Glaucoma Is Attacking The US Population

Glaucoma Is Attacking The US Population.
The changing makeup of the US populace is expected to precedent to an increase in cases of glaucoma, the leading cause of vision injury in the country, experts say. A number of demographic and health trends have increased the calculate of Americans who fall into the major risk groups for glaucoma healthbuy. These trends include: the aging of America, intumescence in the black and Hispanic populations, the ongoing obesity epidemic.

And as more people become at risk, proportional eye exams become increasingly important, eye experts say. Early detection of glaucoma is leading to preserving a person's sight, but eye exams are the only way to catch the cancer before serious damage is done to vision bowtrolcoloncleanse. "The big thing about glaucoma is that it doesn't have any signs or symptoms," said Dr Mildred Olivier of the Midwest Glaucoma Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill, and a billet fellow of Prevent Blindness America.

And "By the time someone says, 'Gosh, I have a problem,' they are in the end stages of glaucoma. It's already bewitched most of their sight away. That's why we call glaucoma 'the skulk thief of sight.'"

Glaucoma currently affects more than 4 million Americans, although only half have been diagnosed, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation. It's cited as the cause of 9 to 12 percent of all cases of blindness in the United States, with about 120000 society blinded by the disease.

Glaucoma is most often caused by an wax in the average fluid pressure inside the eye, according to the US National Eye Institute. The added press damages the optic nerve, the bundle of more than a million nerve fibers that send signals from the eyeball to the brain. In most cases, people first notice that they have glaucoma when they begin to lose their circumferential vision.

By then, it's too late to save much of their eyesight. "Glaucoma is the number one cause of irreversible but avoidable blindness," said Dr Louis B Cantor, chairman and professor of ophthalmology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and skipper of the glaucoma rite at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute in Indianapolis. "By the heyday it's noticeable, 70 to 90 percent of idea has been lost. Once it's gone, it's gone. There's no retrieving vision unsalvageable to glaucoma".

The most common risk factor for glaucoma is simply surviving. "Glaucoma is a disease of aging. The endanger of developing glaucoma goes up considerably with aging". As the population of the United States ages, the enumerate of glaucoma cases will naturally increase. As Olivier said, "We're just universal to have more people who are older and living longer, so we'll have more glaucoma".

However, people who are black or Hispanic also have increased gamble for developing glaucoma. Demographically, both groups are growing in the United States, solely Hispanics. As their numbers increase, so, too, will the incidence of glaucoma.

Glaucoma already is the leading cause of blindness among black Americans and is five times more common in blacks than whites, according to US administration data. "Not only do African-Americans get more glaucoma, they get it younger and it's more resistant to treatment".

More recent inspect has found that Hispanics develop glaucoma at about the same rate as blacks, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation. Glaucoma rates go up dramatically for older Hispanics. "Once they get to about ripen 60, the incidence of glaucoma starts to go up. We don't recollect why".

To a lesser extent, medical experts also believe that the avoirdupois epidemic will contribute to a rise in glaucoma cases. People with diabetes are twice as likely to mature glaucoma as people without diabetes, although the reasons for that are not clear, according to the foundation.

What is clear, though, is that anyone in a risk categorize should have regular eye examinations. The National Eye Institute recommends dilated sidelong glance exams at least every two years for people at increased risk for glaucoma. "It's very effective to get regular eye exams. Most of us go to the dentist every six months but get our vision checked every 10 years. Which would you rather lose, your marvel or your teeth?"

But vision loss need not be a given. Medicines and surgeries handy today can slow down the progression of glaucoma. "Vision loss is preventable. Many forebears with glaucoma can enjoy vision for the rest of their lives if the disease is detected early and treated promptly".

But the key, of course, is discovery it early. "A lot of people don't know that the treatments we have for glaucoma are very good. Just because you have glaucoma, that doesn't humble it's going to blind you bilqees herbal karachi. But we have to allure it early".