How dieting can affect your sight.

Apr 17

It might not be strictly true that carrots make you see in the dark – but don’t tell the kids that just yet – but they certainly are good for your eyes. Carrots contain beta-carotene, which protects your vision, including your night vision. You won’t be able to see like a cat, but you’ll have your defences up. What you eat plays a big part in making your sight what it is, so if you’re dieting, you’ll have to be aware of what you’re eating – or not eating – and what it’s doing to your eyes.

When you’re dieting, of course, it’s best to eat well and exercise more. Eating well does not mean epicurean decadence; it means fruit, vegetables, and a balanced diet. Plants that are bright and colourful are great for your diet – as well as your eyes. They also contain beta-carotene, which is converted into rhodopsin by the body. This is used by the eyes to help see in dim light. If you do not eat enough bright and colourful vegetables, like pumpkins or sweet potatoes, then your eyesight will be affected in the long run.

Other sources of food that help keep your healthy are corn and spinach. This is because they contain lutein, a compound in eye tissue that keeps your eyes strong. If you cut out certain foods, then you’ll need to check what vitamins and other nutrients you might be cutting out, too. So when you’re looking for your contact lenses online, you can always do some research into your food, too.

It’s always worth avoiding free radicals, which are not only carcinogenic, but can damage your eyes through causing cataracts. To beat free radicals, you will need to eat foods that are rich in antioxidants, such as eggs, onions, and asparagus, to name but a few.

Vitamins such as vitamin C and E are also excellent at protecting against free radicals. We all know vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, but vitamin E can be found in blueberries, wheat, and avocadoes. There’s definitely the basis for a great diet amongst that lot, but if you’re struggling you can always make sure you’re getting enough vitamins through taking some daily supplements. But who wants tablets when you can have blueberry muffins? Ah yes, the diet…

The final food stuff to look at is fish. Fish contain omega-3 fatty acids, and these are the Holy Grail of nutrients. They keep blood vessels and nerves healthy and young, and these include those that go to and are used in the eyes. So rather than eating just carrots, you might want to think about getting some fish in your diet, too. Salmon and sardines are excellent sources of omega-3. It’s good to get creative with what’s good for you, but it’s a bit early to roll out the carrot and salmon sushi just yet.

What is Iridology?

Mar 15

Iridology is the somewhat contentious method of identifying diseases related to organs and body tissue through studying the colours, patterns and other aspects of the iris – the coloured part of the eye. Now, this might sound strange but iridology is a practice that has been in use since the 1600s, long before you or I were born.

So how does iridology work? It’s relatively simple: all you need is a torch, a magnifying glass, or maybe a microscope. Oh, and an iridology chart. The iridologist uses the aforementioned items to peer at the patient’s iris, and, after cross-referencing parts of the iris with their chart, they make a diagnosis. Iridologists say that each part of the iris relates to an area or system in the body, allowing them to pinpoint what part of your body you should worry about. Their analysis doesn’t diagnose specific diseases or ailments, but instead shows potential weaknesses in organs or organ systems, before any other physical symptoms become apparent. They can even make these diagnoses if you’re wearing contact lenses.

When you have your first consultation, your iridologist will ask you the usual doctor-patient questions, such as medication you’re currently taking, whether you smoke and drink, and any conditions you might have or have had. After your iris is examined, the iridologist will give you advice on lifestyle, posture, and diet. They can tell you about – amongst other things – problems with your liver, pancreatic disturbances, gastro-intestinal maladies, your general immune system and anything else.

Now, homeopathy is not for everyone, and who are we to argue with the power of herbs and Chinese medicine. But if you’re worried about your eyes, then it’s best to visit your eye doctor. Iridology – if it is in fact not just hokum disguised as science – provides a more holistic solution to your body’s problems. For the here and now, stick to the guys in the white coats with medical degrees.

101 failed laser surgeries – the horror stories!

Mar 12

Few things send a chill down the spine like a botched operation. Laser surgery is usually a safe option, and there’s not much that can go wrong – but there’s always that chance you’ll be wandering the streets, asking yourself why you didn’t just buy your contact lenses online. But instead of pre-emptively feeling sorry for your new Bride of Frankenstein looks, how about you get an injection of knowledge on what might happen… Are you sitting uncomfortably?

