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Proper eye protection is a must for anyone looking up at a solar eclipse. Eclipse glasses are far darker than regular sunglasses. Joseph Okpako/Getty Images hide caption

Proper eye protection is a must for anyone looking up at a solar eclipse. Eclipse glasses are far darker than regular sunglasses.

When Ralph Chou was about 12 years old, he took all the right precautions to watch his first solar eclipse.

"I did other stupid things, but when it came to looking at that eclipse, I was being very careful," says Chou, a professor emeritus of optometry and vision science at the University of Waterloo, who's a leading authority on eye damage from eclipse viewing.

The upcoming total solar eclipse will be the 19th one he has seen after a lifetime of eclipse chasing. And Chou is worried about first-timers and other folks who might look up at the spectacle without much forethought.

Tens of millions of people are expected to view the first total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States in nearly 40 years.

"Unfortunately, I think it is probably true that during every solar eclipse, there's bound to be somebody who does get hurt," says Chou.

The only time it will be safe to look with the naked eye is during the brief window of so-called "totality," when the sun is completely blocked by the moon. Totality will be visible only from a ribbon of land that stretches across the U.S.; the rest of the country will see only a partial eclipse.

When any part of the sun is uncovered and the eclipse is only partial, viewers need eye protection even if there's just a tiny crescent of sun left in the sky, Chou says.

"That crescent of sun is glowing every bit as brightly as it would on a day when there isn't a solar eclipse," he says. "The difference is that instead of leaving a round burn on the back of the eye, it will leave a crescent-shaped burn at the back of the eye."

Don't think it's safe to take quick, surreptitious glances, he warns.

"Actually, those quick little glances do add up," says Chou, "and they can, in fact, accumulate to the point where you do get damage at the back of the eye."

He says the damage isn't immediately apparent because the light-sensitive cells of the eye will keep working for hours after the injury before finally going kaput. Typically, people go home after an eclipse thinking everything is fine, says Chou. Then they wake up the next day and can't see.

"Everything is really, really badly blurred right in the center of their vision," he explains. "So they can't read. They can't see faces. They can't see road signs."

This kind of vision loss can get better over several months to a year. But about half the time, it's permanent, says Chou.

It's impossible to say exactly how common eye injuries are among eclipse watchers. While doctors report cases in the scientific literature, no one is systematically collecting this information.

But one thing is clear: Demand for eclipse glasses is unusually high, and companies have been cranking them out.

Eclipse viewers on the production line at an American Paper Optics facility. The company says it has already sold 65 million of these viewers for the upcoming total solar eclipse. Courtesy of American Paper Optics hide caption

Eclipse viewers on the production line at an American Paper Optics facility. The company says it has already sold 65 million of these viewers for the upcoming total solar eclipse.

"This eclipse, our goal is to manufacture close to a hundred million glasses," says Jason Lewin, director of marketing at American Paper Optics, which has a manufacturing plant outside of Memphis, Tenn. So far, they've sold about 65 million.

Usually, the company will sell about 5 million glasses for a total solar eclipse. Such an event is visible from somewhere on Earth every 18 months or so. The company started planning for this eclipse about two years ago and hired around 60 additional workers.

"We're going 24/7," says Lewin. "It's been wild."

NASA has been urging people to buy eclipse glasses from a small group of companies whose products are known to conform to international standards written by Chou and others in the field.

The concern is that scammers appear to be selling bogus products.

"We've seen examples of what appear to be ordinary sunglasses being sold as solar viewers, and that's horrible," says Rick Fienberg, an astronomer and press officer with the American Astronomical Society. "Customers are contacting us via our website and telling us, 'I've got these filters and they don't seem right. When I look at the sun, it's blindingly bright.'"

He explains that real solar viewers are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses.

Fienberg is also concerned about fraudulent products made to look like the ones manufactured by reputable companies. "You can't just tell the public, look for this symbol or that symbol, because some people are printing those symbols on counterfeit products," he says.

His society is contacting vendors and retail chains and compiling a list of legitimate sellers, so the public can buy eye protection that has been independently verified.

He cautions that it is not OK to look at the sun through a telescope or binoculars while wearing eclipse glasses, because those kinds of optical devices need their own special filters.

And no one should try to use makeshift, unsafe filters such as exposed film negatives, smoked glass or the silvery wrappers of potato chips or Pop-Tarts.

Of course, there's another option: looking at a partial eclipse only indirectly. That's what Chou did when he was a kid, when he made a pinhole viewer to project an image of the eclipse onto a flat surface.

"I was a geek. I admit it," says Chou, who notes that despite all the eclipses he has seen, he has never hurt his eyes.

Read this article:
Planning To Watch The Eclipse? Here's What You Need To Protect Your Eyes - NPR

THE longtime friend of a man who was airlifted after being shot in the eye has raised 1,150 to support airborne lifesavers - through another shoot.

Brian Cook, 64, arranged a charity clay pigeon shoot on the top of Carlton Bank in the North York Moors, on behalf of his friend Jim Harding, 63.

In October 2014, Mr Harding was working on a shoot on the Danby Estate, where he has worked for more than 30 years.

And the incident happened when firing started before father-of-one Mr Harding was in position - and as a result he had not put on his safety glasses.

One of the pellets hit him in the left eye which severed the optic nerve and damaged his vision, causing him to lose his sight in that eye.

Mr Harding, from Whitby, said: A gentlemen shot in my direction, and when I heard the shot, I wondered what was that? and then I turned round and another shot was fired and I could see it coming towards me before it hit me in the eye.

"It happened in an instant, and felt like when you get something caught in your eye.

I was situated two miles from the road, so this is just one example of why we need air ambulances.

"If we didnt have them, a lot of people probably wouldnt get to hospital in time."

Mr Harding was airlifted to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, but despite everyones best efforts, he lost the sight in one eye.

However he still wanted to thank the Great North Air Ambulance so he and his son Sam Harding, 38, asked Mr Cook to help them arrange a clay pigeon shoot to raise money for the charity.

Mr Cook, 64, said: Ive organised clay pigeon shoots in the past, so when Jim and Sam asked if I would put one together for GNAAS I obviously said yes.

My daughter has been airlifted twice after being in horse riding accidents, and its surprising how many of her riding friends have also fallen and required the assistance of the air ambulance.

I really appreciate the service the air ambulance provides as you never know when you are going to need it.

The shoot will now be held annually with the winner's name engraved on a shield.

See the original post:
Shot in the eye - but still aiming to help, Whitby man rising cash for the Great North Air Ambulance - The Northern Echo (registration)

Reading, writing and arithmetic these are the basic skills students must learn. But with poor eyesight hindering their learning process, they struggle to keep up in school, which in turn leads to difficulties in entering the workforce.

In order to reduce, if not eliminate, this problem, Essilor Vision Foundation has joined forces with leading actor and Essilor Philippines brand ambassador Piolo Pascual to launch the Eye Can Succeed campaign, which seeks to make better vision available to 10,000 Filipino students.

EVF kicked off the advocacy campaign at Rizal High School. With the assistance of volunteer optometrists, EVF examined 4,000 Grades 11 and 12 students and distributed free prescription glasses to students who were in need.

It is alarming to learn that many of our target public school students have never had their eyes checked up at all, shared Lauren Wyper, EVF associate director of communications.

She continued, Launching the Eye Can Succeed campaign here in the Philippines not only helps fulfill the foundations mission of enabling Filipinos to have better lives through better sight, but also enables us to spread awareness on the importance of proper eye care through an expanded network consisting of academic institutions, the media, and local campaign ambassador Piolo Pascual.

With his presence, Pascual showed his support for the companys advocacy.

Education plays a huge role in the future of young Filipinos, and poor eyesight will only hinder their progress in learning. By giving them thorough eye check-ups and access to free prescription eyeglasses, they will no longer struggle with vision problems in their lessons, allowing their natural intelligence to shine through, the actor said.

