Monsoon, also known as the flu season, brings with it a host of viral and bacterial infections. The increased humidity and dampness during this season create a favorable atmosphere for bacteria and viruses to thrive. As many of these infections are contagious, they can easily be transmitted from one person to another.

Like every year during this season, even this year, we are witnessing a nationwide upsurge in the cases of ‘Conjunctivitis‘, alsoknown as ‘Pink Eye‘. Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva, the thin mucous membrane covering the white part of the eye and the inside of our eyelids, caused by various factors, including viral, bacterial infections, parasitic infestation, allergies, or exposure to certain chemicals. Of all the types of conjunctivitis, ‘Follicular Conjunctivitis’, caused by a particular group of viruses like adenovirus, is most commonly seen during this time.

While follicular conjunctivitis can be uncomfortable, it is not typically vision-threatening, and most cases resolve without lasting effects. However, timely treatment and proper care are crucial to prevent complications. It can affect individuals of all ages, but young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems may be more vulnerable to this condition

Doctor’s advice: If you experienceany symptoms of conjunctivitis, seek prompt medical care to prevent complications. Take proper precautions and adhere diligently to the prescribed treatment while practising good hygiene to protect your eyes and prevent infecting those around you. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics and steroids should be avoided and used only under the guidance of a healthcare professional when necessary.

Types of Follicular Conjunctivitis

• Sore throat with conjunctivitis known as ‘Pharyngo-conjunctival-fever (PCF)’: It is often mild and commonly seen in children and young adults who recently had a cold or respiratory infection. Most of the cases we are seeing currently are of PCF.
• Advanced conjunctivitis known as Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis: It is less common and can be severe, affecting the front of the eye (cornea) and may cause long-lasting vision difficulties.

Precautions that can be taken to curb its spread:

• Conjunctivitis is contagious, so the infected person should isolate themselves from other family members and the community.
• Additional precautions to prevent its spread include frequent handwashing, avoiding touching the eyes, and refraining from sharing personal items.

Symptoms 

• Redness
• Itching
• Excessive eye discharge
• Sensitivity to light
• In some cases, it can result in fever and mild throat pain

Treatment

Treatment options vary based on the type and cause of the condition. They may include supportive therapy, warm compresses, lubricating eye drops, and analgesics to relieve discomfort or inflammation.

Additionally, avoiding wearing contact lenses and gently cleaning eye discharge with a soft, damp cloth is recommended during treatment.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics and steroids should be avoided and used only under the guidance of a healthcare professional when necessary.

Dr Muralidhar Ramappa
Cornea Consultant
L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI)

The post Upsurge in Pink Eye Conjunctivitis appeared first on Health Vision.

It is better to keep ourselves safe from the harmful Ultraviolet Rays (UV) radiation. The ozone layer is depleting. And due to this, the UV rays are entering the earth’s surface. Upon research and understanding, it has been proved by scientists that the UV rays are indeed causing damage to nature and Human beings. Skin ageing, skin burns, are some of the known effects. It has the ability to trigger cancer-causing cells in the skin, cause cataracts in the eyes and is also capable to alter the DNA mapping of cells.

Skin Damage:

Apart from skin tan or burn, there are types of skin cancer caused due to the UV rays.

• Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is one of the most commonly found types of skin cancer. It is the unusual and abnormal growth on the skin. It looks like a red patch, or a sore, however, the problem is deep within the layers of the cell. Although it does not spread across the body it is the most common around the neck and the face area. It can be a serious problem if left undiagnosed.
• Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common type of skin cancer. It is the unusual and uncontrolled growth of skin’s outer most layers. The SCC is seen as the growth of scary red patches, or warts, that form a crust and bleed.
• Melanoma is the most dangerous forms of skin cancer. Melanoma causes the pigment-producing skin cells to multiply rapidly, and form tumours. They usually look like moles and often erupt from moles too. Majority of them are coloured in either black or brown. However, some are even pink, red, and white. If spotted on time, melanoma is curable. If medical advice is not sought it can turn out to be fatal.

