last word

Lifestyle Eye Openers

Susan Tarrant

A survey of 1,500 employed adults in America conducted by Transitions Optical, Inc., reveals low awareness levels about how their lifestyle choices can affect their eye health.

The study was conducted to encourage employers to educate workers about how lifestyle can affect eye health so they take advantage of their vision benefits. But it also has some important talking points for ECPs.

Vincent Young, MD, chairman, division of ophthalmology at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, used the study as the basis of a presentation he made at Transitions Academy earlier this year. The research focuses on the ocular side effects of many lifestyle choices and habits—side effects of which patients may not be aware.

Sleep Deprivation and Apnea

Though the National Sleep Foundation recommends between seven to nine hours of sleep a day, four out of 10 employed adults don’t get enough rest. Dr. Young notes that more than one out of three employees don’t know that sleep can affect eye health.

People who aren’t sleeping their best also aren’t seeing their best. Ocular effects of sleep deprivation include the following:

■ Blurred vision, eye discomfort

■ Change in color perception

■ Sudden loss of vision, usually noticed just after waking

■ Swelling of the optic nerve, slowly leading to vision deterioration

■ Glaucoma development

In addition, sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder, comes with its own set of eye health issues:

■ Floppy eyelid syndrome

■ Sudden vision loss upon awakening, which can become permanent

■ Swelling of the optic nerve

■ Glaucoma

Smoking

Dr. Young notes that one in five adults in the U.S. is a smoker, and that smoking causes more deaths than HIV, drug and alcohol use, motor vehicle crashes, suicide, and murder combined. And though the overall health risks—cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc.—are well known, the ocular risks are not. Smokers are…

■ 2.5 times more likely to develop AMD

■ Up to three times more likely to develop cataract

■ Up to three times more likely to develop glaucoma

■ More than twice as likely to develop diabetes and diabetic retinopathy

■ Twice as likely to develop dry eye syndrome

■ Twice as likely to develop thyroid eye disease.

Smoking is also linked to abnormal eye movements, fungal eye infections, strabismus in children, tobacco amblyopia, and vision loss in both eyes.

These eye health risks may not be news to ECPs, but the study indicates that they are to many patients. A little extra knowledge about lifestyle and eye health may just motivate patients to improve their overall health. EB