EVF is committed to eliminating poor vision and its lifelong consequences, and to providing underprivileged people the opportunity to live a better life through better sight.

For more information about EVF and the Eye Can Succeed advocacy campaign, visit http://www.essilor.com.ph, and follow @EssilorPH on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section.

See the rest here:
Better vision for better lives - The Standard

Like millions of other people, Wanda Diaz Merced plans to observe the August 21 total solar eclipse, when the moons shadow will sweep across the sun and, for a few brief moments, coat parts of the United States in darkness. But she wont see it. Shell hear it.

Diaz Merced, an astrophysicist, is blind, with just 3 percent of peripheral vision in her right eye, and none in her left. She has been working with a team at Harvard University to develop a program that will convert sunlight into sound, allowing her to hear the solar eclipse. The sound will be generated in real time, changing as the dark silhouette of the moon appears over the face of the bright sun, blocking its light. Diaz Merced will listen in real time, toowith her students at the Athlone School for the Blind in Cape Town, South Africa, where she teaches astronomy.

Its an experience of a lifetime, and they deserve the opportunity, Diaz Merced said.

To capture the auditory version of this astronomical event, the team turned to a piece of technology measuring only a couple inches long: the Arduino, a cheap microcomputer popular with tech-savvy, DIY hobbyists. With a few attachments, Arduinos can be used to create all kinds of electronic devices that interact with the physical world, from the useful, like finger scanners that unlock garage doors, to the silly, like motion-detecting squirt guns. Diaz Merceds collaborators equipped an Arduino with a light-detecting sensor and speaker, and programmed it to convert light into a clicking noise. The pace of the clicks varies with the intensity of the sunlight hitting the sensor, speeding up as it strengthens and slowing down as it dims. In the moments of totality, when the suns outer atmosphere appears as a thin ring around the shadow of the moon, the clicks will be a second or more apart.

Allyson Bieryla, an astronomy lab and telescope manager at Harvard, will operate the Arduino from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, inside the path of totality. She will stream the audio on a website online, which Diaz Merced will open on her computer in Cape Town.

So far, Bieryla says, the real challenge has been trying to find a light sensor thats sensitive enough to get the variation in the eclipse. In totality, the sun will appear about as bright as a full moon at midnight. The team has tested the Arduino at night, under the moonlight, to make sure it can pick up the faint luminosity.

Diaz Merced, a postdoctoral fellow at the Office of Astronomy for Development in South Africa, was diagnosed with diabetes as a child. In her early 20s, when she was studying physics at the University of Puerto Rico, she was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, a complication of the disease that destroys blood vessels in the retina. Her vision began to deteriorate, and a failed laser surgery damaged her retinas further, she said. By her late 20s, she was almost completely blind. She recalls watching a partial solar eclipse in 1998 in Puerto Rico, when she still had some sight.

I was able to experience the wonderfulnessof the sun being dark, of having a black ball in the sky, she said. That is why it is important to use the sound in order to bring an experience that will bring that same feeling to people who do not see or are not visually oriented.

While Diaz Merced experiences the eclipse from a classroom in Cape Town, Tim Doucette will observe the event at a campground in Nebraska, smack-dab in the path of totality. Doucette is a computer programmer by day and an amateur astronomer by night. He runs a small observatory, Deep Sky, near his home in Nova Scotia in a sparsely populated area known for low light pollution and star-studded night skies.

Doucette is legally blind, and has about 10 percent of his eyesight. He had cataracts as a baby, a condition that clouds the lenses of the eye. To treat the disease, doctors surgically removed the lenses, leaving Doucette without the capacity to filter out certain wavelengths. His eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet and infrared light, and he wears sunglasses during the day to protect his retinas. Without shades, Doucette said he cant keep his eye open in the brightness of day. But at night, his sensitivity becomes an advantage. With the help of a telescope, Doucette can see the near-infrared light coming from stars and other objects in the sky better than most people.

My whole life, Ive always been asking people for help, saying, hey, what do you see? Doucette said. When I stargaze with people, the tables are reversed.

Doucette sees best at night, safe from the glare of the sun. He uses starlight to guide him during the short walk from his observatory to his home. When Im walking down the road, especially during the summer months, the Milky Way is just this incredible painting going from north to south, he said. Its millions and millions of points of light. Its like a tapestry of diamonds against a velvety background.

Doucette, armed with his camera equipment, will observe the eclipse with dozens of members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canadas Halifax Center, an association of amateur and professional astronomers. He has only witnessed partial solar eclipses in the past. It should be quite interesting to see what the effect is because of my sensitivity, he said. During totality, when day becomes night, some objects in the sky may become visible, thanks to his sensitivity to their light.

Doucette will wear eclipse sunglasses over his regular pair. Eclipse glasses protect the eyes from sunlight so viewers can look directly at it without hurting their eyes, and they can be bought online for a few dollars. Doucette urged eclipse viewers to use them, citing stories hed heard of people looking at the sun during an eclipse and waking up blind the next morning, their retinas burned. The shades are necessary before and after totality, when the sun is only partially eclipsed and a thin crescent shines with typical intensity.

Once the eclipse is in totality for about two and a half minutes, Im told that its safe to take the glasses off, but Im not willing to risk it, Doucette said. Ill still keep my sunglasses on either way.

More here:
How Blind Astronomers Will Observe the Solar Eclipse - The Atlantic

Solar eclipse safety

SOUTHERN COLORADO, Colo. - In a little less than three weeks, the moon will cross in front of the sun, creating a total solar eclipse. While it's a sight to behold, you need to do so safely.

Millions are gearing up to see the total solar eclipse across the country. The astronomical feat happens when the sun, moon and Earth align completely. The moon's shadow falls on the earth's surface. However, only select cities across the U.S. will be the path of totality. Along this line, the stars will come out in the middle of the day.

Right here in Colorado, we'll only experience 90 percent of the eclipse. While it will be impressive, it won't be quite as life-changing as experiencing the event along the path of totality which sits to our north. If you plan on participating in the event, just remember to use ISO certified eye glasses to protect your eyesight. Never look into the sun without protection.

"When it does that, it can cause irreversible vision damage like loss of visual acuity or spots in your vision that don't go away, said optometrist Dr. Lindsay Sallecchai.

Dr. Sallecchai says it's not enough to just use your eclipse glasses, peer through the lens and call it good. In fact, your telescope or camera intensifies the sun's power, damaging your glasses and damaging your eyes as a result.

"Just because there's an eclipse doesn't mean the sun lessens in power. It's still the sun, "said Keith Barger. "It can damage your eye and even damage cameras if they're not protected."

Barger from the Space Foundation showed us how to use special filters for your telescope.

You can also put a piece of cardboard around the lens and cast a shadow onto a white sheet of paper to view the moon passing in front of the sun.

Don't forget, you can also attach your camera to the telescope to capture the phenomenon. As long as you have the filter over the telescope, you're good to go.

If you don't have the right filters for your telescope or the certified eclipse glasses, there's still another method for viewing the eclipse safely. Put a thumbtack in the middle of a paper plate. Hold it up to the sun, and cast a shadow onto a white piece of paper.

Buyers beware! Some vendors are selling counterfeit eclipse glasses that aren't certified. To find a list of approved vendors, head to our main webpage and click under the hot button.

The rest is here:
Solar eclipse eye safety - KRDO

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Dr. Jeff Pettey, associate professor of ophthalmology, speaks about the risks of viewing the upcoming solar eclipse without proper eye protection at the John A. Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017.

SALT LAKE CITY Dr. Jeff Pettey suggests there is an easy way for every person to determine whether their eye gear provides enough protection for viewing a solar eclipse.

