Glaucoma: Glaucoma Information, Cause, Sign, Symptoms and Treatment of Glaucoma

If your doctor tells you, you have glaucoma, you may need to be wary and ensure you visit your eye professional as often as necessary.  This is because glaucoma, the eye disorder caused by damaged optic nerves may cause impaired vision, at worst, blindness.

Thus, if you want to continue enjoying the colors of life, ensure that you will be able to save what is left of your sight after being diagnosed with glaucoma.

To help you understand glaucoma, here are a few information you need to know about this disease or groups of diseases.  This is a necessary tool for those at risk of the disease and for those who are already diagnosed with this disease.

What is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a group of diseases caused by the damage in the optic nerve.  The optic nerve is composed of millions of nerve cells that connect the eye to the brain.  If this is damages, the visual images may also be damaged.  Thus, the worst may happen to an individual with glaucoma is complete blindness.

Glaucoma is not just a disorder like hyperopia or farsightedness, where cure is only as simple as wearing eyeglasses or in serious conditions, refractive surgery.  This is a disease, and attention should be given to avoid complete blindness.

What are the symptoms of Glaucoma?

Commonly, you will not have any symptoms of glaucoma.  This disease is like a thief in the night where it will build up in your system without any sign. 

You will only notice later on that you are loosing sight in your peripheral view.  Some people call this tunnel vision.  Lost of your peripheral view is irreversible, treatments may only be done to save whatever is left of your sight.

The following are some risk factors of glaucoma:

• High eye pressure, as the name dictates, it is closely related with high blood pressure.  This is the most common risk factor of glaucoma.
• Age, anyone who is 60 years old and above, has high prevalence of acquiring this disease.  Weakness in the muscles and irregular fluid movement in the eye area may be causing the development of tunnel vision.
• People related to a glaucoma patient are at high risk as well.
• Thinness of the cornea may also be related to the development of this disease including abnormal optic nerve anatomy.

If you are one of those mentioned above, you may need to check with your eye doctor, complete medical analysis may be necessary to ensure you will not acquire Glaucoma and its complications.

Treatment for Glaucoma

There is yet no specific treatment intended to cure glaucoma.  Medication and procedures at this time are only done to save whatever is left of a patient’s sight.

• Eye drops, they are used to assist in the normal flow of fluid in the eye, which is being blocked by the damage in the optic nerve.
• Beta-blockers, these are eye drops used to lower eye pressure
• Laser surgery, this is used to enlarge the angle between the iris and cornea, which is a major cause of the irregular flow of fluid in the eye area

Again, there is yet no known treatment for glaucoma, whatever procedure your doctor will perform is only intended to save whatever is left of your sight.

To help you understand glaucoma a bit more, here are the types of glaucoma one may possibly acquire:

• Open-angle glaucoma, this is the most common form of glaucoma.  You will not experience any symptom except when you already lost sight in your peripheral vision or what others call tunnel vision.  In this case, the angle between the iris and the cornea is too narrow.
• Low-tension or normal-tension glaucoma, this is the glaucoma of those people, who do not have high eye pressure, but still suffered from impaired fluid activity or damaged optic nerve.  This is almost the same as open-angle glaucoma, except that it did not come from high blood pressure.
• Angle-closure glaucoma. This is a severe medical emergency, where sufferer may lose sight one or two days after the attack.  Doctors who treat patients with this type of glaucoma immediately perform surgery to save whatever is left of the sight.

Other forms of glaucoma such as congenital glaucoma, secondary glaucoma, pigmentary glaucoma and neovascular glaucoma are not as serious as angle-closure glaucoma. 

Lost of sight in any of these types of glaucoma may be avoided if the problem can be detected earlier.

Thus, if you are experiencing problems in the eye area like inflammation, headache with burning or bulling sensation or redness, immediately go to your eye doctors and have yourself checked for possible health problems.  Early detection is always the best cure.  Saving your sight is like saving the future. 

Proper care of the eye is always your best defense against sight problems.  Glaucoma is a serious problem, so make sure you take care of yourself and your family.