First up – and if this doesn’t curdle the blood, then nothing will – failed laser surgery might cause dry eye. This is nothing to be sniffed at, though, as symptoms of dry eye include soreness, itching, burning sensations, and your eyelid sticking to your eye. The nerves that are responsible for tear production are severed during the procedure, and studies have shown that these nerves almost never return to normal. “What’s the big deal?” you might think, eye drop bottle in hand. Well, around 20% of patients in clinical trials experienced worse or “significantly worse” dry eyes 6 months after surgery. Yikes! Have fun with those eye drops.

It’s not just being unable to weep with regret at not having visited Vision Direct to buy your contact lenses online that you’ll have to worry about. Many laser surgery patients have increased difficulty seeing in dim light, due to loss of contrast sensitivity, as well as suffering from visual distortion at night. This means halos and multiple images – not what you want when you’re driving along a country lane, or out for the night.

A litany of complications is also possible some time after surgery. They might only become evident weeks, months or perhaps even years after the procedure, and include inflammation, flap dislocation, retinal detachment, and epithelial in-growth. Because surgery creates a portal in the cornea, this can be used by microorganisms to penetrate the eye, and increase the risk of sight-threatening corneal infections. It’s enough to put you off your dinner.

More seriously, though, laser surgery is usually elective surgery – meaning there’s no reason to have it! Think long and hard about what’s the right choice for you, and if you feel some doubts nagging away, pick up some contact lenses online, and avoid becoming a scare story yourself…

Does playing video games too close to the television make your eyes go square? An old wives tale investigated!

Mar 9

We have all had the warning, at one time or another. From our fathers, from our mothers. “Don’t sit so close to the TV! You’re eyes will go square!” There might not be many people out there with square eyes, but does the warning have any truth to it? Does sitting too close to the TV, or indeed playing video games for too long, leave you with quadrilateral optic organs?

The safest bet is that, no, playing video games for too long does not leave you with square eyes. In fact, no matter how close you sit to the TV, or how long you sit in front of it, you won’t even end up with rectangular eyes. Or triangular. Or rhomboid. Or any other shape bar the ones you’re blessed with. But there are other dangers to be aware of, and if you wear contact lenses, you need to play a little safer than most.

Of course, if it was true that playing video games too much made your eyes square, then most of us would have square eyes. The glare from a computer monitor would affect you in a similar way, and those of you who spend 8 hours a day in front of a computer at work would have eyes squarer than most.

The glare from screens can make your eyes tired, but you’re more likely to get repetitive strain injury from hitting the joy pad buttons than you are to cause long term damage to your eyes. If you wear contact lenses, then you have to be wary of this fatigue, and also wary of dryness. Some simple eye drops will help you this, as will taking a break from staring at that TV or monitor. It helps to exercise your eyes a little, by focusing on things at different distances away from you. Staring at a screen means you’re not changing this focus, so regular breaks where you focus at something in the distance will certainly help prevent fatigue – or your eyes from going square.

In reality, then, your eyes are meant to be used – just not overused. They won’t go square any time soon, so we can put this particular myth to bed.

Allergies and contact lenses

Mar 2

For those of you getting contact lenses and suffering from allergies, this post will identify potential problems and solutions, such as helpful advice and ideas of how to reduce suffering and helps to find contact lenses suitable for allergic users.

Summer can be the cruellest season, bringing heat waves and the English batting collapses, but for many of us the indignity of sweating profusely on even short walks, or the sight of England’s finest trudging back to the pavilion, is far outweighed by the pollen and allergens in the air. If you wear contact lenses, allergies can cause problems above and beyond those suffered by other folk, turning a bright summer into seemingly the most inhospitable of climes.

The problems that contact lens wearers can suffeAllgery eye drops – Hypoallergenic eye drops – Vision Directr stem from the build-up of allergen deposits on their lenses. Of course, the lenses are always in contact with the eyes, so any allergens that stay on the lenses will cause a lot of irritation. They’ll also over-stimulate the production of tears, which can stick to your contact lenses and cause blurriness and further discomfort. If they cause too much discomfort, be sure to take them out. But, of course, remember to replace them, as during times of the year when your allergies feel more severe, switch to daily disposable contact lenses. The irritating deposits won’t have time to build up, and you’ll be able to go about your day in peace.

Some contact lenses are manufactured specifically with the allergic or sensitive user in mind. To identify hypoallergenic contact lenses, look on the product description (if you cannot find this, you can ask a Vision Direct representative by live chat) or check the manufacturer website to find out more.