"You know you have a good pair of solar eclipse glasses if you can't see anything except for if you look at the sun," Pettey, an ophthalmologist and a professor at the University of Utah, told reporters Wednesday at the John A. Moran Eye Center.

The unyielding light resistance of lenses made specifically for an eclipse only allowing in about one-millionth of the sun's rays have recently made for some amusing online reviews of those products filled with angry complaints about not being able to see, Pettey said with a wry smile.

"Unfortunately, they didn't take a moment to actually look at the sun," he cracked.

As extreme as its design is, Pettey said that eyewear as opposed to ineffective binoculars, dark sunglasses or "even five pairs of dark sunglasses" is precisely what will be needed to adequately protect the eyes of any person hoping to witness the highly anticipated solar eclipse sweeping across the continental United States on Aug. 21.

Otherwise, he said, looking directly at the sun for even as long as a few seconds can wreak havoc on a tiny part of the eye called the fovea, close to the center of the retina, that is critical for sharp vision in the midpoint of a person's gaze.

"If you damage that part of your eye, you would lose your ability to recognize faces and even your ability to recognize fine print," said Pettey, who is also director of education for the Moran Eye Center, chief of ophthalmology at Salt Lake's Veteran Affairs hospital and an official Utah Jazz team doctor. "That is the part of the eye we're worried about."

Other ways to check on eyewear suitability for a solar eclipse are looking for the International Organization for Standardization certification on the inside of the glasses and checking online to ensure the vendor is considered reputable within its particular industry.

Nina Waters, a Moran Eye Center patient, injured her left eye 18 years ago while viewing a solar eclipse in her native Russia, when she was convinced that looking through a piece of a colored glass bottle would protect her eyes.

"Somebody told me 'this is actually safe to use,' and I believed this person," recalled Waters, who now lives in Salt Lake City.

Later, she said, she had a sensation that "felt like a bee sting in my eye," but didn't know her vision would be damaged long term. Soon after, Waters forgot about it, but her vision eventually became worse and worse, until at an eye doctor appointment in the United States "years and years" after the eclipse, she learned she had a burn from the sun in her eye.

"Then I realized it (came) from that time," Waters said.

Surgery has since helped Waters overcome her sight problems to an extent, but to this day she regrets her lack of caution.

"I wish I would've never looked at the sun," she lamented.

A person whose eyes are damaged from viewing a solar eclipse may not notice any symptoms for even a few days, Pettey said. Multiple symptoms are similar to that of macular degeneration, he said.

One potential symptom is the persistent existence of a sight-blocking spot "right in the center of our vision," Pettey explained. The damage can be permanent in some cases.

Pettey said the Moran Eye Center doesn't want to discourage Utahns from viewing the eclipse, which is the first total eclipse across the continental United States since 1918. But the eye center does want to ensure people don't harm their eyes. Beginning Friday at 8:30 a.m., 1,000 free pairs of eclipse glasses will be handed out at nine Moran locations, said Elizabeth Neff, the center's spokeswoman.

Neff said glasses will be available until 5 p.m. or supplies run out in three Salt Lake City locations, as well as in Farmington, Park City, Murray, South Jordan, Riverton and Orem. There is a limit of two pairs per family.

Moran Eye Center will also sell several hundred pairs next week for $1.50 each without a per family limit, she said.

Pettey said people's curiosity about the eclipse is understandable and should be encouraged, adding that it could turn out to be "the most tweeted about event perhaps in history."

"We should take advantage of the event. ... We should all be able to look at the sun as long we have our solar eclipse glasses," Pettey said.

Still, ever conscious of her previous experience, Waters doesn't plan to take any chances. "I'm scared," she admits.

Go here to read the rest:
Eye center warns against viewing eclipse without special glasses - Deseret News

Cases of blindness could treble by 2050, scientists believe.

New research from Anglia Ruskin University suggests by the middle of the century 115 million people worldwide could be blind, compared to 36 million people in 2015.

Vision impairment as a result of ageing is said to be one of the main contributors to rising eye-sight problems in our growing elderly populations.

Researchers said action was need on a global, regional and country level to slow the acceleration of vision impairment.

The study, led by Professor Rupert Bourne and funded by the Brien Holden Vision Institute, analysed the prevalence of blindness and vision impairment in 188 countries between 1990 and 2015.

Its findings revealed that 2.05 per cent of men and 2.79 per cent of women in the UK have moderate to severe eye sight problems, with 0.16 percent and 0.23 percent respectively being blind.

These Kodi add-ons are still working

Researchers estimated that as ageing populations expand, prevalence rates could see an upturn by 2020.

They predict further increases in the number of cases by 2050 if treatment is not improved with almost 115 million cases of blindness and 588 million people with moderate to severe vision impairment.

Professor Bourne, of Anglia Ruskins Vision and Eye Research Unit, said: "Even mild visual impairment can significantly impact a persons life, for example reducing their independence in many countries as it often means people are barred from driving, as well as reducing educational and economic opportunities.

ITV is looking for people with stammers to take part in documentary

"With the number of people with vision impairment accelerating, we must take action to increase our current treatment efforts at global, regional and country levels.

"Investing in these treatments has previously reaped considerable benefits, including improved quality of life, and economic benefits as people remain in work.

"Interventions for vision impairment provide some of the largest returns on investment, and are some of the most easily implemented interventions in developing regions because they are cheap, require little infrastructure and countries recover their costs as people enter back into the workforce.

Originally posted here:
Number of blind people to TRIPLE by 2050 due to ageing population - Cambridge News

THE longtime friend of a man who was airlifted after being shot in the eye has raised 1,150 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).

Brian Cook, 64, arranged a charity clay pigeon shoot on the top of Carlton Bank in the North York Moors, on behalf of his friend Jim Harding, 63.

In October 2014, Mr Harding was working on a shoot on the Danby Estate in North Yorkshire, which has been his job for more than 30 years.

The incident happened when firing started before father-of-one Mr Harding had put on his safety glasses. One of the pellets that was fired hit him in the left eye which severed the optic nerve and damaged his vision, causing him to lose his sight in that eye.

Mr Harding, from Whitby, said: A gentlemen shot in my direction, and when I heard the shot, I wondered what was that? and then I turned round and another shot was fired and I could see it coming towards me before it hit me in the eye. It happened in an instant, and felt like when you get something caught in your eye."

I was situated two miles from the road, so this is just one example of why we need air ambulances. If we didnt have them, a lot of people probably wouldnt get to hospital in time. After ringing 999, GNAAS came in straight away and I was flown to James Cook Hospital.

Despite everyones best efforts, Mr Harding lost the sight in one eye. But he still wanted to thank GNAAS for their service, so him and his son Sam Harding, 38, asked Mr Cook to help them arrange a clay pigeon shoot to raise money for the charity.

Mr Cook, 64, said: Ive organised clay pigeon shoots in the past, so when Jim and Sam asked if I would put one together for GNAAS I obviously said yes.

My daughter has been airlifted twice after being in horse riding accidents, and its surprising how many of her riding friends have also fell and required the assistance of GNAAS.

I really appreciate the service the air ambulance provides as you never know when you are going to need it.

The clay pigeon shoot was held alongside a BBQ and a raffle, and the organisers said the event was a huge success. Plans are now being put in place to hold it annually, with the winner of each shoot getting their name put on a trophy shield.

The rest is here:
Benefit shoot for air ambulance after man lost an eye - The Press, York

SALEM, Ore. - With many children struggling early in their school years due to undiagnosed vision issues, a simple investment can make a world of difference for thousands of Oregon's young people.

Oregon Senate Bill 187 -- which was unanimously approved and passed by both the Oregon House and Senate and was signed into law today by Governor Kate Brown -- helps to address that issue by allocating $1 million to cover vision screenings for students in public school districts and preschools statewide.