Eye Damage

Exposure to unfiltered UV rays can cause more than just a sting of pain in the eyes.

• Cataract – A cataract is a dense, cloudy area that forms in the lens of the eye. The cloud-like structure stops the light entertaining to eyes, hence leads to the interference with vision. Cataracts are usually found amongst the older aged people.
• Photokeratitis – It is a painful eye condition. Some symptoms of these are eyelid twitching, pain, redness, seeing halos, headache and many more.
• Pterygium – It is an eye disease that causes a tissue in the eyes to grow in a triangular way around the cornea. The symptoms are often redness and inflammation. If not cured on time, the vision can be affected.
• Uveal Melanoma – It is cancer in the eye. Tumours erupt in the pigment cells of the eye. It can be cured upon diagnosed properly and timely. However, if it begins to spread, the chances of survival reduces to 5%
• Neuropathy – It is a disease which affects the cornea. It begins generally with the loss of vision and pain in the eye.

 DNA Damage

Exposure to the UV rays for long periods of time, would cause damages to the cell. These harmful rays are capable of altering the DNA in the cell. It effects the immune system in the body. This syndrome is known as Immuno suppression. It suppress the body’s immune system and its ability to fight infections and other diseases.

Dr Anil Kumar,
Medical Oncologist
SPARSH Hospital
Tumkur Main Rd,
Yeswanthpur, Bengaluru-560022
Ph: 080 6122 2000

The post How Ultraviolet rays damages-skin, eyes and DNA? appeared first on Health Vision.

Truths behind the use of Contact Lens. By knowing the facts behind contact lenses, one can use lenses properly and safely.  Shashwat Kedia, Founder & CEO, Lensico helps you to learn more about contact lenses by uncovering the truths behind the following myths

Contact lenses are great alternatives to regular eyeglasses for correcting your vision problems. They are also ideal for patients with active lifestyles as they will not slip, fog, or fall.

1. Myth – They will get lost behind your eye. 

Truth – This will never happen as a thin membrane called conjunctiva covers your eyes, making it impossible for your contact lenses to get lost behind them.

2. Myth – They can pop out of your eyes.

Truth – Modern contacts fit closer to your eyes, preventing them from falling out even during physical activities.

3. Myth – They require too much maintenance. 

Truth – One has to follow the easy instructions provided by the eye specialists to make sure they stay clean before one wears them.

4. Myth – Contact lenses are uncomfortable to wear. 

Truth – One might have to adjust to them at first, but they will get more comfortable over the time.

5. Myth – They can get stuck inside your eyes. 

Truth – The solution that comes with your contact lenses keeps them moist, preventing them from sticking onto your eyes. Following the simple instructions from the lens company can make your tasks smooth.

6. Myth – Lenses can melt on your eyes. 

Truth – Only high temperatures can melt the contact lenses, so they will not easily melt while you are wearing them. If you feel like your lenses are sticking to your eyes, all you need to do is to add more moisture.

7. Myth – One should put in contacts after putting your makeup on.

Truth – It is always advised wearing contacts before you apply any makeup, oil, or primers. Your hands should also be clean before you use your contacts. When removing makeup, make sure you remove the lenses first.

The post Truths behind the use of Contact Lens appeared first on Health Vision.

1. Be aware of your surroundings when firecrackers are going off. Most injuries happen to bystanders when a firecracker goes off around them.

2. Children should always be supervised by adults when setting off firecrackers.

3. Never try to relight a firecracker which hasn’t gone off the first time.

4. Make sure there is no loose gravel, glass bottles etc near the site where you are lighting your crackers. These can shatter and fly off by the force of the explosion and cause serious injuries.

5. Projectile firecrackers (Rockets /7 shot etc) should never be set off in a horizontal position.

6. Keep a water source (bucket of water) handy to douse accidental fires.

7. Warn motorists (especially 2 wheeler riders) when they are approaching your lit firecracker which is about to go off.

 In case of an injury

1. Rinse the area with clean drinking water.

2. Do not apply any home remedies like turmeric / rose water etc. This is especially important if there is a suspicion of injury to the eyeball as these can cause severe inflammation / infection if they enter the eye.

