Glaucoma – The Secret Sight-Stealing Disease

As a fan of the Eagles in my younger days I knew all the words to their hit song, Hotel California. I can relate to one line, “my head grew heavy and my sight grew dim,” much more now that I am older. I do get tired more easily and old age has dimmed my sight somewhat. Glaucoma is much more serious than the incremental sight dimming of old age; it is an insidious disease that can steal our sight without much warning.  

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, a time for us all to spread the word about this sinister disease that affects many of us. Here are some facts about glaucoma:

• Glaucoma is a group of diseases that damage the eye’s optic nerve and can result in vision loss and even blindness.
• About 3 million Americans have glaucoma. It is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide.
• Open-angle glaucoma, the most common form, results in increased eye pressure. There are often no early symptoms, which is why 50% of people with glaucoma don’t know they have the disease.
• There is no cure (yet) for glaucoma, but if it’s caught early, you can preserve your vision and prevent vision loss. Taking action to preserve your vision health is key.

Anyone can get glaucoma, but certain groups are at higher risk. These groups include African Americans over age 40, all people over age 60, people with a family history of glaucoma, and people who have diabetes. African Americans are 6 to 8 times more likely to get glaucoma than whites. People with diabetes are 2 times more likely to get glaucoma than people without diabetes.

One big reason that this year may be especially important to think about our eyes is the COVID pandemic. Almost all of us have postponed some type of healthcare appointment due to the pandemic. Sometimes, it has even been our healthcare provider that has cancelled or postponed an appointment. I suspect that a yearly eye examine is a prime candidate as an appointment that might have been postponed. This isn’t good since the best way to detect glaucoma is through an optometrist-administered comprehensive dilated eye exam. This is especially important of those who fall into any of the high-risk categories.

This pandemic has forced us to all make some hard, often heart wrenching choices. Everyone has been telling us to not touch our faces so venturing out to a doctor’s office to have someone touch our eyes and face doesn’t sound like a wise move. Here are a few things to consider: everyone in healthcare wears masks and masks have been shown to be a big deterrent to COVID-19; and the transmission by surface infection has shown to be much less of a risk. There are other things we can do to reduce the risk as we visit the doctor. This link gives us some excellent guidance about visiting the optometrist during the pandemic.

One other thing to consider, some of you may have already been vaccinated. I am scheduled to receive the first of the required two vaccinations later today. Two weeks after receiving your second COVID-19 vaccination your chances of catching COVID is greatly, and I mean GREATLY, reduced. After receiving your first vaccination think about making an appointment with your optometrist. You can calculate when your body will be protected, for the Pfizer-BioNTech it is three weeks between vaccinations, add two weeks for your body to get fully protected and you can make your appointment five weeks after receiving the first vaccination. For the Moderna vaccine it will be six weeks after the first vaccination. Your eyesight is worth it!

As we grow older our head might grow heavy and our eyesight my seem a little dimmer but there are some things we can do to guard against glaucoma stealing our sight. Spread the word during National Glaucoma Awareness Month that now is the time to look ourselves, and our friends and families, in the eye (pun intended) and get checked for glaucoma.

Best, Thair