"Nothing in a child's life is as important as good vision. It is the key to academic success, socialization and full participation in learning, creativity and thinking. Senators spoke with one voice regarding the importance of universal vision screening with the passage of SB 187," said Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli, of John Day.

"We know 25% of children have undiagnosed vision problems significant enough to affect their performance in school. SB 187 helps provide treatment which can dramatically improve student achievements and graduation rates. This bill will assist in ensuring students have the tools they need to learn and succeed," said Rep. Greg Smith, of Heppner.

The new law establishes the Vision Health Account and directs the Oregon Department of Education to reimburse public schools and preschool programs for costs associated with vision screening for students.

It also allows the Oregon Department of Education to designate non-profit providers to administer the screenings and adopt administrative rules for prioritizing grants if reimbursement requests exceed the allotted amount. Gifts and outside grants can be used to supplement the account, which will include $1 million in state funding.

Vision is critical to a child's ability to learn, as 80 percent of all learning during a child's first 12 years comes through vision, according to written testimony submitted by the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association during the committee process.

That same document adds that 25 percent of school-age children have vision problems, and 60 percent of students identified as problem learners have undetected vision problems. The picture gets more bleak, according to the report, when vision problems go undiagnosed, as 70 percent of juvenile offenders have undiagnosed vision problems.

Doug Thompson, executive director of the Oregon Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation, who requested the bill, said: "The passage of this law will ensure that more Oregon students that need them will get eye exams and new eyeglasses, they will see better and read at grade level, and they will be more likely to succeed in school and graduate from high school. This is a real win for Oregon's children!"

The new law takes effect immediately.

Read more from the original source:
Oregon lawmakers invest in vision screening for students - KTVZ

Don Wolford holds the vision screening device at the County Fair

The Custer County Fair was full of exciting events and organizations this past week, including the Broken Bow Lions Club who brought its Spot Vision Screener to offer free vision screening. The screenings provide digital readings of the eyes with immediate results.

The screening is as simple as having your picture taken and is 85-90% accurate in detecting vision problems. The machine can detect problems such as corneal irregularities, farsightedness, and nearsightedness. There are 20 of these machines across the state of Nebraska. Broken Bow Lions Club treasurer Don Wolford said these screenings are possible thanks to grants received from the Lions Club International Foundation and the Nebraska Lions Foundation.

Now we have this sight machine here in Broken Bow and we wanted to bring it out to the fair and have people have their eyes checked because it doesnt take but just a few minutes, as youve seen, Wolford said.

Wolford said the organization aims to end preventable blindness for anyone who needs to take that first step in getting their eyes checked, especially kidswho can be tested as young as six months old.

If kids get past seven years of age, a lot of times you cannot correct the problem. You doctor it forever, but you cant correct the problem. If you get it early enough, a lot of times you can catch it and take care of it, Wolford said.

The free screening is not meant to replace regular eye doctor appointments as not all problems (such as glaucoma) can be detected using the Spot Vision Screener.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Lions Club and free vision screening should contact a Lions Club member such as Wolford at 308-870-2426 or Tarin Burrows at 308-870-1321.

Originally posted here:
Lions Club Offers Free Vision Screening - Sand Hills Express

Our vision is just one of those things we take for granted, until that awful moment when we start to realize it isnt as good as it used to be. The human eye is an amazingly intricate and beautiful organ, culminating millions of years of evolution to provide something that can sense tiny variations in light and project them to the brain as real-time ultra-HD images. No fancy-schmancy TV could ever hope to compete with that!

But with something so intricate and delicately balanced, theres a lot that can go wrong. Depending on a combination of your genetics and the environment you live in, your vision could begin to decline at any point in your life. After that, its regular trips to the optician and countless pairs of prescription glasses or contact lenses. Something youd definitely want to avoid, if you could.

But what if there was a way to give your eyes a much-needed vacation and improve your vision in the process? While many optometrists would scoff at the idea of simple, natural remedies for improving eyesight and halting the decline of your vision, others would disagree. Theres plenty of people out there that can attest, first hand, to the vision-supporting powers of simple daily eye-friendly routines. Heres a selection of the more popular eyesight remedies.

Ayurvedic practitioners place great faith in Triphala churna, the powdered form of a medicinal herb used for millennia in India and parts of Asia. In the literature, Triphala shows considerable promise as a general-purpose therapeutic herb, possessing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antibacterial and anticarcinogenic properties.

Considering its many therapeutic abilities, its perhaps no wonder that Ayurvedic practitioners often recommend a Triphala eyewash, otherwise known as a tridoshic eyewash. Rather than washing out clogged or tired eyes with straight water, soak your Triphala churna overnight in a bowl with filtered water. In the morning, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth to remove any solids, then gently wash your eyes with it. This can be repeated twice a day to help relieve stress and tension in the eyes.

The history of using eye exercises for improving vision and ocular health is a long and controversial one. As early as the 1940s, eye exercises were being studied by researchers and employed by cutting-edge optometrists to correct visual impairments. This 1944 study, for example, explains how repetition is a fundamental law of biology, implying that by repeatedly performing structured eye exercises the eye can learn to improve its vision and maintain a health musculature. Jumping forward to the 1970s, scientists were still interested in this fringe practice, with many stating that eye exercises were an effective way to improve reading performance.

Today, the controversy continues, with some studies showing positive effects of these exercises on ocular motility disorders, learning disabilities, visual field defects and more. Others, however, have been unable to find any significant improvements from the practice.

To me, eye exercises do make a lot of sense. Eyes use an intricate network of muscles and nerves to expand, contract and move around within their sockets, so why wouldnt a series of carefully controlled exercises help to improve their mobility and help them stay on top of their game? This is especially true when you think about how much time we spend staring at the same spot all day at computers, books, TVs or at the road in front of us.

If youre keen to try out eye exercises for better vision, heres a few basic starting points.

Theres plenty of other eye exercise techniques that, based on anecdotal evidence at least, are a great way to improve your vision. My personal favorite is simply looking out the window at least every 20 minutes, especially if Im sitting in front of a computer. This forces the eyes to re-focus and helps alleviate pent-up tension from looking at one spot too long.

While the above remedies are certainly effective ways to ensure better vision, easily the most important thing youll ever do for your eyes is to eat nutrient-dense foods.

Getting a wide range of colorful fruits and veggies, with a particular emphasis on dark leafy greens and a good mix of herbs and spices, will provide the nutritional foundation for great eye health. Youve probably also heard your mom say that carrots help you see in the dark it turns out this old wives tale is actually not too far off the mark! Beta carotene, the antioxidant that gives carrots and other orange vegetables their color, is an important nutrient for supporting good vision and healthy eyes.

Next, getting plenty of saturated fats from sources like cold-pressed coconut oil, grass-fed butter and avocados is important for maintaining healthy eyes and reducing the detrimental effect of aging. Finally, ensuring that you get lots of omega-3 fatty acids every day is vitally important to maintaining good vision. Foods high in omega-3s include cold water fatty fish like wild salmon and sardines, and of course fermented cod liver oil.

Liivi Hess

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Soak Your Eyeballs In This For Better Vision - The Alternative Daily (blog)

The experts at the science center say you've got to be careful with an eclipse.

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY , KING 6:47 AM. CDT August 01, 2017

Carbondale, Ill., the home of Southern Illinois University, is promoting itself as the "Eclipse Crossroads of America." (Photo: Carbondale Tourism)

Millions of Americans will flock outside Aug. 21 to gaze upward as the "Great American Eclipse" crosses the country. And they will all need eye protection.

That's because it's never safe to view the sun with the naked eye. The suns surface is so bright that if you stare at any portion of it, no matter how small, it produces enough light to permanently damage your retina.

Related:Solar lens needed for eclipse photography

Length of time doesn't matter either. Without proper eye protection, you can suffer eclipse blindness a serious injury in which the eyes retina is damaged by solar radiation within seconds of starring at the sun, according to the American Optometric Association.

