VSP Vision Care Launches National "Clicks for Kids" Campaign to Provide Eyecare to Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

It is estimated this year that approximately 15 million children will go back to school with undiagnosed

vision issues. Not seeing properly impacts how a child performs both inside and outside the classroom,

as 80 percent of what children learn is through their eyes. In light of these statistics, VSP Vision Care,

the nation's leading not-for-profit vision care company, has created the "Clicks for Kids" campaign,

which will provide up to 25,000 gift certificates for comprehensive vision exams and new glasses to Big

Brothers Big Sisters programs nationwide – a total donation valued at close to $10 million.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is proven to improve children's self-esteem and odds for succeeding in school.

The mission of the VSP "Clicks for Kids" campaign is to help raise awareness about the role healthy vision

plays in a child's success. People nationwide are encouraged to participate by visiting the "Clicks for

Kids" page on SeeMuchMore.com and choosing to "click" to benefit either their local Big Brothers Big

Sisters program or one with the greatest need. For every click sent, a gift certificate – valid for a free

comprehensive eye exam and, if needed, a pair of glasses – will be donated by VSP to Big Brothers Big

Sisters.

To date, through VSP Eyes of Hope charity programs, including VSP Mobile Eyes and Sight for Students,

and with partners including the American Red Cross and Optometry Giving Sight, VSP has invested close

to $160 million in free eyecare and eyewear for close to 845,000 adults and children in need. These

services have resulted in the early detection of chronic health and eye diseases such as diabetes, high

blood pressure, glaucoma and cataracts in nearly 10,000 people across the country.

For more information about the VSP "Clicks for Kids" campaign and to participate, visit

SeeMuchMore.com. The site also includes helpful information about the benefits of healthy vision plus

eye health resources for parents and children. Also, you can watch a video on why the "Clicks for Kids"

campaign was developed by clicking here.

Back to School - a quick check for any eye problems or symptoms of potential problems.

It's that time of the year again when parents and

children are dealing with the annual back-at-

school adjustment. While shopping for new

clothes and school supplies are all a part of the

traditional preparation routine, parents should




also consider adding something new to the back-to-school schedule

- a quick check for any eye problems or symptoms of potential problems.

Some things parents should look for include:

Excessive Tearing

This is often a sign of blocked tear ducts in children but other potential problems could be light

sensitivity, allergy, a scratched eye or something in the eye.

Eye rubbing

Many times this is a telltale sign of an allergy or habit. Parents need to monitor eye rubbing as it can

lead to damage the cornea, if not addressed.

Discharge

This is usually a telltale sign of infection. If a discharge is evident a trip to your family doctor or eye care

professional is encouraged.

Pinkeye

One of the most common eye maladies associated with children and school. Pinkeye describes the white

of the eye being a shade of red due to inflammation and irritation of the conjunctival tissue overlying

the white of the eye and the back of the eyelids. There are multiple causes for this, which include

infection. In school-age children, it is not uncommon for a virus to be the cause. This is the pinkeye

that can be very contagious when caused by adenovirus. While contagious, children with adenovirus

should be removed from school. Contact with them should be minimal, particularly by anyone who has

compromised immune system. In preschool children, infection causing pinkeye is usually bacterial and

responds well to the appropriate antibiotic. Viral infection does not respond to antibiotics. Bacterial

conjunctivitis is usually limited to several days, while adenovirus can last two weeks or more.

Squinting

The most common cause for squinting is an uncorrected nearsightedness requiring glasses. Other

children squint because light may be causing discomfort in an inflamed eye. Parents should check to see

that both eyes are equally wide open.

Eye misalignment (Lazy Eye)

Eye misalignment or lazy eye can be obvious or slightly difficult to detect. Your child may have

limitations in eye movement and may adopt a head position to compensate for the misalignment.

Squinting might also be a side effect. Expect your child to have well-aligned eyes that move together

over the full range of motion after 2 to 3 months of age.

