellness Visit

The majority of adults between the ages of 19 and 40 overall, do enjoy healthy eyes and great vision. However, the vast majority of eye and vision problems for people in this age group are due to visual stress and/or eye injuries. Thus, by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and with appropriate protection for your eyes from stress and injury, you can avoid many eye and vision related problems.

Good vision is of the utmost important as you pursue a college degree, begin your career, or perhaps start and raise a family. Please consider these in order to maintain healthy eyes and good vision:

• Please do not smoke. Smoking increases the risk for developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts.
• Consider a balanced diet. Choose foods rich in antioxidants, like leafy, green vegetables and fish. These does help to mitigate some risks of AMD, cataracts, and other diseases.
• Regular exercise. Exercise improves blood circulation, increases oxygen levels to the eyes and helps remove toxins.
• Protection from the sun. The sun emits harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays that will damage your eyes, over the long term. Choose sunglasses with adequate coverage. Additionally, remember to use sunscreen around your eyes, and wear a hat or visor to improve protection.
• Protection from short-wavelength visible light. Most digital devices and newer LED and fluorescent lights emit more wavelengths near the shorter, or bluer, part of the spectrum. High and continual exposure to these wavelengths can cause slow damage to the retina, which may result in problems like age-related macular degeneration later in life. Special glasses and lens coatings are available to block short-wavelength visible light.
• Annual eye examinations. Although vision generally remains stable during these years, problems may develop without any obvious signs or symptoms.

Visual Stress at School or on the Job

In today’s visually demanding world, eyestrain are quite common! Typical college or office workday requires lots of long hours of reading, desk work, and/or staring at a computer. Poorly designed work environment, improper lighting, uncomfortable seating, incorrect viewing angles, and improper working distances can add to this visual stress. Thus, as the day progresses, the eyes will fatigue, leading to much greater eyestrain and discomfort. The following are key signs of eyestrain:

• Sore or tired eyes
• Itching or burning sensations in the eyes
• Sensitivity to light
• Dry or watery eyes
• Headaches
• Difficulty focusing

By having small changes to the surrounding work environment, you can do a lot to prevent and/or reduce eyestrain. If you continue to experience eye-related symptoms, you may have a vision problem that requires treatment. Please inquire with Dr. Q @ QT Optometry!

Protecting Your Eyes from the Sun

Harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays can and will damage the skin and the surface of the eye, even on an overcast day. Unprotected sun exposure over time can and will increase the risk of cataracts and cancers of the eyelids. UV damage accumulates and buildup over your lifetime; thus,  it’s never too late to protecting your eyes from the harmful rays by:

• Try to wear wide-brimmed hat or cap. These helps to block up to half of the UV radiation by reducing the amount of radiation that can enter from above or around sunglasses.
• Always wear sunglasses, especially on cloudy days and/or during winter months.
• Have quality sunglasses that offer great protection. Polarized sunglasses should block out 100 percent of both UV-A and UV-B.

Vision is one of our most valuable senses. As you progress through the years, your vision does change. These changes, however, don’t have to affect your lifestyle, and this can be accomplish by knowing what to expect during these changes and finally, when to seek out Dr. Q to help you safeguard your vision. One of the main reason for seeking out Dr. Q is due to the fact that many eye diseases have no early symptoms. The majority of eye related problems develop painlessly, and the changes may not be noticed until the condition is quite advanced. Thus, regular eye exams, healthy choices, and early detection of disease can dramatically improve chances of maintaining good eye health and vision as you increase in the years.

Below are some ocular conditions that may have an affect on vision:

• Cataracts are cloudy,opaque, or dirty areas in the normally clear lens of the eye. Normal visions can be compromised depending on the size and the location of the cataract itself. Cataracts can and will usually cause blurry vision, lots of decreased contrast sensitivity, dulling of colors and increased sensitivity to halo and glares, especially at night time.
• Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an eye disease that affects the area that’s most sensitive to light, at the back of the eye (the macula). Once this damage occurs, it can and will lead to central vision loss. Although small, the macula is the part of the retina that allows us to see fine detail and colors. Activities like reading, driving, watching TV and recognizing faces all require good central vision provided by the macula. While macular degeneration decreases central vision, peripheral or side vision remains unaffected.
• Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that may occur in diabetic patients. This occurs because of continual and progressive damage to the small blood vessels in the back of the eye (retina). These damaged blood vessels will ultimately leak blood and fluids, which will in turn, causes retinal tissue to swell, to harden, and then to vision loss. The effects are cumulative over time; in other word, the longer a person has diabetes, the greater the risk for developing diabetic retinopathy. Furthermore, how well you control your sugar levels over time can definitely impact the development and/or severity of the condition.
• Dry eye is a condition in which a person produces too few or poor-quality tears. Dry eye is a common and often chronic problem, particularly in older adults.
• Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that leads to damage of the optic nerve, which will result in peripheral vision loss. Some risks factors for glaucoma includes: family history of glaucoma, African Americans, and older adults. Glaucoma is often painless and can have no symptoms. Thus, ubiquitously named The Silent Thief of Sight.
• Retinal detachment most often occurs spontaneously and silently due to the changes of the gel-like vitreous fluid that fills the back of the eye. Other causes include trauma to the eye or head, health problems like advanced diabetes, and inflammatory eye disorders. If not treated promptly, it can cause permanent vision loss.