Most victims eventually recover their eyesight, but some suffer permanent loss of some or all of their vision.

Solar filters, special eclipse glasses or welder's goggles must be used to view the partial eclipse. Experts suggests that one widely available filter for safe solar viewing is number 14 welder's glass.

WATCH:Prepare for the Solar Eclipse at the Planetarium's new exhibit

A partial eclipse will be visible everywhere across the nation as well as in the hours before and after a far shorter total eclipse, which will only be visible for 2-3 minutes along a 67-mile wide path from Oregon to South Carolina.

It is not safe to look at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun through regular sunglasses, unfiltered telescopes or magnifiers or cameras, polarizing filters, CDs/DVDs or space blankets.

The only time it's ever safe to look at the sun is during a total eclipse, when the sun is completely behind the moon. However, holding binoculars or any other device while you're wearing your eclipse glasses or other eye protection can still cause injury because the concentrated solar rays damage the solar filter and enter your eye.

Talking Tech: Tips for capturing the solar eclipse

When the moon completely blocks the suns bright face for 2 or 3 minutes during the total eclipse, the otherwise hidden solar corona the suns outer atmosphere will become visible. Bright stars and planets will become visible as well.

"But you've got to be careful," said optometrist Myron Wasiuta. "Just before it's over, you'll see beads of light starting to form on the trailing edge. That's the sign that you need to avert your eyes. The sun can be bright enough to cause retinal damage."

USA Today

If you buy eclipse glasses, be sure that they are made by one of the five companies the American Astronomical Society has certified as safe for use. The companies are American Paper Optics, the Baader Planetarium (in Germany), Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17.

American Paper Optics of Bartlett, Tenn., hoped to produce 100 million pairs of glasses, president John Jerit said last month, but may fall short of that goal. The company usually employs about 35 people but nearly 80 work there now.

Another tried-and-true method is with an old-school, home-made pinhole camera. Here's how to make one:

2017 USATODAY.COM

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'Eclipse blindness' is a real thing. Here's how to watch the solar eclipse safely - KSDK

Although The Jerusalem Posts reporter is seated right next to him, Abbass Abbass cannot tell his skin color, eye color or hair color. Suffering from birth from a debilitating disease of the retina he recognizes people only from their voices.

The condition is steadily getting worse. It is like tunnel vision and all the time the tunnel becomes narrower. My angle of vision disappeared. At night I cant see at all. I have to walk with someone. Even during the day time I can see less than half a meter ahead so I have to walk with someone.

Yet Abbass, 41, the director of the Nazareth-based al-Manarah Association for Arab Persons with Disabilities in Israel is decidedly one of the more upbeat persons in Israel and for that matter, the entire Middle East. He gushes with enthusiasm, especially when talking about al-Manarahs flagship project, the worlds only online library of audio books in the Arabic language.

We are hoping to translate David Grossmans When a Horse Goes into a Bar into Arabic and add it to the collection, he says. This is no idle boast since last year al-Manarah translated Amos Ozs short story collection Between Friends into Arabic and recorded it.

Now, visually impaired people throughout the Arab world can listen to it and the other 4,500 titles of the library, 95% of which are in Arabic, either through the Internet http://www.Arabcast.org or on their cellphones with an app that al-Manarah created, Arabcast.

With its slogan Close Your Eyes and Read, the library has over 50,000 unique users who access it on a daily or weekly basis. The service is free but to gain access one must furnish al-Manarah (Arabic for lighthouse) with proof of being print disabled.

Topics range from childrens books, to health education to novels and the readers come from Israel, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, Saudi Arabia and the US among other places. MK Michal Rozin (Meretz) read a childrens story in Hebrew for the library and Oz read from his latest work Judas.

Al-Manarah has a studio on site and some of the readers have home studios. Our dream is to have readers from all over the Arab world, Abbass says. He also says he dreams of President Reuven Rivlin recording a childrens story.

A picture of Helen Keller graces the al-Manarah offices and Abbass likes to quote from her that Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. His journey to establishing al-Manarah in 2005 was laced with painful experiences from his visual impairment but also achievements from being smart and motivated.

The attitude of Arab society is that people with disabilities are marginalized, the attitude is so negative generally that they dont receive the basic opportunity to be included in education in the best way and social life.

His father, a lawyer, and his mother were always supportive and he was able to excel in his studies. But he still sighs as he recalls what he went through after completing high school and going for an eye exam in Nazareth in order to be eligible for a blindness certificate.

The ophthalmologist told me my eyesight was very low and asked me what my plans are for the future. I said I got the highest grades in my class and I want to go to the Hebrew University law school. He said you cant see half a meter. People like you have to stay in a warm corner of the house and listen to the radio. My mother was crying outside the clinic and I said Mom, I promise that one day youll be so proud of your son.

This is the story of millions of people especially in Arab countries being judged without the opportunity to express themselves, he says.

It was another bitter experience, after he had earned a masters in law from the Hebrew University in 2004, that helped push him to found al-Manarah. He applied for a job as a human rights researcher at an NGO and initially received an enthusiastic response. But when he showed up for the interview and the recruiter saw he was visually impaired, he was told that the schedule is so tough and cant suit a person like you.

Abbass explained that this was a turning point. I said to myself If I am not for myself who will be for me? I thought no one is taking action so I have to. I decided to go back to my hometown and establish al-Manarah.

In Abbasss view Arab citizens of Israel with disabilities are doubly discriminated against.

Our own community is paternalistic and we are part of an Arab minority that is discriminated against. The main discrimination is in resources. While Haifa, Jerusalem and Raanana have centers for independent living for people with disabilities, Nazareth does not, he notes.

He says accessibility is poor in Arab towns and villages not only because they have smaller budgets than Jewish towns but also because the municipalities themselves do not prioritize this. He adds that the government must create more opportunities in the labor market for Arabs with disabilities and cites statistics indicating that only 10% of Israeli Arabs with disabilities are employed, compared to 52% for Israeli Jews.

As part of its outreach, al-Manarah facilitates workshops in schools so that pupils will have a positive attitude to people with disabilities. The message of the workshops, which are facilitated by people with disabilities, is that yes, there are differences between persons with disabilities and others but what they have in common is more than what they dont have in common. Both want to develop, to learn, to be included in the labor market, to have families. The message is of accepting the other, including the other.

Al-Manarahs funding comes from US-based philanthropic foundations, Arab and Jewish businesses and the Ministries of Culture and Social Services and the National Insurance Institute. Amos Oz said al-Manarah does work that is sacred. They spread literature and culture to people with disabilities. Of Abbass, he says: I consider him a friend and esteem him. Hes an idealist, very dedicated, a lover of peace and a lover of culture.

Culture Minister Miri Regev recently reduced al-Manarahs funding, but Likud MK Anat Berko is trying to reverse that decision. I decided to help them, she said.

They have a genuine desire to help people with disabilities and this is worthy of support. It doesnt matter if its in Hebrew or Arabic or any other language. Abbass Abbass impresses me as coming from a good place. He shows a lot of goodwill to help people with disabilities coming from the difficulties he himself experienced and was able to bridge, Berko explained.

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In Nazareth, blind man's vision gives boost to region's visually impaired - The Jerusalem Post

Meibomian gland dysfunction -also known as dry eye syndrome - is on the rise among women due to excess make-up of the eyes. Though not taken seriously, the condition leads to blepharitis, extreme blurred vision, said doctors.

Latest medical cases revealed that though MGD until now was seen due to ageing, now the trend has changed and it is occurring among young women as well.

"The changing trend of make-ups causing MGD is dangerous. Eyeliner and other make-up usually clog the meibomian glands leading to formation of painless lumps in the eyelids hence obstructing the vision," said Mahipal Sachdev, Director, Centre for Sight, a chain of eye centres in North India.

