Eye Pressure

Today my eye pressure was about perfect. Here are the overall averages:

Left 15.1; Right 13.7 (differential -1.4)

As I write this, my blog is not online. I expect that by the time you are reading this, there will be entries preceding this one as well as following this one. However, I do not expect to have posted daily IOP reports for every day since July 7, 2006 when we began this project.

As little as 5 or 10 minutes of weight lifting gives me a post-exercise effect that results in reduced eye pressure after the workout.

The weight lifting doesn't have to be super intense, but it can't be too easy either. There have been a few studies that have looked at this effect in the past. Here are some (but not all) of the links:

Effects of Different Intensities of Exercise on Intraocular Pressure

The effect of continuous strenuous exercise on intraocular pressure

The effect of exercise on intraocular pressure (pdf)

In my experience, a short weight lifting program often brings my eye pressure down to around 14 or 15 (or less). Sometimes the effect is not very dramatic. For example, if my eye pressure is around 17, the workout might bring it down to 15. Other times, the post workout effect is fairly impressive. Here are some examples:

My daily average IOP has been higher recently. Prior to starting serious talks about this new business venture, my average IOP values for a given day were often 15-16 for each eye. Today's means were:

Left 17.6; Right 20.8 (differential 3.1; days since Timoptic 1) 

This data represents a departure from prior trends. Within 1 day after Timoptic in my right eye, the IOP differential would normally be around 0.

As usual, the data seem to indicate that not only does stress raise my mean IOP values, it also raises the standard deviation of the measurements.