Droopy eyelid

Known as ptosis, this usually occurs on a congenital basis and can be potentially severe. Causes include

a weak muscle in the eyelid or sometimes a tumor in the affected eyelid. A droopy eyelid can be

associated with poor vision and a visit with an eye care professional is highly recommended. Possible

treatments include glasses for nearsightedness and astigmatism, patching of the sound eye and surgical

correction.

Fighting Presbyopia With Eye Exercises

If you're over 40, you're probably experiencing - or will soon experience - some level of aging vision or presbyopia. You know, it's that aggravating experience of realizing you need to hold a book, newspaper or digital reading device a little further away from your eyes than before to allow your eyes to focus.

Presbyopia occurs from the gradual thickening and lessening of flexibility of the lens of the eye. The changes due to aging also occur in the muscle fibers surrounding the lens, contributing to focus difficulties. With less elasticity in the lens and less muscle control, focusing on nearby objects is not as easy as it once was.

But unlike more serious eye problems, presbyopia can be improved to some degree on your own. Like any other part of your body, you eyes have muscles that can use some exercise as your get older. There are exercises for the eyes that have shown to be effective in improving some of the symptoms of presbyopia and laying the groundwork for improved vision.

The exercises concentrate on stimulating the eye muscles through flexing and relaxing, thus forcing the eye muscles to work a little harder than they are used to. The increased activity helps your eyes ability to focus with lessened difficulty.

One of the easiest and most effective exercises is to close your eyes and rotate them in a clockwise and then counterclockwise direction. This simple exercise loosens the ocular eye muscles and helps improve blood flow in area surrounding the eye, which increases the level of oxygen, which helps improve vision.

This exercise loosens your ocular eye muscle which helps to improve blood flow in surrounding areas of the eye, increasing the level of oxygen, thus improving vision. Rotate your eyes in each direction 10 to 15 times.

Another great exercise starts with holding your index finger approximately 6 inches from your face. Focus your eyes as best you can on the tip of your finger for roughly 90 seconds. Then shift your focus in the same direction as your finger to something approximately 10 feet away. Then focus back on the tip of your finger. Keep shifting the focus back and forth, decreasing the time spent between the two focal points until your switching focus roughly every few seconds. The entire exercise should last around five minutes.

Along the same lines as the previous exercise is routine where you stand or sit with your arm extended and thumb up. While focusing on your thumb, slowly bring it closer to your face while trying to keep your thumb in focus as best you can. When it's too difficult to keep your thumb in focus, slowly move it back out to arm's length, again keeping it in focus as it moves away. Repeat the exercise for 3 to 5 minutes.

Spending just 15 to 20 minutes a day doing some or all of these exercises can help improve your vision within a couple weeks.

Early Signs and Symptoms of Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration or AMD is an eye condition that usually affects older adults and leads to loss of vision in the center of the vision field called the macula - located in the retina. The macula helps you see small details clearly.

Macular degeneration happens in "wet" or "dry" forms, with the majority of the people with the condition have the dry form.

Macular degeneration, which occurs due to the aging and thinning of the tissues of the macula, generally starts with the formation of small yellow or white pieces of fatty protein, called drusen, under the retina. This progressively makes the macula thinner and leads to it not working properly.

Vision loss with dry macular degeneration is typically gradual. For those who develop the condition, careful monitoring of their central vision field is critical. Any changes to the vision field should prompt an immediate visit to your eye care professional as the condition can change to wet macular degeneration, the more damaging of the two conditions. Approximately 10 percent of people with macular degeneration have wet AMD.

The wet form of macular degeneration happens when anomalous blood vessels begin to grow under the retina. These new blood vessels sometimes leak blood or fluid causing central vision to blur and distort. The longer these abnormal vessels continue to leak or grow, the more the risk of losing detailed vision. The faster wet macular degeneration is diagnosed and treated, the better the chances of saving as much of your central vision as possible, which is why it is best to meet with an eye care professional as quickly as possible if you are experiencing some of the signs and symptoms of AMD.

