Bailey's blog

Here is a very interesting discussion which took place on the Fiteyes google newsgroup. The actual title was "glaucoma, emotions and stress as major factors for NTG."

I am posting this from the Fiteyes google group.

Lita wrote,

(I am posting an exerpt to link because medscape requires a login)

 http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/587626:

Are there vascular risk factors for glaucoma, such as vascular disease, hypertension, vasospasm, and ocular perfusion pressure (OPP, the difference between systolic, diastolic, or mean arterial blood pressure and ocular pressure)?

This is very interesting. It seems like vitamin D is proving to be important in preventing a number of diseases.

For Women Under 75, Extra Vitamin D Could Ward Off Macular Degeneration 

We have an excellent phone conferencing provider that we plan on using for phone based interactive meetings.

There are many ways around having to pay long distance charges to our conference call in number:

1) There is a list of  toll free access numbers for some major cities, and they can be found here (sorry, we are not setup for the main toll free 800 number).. http://turbobridge.com/local_toll.html.

• TOPIC: "Dealing with a Glaucoma Diagnosis." I will be the moderator for the first meeting, and this may end up being the first part of a two part topic. This meeting will be a phone conference.
• DATE AND TIME:  8:15 - 9:15 pm EDT (Miami time) Thursday  April 14, 2011. The main part of the meeting is planned for an hour, but for those who wish to hang around, we plan to have an approximate ½ hour informal sharing time afterward.

Effect of Measurement Order Between Right and Left Eyes on Intraocular Pressure Measurement

http://archopht.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/129/3/276

Melike Pekmezci, MD; Sidney T. Chang, MD; Bradley S. Wilson, MA; Mae O. Gordon, PhD; Anjali M. Bhorade, MD, MSCI

Arch Ophthalmol. 2011;129(3):276-281. doi:10.1001/archophthalmol.2011.33

This will probably benefit self tonometry practitioneers the most, but even if you don't have a tonometer, you will have a better understanding of how eye pressures can behave.

An interesting discussion developed on the Fiteyes Google newsgroup concerning modifications to eye drops - BUT which proved to be a good platform to delve into the whole new paradigm of the patient's role in complementing and augmenting care provided by the medical community. I have posted key components here so you can get a good 'gist' (and hopefully join in the discussion)..

From Holly,

 I have a question.  After putting alphagan into my eyes, after a few days my eyes become very red and burning. Eventually I have to stop taking the drops. I want so much to be able to tolerate these drops. I have normal tension glaucoma and these drops help to lower my pressure. What do you think of diluting the drops with water?  Maybe the water would lessen the reaction.  Has anyone ever tried this?

When I first became diagnosed with glaucoma, I checked and double checked everything which the doctor told me. I also read every article on glaucoma which I could find, and tried to calculate and assess the risks in my own particular case. I reached a point where I became obsessed with understanding everything there was to know about 'my disease' (as though understanding alone could result in some sort of curative action).

As time went on, this pursuit caused me to feel like I was looking at the world through 'diseased eyes' and it became more and more frustrating as I realized that from an empirical perspective alone, there was simply no way to ever understand glaucoma (and anyone who says they do is probably delusional). It wasn't until I familiarized myself with Dave's perspective of focusing on health and letting doctors worry about my condition, that I began to interrupt this negative cycle.

When embarking on the journey of self tonometry, many are quite surprised at how much and how often their eye pressures can vary. When I first discovered this fact, I thought that perhaps I was doing something improperly in measuring my pressures. Of course, that was not the case. Here is a recent question which we received..

In light of his busy schedule, we are so fortunate to have the participation of Dr. Robert Ritch on these forums and on our fiteyes newsgroup.  I have received immense value from the questions which he has answered (both personal questions and those of others). Additionally, his insight and information concerning the nutrional aspects of glaucoma, and contribution of current articles and studies are invaluable.

Therefore, we would like to honor Dr. Ritch here at Fiteyes by posting the recent Jose Rizal International Medal Award nomination..

I am posting a question (and followup) which we received regarding the following article from the 'Asrani' study on the ICare portable tonometer..

Evaluation of the ICare Rebound Tonometer as a Home Intraocular Pressure Monitoring Device

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20436362

Having had a very interesting conversation with another tonometer user today concerning questions related to the corneal and glaucoma, I decided to post this article I recently came across.

Here is the full pdf link..

Role of corneal thickness in glaucoma becoming clearer

http://www.eurotimes.org/07sept/Roleofcorneal.pdf

When I first began to measure my pressures around 2 years ago, my IOP was fairly even between my right and left eyes. This remained relatively unchanged for a few months, but then an interesting (and alarming at the time) thing happened; I began to see a pressure shift towards my right eye. This actually became quite a profound difference as time went on., and it began to concern me because I felt it might signal the start of some 'problems' with my right eye.

Because this is such a fascinating topic and relevant to the Fiteyes emphasis on home based self tonometry, I am copying prior posts from the google fiteyes group here regarding the home measurement trend.

I have been coming across a few articles and studies dealing with c-type natriuretic peptides (CNP) and opioid receptors as they potentially  relate to glaucoma, IOP and neuroprotection. While I don't have enough to go on in order to build any cogent arguments, I will present what I have found as a matter of interest. As a quick preview, it seems that CNP has neuroprotective effects..