Man does not suffer from pollen alone, however, and over the course of the year there are different challenges for all you contact lens wearers out there. The key tips to remember are to clean or replace your contact lenses, and to keep your eyes moist. There are some excellent eye drops out there to help you do so, some eye drops are even specifically designed to relieve hay fever. Try not to rub your eyes – even if they’re itchy. It might feel good at first, but it only adds to your discomfort in the long run. It’s worth remembering to take your contact lenses out before administering eye drops, and doing things by the book.

Common mistakes people make when wearing contact lenses.

Feb 22

Wearing contact lenses is not like wearing glasses, whose maintenance seems as straightforward as putting them on and taking them off: for the inexperienced wearer, contact lenses can represent a virtual minefield of do’s and don’ts.

The easiest mistake you can make with contact lenses is forget to take them off before going to bed, and sleeping with them in. This will dry your eyes out, and can potentially cause more damage. The surface of your eyes need oxygen to stay healthy, and restricting the flow of oxygen all day and all night is not recommended by doctors. Plus, if the contact lenses slip during the night, they could scratch the cornea. In the event that you do sleep with your contact lenses in, it’s best to remove them as soon as you wake up, and soak them to remove bacteria. If your eyes are sore and irritated, then you should consult an optician.

Another time when people forget they’re wearing contact lenses is when they go swimming. If you wear air-tight goggles, then there shouldn’t be a problem, as the pocket of air keeps the contact lenses secure. However, if you don’t wear goggles, then it’s best to remove your contact lenses before entering the water. As the water hits your lenses, it displaces them; it’s not enough to think that you’ll just keep your eyes shut when you swim, as keeping water out of your eyes will be an almost impossible task. Instead, make sure you remove your contact lenses when you have the chance, and keep them safe for when you really need them.

Contact lenses need to be kept and washed in a special solution, though it’s tempting to use water or another neutral fluid if you run out of contact lens solution. This is another common mistake, as the solution for contact lenses is specially designed to clean your lenses of all the bacteria that accumulates during the day – bacteria that is also present in water. This might be harmless when you drink it, but putting it in your eyes for protracted periods of time is dangerous. So try to keep some solution with you if and when you go out, as you don’t want to be lured into the temptation of using water from the tap or drinking fountain – or even giving your contact lenses a quick wash in your mouth, as school children might. Not using contact lens solution is a very quick way to your local eye specialist.

As we’re on the subject of danger, another mistake that contact lens wearers make is forgetting that taking care of contact lenses means just that: taking care of them. Washing your contact lenses might clean them for that moment, but you need to make sure your contact lens case is also clean. Keeping contact lenses in a dirty storage case is another way to let bacteria get into your eyes, and it’s best to keep not only your contact lenses pristine, but their case also. And those of you who use continuous wear contact lenses should remember this, too.

Long nails & how to effectively handle contact lenses

Feb 18

If you have long nails, whether they are fake or natural, you probably come across some daily obstacles. One recognized battle of the well manicured folks is the art of removing or inserting contact lenses.

To handle lenses, there are various rules of thought. One way is to use a tool such as a lens applicator, or a combined lens applicator + remover. Some lens cases also come with a handy mirror and a tweezer, that conveniently can be used for application or removal of lenses. The benefit here is hygiene, as you never have to touch the lenses. Germs otherwise easily find their way from behind long nails onto contact lenses.

If for whatever reason a physical tool is not convenient for you, another way to handle your lenses efficiently is to learn how to use long nails as a resource instead of seeing them as a hindrance. There are a couple of available tutorials on Youtube on how to insert or remove contact lenses with long nails.

Regardless of how you go about dealing with your contacts, be sure to clean your hands thoroughly (and scrub behind your nails) for at least 15 seconds before handling contact lenses to minimize risks for nasty eye infections.

Amazing eye miracles – stories from around the world

Feb 16

Just a couple of hundred years ago, being able to correct vision through the use of contact lenses would be considered something of a miracle in itself. Of course these days contact lenses are common place, a vision aid that it is easy to take for granted – although the augmented reality ‘bionic’ contact lenses that are currently being developed could arguably be filed under the ‘miraculous’ category. Generally speaking, however, there is a limit to what the medical profession can achieve, especially when it comes to treating severe damage to the eyes – although there are always occasions when recovery defies the odds.

Take the case of Nicholas Holderman, a 17 month old toddler in the U.S. who ended up with a key lodged in his eye thanks to a freak accident while playing with his brothers. After a frantic rush to the emergency room, an X-ray showed the key to be lodged deep within the eye socket, prompting immediate surgery. Just six days later, Nicholas was out of hospital, regaining full vision in the damaged eye after only three months! While Nicholas’s case is perhaps as much a testament to the skill of the surgeon as it is miraculous, a true ‘miracle’ treatment can come from the most unlikely of sources.