Some of the Signs and Symptoms of Dry AMD are:

Blank or blurry central vision

Blurry distance vision

Blurry reading vision

Colors seem more pale than usual

Need for increasingly bright light to see up close

Colors appear less vivid or bright

Trouble  seeing when going from bright light to low light

Some Signs and symptoms of Wet AMD are:

Central vision loss

The appearance of dark gray or blank spots in your vision

The size of objects may seem different in each eye

Distorted vision

Less vibrant colors in your vision and colors looking different in each eye

Eye Movements Reveal Reading Impairments in Schizophrenia

A study of eye movements in schizophrenia patients provides new evidence of impaired reading fluency in individuals with the mental illness.

The findings, by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, could open avenues to earlier detection and intervention for people with the illness.

While schizophrenia patients are known to have abnormalities in language and in eye movements, until recently reading ability was believed to be unaffected. That is because most previous studies examined reading in schizophrenia using single-word reading tests, the McGill researchers conclude. Such tests aren't sensitive to problems in reading fluency, which is affected by the context in which words appear and by eye movements that shift attention from one word to the next.

The McGill study, led by Ph.D. candidate Veronica Whitford and psychology professors Debra Titone and Gillian A. O'Driscoll, monitored how people move their eyes as they read simple sentences. The results, which were first published online last year, appear in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

eye movement measures provide clear and objective indicators of how hard people are working as they read. For example, when struggling with a difficult sentence, people generally make smaller eye movements, spend more time looking at each word, and spend more time re-reading words. They also have more difficulty attending to upcoming words, so they plan their eye movements less efficiently.

The McGill study, which involved 20 schizophrenia outpatients and 16 non-psychiatric participants, showed that reading patterns in people with schizophrenia differed in several important ways from healthy participants matched for gender, age, and family social status. People with schizophrenia read more slowly, generated smaller eye movements, spent more time processing individual words, and spent more time re-reading. In addition, people with schizophrenia were less efficient at processing upcoming words to facilitate reading.

The researchers evaluated factors that could contribute to the problems in reading fluency among the schizophrenia outpatients -- specifically, their ability to parse words into sound components and their ability to skillfully control eye movements in non-reading contexts. Both factors were found to contribute to the reading deficits.

"Our findings suggest that measures of reading difficulty, combined with other information such as family history, may help detect people in the early stages of schizophrenia -- and thereby enable earlier intervention," Whitford says.

Moreover, fluent reading is a crucial life skill, and in people with schizophrenia, there is a strong relationship between reading skill and the extent to which they can function independently, the researchers note. "Improving reading through intervention in people with schizophrenia may be important to improving their ability to function in society," Titone adds.


Article republished from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130219121451.htm

Vitreous Detachment

What is vitreous detachment?

Most of the eye's interior is filled with vitreous, a gel-like substance that helps the eye maintain a round shape. There are millions of fine fibers intertwined within the vitreous that are attached to the surface of the retina, the eye's light-sensitive tissue. As we age, the vitreous slowly shrinks, and these fine fibers pull on the retinal surface. Usually the fibers break, allowing the vitreous to separate and shrink from the retina. This is avitreous detachment.
In most cases, a vitreous detachment, also known as a posterior vitreous detachment, is not sight-threatening and requires no treatment.

Risk Factors

Who is at risk for vitreous detachment?

A vitreous detachment is a common condition that usually affects people over age 50, and is very common after age 80. People who are nearsighted are also at increased risk. Those who have a vitreous detachment in one eye are likely to have one in the other, although it may not happen until years later.

Symptoms and Detection

What are the symptoms of vitreous detachment?

As the vitreous shrinks, it becomes somewhat stringy, and the strands can cast tiny shadows on the retina that you may notice as floaters, which appear as little "cobwebs" or specks that seem to float about in your field of vision. If you try to look at these shadows they appear to quickly dart out of the way.
One symptom of a vitreous detachment is a small but sudden increase in the number of new floaters. This increase in floaters may be accompanied by flashes of light (lightning streaks) in your peripheral, or side, vision. In most cases, either you will not notice a vitreous detachment, or you will find it merely annoying because of the increase in floaters.

