Heavy computer use tied to glaucoma !!!! yikes

[juliagoolia]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/11/15/glaucoma-screen041115.html
Last Updated Mon, 15 Nov 2004 20:59:06 EST
LONDON - Men who spend hours staring at a computer screen may be at increased risk for glaucoma, a disease that can cause blindness, Japanese doctors say.

Researchers studied more than 10,200 workers with an average age of 43 for signs of glaucoma, a gradual disease of the optic nerve leading to loss of peripheral vision
MORE..............

[SeveneightyWhoa]

1. OH MY GOD

I've probably had it for years now without even realizing it. Shiot!

[are_we_united_yet]

2. I'm screwed by DU alone!

[Supersedeas]

42. same here....bt work and DU...i'll be blind before I'm forty

[Brundle_Fly]

3. fails to mention

that LCD digitally DVI powered monitors, do not expose you to the bezerkness levels a crt monitor does....and greatly reduces that fear.

[Gore1FL]

4. Just have to smoke a lot of dope I guess

That cures/treats glaucoma, doesn't it?

[burn the bush]

5. it works too! I do not have glaucoma!

[Chimpanzee]

38. I can attest to that too - MJ saved me!!

I stare at a computer screen 8 hours a day at work and then another for hours at home.

[IA_Seth]

39. I vow to never stop using a computer now! n/t

[Sterling]

40. Smoke dope while on the CPU?

SOunds good to me. lol.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

6. ATTENTION ALL USERS::

EVEN IF YOU HAVE 20-20 VISION, GO OUT AND BUY LIGHT COLORED 100% UV SUNGLASSES AND WEAR THEM WHILE ON COMPUTERS. YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY NOTICE THAT YOU CAN STAY ON TWICE AS LONG, PLUS, SINCE THE NET HASNT FIGURED OUT WHAT TELEVISION HAS ALREADY, THAT DARK COLORED SCREENS (EVER NOTICED THAT FOX NEWS IS BLUE), ARE LESS HARMFUL.

MAYBE EBAY, AMAZON, DU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT WHITE LIGHT IS ALL WAVELENGTHS COMING AT YOU, AND DARKEN THEIR PAGES SOME.

HOPE SO, BUT DO TAKE MY ADVICE ON WEARING SUNGLASSES. YOU WILL NOTICE A DIFFERENCE. I HAVE SINCE 1994 AND I STILL HAVE 20-20.

[FDRrocks]

7. Or move to California and talk to a few doctors...

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

*tongue in cheek*

[HR_Pufnstuf]

8. nice one...

cheers.

[Brundle_Fly]

9. heh

using a computer for print work and wearing shades, could lead to many funny funny stories....as my business tanks.

[megatherium]

11. Myopia is the issue here,

rather than glare, I think. If you're near-sighted, and you reach the age where you need bifocals, it stresses your eyes more when you try to focus on the computer. So I suspect it isn't the type of monitor or the glare, it's having to focus closely for long periods of time that is causing the damage.

This article is interesting to me: I am very near-sighted (7.75 diopters) and I have recently had odd little problems with my eyes that my ophthalmologist thinks are related to my optic nerves.

[Danmel]

21. OY! Presbyopia AND Glaucoma!

Not bad enough I can't decide anymore whether I see better with or without my glasses. Now I have to worry about glaucoma too! Just more bad news. Someone tell me something good please.

[Logansquare]

22. Fellow myopic computer-user here

My optometrist recommended wearing low correction reading glasses in addition to my contacts when I'm on the computer. I definitely have noticed less eye fatigue, and fewer incidents of blurry vision when I turn away from the screen and look at something at a distance.

[Occulus]

20. Did you post in all caps so people with glaucoma can read it?

:silly:

[Kablooie]

37. What about LCD screens?

They don't have the flicker or electron guns shooting particles into your eyes all day.
Think that would make difference?

[DS1]

43. there's a much cheaper method to make your screen easier to read - free

Up the refresh rate beyond 60Hz.

If you can't figure out how you shouldn't be behind a keyboard.

( Does not apply to LCDs )

[demnan]

10. I've worn UV protected clear glasses for years

They reduce eye-stress.

[Blue_Tires]

12. ttt

[graywarrior]

13. I was told 2 years ago I have pre-glaucoma

I haven't had my eyes re-checked to see if it's worse.

