Severly myopic patients predisposed for Retinal detatchment, catract, glaucoma

[myopic]

Hello,

-I

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Cataracts can occur at any age, you can even be born with cataracts (congenital cataracts). Age is the biggest factor so we associate cataracts with aging. The development of cataracts at a younger age can be due to: heritary, diabetes, use of steroids/cortisone, trauma, heavy use of alcohol and/or tobacco, bad diets and BAD LUCK.

Slow cataracts down: good diet, no tobacco, moderate alcohol (if you must drink), multivitamin, sunlight ultraviolet protection.

Don't do surgery until your vision is a major problem. You are at an increased risk of retinal detachment with your high myopia and this will increase 10X with cataract surgery. This has been discussed at length in this forum use the search feature and archives to review relationship of high myopia, cataracts and retinal detachment.

JCH Eye physician & Surgeon (ophthalmologist)

[myopic]

... continued from previous post:

-11 years ago, at age 20 (1996) I had a retina detachment in my left eye that required surgery which included the use of a buckle and laser too. Extensive preventive laser treatment was applied to my right eye (it was the most physically painful experience ever!). Since the laser treatment, I started seeing flashes of light I understand that this is the vitreous pulling away from the retina but it

[John C Hagan]

Diet is not felt to have an effect on intraocular pressure. Vigerous exercise will lower the intraocular pressure but usually for only a few hours after the exercise then it goes back up to baseline levels.

Glaucoma is somewhat more common in high myopia and for a variety of reasons more difficult to diagnosis.

Tests that would need to be done periodically to determine the presence of glaucoma and monitor your: Visual fields, corneal thickness (pachymetry), optic nerve photographs, OCT of the optic nerve.

Try and find out why your relatives went blind. It is very useful to your ophthalmologist (Eye MD).

While high myopia does predispose you to several eye problems more than others it does not condemn you to going blind, especially if you remain under the care of a competent ophthalmologist.

JCH MD Eye Physician & Surgeon

[myopic]

Thank you very much for your prompt response!

I still need to ask these 2 questions:

- Based on statistics/studies/experience, usually how much time do people (who first develop cataract) have before they begin actually noticing that they have a vision problem?

- 3 days have lapsed between the last time I performed a vigorous cardio exercise and my visit to the ophthalmologist where my IOP reading was taken. Could the drop in the IOP pressure be attributed to an exercise performed 3 days earlier? Also, I read somewhere that weight lifting tends to "transiently" cause the IOP to rise, is that true? Also, although I have already quit smoking 1 year ago I still need to ask  the following: is it true that nicotine also causes a transient rise in the IOP pressure?

thanks a lot.

[John C Hagan]

1. The amount of time a cataract takes to progress to cause symptoms and then to require surgery varies so much there are no exact statistics. Today I saw 4-6 people with cataracts over 15 years that still didn't need surgery.

2. The effect of exercise on lowering IOP last hours not days.

3. Lifting heavy weights or standing on one's head or bearing down (valsalva maneuver) does briefly raise the IOP. Glaucoma patients that do yoga are advised not to stand on their heads.

4. Any effect of nicotine on IOP is brief and transient. Nicotine is bad for the eye in many ways and should be avoided.

JCH MD  EYE MD

[myopic]

thank you so much for your time. your help is greatly appreciated.