Eye Care
Eye MDs Offer Free Eye Exams in Honor of Glaucoma Awareness Month
By
Jan 10, 2012 - 12:54:19 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - This January during Glaucoma Awareness Month the American Academy of Ophthalmology and EyeCare America join in urging people to learn about glaucoma and take steps to protect themselves from this potentially blinding disease. Through EyeCare America, a public service program of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, thousands of volunteer ophthalmologists throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico are providing free eye exams at no out-of-pocket cost to eligible patients.

The Eyecare America program is for uninsured patients who are determined to be at increased risk for glaucoma (by age, race and family history) and have not had an eye exam in 12 months or more. Those interested can visit www.eyecareamerica.org to learn more.

Glaucoma sneaks up on people, often coming on so gradually that many don’t notice that they’re developing blind spots or losing peripheral vision. It affects more than 2.3 million Americans aged 40 and older, while another two million don’t know they have the disease.

In the United States, higher-risk groups include people with African or Latino heritage and others with a family history of the illness.

Other glaucoma risk factors include aging, nearsightedness or farsightedness, previous eye injuries, steroid use, and health conditions that affect blood flow such as migraines, diabetes and low blood pressure. People of Asian descent and those who are farsighted are at higher risk for narrow-angle glaucoma (also known as angle-closure glaucoma or closed-angle glaucoma).

The Academy recommends that people with risk factors for glaucoma or other eye diseases visit an ophthalmologist to get a complete exam, learn more about their specific risks, and find out how often they’ll need checkups. Those with no eye disease symptoms or risk factors should get a baseline screening at age 40, when signs of disease and vision changes may start to occur.

Glaucoma damages the optic nerve, the part of the eye that transmits the images we see to the brain. As glaucoma worsens, cells die in the retina — a special, light-sensitive area of the eye — which further reduces the optic nerve’s ability to relay visual signals. In the more-common form, open-angle glaucoma, usually first the peripheral vision gradually decreases, and then additional blind spots develop in the visual field. Symptoms of the less-common but more immediately dangerous narrow-angle glaucoma include blurred vision, severe eye pain and headache, rainbow-colored halos around lights and nausea and vomiting. Anyone with these symptoms needs to be seen by an Eye M.D. right away.

More information on glaucoma visit the EyeSmart® website, www.geteyesmart.org. To learn more about free eye exams offered through EyeCare America, visit www.eyecareamerica.org.

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