An 82 year old security guard at the Monticello Raceway in New York experienced just such a phenomenon, 64 years after losing over 95% of the sight in one eye, thanks to a shrapnel wound inflicted during World War II. While carrying out the routine task of putting a collar on a famous race horse, the animal head butted the security guard, instantly causing sight to return to his damaged eye! While vision in the previously damaged eye was not perfect, it was something of a shock for a man who had seen nothing through the organ since 1942! The attendant ophthalmologist suggested that the head butt had effectively reversed the displacement of the eye which originally resulted from the shrapnel wound, making the horse’s head butt one of the luckiest work place injuries ever recorded!

Unusual treatments can also come about by design, rather than freak luck. Following 27 years of blindness caused by an adverse reaction to an epilepsy drug, a 42 year old woman from Suffolk in England had her sight restored by some pioneering surgery. Using part of the root of a tooth, an ophthalmologist was able to use this nerve tissue to reinforce the optic nerve in her eye, restoring her vision – pretty miraculous, I think you’ll agree!

Skiing and eye care – how to protect the eyes when you hit the perilous slopes

Feb 10

Over one million people leave the UK every year to go skiing and snowboarding, adrenalin raising pursuits which come with a modest risk of injury. In recent years, there has been a growing movement encouraging people to wear helmets when they hit the slopes, to protect against the risk of head injury, while the need the specialist insurance should accident occur is now well known. Anyone who needs to wear prescription glasses may also think of getting a hold of some disposable contact lenses, to replace the specs and remove the possibility of eye damage from broken glass should an accident or fall occur. While there are now alternatives to switching to contact lenses, in the form of special shatter proof prescription ski glasses and goggles, there is another potential hazard that still catches many people out every year: UV radiation.

Overexposure to the high levels of UVA and UVB radiation that are commonly experienced on the slopes can lead to the condition known as snow blindness . While there are several different types of contact lenses that can provide a degree of UV protection, the strength of the rays you will often encounter at altitude means that you should not rely on this filtering alone. You must get a hold of dedicated skiing sunglasses or goggles that provide full UV protection, and if opting for sunglasses make sure that they are close fitting and wrap right around the side of the face.

It is not just the fact that that you are closer to the sun when skiing and snowboarding that increases the level of harmful UV rays being directed at the face and eyes, although this is a factor – with every thousand feet increase in altitude, the average intensity of UV radiation goes up by 5%. To compound this problem, the white surface of snow and ice can reflect up to 85% of the UV radiation coming from the sun back towards the face. While this effect is quite noticeable on a bright sunny day, many people are caught out when the weather is overcast – UV levels can still be high, even when the light seems ‘flat’.

Niphablepsia is the technical term for snow blindness, and this condition can encompass several types of damage to the eye. Most often, photokeratitis – which is basically sunburn to the cornea and conjunctiva – results from overexposure to UV radiation. More severe cases of snow blindness can result in solar retinopathy, which is (a usually temporary) damage to the retina, at the back of the eye. Redness and watering eyes are common symptoms of mild snow blindness, but a temporary loss of vision and significant pain is not uncommon. All in all, Niphablepsia can cause more problems than the average fall on the slopes, and is something best avoided!

Sight restored by gene therapy

Feb 10

A remarkable story of sight regained has been reported by Science Translational Medicine magazine. Gene therapy has been used to treat Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), an inherited disease that attacks eyesight at an early age. The retina is prevented from functioning normally, leading to severely impaired vision, involuntary eye movements and extremely poor night vision. Vision is affected to the point that spectacles and contact lenses do not improve condition.

However, three US citizens who have the disease reported a dramatic improvement in their vision after having an injection of an engineered virus carrying the gene RPE65. One of the patients, Tami Moorehouse described the joy in seeing her children’s faces after her second eye was injected. “Life is so much easier at a level that most people take for granted. Any amount of vision that you can get when you have almost nothing is incredibly valuable”, she said.

Professor Robin Ali of the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London heads a UK team carrying out similar gene therapy trials. His opinion: “This is confirmation that it is possible to administer gene therapy safely to the second eye of patients. This is reassuring and increases the prospect of this type of therapy for treatment of a wide range of eye conditions.”

BBC reported the STM’s findings on February 8th.