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Remember
that your general health and lifestyle have a major impact
on glaucoma and your sight.
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Smoking does
increase the eye pressure, and will make your glaucoma worse. It
also increases the risk of retinal vein occlusion (which occur in glaucoma),
macular degeneration, cataracts, stroke, and heart attacks. The exact risk
is not known, but in some patients 20 ciagettes / day will
increase loss of vision by 400%. Passive smoking 20 a day
is equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes a day, and
increase visual loss 100%.
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metabolic sydrome is strongly related intraocular
pressure (Nature
2010). This is related to (as below) lack of exercise, high blood
pressure, obesity and liver and kidney problems. Treatment of the metabolic
syndrome will help lower eye pressure 0.8mmHg..
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Exercise lowers
the eye pressure, 'an hour a day (walking) will keep the doctor away',
and half an hour will help a lot. See.
Any exercise will do... eg walking, swimming, gardening.
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high blood pressure
will be harmful as this may, together with the glaucoma, cause a retinal
vein occlusion. A blood pressure of 140 systolic or less, may be
best, and may be lower the better as long as you feel well. See
But there are other
views. We now know
that eye pressure and blood pressure are related; the implication of
this is that lowering blood pressure will help in the treatment of
glaucoma. So keeping your blood pressure reaonably low is an important
part of the treatment, although too much medication may cause problems.
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Obesity results in high blood pressure, lack of exercise,
and indirectly will cause problems. Many obese patients suffer from
sleep apnoea....
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Oily fish will
help the circulation and probably help prevent retinal vien occlusions.
Red meat (including pork/ham) increase blood pressure; they
are best replaced, at least in part, by fish, and pulses such as
lentils and beans. Nuts have some healthy fats, and may be helpful
in small amounts...but they are 'fattening' and help to put weight
on.
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9 portions of vegetables
or fruit a day will also help to keep your retinal veins and macula
healthy, and prevent cataract formation...9 a day (men) 7 (women) keeps
the doctor away...
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A
high saturated fat diet is very harmful as it will contribute
to many conditions. A balanced diet is recommended. Saturated fat comes
from full-fat diary products such as milk, cheese, many cakes and biscuits,
and red meat.
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Salt will increase blood pressure.
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binge drinking, e.g.
4 pints of beer in one day, or more that 3 glasses of wine/day, will
cause a rise in blood pressure, again contributing to all these conditions.
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Sleep problems. New research
links sleep
apneoa with glaucoma. Sleep problems
are very common in obesity...these are likely if you snore a lot.
Logically if you are overweight, it is important to lose weight
to help your glaucoma. So if you do snore a lot, do lose weight,
and ask your doctor if you need to be tested for sleep apnoea.
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Steroid medication puts
eye pressure up. Even inhaled
nasal steroids can increase the pressure
2.5mmHg. If you use nasal steroids (eg for allregic rhinitis), ask
your doctor if you can reduce or stop them. Steroid
tablets certainly
may put
eye pressure up; ask your doctor if you can reduce the dose (Do
not reduce steroid tablets without seeking advice.).
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Retinal vein occlusions:
patients with glaucoma are much more prone to retinal
vein occlusion. The risk of a vein occlusion is
reduced by control of the glaucoma, blood pressure, and
all the other general health risk factors immediately
above.
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