How is vitreous detachment detected?

The only way to diagnose the cause of the problem is by a comprehensive dilated eye examination. If the vitreous detachment has led to a macular hole or detached retina, early treatment can help prevent loss of vision.

Treatment

How does vitreous detachment affect vision?

Although a vitreous detachment does not threaten sight, once in a while some of the vitreous fibers pull so hard on the retina that they create amacular hole to or lead to a retinal detachment. Both of these conditions are sight-threatening and should be treated immediately.
If left untreated, a macular hole or detached retina can lead to permanent vision loss in the affected eye. Those who experience a sudden increase in floaters or an increase in flashes of light in peripheral vision should have an eye care professional examine their eyes as soon as possible.

Who is likely to develop Dry Eye?

Who is likely to develop Dry Eye?

Elderly people frequently experience dryness of the eyes, but Dry Eye can occur at any age. Nearly five million Americans 50 years of age and older are estimated to have Dry Eye. Of these, more than three million are women and more than one and a half million are men. Tens of millions more have less severe symptoms. Dry Eye is more common after menopause. Women who experience menopause prematurely are more likely to have eye surface damage from Dry Eye.

Treatment

How is Dry Eye treated?

Depending on the causes of Dry Eye, your doctor may use various approaches to relieve the symptoms.

Dry Eye can be managed as an ongoing condition. The first priority is to determine if a disease is the underlying cause of the Dry Eye (such as Sjögren's syndrome or lacrimal and meibomian gland dysfunction). If it is, then the underlying disease needs to be treated.

Cyclosporine, an anti-inflammatory medication, is the only prescription drug available to treat Dry Eye. It decreases corneal damage, increases basic tear production, and reduces symptoms of Dry Eye. It may take three to six months of twice-a-day dosages for the medication to work. In some cases of severe Dry Eye, short term use of corticosteroid eye drops that decrease inflammation is required.

If Dry Eye results from taking a medication, your doctor may recommend switching to a medication that does not cause the Dry Eye side effect.

If contact lens wear is the problem, your eye care practitioner may recommend another type of lens or reducing the number of hours you wear your lenses. In the case of severe Dry Eye, your eye care professional may advise you not to wear contact lenses at all.

Another option is to plug the drainage holes, small circular openings at the inner corners of the eyelids where tears drain from the eye into the nose. Lacrimal plugs, also called punctal plugs, can be inserted painlessly by an eye care professional. The patient usually does not feel them. These plugs are made of silicone or collagen, are reversible, and are a temporary measure. In severe cases, permanent plugs may be considered.

In some cases, a simple surgery, called punctal cautery, is recommended to permanently close the drainage holes. The procedure helps keep the limited volume of tears on the eye for a longer period of time.

In some patients with Dry Eye, supplements or dietary sources (such as tuna fish) of omega-3 fatty acids (especially DHA and EPA) may decrease symptoms of irritation. The use and dosage of nutritional supplements and vitamins should be discussed with your primary medical doctor.

What can I do to help myself?

• Use artificial tears, gels, gel inserts, and ointments - available over the counter - as the first line of therapy. They offer temporary relief and provide an important replacement of naturally produced tears in patients with aqueous tear deficiency. Avoid artificial tears with preservatives if you need to apply them more than four times a day or preparations with chemicals that cause blood vessels to constrict.
• Wearing glasses or sunglasses that fit close to the face (wrap around shades) or that have side shields can help slow tear evaporation from the eye surfaces. Indoors, an air cleaner to filter dust and other particles helps prevent Dry Eyes. A humidifier also may help by adding moisture to the air.
• Avoid dry conditions and allow your eyes to rest when performing activities that require you to use your eyes for long periods of time. Instill lubricating eye drops while performing these tasks.

Article republished from: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/dryeye/dryeye.asp