Elaborating on the condition, Sachadev, who often sees young women with MGD says that the meibomian produce oils that prevent the tears from evaporating quickly. Whenever the glands do not function properly, the blockage in the gland restricts it from producing oil.

"The oil may sometimes thicken leading to cause benign lumps in the eyelids known as chalazion. MGD is the most known and leading cause of dry eye syndrome, blepharitis and in extreme cases loss of vision," said Sachdev.

Medical Sciences says that there are around 40 such glands that produce oil that flows out of the eyes as tears to keep the eyes moistened. Thickening of this oil restricts its flow causing accumulation and blockage, forming a lump in the eyelid. A blocked oil gland causes this condition of red swollen eyelids.

"Around 40 per cent of the women with high usage of eye make-up products tend to get affected with oil gland blockages. Parabens and yellow wax used in mascara and eyeliners to stiffen them to make it waterproof are the same chemicals that also clog the oil glands leading to MGD, chalazion, dry eye syndrome and blepharitis," Parul Sony, senior consultant and director of Gurgram's Complete Eye Care.

Stating that anti-ageing eye creams contain retinoids that has also been linked to thickening and degeneration, Sony said that such make-ups kill the blood cells in the meibomian gland ducts.

A study by Canada's University of Waterloo said people who apply eyeliner on the inner eyelid run the risk of contaminating the eye and causing vision trouble.

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Vision problems on the rise due to heavy eye make-up - Indulge (press release) (registration)

The Center for Sight provides free eye surgery at its annual Mission Cataract event.

For the past two years Daniel Medrano-Luna has lived inside a thick haze.

Through the fog of cataracts, the 68-year-old walked over two hours to his church every Sunday for Mass, before hitching back to his campsite in Bradenton. If no one picked him up on his way back home, he would sleep outside and take a bus back Monday.

Homeless and without insurance, Medrano-Luna had little hope for an eye appointment with an opthamologist, let alone corrective surgery.

But that changed when Medrano-Luna was approved for a free cataract surgery at the Center for Sight in Sarasota. The center opened its doors Wednesday for its annual Mission Cataract event, in which staff members offer free cataract eye surgeries to people who cant afford it.

Nearly 100 patients signed up for the Wednesday event and some will return on July 19, the second day of surgeries, to have the cataract in their other eye removed. Medrano-Luna and his girlfriend Lynn Atyeo arrived by bus early. They were worried after the surgery because they didnt know if they could afford to come back for the follow up appointment Thursday.

These past few months have been very rough, Atyeo said. Ive been very sick and Ive been living off disability. I try to feed the both of us with my food stamps.

Atyeo helps translate for Medrano-Luna, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1981. After the surgery, when the two began asking for donations for the appointment the next day, center staff members instead scheduled a transport bus to pick them up.

Oh bless you and thank you all so much, Atyeo said after one staff member confirmed the follow up. The couple will return next week so that Medrano-Luna can have the cataract in his other eye removed.

Cataracts develop as the lens of the eye becomes foggy or opaque, leading to blurred vision. The surgery is considered a minor outpatient procedure in which the doctor removes the lens and replaces it with a clear artificial lens.

Dr. William Soscia has been a surgeon with the Center for Sight and its Mission Cataract event for nearly a decade.

Its an exciting day for all of us, Soscia said. When we were at the beginning phases of our career, for me 20 years ago when I was in med school, I was asked why I wanted to do this. The answer was to take care of people.

The nurses and surgeons donate their time on both days that the center provides the free surgeries. Soscia said that about five years ago Dr. David Shoemaker founded the Center for Sight Foundation, which raised money for the event. The team has expanded the services to offer more than 100 surgeries over the two Wednesdays.

We all come in here with a smile. We all come in here excited because we are all doing this to help people, Soscia said. It feels like a million bucks.

Soscia estimated that the surgery and services administered to the patients would cost around $3,000 to $5,000 for each eye. Many of the patients have developed cataracts in both eyes. But giving sight back to those who couldnt afford it otherwise has a clear impact on those helping to provide the service.

I was in Ghana, Africa, in 2000 and that was a great experience. But this has a particular special feeling because it's in the town we live in, Soscia said. We get to take care of the people who are working and living in the same place as us.

Some patients traveled across Florida for the procedure. Ed Brown, 54, drove hours from north of Gainesville. Hehad to leave his job as a forklift driver after cataracts diminished his vision. For more than a year he was without a job, struggling to complete even simple tasks.

I looked high and low for someone to help me, Brown said. But you get stuck in that rut and you cant get out."

He found out about the free surgery online and applied. Upon receiving the call, Brown said he called his girlfriend and mother and told them the good news. Over the next few weeks hell be spending time with some family that lives in Sarasota while he recovers.

Its overwhelming. I can see everything where before I couldnt see anything, Brown said. I dont think Ive ever seen this good out of this eye. This is awesome."

In the future, Brown said he plans to support the Center for Sight and the Cataract Mission.

Im going to give back, Brown said. Ive talked to some people who have donated to and thats what Im going to do.

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Sarasota cataract center restores sight for the needy - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Cataracts are the single leading cause of blindness worldwide, afflicting roughly 42 percent of the global population, including more than 22 million Americans. The disease, which causes cloudy patches to form on the eye's normally clear lens, can require surgery if left untreated. That's why Google's DeepMind AI division has teamed with the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and Moorfields Eye Hospital to train a neural network that will help doctors diagnose early stage cataracts.

The neural network is being trained on a million anonymized optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans (think of a sonogram, but using light instead of sound waves) in the hopes it will eventually be able to supplement human doctors' analyses, increasing both the efficiency and accuracy of individual diagnoses.

"OCT has totally revolutionized the field of ophthalmology. It's an imaging system for translucent structures that utilizes coherent light," Dr. Julie Schallhorn, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at UC San Francisco, said. "It was first described in 1998 and it gives near-cell resolution of the cornea, retina and optic nerve.

"The optic nerve is only about 200 microns thick, but you can see every cell in it. It's given us a much-improved understanding of the pathogenesis of diseases and also their response to treatments." The new iteration of OCT also measures the phase-shift of refracted light, allowing doctors to resolve images down to the capillary level and observe the internal structures in unprecedented detail.

"We're great at correcting refractive errors in the eyes so we can give you good vision far away pretty reliably, or up close pretty reliably," Schallhorn continued. "But the act of shifting focus from distance to near requires different optical powers inside the eye. The way the eye handles this when you're young is through a process called 'accommodation.'" There's a muscle that contracts and changes the shape of the lens to help you focus on close objects. When you get older, even before you typically develop cataracts, the lens will stiffen and reduce the eye's ability to change its shape.

"The lenses that we have been putting in during cataract surgery are not able to mimic that [shapeshifting] ability, so people have to wind up wearing reading glasses," Schallhorn said. There's a lot of work in the field to find solutions for this issue and help restore the eye's accommodation.

There are two front-runners for that: Accommodating lenses, which use the same ciliary muscle to shift focus, and multifocal lenses, which work just like your parents' multifocal reading glasses except that they sit directly on the eye itself. The multifocals have been on the market for about a decade, though their design and construction has been refined over that time.

To ensure the lenses that doctors are implanting are just as accurate as the diseased ones they're removing, surgeons are beginning to use optiwave refractive analysis. Traditionally, doctors relied on measurements taken before the surgery to know how to shape the replacement lenses and combined those with nomograms to estimate how powerful the new lens should be.

The key word there is "estimate." "They especially have problems in patients who have already had refractive surgery like LASIK," Schallhorn explained. The ORA system, however, performs a wavefront measurement of the cornea after the cataract has been removed to help surgeons more accurately pick the right replacement lens for the job.