3. Take the patient to an eye doctor as soon as possible.

4. Do not attempt to forcibly open the eyes if they are swollen shut. It may cause further damage if the eyeball has suffered a penetrating injury.

Dr. Ashwin Shetty
Consultant – Ophthalmology
Aster CMI Hospital
Bengaluru 560092
Ph 080-43420100

The post Making Diwali safe and fun appeared first on Health Vision.

Diwali, the festival is celebrated by people all over India with joy, by distributing sweets, lighting lamps and bursting crackers. However, if care is not taken, this joyful festival may turn into a nightmare for some families. Several fire accidents and fire cracker related injuries ruin the festival celebration in the families of the affected. Minor injuries if attended to immediately can be treated completely.

Fire cracker injuries affecting the eye are not uncommon. However, the incidents of firecracker injuries during Diwali are reported to have reduced over the years with increasing awareness and prompt treatment.

The eye is a very delicate structure and several minor structures in it play a vital role in vision. Even a minor injury may cause permanent damage to these structures and lead to permanent impairment of vision.  Therefore, depending on the severity of the injury, one may restore structural integrity of the eye but may not be able to completely restore its functionality. Hence it is imperative to adopt certain safety measures in order to avoid such eye injuries. While the person lighting the firecracker is at risk, so too is the innocent bystander.

Here is a list of precautions one should take to avoid such accidents during Diwali celebration.

DO’s

• Use protective eye wear while lighting firecrackers
• Keep your face at a distance while lighting sparkly fire crackers or bombs
• Children should light fire crackers only under the supervision of parents or elders
• Wear light cotton clothes. Do not wear synthetic clothes, scarfs or dupattas that can catch fire easily
• Keep a bucket of water and sand nearby to extinguish fire in case of mishaps
• In case of an eye injury, apply a cotton pad and patch the affected eye. Immediately rush to the closest eye clinic or hospital

DON’T’s

• Do not buy uncertified crackers that are not approved by ISO
• Do not allow small children near firecrackers
• Keep lamps and candles away from firecrackers
• Avoid using loud firecrackers – Be considerate towards small babies, old people and pets
• Do not use stones, bottles or tins to hold a cracker or rocket in its place while lighting crackers. Doing so can eject tiny pieces of the above objects into the surrounding area at high speed, risking injury to those around
• Along with the person igniting the crackers, the bystanders too should make a note of the above precautions.

People incline to keep crackers in the puja room. But this is unsafe as there are likelihoods of the crackers catching fire and damage. So they have to be kept safely.

On a last note – Other than lighting crackers, there are several ways to celebrate this festival of joy and lights. For example, bring light into a poor child’s life by helping with his/ her education. The choice is yours.

Have a happy and safe Diwali!

Dr. K Bhujang Shetty

Narayana Nethralaya, Bangalore, Karnataka
Telephone no: +91-80-66121300-305
Email : info@narayananethralaya.com, info@nnmail.org

The post Take care of your eye during Diwali appeared first on Health Vision.

Children are constantly growing, changing, and evolving. Their eyesight is an important part of their growth and needs to be taken care of from an early age. While maintaining vision at every age is important, children’s eyes are particularly prone to long-term damage. Children’s vision varies drastically and it is often difficult to decide when the right time for the eye checkup is. However, right guidance from the experts and adequate care, plays a crucial role in addressing any eye – related problems.

