eGleams - Tips and Advice for Glaucoma Patients

Your November newsletter from Glaucoma Research Foundation.

November 2019 Dear Tushar, Glaucoma is an eye condition that will lead to blindness if left untreated, and that blindness is irreversible. We know that 50% of people who have glaucoma are not aware that they actually have the disease, and we know that people who are aware that they have the disease still struggle with trying to live with glaucoma and take care of it. As a glaucoma specialist, I have words of advice that I like to give to every glaucoma patient — words of advice that I've gathered over the years and feel that each patient should know to better take control of their disease. Watch the video... If you have been recently diagnosed with glaucoma, or if you are struggling with trying to deal with glaucoma, here are some top pieces of advice to help you cope with your diagnosis and treatment. Accept the disease. When you have been diagnosed from a trusted doctor that you have glaucoma, glaucoma doesn't go away, and glaucoma won't go on pause just because you're not ready to accept it. Staying in denial will not help slow down the disease. If you're able to accept the disease, now you can actually take control of it and do something about it. You have to be your own advocate. You need to show up and be present. This means that you need to follow up with your regular eye exams. Even if your glaucoma seems to be doing fine and you're under good care from an eye doctor, glaucoma can change, and it can change without you knowing it. So you need to show up. You need to speak out. "Speak out" means you have to ask questions. It's your eyes and your vision, so you don't want to just go to the doctor and not know really what's going on. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to ask the doctor, "Am I on target or has anything changed?" Because the more that you understand what's happening with your own eyes, the more that you can work with your doctor to stay on top of it. Read the full article on our Blog... The Quest to Restore Lost Vision and Cure Glaucoma By Derek Welsbie, MD, PhD Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. At its core, glaucoma is an age-related neurodegenerative disease akin to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, each of which is characterized by loss of specific nerve cells. In glaucoma, that specific nerve cell is called the retinal ganglion cell (RGC). Normally, there are approximately one million RGCs in each eye, lining the inside of the retina. Each one is responsible for processing visual information at a given point in the retina and then transmitting that information to the brain via a long nerve fiber in the optic nerve. As the cells slowly die off, parts of the eye become "disconnected" from the brain, resulting in visual field loss. Moreover, since nerve cells do not grow back, the vision loss is permanent. Although lowering eye pressure can help slow or stop the neurodegeneration, there are currently no therapies to regenerate lost RGCs and help patients that have already lost vision. Continue reading... Our mission is to cure glaucoma and restore vision through innovative research. DONATE NOW www.glaucoma.org

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