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[caption id="attachment_283" align="alignright" width="300"]Daylight Decreases Myopia Progression Daylight Decrease Myopia Progression[/caption] Several different studies suggest that spending time outdoors decreases your chances for Myopia.  Myopia is a disease often called “nearsightedness” where the eye grows too long, making distance vision blurry.  Unfortunately, the percentage of individuals affected by the disease is growing.  In the United States the percentage of individuals with myopia is up 65% since 1970.

[caption id="attachment_275" align="alignright" width="150"]Cataract Surgery Lowers Eye Pressure Cataract Surgery Lowers Eye Pressure[/caption] A series of studies have now shown that cataract surgery tends to lower intraocular pressure (IOP).   What does that mean for you?  Let’s start with an explanation of what pressure does to your eye.  The eye is a thin walled ball.  If your eye did not have pressure higher than the air in the atmosphere it would collapse like a popped balloon.  The air around us, by convention, has a pressure of 0.  In a healthy eye, the IOP has from 10-21 mmHg of pressure.  The eye needs to have some pressure, but if the pressure gets too high it can damage the fragile nerves responsible for vision.  Glaucoma is an eye disease where the IOP is too high so patients take eye drops every day to lower the IOP.

[caption id="attachment_267" align="alignright" width="150"]Does Aspirin Cause Wet AMD? Does Aspirin Increase Wet AMD?[/caption] Scientists pouring over the data from the Beaver Dam Project found an unanticipated association between regular use of aspirin and advanced macular degeneration.  In this blog I will review the data and what it really means for aspirin users that are worried about macular degeneration. The Beaver Dam Eye Study is a fascinating project funded by the National Eye Institute conducted on 5,000 individuals that live in, you guessed it, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.  Since 1987 thousands are examined every five years to help us understand the effects of aging on the eye.

[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignright" width="150"]Glaucoma can affect vision and eye movement speed Glaucoma can affect vision and eye movement speed[/caption] A recent study in Eye and Brain, Nov 2012, found evidence that patients with glaucoma had a delayed reaction time with their eye movements.  Glaucoma is a disease where the nerve cells that send vision information from the eye to the brain progressively stop working, starting with peripheral vision and then moving towards the center.  It is the leading cause of non-reversible blindness worldwide.  Fortunately, there are many treatments to stop or slow this loss.

[caption id="attachment_256" align="alignright" width="150"]Contact Lens Corneal Ulcer Contact Lens Corneal Ulcer[/caption] One of the leading eye care centers in the nation, the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, has reported that the rate of corneal ulcer infections is increasing at its institution.  The cornea is the clear outer layer of the eye.  If an infection develops in the cornea it is called a corneal ulcer.  These infections are serious because in more complicated cases they can result in corneal scars, transmission of infection into the eye, or even weakening or rupture of the eye.

[caption id="attachment_239" align="alignright" width="150"]Danger of some Over the Counter Eye Drops Danger of some Over the Counter Eye Drops[/caption] The FDA has issued a warning statement concerning the danger to small children from some “get the red out” eye drops and decongestant nose sprays.  The drops and sprays mentioned contain chemicals like, naphazoline, tetrahydrozoline, or oxymetazoline which constrict blood vessels.  Some of the common trade names for medicines containing these drugs are Visine, Naphcon, Opcon, Opti-clear, and Afrin.  Who hasn't had a day when their eyes were too red or their nose too stuffy to work without one of these medicines.  Most of us probably have these sitting in drawers and cabinets around our homes.

[caption id="attachment_186" align="alignright" width="150"] The Cat Disease that can Blind[/caption] Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite.  It is estimated that 60 million people in the U.S. carry this parasite.  Around 22.5% of Americans have been affected, but some tropical countries have infection rates as high as...