OBTAIN GLAUCOMA INFORMATION FROM A DOCTOR THAT HAS EXPERIENCED IT FIRSTHAND My name is Dr. Carolina Valdivia. I am an ophthalmologist (eye doctor and surgeon) with 16 years of medical training and practice experience.
My grandmother and aunt both have glaucoma. They were diagnosed when I was just a girl. There wasn't much glaucoma information available at the time and my family really didn't know what to do. We just followed the instructions of doctors to the extent that we could and hoped for the best. On numerous occasions we were confused, because the doctors spoke in technical language that we found difficult to understand or gave us so much information at one time that we could not remember it all. Now with the Internet, there is an abundance of information out there. But this has created another serious problem. People don't know which glaucoma information to believe and who to trust. Having family members with glaucoma has given me a unique perspective toward helping others and treating this disease is my passion. My goal here is to provide glaucoma information that you can trust, believe, and use. The glaucoma information and eye care guidelines that you will find here are the same advice that I give to my family members and patients that I see in my ophthalmology practice.
Glaucoma is a chronic disease of the eye. This means that it continues for a long period of time. Glaucoma is not a single disease. Instead, it is a group of conditions. Each one has the effect of causing damage to the optic nerve of the eye. The most common form of glaucoma causes a slow and progressive loss of vision, starting with impairment of peripheral vision. The loss of vision often is not noticed by a person for many years. If not treated, glaucoma will result in blindness. Therefore, good eye care is essential.
Current estimates are that about 61 million people suffer from glaucoma worldwide. However, less than half of these individuals are aware that they have the disease. For this reason, it is essential that people have access to high-quality glaucoma information and that they monitor their eyesight with an eye doctor regularly. In the United States, about 2.0% of the population has been diagnosed with glaucoma. African Americans are 3 times more likely to have been diagnosed. We do not yet know the reason for this. The number of glaucoma cases in a population increases with age. In general, for every 10 years of age the incidence doubles. This means that there are approximately twice as many people age 55 diagnosed with glaucoma as there are people age 45. Glaucoma is responsible for about 12% of all new cases of legal blindness each year. Current estimates are that only half of the people living with glaucoma have been diagnosed. I want to change that.
While there is a lot of research in progress, there still is no known cure for glaucoma. Advertisements or e-mail messages that you receive claiming that they have a cure are deceiving you. That's the plain and simple truth.
There is no current remedy for glaucoma that can make the disease go away completely. However, there are a number of treatments that can address your symptoms and greatly slow the progression of the disease. The glaucoma information I provide here is on treatments that have been proven effective, both in the sterile environment of a laboratory and most important . . . in the real world with people just like you.
Glaucoma is not picky. Anyone can get it. But there are certain factors that place people at greater risk for the disease. The most common of these are:
High blood pressure (systemic hypertension) and consistently elevated levels of cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) also have been linked to glaucoma. If you are being treated for either or both of these conditions by your primary care physician, it is important that you inform your eye doctor, so that she or he can coordinate your care with your primary doctor and monitor you for symptoms of glaucoma.
So that you can have a better understanding of what being a member of one or more of these glaucoma risk groups means to you, I have prepared the short video below.
I get this question a lot from people. It is helpful to break it down into three more manageable issues. The first is what can you do to prevent going blind from glaucoma? My purpose in creating this website is to help people to sort through glaucoma information that is beneficial and that which is of questionable use. The no-nonsense answer is that to prevent glaucoma-related blindness, the best thing that you can do is to be screened regularly for glaucoma by an eye care professional and, if you are diagnosed with glaucoma, to follow the treatment regimen prescribed for you by your doctor. The second issue is how often should you be screened for glaucoma? In general, people in one or more of the risk groups listed above should be screened every 1-2 years. Others should be screened every 2-4 years. The third issue is what can I do to prevent getting glaucoma in the first place? The plain truth is that you can do very little to prevent it. Glaucoma is not like sunburn. You can prevent getting sunburned by either wearing sunblock to protect your skin or by not going outside at all. Unfortunately, a simple prevention measure analogous to protecting yourself from sunburn does not exist for glaucoma. One reason for this is that science does not yet know enough about what causes the various forms of glaucoma. As research tells us more, it may be possible to develop glaucoma information guidelines for people to follow to lower their risk. But we are not there yet! However! There are some simple healthy decisions that you can make, like eating a healthy diet and getting sufficient exercise. These can help to prevent other conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol that sometimes are associated with glaucoma. Moreover, there are countless other benefits to healthy eating and exercise, so you can't go wrong by making this decision. Glaucoma tends to affect people in midlife. But a diagnosis of glaucoma does NOT mean that your life has to change substantially. Glaucoma is a treatable disease. There are many people diagnosed with glaucoma in midlife that are living happy and fulfilling lives. My goal is to help you to become one of them by providing you with glaucoma information that you can trust and use. I hope that you find the glaucoma information and tips for good eye care that you are looking for here, and that they are helpful to you in seeking care, treatment and relief.
In addition to the in-depth glaucoma information that is presented here, I also have created some other resources that I hope will help you. The first is the Eye-Care Store. A number of visitors have written to me asking for recommendations pertaining to eye-care products and books for obtaining more information. I have joined with Amazon.com to create a dependable resource for books and products. A second resource is Glaucoma News. I have compiled a group of on-line resources that are specific to glaucoma and other eye diseases and located them for you in one convenient place. Some of these are technical, but many are not and present news and general information. Finally there is the Eye-Care Directory. This growing directory features ophthalmologists and optometrists throughout the world, along with related services and other information sites. I hope that you encounter the glaucoma information that you need on this website. However, if you do not, please click on Ask Dr. Valdiva. You will be taken to a form in which you can ask me a question about glaucoma, another eye disease, vision care, or other health problems. I will answer you promptly. I publish the questions that are of general interest to my readers along with my response. Who knows? I might publish yours.
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But let's look at what this means. A cure is the end of a medical condition. For example, a friend of mine recently was diagnosed with an ear infection. A doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics and the condition was cured. It went away.
