Care For Your Elder

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that silently steals vision and is the second most common cause of blindness. The elderly are at risk for glaucoma as it occurs in 1 out of 10 people over the age of 80, and it affects 1 in 200 under the age of 50.  People of African descent are more likely to develop glaucoma at an earlier age and are much more predisposed to go blind than people of the other races.

Damage to the optic nerve is so gradual that the vision loss is not noticed until the disease is at an advanced stage.  Once this damage is noticed, the vision can not be restored.  The optic nerve, which is at the back of the eye, is slowly destroyed by very high pressures in side of the eye.  This intraocular pressure usually causes the optic nerve damage.  The pressure becomes high due to a blockage in the drainage system of the eye.  You can think about this type of pressure build up like a garden hose that has the water on and then you kink the hose to cut off the flow.  Eventually the hose will not be able to hold the water pressure and will spring a leak or burst the hose.  The same thing happens with the drainage system of the eye over long periods of time, years for some, the optic nerve will become damaged and the result is vision loss.

Some risk factors that are associated with glaucoma are people with:

• Diabetes
• A family history of glaucoma
• Who are nearsighted (people who need glasses to see far away)
• Who have had a previous eye injury
• Who use steroids for long periods of time

For those people who are loosing their vision they may see blind spots in the peripheral vision, cloudy or halo vision, a gradual failure of side vision (objects in front may be clear, but objects to the side can’t be seen), tunnel vision or total blindness.

Here are a few photos I found that show how a person may see if they have glaucoma.

Photos courtesy of  http://www.glaucomaresearch.ca/en/about/images/tunnel_vision.jpg  

Tunnel Vision

http://www.milanoeyecare.net/images/glaucomaAdvanced.jpg

Advanced Glaucoma

Come back on Thurdsay for the next blog as I will be discussing the different types of glaucoma.

Tags: Add new tag, elderly care, eye glaucoma, glaucoma disease, glaucoma eye disease, glaucoma signs, signs of glaucoma