Corneal inlays are also being used. These devices resemble miniature contact lenses but sit in a pocket on the cornea that's been etched out with a LASIK laser to mimic the process of accommodation and provide a greater depth of focus. They essentially serve the same function as camera apertures. The Kamra lens from AcuFocus and the Raindrop Near Vision Inlay from Revision Optics are the only inlays approved by the FDA for use in the US.

Glaucoma afflicts more than 70 million people annually. This disease causes fluid pressure within the eye to gradually increase, eventually damaging the optic nerve that carries electrical signals from the eye to the brain. Normally, detecting the early stages of glaucoma requires a comprehensive eye exam by a trained medical professional -- folks who are often in short supply in rural and underserved communities. However, the Cambridge Consultants' Viewi headset allows anyone to diagnose the disease -- so long as they have a smartphone and 10 minutes to spare.

The Viewi works much like the Daydream View, wherein the phone provides the processing power for a VR headset shell -- except, of course, that instead of watching 360 degree YouTube videos, the screen displays the flashing light patterns used to test for glaucoma. The results are reportedly good enough to share with you eye doctor and take only about five minutes per eye. Best of all, the procedure costs only about $25, which makes it ideal for use in developing nations.

And while there is no known cure for glaucoma, a team of researchers from Stanford University may soon have one. Last July, the team managed to partially restore the vision of mice suffering from a glaucoma-like condition.

Normally, when light hits your eye, specialized cells in the retina convert that light into electrical signals. These signals are then transmitted via retinal ganglion cells, whose long appendages run along the optic nerve and spread out to various parts of the brain's visual-processing bits. But if the optic nerve or the ganglion cells have been damaged through injury or illness, they stay damaged. They won't just grow back like your olfactory sensory nerve.

However, the Stanford team found that subjecting mice to a few weeks of high-contrast visual stimulation after giving them drugs to reactivate the mTOR pathway, which has been shown to instigate new growth in ganglion cells, resulted in "substantial numbers" of new axons. The results are promising, though the team will need to further boost the rate and scope of axon growth before the technique can be applied to humans.

Researchers from Japan have recently taken this idea of cajoling the retina into healing itself and applied it to age-related macular degeneration cases. AMD primarily affects people aged 60 and over (hence the name). It slowly kills cells in the macula, the part of the eye that processes sharp detail, and causes the central focal point of their field of vision to deteriorate, leaving only the peripheral.

The research team from Kyoto University and the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology first took a skin sample from a human donor, then converted it into induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells. These IPS cells are effectively blank slates and can be coerced into redeveloping into any kind of cell you need. By injecting these cells into the back of the patient's eye, they should regrow into retinal cells.

In March of this year, the team implanted a batch of these cells into a Japanese sexagenarian who suffers from AMD in the hope that the stem cells would take hold and halt, if not begin to reverse, the damage to his macula. The team has not yet been able to measure the efficacy of this treatment but, should it work out, the researchers will look into creating a stem-cell bank where patients could immediately obtain IPS cells for their treatment rather than wait months for donor samples to be converted.

And while there isn't a reliable treatment for dry-AMD, wherein fatty protein deposits damage the Bruchs membrane, a potent solution for wet-AMD, which involves blood leaking into the eyeball, has been discovered in a most unlikely place: cancer medication. "Genentech started developing a new drug when an ophthalmologist in Florida just decided to inject the commercially available drug into patients eyes," Schallhorn explained.

"Generally this is not a great idea because sometimes things will go terribly wrong," she continued, "but this worked super-well. It basically stops and reverses the growth of these blood vessels." The only problem is that the drugs don't last, requiring patients to receive injections into their eyeballs every four to eight weeks. Genentech and other pharma companies are working to reformulate the drug -- or at least develop a mechanical "reservoir" -- so it has to be injected only once or twice a year.

Stem-cell treatments like those used in the Kyoto University trial have already proved potentially effective against a wide range of genomic diseases, so why shouldn't it work on the rare genetic condition known as choroideremia? This disease is caused by a single faulty gene and primarily affects young men. Similar to AMD, choroideremia causes light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye to slowly wither and die, resulting in partial to complete blindness.

In April of 2016, a team of researchers from Oxford University performed an experimental surgery on a 24-year-old man suffering from the disease. They first injected a small amount of liquid into the back of the eye to lift a section of the retina away from the interior cellular wall. The team then injected functional copies of the gene into that same cavity, replacing the faulty copies and not only halting the process of cellular death but actually restoring a bit of the patient's vision.

Gene therapy may be "surely the most efficient way of treating a disease," lead author of the study, Oxford professor Robert MacLaren, told BBC News, but its widespread use is still a number of years away. Until then, good old-fashioned gadgetry will have to suffice. Take the Argus II, for example.

The Argus II bionic eye from Second Sight has been in circulation since 2013, when the FDA approved its use in treating retinitis pigmentosa. It has since gotten the go-ahead for use with AMD in 2015. The system leverages a wireless implant which sits on the retina and receives image data from an external camera that's mounted on a pair of glasses. The implant converts that data into an electrical signal which stimulates the remaining retinal cells to generate a visual image.

The Argus isn't the only implantable eyepiece. French startup Pixium Vision developed a similar system, the IRIS II, back in 2015 and implanted it in a person last November after receiving clearance from the European Union. The company is already in talks with the FDA to bring its IRIS II successor, a miniaturized wireless subretinal photovoltaic implant called PRIMA, to US clinical trials by the end of this year.

Ultimately, the goal is to be able to replace a damaged or diseased eye entirely, if necessary, using a robotic prosthetic. However, there are still a number of technological hurdles that must be overcome before that happens, as Schallhorn explained.

"The big thing that's holding us back from a fully functional artificial eye is that we need to find a way to interface with the optic nerve and the brain in a way that we transmit signals," she said. "That's the same problem we're facing with prosthetic limbs right now. But there are a lot of smart people in the field working on that, and I'm sure they'll come up with something soon."

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High-tech solutions top the list in the fight against eye disease - Engadget

AN ELDERLY Bundaberg woman is furious she has to travel out of town to have sight-saving surgery.

The 71-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, can't understand why cataract surgery is no long available in the Rum City.

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision.

The woman was advised the surgery contract was given to an ophthalmologist in Hervey Bay and it was her only option.

"It's not easy for somebody who can't see or drive to get to Hervey Bay, she said.

"And it's day surgery so you need to have someone collect you.

Symptoms include blurry vision, seeing faded colours and halos around light and trouble with bright lights and seeing at night.

Surgery involves removing the natural lens and inserting an artificial one.

The said if there were no ophthalmologist in the Bundaberg area she would understand, but while there were at least two in town she found it baffling.

If the option to go to Brisbane was on the table the woman said she would take it, because transport would be easier.

"It's just crazy the blind have to travel two towns away to get the surgery, she said.

"My first eye was done here but because they've changed it I have to leave Bundaberg.

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service chief executive Adrian Pennington said before 2015 cataract surgery was not available in Wide Bay at all.

"Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service has recently negotiated a new contract with Hervey Bay Surgical Hospital to provide cataract surgery for all Wide Bay public patients, he said.

This means people's only options were either to sit on a lengthy waiting list in Brisbane while their eyesight deteriorated further, or to pay privately - often at a cost of thousands of dollars.

"Travelling to Brisbane also means significant inconvenience, he said.

"Importantly, the new contract with Hervey Bay Surgical Hospital is delivering cataract surgery at a better price than our previous contract, meaning these services can sustainably be provided locally in Wide Bay.

Mr Pennington said under the arrangements, patients got high-quality care at the right time in their home region, and could claim the Patient Travel Subsidy if eligible.

He said patients were given comprehensive information about public transport options if they were unable to drive, and support and advice was available from the hospital's Patient Travel office.

"While we appreciate that for some patients this will mean travelling out of their immediate area, we still believe this is the best possible outcome for the majority of the community we serve.

