
Home \| Health \| Weight \| Fashion Trends \| Wedding \| Pregnancy \| Blog \| Shopping
Have a craving for the latest info? Check out the Look-Your-Best Blog

Tips to Protect Your Sight

share/save

rss

(NewsUSA) - Every five seconds, someone in the world goes blind, according to the World Health Organization. Yet 75 percent of those cases can be prevented or cured. And while the majority of preventable blindness occurs in the developing world, people in the United States are in no way immune.

Each year in October, hundreds of organizations participate in World Sight Day, a World Health Organization-sponsored observance to stimulate greater public awareness of eye health issues.

One of these organizations is ORBIS International, which delivers training to eye doctors and other health care workers in developing countries. Best known for its Flying Eye Hospital, a fully equipped ophthalmic surgical facility housed in a converted DC-10 airplane, ORBIS also works to raise awareness in the United States.

"All Americans should support efforts to accomplish cost-effective preschool vision/eye health screening," says Dr. Eugene Helveston, ORBIS ophthalmologist-in-chief. "And they should also continue to take other basic steps to safeguard their eyesight."

ORBIS offers the following guidelines:

* Wear sunglasses with UV protection. Ultraviolet rays cause damage to eye tissue, including cataracts, as they do to skin.

* Wear safety goggles when using power tools or performing tasks in which a flying object could strike the eye.

* If you are a diabetic, have regular checkups to guard against diabetic retinopathy, a frequent complication that damages the blood vessels inside the retina. This condition is becoming one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide.

* Make sure to get your eye pressure checked at least once every two years for glaucoma, which can cause irreversible damage to the optic nerve and retinal fibers if left untreated. One in 40 individuals over 40 have glaucoma.

* If you are over 55, pay close attention to blurring or distortion of objects at the center of your field of vision, which could be a sign of macular degeneration, the leading cause of age-related blindness.

ORBIS advises consumers to learn more about eye health issues. A good source is the Web site of Alcon Inc., a research and development-driven medical specialty company focused on eye care. The site, http://www.alcon.com, provides information on symptoms and risk factors associated with glaucoma, cataract, "dry eye syndrome" and other conditions of the eye.