Eye Injuries :Watch your eyes

Exploding carbonated beverage bottles cause serious injuries can cause serious ocular injuries, loss of vision and even loss of eye.
The earliest report in the ophthalmic literature that is devoted to eye injuries from exploding bever­age bottles is from Germany by Leydecker.Gupta AK reported cases of such injuries.He suggested a need for proper regulatory standards for assessing the quality and strength of carbonated bottles in India. Uniform Standards can be prescribed by Indian Standard Institute which may help to eliminate defective bottles and to ensure that the internal pressure within a bottle does not exceed its strength. Bottlers may be asked to attach instructions on proper handling and storage.

Air Conditioners and health

Staying Too Long in an Air-Conditioned Rooms is Bad for Eyes
People who wear contact lenses or have to use computers for a substantial period of time every day are advised by doctors not to stay too long in an air-conditioned rooms.
Staying in an air-conditioned room too long in the summertime may contribute to xerophthalmia, or dryness of eyeballs.
Those who use computers for long stretches at a time stare at the screen often and blink less, which may expose the cornea to more dry air in a room with air-conditioning.

Symptoms are sore eyes, itchiness and eye infections.

Those who wear contacts, especially soft lens users, need more moisture to keep the lenses from falling off, but moisture easily dries off in an air-conditioned room,it is said.

HEALTH RELATED QUERIES

I have tried many weight loss programs but none of them seem to work on me. I lose hardly a kilo or two and then regain it. What is the matter with my body? Why doesn't it respond to any of these programs? Is something wrong with my exercise? Please help.

Ans:YOu must alter your lifestyle slowly. Increase your physical activity. Walking is the best exercise. Take plenty of fruits such as melons and papaya,and also salads.Check your thyroid level.

VISION and SPECTACLES-A BRIEF OVER VIEW

The most commonly prescribed spectacle lenses are 'single vision' lenses. Single vision lenses have only one power in the lens and allow you to see clearly in either the distance or at near. Most younger people who wear spectacles have single vision lenses but as people get older, they gradually lose the ability to alter the focus of their eyes ('presbyopia'), and usually some time between the ages of 40 and 50, they develop a need for corrective lenses for both distance and near vision. They can use two pairs of single vision spectacles and change them as necessary or, alternatively, one pair of multifocal lenses. As the name suggests multifocal lenses are lenses which have more than one power, allowing the wearer to focus at more than one distance.

There are different types of multifocal lenses: bifocal and progressive. Bifocal lenses have two distinct segments with different powers. In most cases a top segment is used to see in the distance while aAnother way of providing multiple corrections in one lens is to have a gradual change between the distance and near corrections. This type of lens is known as a progressive addition lens (also known as a "PAL" or "progressive" lens). This type of lens allows the wearer to focus on all distances, there being a gentle change from distance to intermediate to near focus as one looks through different parts of the lens. lower segment is used for reading and other close tasks such as sewing.

EYE RESEARCH:NEW FRONTIERS AHEAD

Ophthalmologists at Rush University Medical Center implanted Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The implant is a silicon microchip 2mm in diameter and one-thousandth of an inch thick, less than the thickness of a human hair.

About one in 3,500 people worldwide is affected with a hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, that causes the death of retinal cells and, eventually, blindness," Dr. Kristina Narfstrom, the Ruth M. Kraeuchi-Missouri Professor in Veterinary Ophthalmology said. "Our current study is aimed at determining safety issues in regard to the implants and to further develop surgical techniques. We also are examining the protection the implants might provide to the retinal cells that are dying due to disease progression with the hope that natural sight can be maintained much longer than would be possible in an untreated patient."

EYE HEALTH IN INDIA

To eliminate avoidable blindness in India, appropriate national planning is necessary, which should be based on current and reliable data. A national survey done in 1986-89 reported that 1.5% of the Indian population (12 million people) was blind with a presenting visual acuity of < 6/60 in the better eye. The original goal of the National Programme for Control of Blindness was to reduce this prevalence to 0.3% by 2000.
WE ARE ON THE MOVE BUT A LOT NEEDS TO BE DONE