• The initial signs of eye problems to notice in your child are squinting of eyes, reading difficulties, frequent headaches, sitting too close to television sets or computer screens or leaning closer to the book they are reading, covering one eye to see, etc. In clinical terms it is called Myopia.
• Every child till the age of 13 must have their eye checkups done under tertiary care and follow it up with reputed, trusted and professional optical clinics. There is a need to develop specific skills for providing eye care to children.
• Parents are concerned to get their kid’s eyes checked with the specialist but 80 percent of the parents neglect the point that getting the proper spectacles for their kids is equally important. If the rx will have high minus or having astigmatism it is very crucial to get the correct centration for the glasses and selecting the proper refractive index as per the prescription.
• The frame selection is also an  important aspect to counter their vision problems
• Kids often get a condition called Lazy Eye or Amblyopia in which the kids complain of squinting which can be corrected by proper vision therapy and proper centration of the pair of spectacles.
• Children these days are addicted to smart phones, computers and Ipads, it possesses greater risks to their eyes. There are special lenses called Eyezen with Crizal Prevencia coating specific for this which needs to be used.
• Parents have often various myths regarding contact lenses, especially when it comes for children but even they can use contact lenses safely if explained about the proper care regime and are given the correct type of contact lens as per the parameter of the eye and the usage pattern.

About Lawrence and Mayo – India’s first optical retailer, Lawrence & Mayo and the only premium and most preferred eyewear brand which started its operations in 1877 from Kolkata. Over the past 141 years, the company has developed a stellar reputation and has been the preferred opticians for eminent personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, JRM Tata, Queen Victoria, Rabindranath Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt and the likes. Today, Lawrence & Mayo has a network of over 105 showrooms covering 42 major cities and towns across India.

The post Kids eye care tips for healthy vision appeared first on Health Vision.

How much do you know about your eyes? Eyes are the most precious of our sense organs. They contribute greatly to one’s learning capacities right since childhood. Good vision contributes greatly to the strength of health & wits.

• Importance of Eyes

The school going years are the formative years for determining one’s physical, intellectual & behavioral development. Any problem in the vision during the formative years can hamper the intellectual development, maturity & performance of a person in his future life.

Children usually don’t complain of defective vision. They may not even be aware of their problems. They adjust to the poor eyesight by moving closer to the black board, holding the books closer to their eyes, squeezing the eyes and even avoiding work requiring visual concentration.

This evades early detection. Timely detection of these problems and their correction by spectacles (or surgery) can tremendously improve the child’s potential during his formative years. Visual impairment can be a drag in the life of a child, his family and the society. Periodic screening of children helps in early identification of visual defects and prescriptions/use of corrective spectacles.

• What is an eye?

Which part of your body lets you read your favourite book, check out a rainbow, and see a football heading your way? Which part lets you cry when you’re sad and makes tears to protect itself? Which part has muscles that adjust to let you focus on things that are close up or far away? If you guessed the eye, you’re right!

Your eyes are at work from the moment you wake up to the moment you close them to go to sleep. They take in tons of information about the world around you — shapes, colours, movements, and more. Then they send the information to your brain for processing so the brain knows what’s going on outside of your body.

You can see that the eye is pretty amazing. So, come on let’s take a tour of its many parts.

• The Parts of the Eye

The cornea is a round, transparent dome that acts as the outer window of the eye. It is the structure that focuses the light that enters the eye. The coloured part of the eye is known as iris. The iris lies between the cornea and the crystalline lens. The color is due to the presence of a pigment The basic iris colors are blue, green and brown. Majority of humans have varying shades of these colours. It is composed of connective tissues and smooth muscle fibres.

• About the Eye

The composition of the iris enables it to dilate or contract the pupil, which in turn controls the amount of light that falls on the retina.

The lens is that part of the human eye that is located immediately behind the iris. Its role is to focus the light and move towards the retina.

The retina is the innermost layer of the eye. It consists of nerve tissue that senses the tight entering the eye. Its function is to send impulses through the optic nerve back to the brain, where it gets translated into the images that we see.

The sclera is the whitish, opaque part of the eye, which is connected to the cornea. Its role is to provide protection and meet the purpose of attachment for the extraocular muscles that enables eye to move.

• How do our eyes work?

Every day we see things with our eyes. We see the sky, trees, cats, birds and the faces of our friends, but how do we see all that?

Light enters our eye through the pupil. The cornea, at the front of our eye, bends the light. The light passes through the lens to the retina. It then focuses on the retina, like a little picture of whatever we are looking at, but it is upside down! Nerve cells in the retina send that “Image” to our brain. The brain has the ability to interpret that the image is upside down and we see it right side up.

