Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Dr Bhavana Sharma, professor and HoD, ophthalmology, AIIMS, said, the institute launched drive to raise awareness about eye health in public. Free Press has talked to Dr Bhavana Sharma on various issues. Excerpts.
How do life style diseases likes diabetes, BP cause eye problems?
Lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension significantly increase the risk of eye problems, including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and cataracts.
Lifestyle factors like sedentary behaviour, poor diet and excessive digital device use contribute to conditions like dry eye and increase the severity of other eye diseases.
Myopia is on rise among children. What are the causes and how it can be managed?
Actually, parents provide electronic gadgets like mobile handset, laptops, computers to children from a very young age. So, they remain glued to screen most of the time. Day-by-day, the screen time increases. Due to all this, there is eye health problem among children.
How can myopia progression be stopped once diagnosed?
Physical exercise relieves eye fatigue caused by long-term attention to static objects and improves the overall health level of the body to promote the development of visual function of teenagers and prevent the decline of myopia and other visual functions. So parents should ensure that their kids spend a few hours on outdoor sports activities.
Regular participation in sports activities is an effective means to prevent myopia. It plays a positive role in improving the myopia of teenagers. Physical activities may effectively reduce the probability of children becoming myopic.
What is risk with Over-to-Counter (OTC) eye drop?
OTC eye drops may cause cornea ulcer. People should use eye drops, which qualified doctors prescribe. The primary risks of OTC eye drops include infection, worsening of dry eye, rebound redness, allergic reactions, blurry vision, and eye irritation from preservatives.
Using these drops can also delay diagnosis of serious underlying eye conditions, potentially leading to severe damage or vision loss.
What is retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that affects the eyes. It is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the retina. Diabetic retinopathy can develop in anyone who has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The risk increases the longer someone has diabetes and if blood sugars are not managed well.
At first, diabetic retinopathy might cause no symptoms or only mild vision problems. But it can lead to blindness, especially if diabetes or other health problems are poorly managed.
