Home Article What is Glaucoma? Learn about its Cause, Prevention and Cure.

What is Glaucoma? Learn about its Cause, Prevention and Cure.

Updated On 13 Oct, 2017 Published On 13 Oct, 2017
What is Glaucoma? Learn about its Cause, Prevention and Cure.

Glaucoma is the condition causing acute damage to the eye's optic nerve that progresses over time. The condition is often inherited and the signs are prevalent later in life.

Glaucoma is the condition causing acute damage to the eye's optic nerve that progresses over time. The condition is often inherited and the signs are prevalent later in life.

Glaucoma is prevalent at the rate of 1.9% for the United States population age 40 and older. The severity of the disease is often misunderstood as people often don't realize the symptoms earlier.

What is Glaucoma?

It is an eye disease linked to an increased intraocular pressure that leads to loss of vision and even permanent blindness. But blindness can often be prevented with early treatment.

Source: All About Vision

The effect is not detected until the condition is at an advanced stage.

Its Types

There are two forms of glaucoma known so far. Open-angle glaucoma is a long duration condition; often the chronic one and angle-closure glaucoma that can be acute or a chronic one.

Some Facts about Glaucoma

  • Approximately 3 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those realize the fact.
  • In the U.S. more than 12,000 people are blind from glaucoma.
  • It is the second leading causes of irreversible blindness across the globe as per the report of World Health Organization.
  • Usually, glaucoma has no distinct symptoms earlier. However, it can be detected by regular eye examinations.
  • Anyone can develop glaucoma but some people are at greater risk of it.

Symptoms

Generally, there are no specific symptoms detected but some signs of acute angle-closure glaucoma are listed below:

  • Blurred vision
  • Severe pain in the eye
  • Headache
  • Nausea
  • Vomit
  • Observing rainbow-colored rings or halos around lights

Cause

There are several causative factors of glaucoma. It is just the result of high liquid pressure inside the eye.

The condition prevails when the liquid present in the eye doesn't circulate the normal way.

Source: The Health Site

The fluid in the eye, aqueous humor flows through a mesh-like channel. If the channel gets blocked, the liquid won't get free passage and causes glaucoma.

The actual cause of the blockage is still unknown but doctors say that the condition is often inherited, it passes from parents to their offsprings.

Some less common causes include eye injury, chronic eye infection, blockage in the blood vessels, and inflammatory conditions.

Diagnosis 

Tonometer is used for the routine eye examination. The device is used to measure the intraocular pressure or IOP.

Source: Glaucoma Research Foundation

If IOP is greater than 30 mmHg, the individual is at risk of vision loss. However, if the pressure is about 15 mmHg or less, the condition can be a normal one.

Some other methods like scanning laser polarimetry (SLP), optical coherence tomography (OCT) and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy can be used.

Treatment

Eye drops with medications was used to lower the IOP at first to manage the condition.

Source: Singapore Medical Clinic

At present, treatment is associated with glaucoma surgery or lasers or medication depending on the severity of the cause.

Some people neglect the use of medications and eye drop regularly resulting in permanent blindness.

If you get some irritations or discomfort using the eye drops, first consult the doctor for some alternative therapy.

Preventive Measures

Every single person has a common question in their mind; can the risk of glaucoma be reduced or not?

Source: Fundacion Marjal

Some researchers claim that higher levels of physical exercise have prolonged benefits of reducing the incidence of low ocular pressure.

In addition to it maintaining a healthy diet, maintaining weight and avoiding smoking habits can help reduce the risk of glaucoma at some level.

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