• Eye nutrition and Eye Health

Like any other part of your body, your eyes also need looking after. Because eyes are so precious, we need to really take care of them.

Eating fruits, vegetables and fish is good not only for your body but also for your eyes. Food like green leafy vegetables, spinach, papaya, corn, green peas and egg yolks are good for ocular health. Apricots are good antioxidants and help in protecting the eye lens.

Multi vitamins especially Vitamin A, also help in reviving eye nutritional balance. Most types of milk are also fortified with Vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential to proper functioning of the retina. It also helps prevent night blindness by helping the eye to adapt between bright light and darkness.

• Eye Problems

Common Eye Diseases

Several eye problems are often seen in newborns and children, some of which are no cause for concern and will self-correct naturally. In either case, any apparent abnormality should be checked by a doctor, as it could be the sign of a more serious condition.

Blocked tear ducts are a condition seen in 2 to 4 percent of newborns and of these cases, 90 percent resolve naturally.

Amblyopia, or lazy eye as it is more commonly known, is a common condition that affects one out of every 40 children. To correct this condition the child will probably need to wear an eye patch on the normal eye.

Although cataracts are much more common in adults, children can be born with this condition or develop it later. Cataracts must be removed as soon as possible irrespective of the age.

Another common eye problem often seen in infants and children is strabismus, or crossed eyes. Surgery to correct strabismus is generally quick and painless and the child can usually resume normal activities within a day or two.

More common in school-age children, infectious conjunctivitis, or pink eye, is one of the most common eye conditions, due to its highly contagious nature. Treatment of pink eye can depend on which type it is. Bacterial conjunctivitis is treated with antibiotics in a drop or ointment. Viral conjunctivitis cannot be treated with antibiotics and will usually clear up on its own in just a few days.

For eye problems contact

Narayana Nethralaya, Bangalore, Karnataka, Telephone no: +91-80-66121300-305

Email : info@narayananethralaya.com, info@nnmail.org, Website : www.narayananethralaya.org

The post How much do you know about your eyes? appeared first on Health Vision.

Eyes are a window to uncovering of various universal environment. The eye is the sole area in the body where blood vessels and nerves can be sighted openly.

Some eye aliments that can be listed are:

Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Signs of a Stroke, Brain Tumors, Multiple Sclerosis, Thyroid Dysfunction, Arthritis, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Leukemia, Malignant Melanoma, Nutritional Deficiencies

• Diabetic patients and eye

It is mandatory for the Diabetic patients to have an annual eye health check-up. Premature detection of retinal aliments can aid in preventing acute vision loss.

• A healthy diet for healthy eyes

Studies have proved that consumption of anti-oxidants help to slow down development of eye aliments like macular degeneration.
Healthy diet rich in Vitamins A, C, E and lute is available in vegetables like spinach, kale, carrots, strawberries and tomatoes. Cold water fish – salmon contains Omega-3 Fatty Acids so it is also a healthy choice for eyes.

Important Facts to Remember regarding lens

• Remove lenses if you are discomfort, have redness or decreased vision.
• Lenses may get tainted if worn in swimming pools, hot tubs or saunas.
• At all times use only new solution. By no means recycle solution to store lenses.
• Remove lenses at recommended intervals.
• Take out lenses prior to using medicated eye drops.

Normal Adaptation of lens Symptoms

• Increased glare sensitivity outdoors. This can be relieved with quality sunglasses. If it is severe, contact your doctor.
• Some initial mild discomfort.
• Some dryness in air conditioning or smoky environments.
• Slight awareness of the lenses.

Patients responsibilities:

• Providing information about health, including past illnesses, hospital stays, and use of medicine.
• Follow the instruction and treatment rules provided by eye care team.
• Maintain a healthy life-style.

Facts – do you know ?

Corneal disease is a major cause of blindness in India accounting to 7.1% of blindness.

The post It is your Eye – take care appeared first on Health Vision.