[northzax]

27. don't be stupid

get thee to the eye doctor. hie thyself now. I'm not kidding. My granfather was in denial for several years and never went back ot the opthamologist after getting diagnosed with "pre-glaucoma" when he finally went back, the disease had progressed to the point where all they could do was try to slow it down. he is now blind in both eyes. They basically told him "a year ago, we could have managed this. not now"

go get them peepers checked. DU don't come in a Braille Version.

[graywarrior]

30. Thanks. I just made an appointment

[fishnfla]

14. Bogus study, flawed methodology

I would not put any faith in it. skewed by age and sex and refractive error

[Shadoobie]

15. What if they are looking at...

What if the people are just looking at..uh...porn and ..ah.. doing something else that ..oh.. may be causing the blindness? :evilgrin:

Greg

Edited for spelling errors due to typing with one hand

[Maestro]

16. I am no doctor

but for those with CRT monitors, wouldn't setting the refresh rate higher on the monitor help with eye strain? XP defaults to a god-awful 60hz. I try to run at a minimum 72hz.

[dkofos]

18. Had mine set at 85hz Kicked it up to 100hz

Going to go roll one now just in case.

:hippie:

[Maestro]

34. Hahahahahahaha!

Just don't go passed your monitor's recommended specs.

[Eurobabe]

17. studies are so f'ing bogus....

what they SHOULD do is check Japanese people for thyroid problems first: two reasons, soy interferes with thyroid hormone absorption (its goitrogenic) and higher than normal thyroid levels may be implicated in
certain types of glaucoma.

[Angry Girl]

19. There's more to it than that

Glaucoma is NOT just a disease on its own: it's actually an end stage of a number of diseases, just like heart failure is a final stage of hypertension or coronary artery disease.

Western medicine loves to have you believe that you're some sort of victim to all these diseases, that only doctors can help you, and that you are powerless to take charge of your own health.

The risk factors for glaucoma are WAY greater if you are obese or diabetic. Computer use will facilitate the development of bad habits that will threaten your eye health but you can change that.

Your eyes need OXYGEN! They get their oxygen through the blood circulating in the brain. The amount of oxygen your brain devotes to the eyes is HUGE, something like 30% or more. That's how critical oxygen and blood flow is to the eyes.

Simply wearing a tight necktie can cut off circulation. Another major factor that contributes significantly to diminished circulation is posture. Lean your head slightly forward, as if trying to read a particularly small smudge on the screen. Now keep it there and stare at the screen. Do this for hours, days, and months.

Have you ever seen people with that head-forward posture? It's often from computer work. Your head weighs about 8 lbs and every inch forward and out of proper spinal alignment contributes to a massive increase in vertebral pressure and hence muscle strain in your neck and shoulder. This self-generated muscle tightness will cut off blood flow and hence oxygen circulation to your brain.

Add stress to this neck-shoulder tightness combo. Add shallower breaths caused by the fight-or-flight reaction, aggravating the reduced-oxygen conditions.

Now stop blinking so much and develop a tendency to stare at the screen, which ALL computer users do. When you blink, you're actually massaging your eye, aiding capillary flow. When you don't blink, you get decreased oxygen.

Now diminish your daily exercise. A sedentary lifestyle will also dramatically decrease circulation to the brain (and body as a whole). Eat very few vegetables and fruits and increase your sugar and refined carb intake. Sugar and other refined carbs have a tendency to trigger a series of inflammatory reactions throughout the body, again decreasing oxygen and creating cellular waste products.

Now start hanging out in a stuffy room with poor ventilation and little to no fresh, outside air. To make matters worse, start using fluorescent and other non-full-spectrum lighting. This will put a definite strain on your eyes.

Add contact lenses to cut off your eye's oxygen further still. Add cigarette smoke and other pollutants that rob your lungs of their ability to grab oxygen.

Now get fat. Obesity turns out to be a HUGE factor in increasing the glaucoma risk. And once you develop diabetes, the risk factor for glaucoma sky-rockets. Again because of decreased circulation.

In the mean time your eyes are inching closer and closer to the screen. The pixels on a screen are actually much harder for your eyes to read than, say, a magazine. So you start inching closer to the screen. You develop a tendency to stare.