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Patients with low vision must go to Bay for surgery to see - Bundaberg News Mail

Vision Express has discovered that 92% of the patients tested on its Vision Van, as part of a recent UK tour during Macular Week, are not attending regular eye checks.

The multiple revealed that 64% to the patient it saw required a new prescription, 19% had not had their sight checked for over 10 years and 5% admitted never having an eye exam before their visit to the Vision Van.

Referrals were also made for further medical attention that related to suspected high cholesterol, central vision problems and a freckle on the eye.

CEO of Vision Express, Jonathan Lawson, told OT: Our Vision Van continues to receive a fantastic response from the public, but its very concerning that we are still seeing a worrying neglect for eye health, with such a high percentage of visitors to the van admitting to not having had their eyes checked in over 10 years. Worse still, several visitors told us they had never had an eye test.

The Vision Van toured the UK during Macular Week (2630 June) in a bid to improve the countrys prospects for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of sight loss in the UK.

The mobile eye testing unit visited Boston, Wrexham and Leicester, after each city was identified as having a high percentage of people aged over 65. The van also visited Blackpool because of its reputation for smoking, and Huddersfield, where the rate of sight loss due to AMD is higher than the national average.

I hope that by continuing to take our Vision Van out on the road, targeting UK eye health hotspots, we can encourage even more people to consider maintaining regular sight check- ups. Our key concern is for the public to take eye care seriously, and the starting point is a simple examination, Mr Lawson said.

The CEO also revealed that the majority of people Vision Express spoke to on the tour did not realise that an eye test can detect other health-related problems and added that this is the reason why theres a need for initiatives like the Vision Van.

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Nine out of ten Vision Van visitors do not attend regular eye checks - AOP

One of my comedy heroes, Greg Davies, described his teenage years as the 'Dark Years'. I think this is an apt description - for me it was acne, uncontrollable hormones, paranoia and the desperate need to 'fit in'. However, unlike Mr Davies and most of my secondary school peers, mine was actually a bit dark... literally! I have been visually impaired since I was three years old. I was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at three, leading to uveitis glaucoma (a condition of the eyes) with which I was diagnosed at four years old. Essentially my eyes and knees have spent the last 27 years being ruddy annoying! I don't want to clog this up with medical jargon but both these conditions are chronic and have resulted in permanent sight loss in my left eye and complete sight loss for a year when I was twenty-one years old. I retain decent vision in my right eye and live independently. My arthritis is controlled by medication and physiotherapy and all things considered I am very lucky to have the sight and mobility I have.

Now puberty is tough for anyone, but let me paint a picture of a teenage Georgie: very short, skinny, flat chested, buck-toothed, essentially a ball of teenage angst. I let the world know I wasn't happy and was what some might call, 'a bit of a Madam'. I was totally obsessed with the singer P!nk and even cut all my hair off to emulate her. Not a look that suited me and resulted in the nickname Rat-Man from my older brother. I shall never forgive him! I managed to get in with the cool crowd by being something of the class clown and that skill of being funny got me into the fold. I behaved like some court jester to fit in because teenagers are cruel, probably because they are also going through puberty and lashing out at a world they don't know how to fit into either.

All I wanted was for a boy to like me, to have some breasts and straight teeth. This fear of being 'different' was why I coped so poorly with my visual impairment during puberty. I tried to ignore my poorly eyes and dodgy knees through fear they would differentiate me from the other kids. In fact, I went blind in my left eye at 15 years old and didn't even sniff at it. I privately accepted it and publicly kept up appearances of being a cool, funny teenager. I didn't take certain medications, I was rude to my doctors and totally unappreciative of the amazing health care I received. A health system radically in decline but we'll come to that later.

I was convinced my inability to do PE would isolate me and if you mix that in with rampant hormones and self-loathing you have a nasty piece of work. I didn't reach out for help, didn't try to accept who I was and it was only my parents who saw my fears. I was in total denial that I was disabled; I feared it - which is part of the problem facing disability today. A fear I now tackle now in my own comedy. The trigger for me was when I lost the sight in my remaining right eye at 21. It took that for me to accept my disability but, more importantly, to be proud of it. It is a part of who I am and we must stop seeing disability as a flaw.

I deeply regret not being more accepting of who I was in my teens and implore any disabled young person not to do the same as me. Don't let the ravages of puberty and peer pressure get to you. The moment I became more accepting, I felt at peace with who I was and quietly proud. Sure, you might not be like the 'popular' girls at school. You might have to inject a medication or wear a wrist splint and big glasses and sit on the side-lines in PE. It's a part of who you are and you are more interesting because you have an extraordinary way of looking at the world. And if you're anything like me, quite literally you will look at the world differently! Our teens are such a tiny part of our lives. Don't waste them by being a moody hormonal paranoid teenager. Instead shout: "I am disabled. I am proud and I AM no different".

I would also add, don't make the easiest years of your life harder with hormonal paranoia taking over. The hardest years are yet to come. It's actually in recent years I have truly discovered what isolation feels like. My life is having to change due to government cuts to the benefits system, Disability Living Allowance and the NHS.

Nowadays I work with several disability charities, including the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and my work as comedian and writer are inspired by my disability. I have essentially made my disability a commodity and it has been the beginning of my life's work. I bet teenage Georgie would never have expected this, me doing shows about my one eye, the state of the nation and weird doctors. She might have even hated the idea. But she can shut up because the time has come that we all talk about disability more and this should start from those crucial years of puberty and teen angst when you are just working out who you are. Disability wasn't the end of my world... it was just the beginning.

For advice, information and support about living with sight loss, visit RNIB's website or call the charity's helpline on 0303 123 9999.

Catch me at The Edinburgh Fringe from 4-28 August - check out my website for details.

HuffPost UK Lifestyle has launched EveryBody, a new section calling for better equality and inclusivity for people living with disability and invisible illness. The aim is to empower those whose voices are not always heard and redefine attitudes to identity, lifestyle and ability in 2017. We'll be covering all manner of lifestyle topics - from health and fitness to dating, sex and relationships.

We'd love to hear your stories. To blog for the section, please email ukblogteam@huffingtonpost.com with the subject line 'EveryBody'. To flag any issues that are close to your heart, please email natasha.hinde@huffingtonpost.com, again with the subject line 'EveryBody'.

Join in the conversation with #HPEveryBody on Twitter and Instagram.

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The Dark Years: Growing Up With Sight Loss - HuffPost UK

ALTOONA, Pa. - Payton Hartman has always had a love for the game of baseball.

"I decided because I always thought it was cool when I was younger. So I decided to play."

And he's good at it- really good. Payton's batting .500 this season and is one of his team's top pitchers.

"He's definitely an MVP. I can put him anywhere in the field, shortstop, pitching, center field, catching and he excels in all the positions," says manager Stephen Pyo.

So it's almost impossible to believe that he's doing it with the sight of just one eye. Peyton has been blind in his left eye since birth, so he's learned to deal with half of his vision.

"Well it doesn't make it difficult for me. For other people it would probably be hard because they wouldn't be used to it. But when I was growing up, I got used to it." "He always been used to it. He always asks me, what's it like to have two eyes? I say, what's it like to have one? He is normal to me," adds his mom, Casey.

So he wasn't going to let one bad eye stand in the way of playing baseball. At first it was tough. But as they say: practice makes perfect.

"When I first started I wasn't good at all but then as the years went by, I just kept practicing and practicing and got better."

Now, he's not only crushing it on the field, he was just named an all star.

"Baseball is a very difficult sport with someone that has full vision, let alone an individual that may be blind or impaired in one eye. he plays the position and catches and pitches without much difficulty," says Pyo.

Payton's teammates don't even know he's blind. With the way he has worked through his blindness and succeeded. the sky is the limit for the 11 year old.

"I wanna be in the MLB when I'm older."

Originally posted here:
Keeping His Eye on the Ball - WTAJ