{"id":1740,"date":"2019-08-29T16:36:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T11:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2019-08-29T16:37:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T11:07:29","slug":"glaucoma-myths-and-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/eye-health\/glaucoma-myths-and-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Glaucoma Myths And Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Glaucoma Myths And Facts<\/h2>\n<p>Damage to the optic nerve that gets worse over time is known as glaucoma. Since there are many misconceptions and preconceived ideas linked with this condition that affects the eyes. Presented here are some myths along with the facts to clear up the mistaken beliefs that are associated with this serious condition that could eventually lead to blindness, it not treated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nA great vision, 6\/6 (20\/20) and not wearing glasses means one could not have glaucoma.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nPeople with perfect vision could still have glaucoma, since it affects the central vision the last. Though myopia is an important predisposing cause for glaucoma, it is not necessary. One could have perfect vision and still be suffering from glaucoma. Early prophylactic testing is the answer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nAll those who have glaucoma, have raised intraocular pressure (lOP).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nGlaucoma is essentially damage to the optic nerve, It could be due to raised intraocular pressure, or can be of vascular origin or due to poor nutrition to the optic nerve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nGlaucoma happens only to old people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nThough glaucoma affects the elderly more, it is also prevalent in new born babies, young children and even adolescents. Those in the high risk category, like a family history of glaucoma, diabetes, history of migraine, myopia, blood pressure, or past or present use of cortisone drugs (steroids) are six times as likely to suffer from glaucoma and may begin to develop the disease in their forties (or younger).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"h70BQNg3SP\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/health\/lasik-eye-surgery-modern-eye-correction-techniques\/\">Lasik Eye Surgery: Modern Eye Correction Techniques<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe title=\"&#8220;Lasik Eye Surgery: Modern Eye Correction Techniques&#8221; &#8212; Version Weekly\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/health\/lasik-eye-surgery-modern-eye-correction-techniques\/embed\/#?secret=h70BQNg3SP\" data-secret=\"h70BQNg3SP\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nIf one does not have high blood pressure, then one cannot have high eye pressure too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nEye pressure and blood pressure function independently of each other. Keeping the blood pressure under control doesn\u2019t translate into IOP being in control too. High BP may be associated, but not always, with elevated intraocular pressure. On the other hand, low BP remains strongly connected with few variations of glaucoma and the most common one is normal tension glaucoma or NTG.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nOne can tell if he\/she is developing glaucoma, because vision will be blurred or will be hazy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nGlaucoma shows no early signs. By the time it becomes obvious, permanent damage would have occurred to the optic nerve. The earliest symptoms are difficulty in reading, missing out words while reading, excessive watering and most commonly, witnessed especially in children, is sensitivity to light. The typical rainbow haloes around lights occur at later stages when the pressure is quite high. Hence, an early diagnosis and treatment is very important and necessary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nOne can test for glaucoma by checking his\/her own peripheral vision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nGlaucoma affects the side vision in preference to the central vision. Many people believe it they can see at the side, they are okay. They normally test themselves by shutting an eye and looking forward while waving a finger at the side. It they can see, they assume that they cannot have glaucoma. The fact is, the peripheral field test has to be very sophisticated to detect early changes that occur in an arc form. Unfortunately, not all glaucoma affects side vision. One also needs to check the optic nerve, the retinal nerve fibres and the periphery for glaucoma and to measure the IOP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nIt is tedious and time consuming to be tested for glaucoma.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nThere are some basic tests for proper examination of glaucoma and the full tests can be completed in 20 minutes at the most.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Tests Are As Follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The ophthalmoscopy exam in which the doctor looks into the eye and views the optic nerve.<\/li>\n<li>Tonometry, in which a computerized air puff measures the eye pressure, painlessly and without touching the eye.<\/li>\n<li>The visual field test, in which the eye is shown different sized flashes of light that the patient s asked to record with a button in order to determine whether any side vision has been lost.<\/li>\n<li>The HRT2 test, In which the optic nerve, its shape, size and depth is assessed for any damage, measured in microns.<\/li>\n<li>The glaucoma optical Fourier CT test which assesses the nerve fibre and the very sensitive ganglion cell layers, is considered to be the most sensitive test for glaucoma.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Myth<\/strong><br \/>\nGlaucoma invariably leads to blindness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fact<\/strong><br \/>\nAccording to The American Glaucoma Foundation, 90 per cent of all glaucoma related blindness is preventable with proper treatment. Hence, glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. Glaucoma has to be treated and one must get a regular eye check up done for the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glaucoma Myths And Facts Damage to the optic nerve that gets worse over time is known as glaucoma. Since there &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Glaucoma Myths And Facts\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/eye-health\/glaucoma-myths-and-facts\/#more-1740\" aria-label=\"More on Glaucoma Myths And Facts\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Glaucoma-Myths-And-Facts.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versionweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}