The tiny little muscles that control your eyeball's motion and shape start to stiffen from disuse. They basically lose the ability to reshape the eyeball as you switch between near and far vision. You get progressively more myopic. You inch closer to the screen.

As you get closer to the screen, you get exposed to increasing amounts of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the monitor. Anything less than about 20 inches is too close! Your cells can handle some of the damage and fix things but prolonged exposure to close-up radiation will eventually overload them.

So you see how the article manages to just scare everybody without pointing out the fact that many variables are withoin your control?

Ever wonder why people in industrialized countries have so much worse vision than people who don't do so much up-close reading all the time? Ever wonder why the tribes in the Serengeti don't suffer from presbyopia? Ever wonder why your uncorrected vision is better when you haven't worn glasses in a while than after you've just worn them?

I was a heavy computer user for quite some years. I used to wear contacts and glasses. I no longer do and my vision is better than it was before I ever got glasses at the age of 7. But it took me over 2 years to break old habits and I had to exercise my eye muscles and I'm still always catching myself falling back into old habits. But it can be done!

So take charge of your own sh*t! Especially your health!

Cheers!
Alicia
aka Angry Girl

[Nihil]

35. Lots of good points there

> The tiny little muscles that control your eyeball's motion and shape
> start to stiffen from disuse. They basically lose the ability to
> reshape the eyeball as you switch between near and far vision.
> You get progressively more myopic. You inch closer to the screen.

Exactly right! I caught myself getting closer to the screen whilst
reading this thread (yes, with a tilted head too!)

I've put it down to the combination of age (40+) and excessive computer
use (working with them for most of my life) - had my first pair of
glasses two years ago but think it is slowly but steadily getting worse.
I've always had a low blink rate so I suppose that doesn't help.

Still, it could be worse ... in so many ways these days.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

Nihil

[davsand]

23. OK--nobody panic!

First: Glaucoma is a disease that is progressive. You basically develop glaucoma when your inner eye pressure is elevated and it destroys your optic nerves. The term for elevated inner eye pressure is ocular hypertension, and they don't call it glaucoma until there is actually damage to the optic nerve...

Second: If you have an eye exam annually, you are probably screened for elevated eye pressures and don't even realize it.

Third: If they find your inner eye pressure to be elevated they will most likely put you on some eye drops initially.

I know this because I live with it and have been using drops for about three years.

Yes, pot will reduce your inner eye pressure, but the pressure reduction is not sustained over a long period of time and it is not a cure. If you ask your Doc about the subject he/she can't talk about it except to tell you it is best to use Meds sold by pharmacies. They can revoke a med license if a Doc talks about it favorably...

There is some evidence to suggest that Glaucoma is a disease that is reduced by exercise, however, I honestly don't know if it can keep the eye pressure down all that much. Certainly, it won't reverse the damage to optic nerves. THAT is forever.

Usually, it manifests initially in a loss of peripheral vision. It will progress to blindness if left untreated.

Cheers!

Laura

[Pithlet]

25. Isn't it that air poof test?

The one where you put your chin on a rest and look into a tube with a light at the end and wait for that poof of air to blast your eyeball directly while trying not to blink. I hate that test!

[CheshireCat]

24. I have glaucoma

I am a programmer and web developer. I'm at the computer at least 7 hours a day.

I was diagnosed with borderline glaucoma in 1995. Have had yearly checkups since then. A year and one-half ago, I was told that I now have glaucoma.

I can no longer wear contacts and have special graded lens with UV protection. I use drops once a day for my glacoma.

The pressure in my eyes have now stabilized and since getting the new glasses, I eyes do not get nearly as tired.

Don't know how valid the study is, but I have always felt that all the time I spend looking at a computer screen contributed to the glaucoma.

[juliagoolia]

26. Wow.. my goodness

Maybe we can avoid this .. uv blocking>? this seems to be key here.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

41. just fyi, most prescription lenses block most UV light.

[Politicub]

28. That's it

I'm screwed. This coupled with the masturbation.. err.. I've said too much.

[KamaAina]

29. Just turn the computer off at 4:20

:smoke:

[0007]

31. .....is this glaucoma message coming straight from the FCC?

[Bonobo]

32. It's okay, I know just the cure.

[cwinchel]

33. Well knowing that...

I won't go blind doing that other thing I do in front of the computer....

[Blue_Tires]

36. ttt