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On his blog, Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness, and some alternatives for treatment. He writes:
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. Worldwide, an estimated 80 million people are affected, and prevalence is rising.1 Glaucoma develops when high pressure in your eye (ocular hypertension2) damages the optic nerve. Peripheral vision is impacted first, followed by central vision.
Ocular hypertension occurs when the front of your eye fails to drain fluid properly, thereby causing pressure to build and put pressure on the optic nerve. Factors that raise your risk for ocular hypertension include:
Family history of ocular hypertension or glaucoma Diabetics and those with high blood pressure People over 40 Blacks and Hispanics Myopia (nearsightedness) Long-term steroid use Previous eye injuries or eye surgeries Those with pigment dispersion syndrome or pseudoexfoliation syndrome The only known way to prevent and/or stop the progression of glaucoma is to lower the pressure in the eye. Treatment options include drugs, lasers, laceration surgery, oral medications, nutritional supplements, herbs and other plant remedies, several of which I’ll review below.
Keep in mind that loss of vision is usually the first and only symptom of glaucoma, so it’s important to get a thorough eye exam by an ophthalmologist to determine if your ocular pressure is elevated, which could make you a candidate for glaucoma. Once vision loss occurs, the damage to your optic nerve is irreversible.
The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS)
Being diagnosed with ocular hypertension does not mean you’re destined to develop glaucoma, but it does significantly raise your risk, as it’s the primary underlying cause. The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS), which began in 1994, has also identified other risk factors that can help determine your risk for glaucoma. As reported by Harvard Health:3
“The researchers enrolled a diverse group of 1,636 participants with ocular hypertension from 22 sites across the US. To study glaucoma prevention, participants were randomly assigned to start either early eye pressure-lowering eye drops (medication group) or close observation (control group).
At five years the data showed that 4.4% of participants developed glaucoma in the medication group, compared to 9.5% in the control group. This tells us that early use of medicated eye drops helps delay over 50% of glaucoma cases in people with ocular hypertension.
During later phases of the study, the control group could receive eye pressure-lowering medications to see whether starting medication later could still delay glaucoma; it did.
At 20 years, about 49% of those in the control group and 42% of those in the medication group developed glaucoma. However, since the study was no longer randomized, the researchers were unable to compare the 20-year risk reduction between the initial starting groups …
Glaucoma risk, it turned out, did not depend solely on eye pressure and race, but on a combination of exam findings. This information helps guide clinicians in determining whether a person with ocular hypertension is at a low, medium, or higher risk for developing glaucoma. Having such information could help people decide when to begin using medicated eye drops to prevent vision loss or slow its progress.”
Aside from high eye pressure, other factors that influence an individual’s risk for developing glaucoma were found to include:
- Older age
- Thinner corneas
- Larger optic nerve cup sizes
- Low initial peripheral vision test scores
Treatment Alternatives
If you’re diagnosed with ocular hypertension, particularly if you also have other risk factors listed above, your ophthalmologist may prescribe eye pressure-lowering eye drops, oral medication and/or selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT).4
SLT is a five-minute procedure performed at your ophthalmologist’s office, where a low-energy laser is pulsed into specific cells in your eye. Your body’s natural healing response then does the rest by rebuilding these cells. The rebuilding process automatically reduces the intraocular pressure and improves drainage.
Studies have also shown that certain herbal remedies, plant extracts5 and nutritional supplements can be helpful, although most conventional doctors know very little, if anything, about these products.
Read more here.
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