Advanced Eyecare Center: December 2013

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Season for Caring: Help with eye care on the way for Ana Rangel

Read this amazing story we found:

As Ana Rangel’s glaucoma and eye surgeries led to severe nausea, extreme headaches and shooting pain throughout her body, her children, Juan Felipe, 6, and Elizabeth, 3, grew scared. “Are you OK, Mom?” Juan Felipe repeatedly asked as he saw his mother deal with pain that prevented her from eating, sleeping or standing.

Rangel, 32, who has visual impairment in one eye and recently had surgery on the other, would try to console her children, though she says she didn’t know whether she’d live through another day.

The Rangel family is part of the Austin American-Statesman’s Season for Caring campaign, which helps 12 featured families and hundreds of other families through local nonprofit agencies. The Rangel family was nominated by the Austin Children’s Shelter as part of the shelter’s Strong Start family support program for parents of children ages 5 and younger who are experiencing extraordinary stress.

Juan Felipe loves for his mom to read to him. “Mom, what does it say here?” he asked during a painful period in Rangel’s illness. As much as Rangel wanted to help her son read, she couldn’t see the letters. Straining her eyes would unleash so much pain that instead Rangel would ask Juan Felipe to spell out the word and she’d help him put words together.

One of Rangel’s Season for Caring wishes was to get a second opinion on her eyes. Dr. Russell Hayhurst of the Glaucoma Institute of Austin has agreed to examine Rangel in January to see what her needs are.

Rangel’s husband, Domingo Martinez, 40, works in Miami to help support his family, but the medical bills keep mounting, and the distance weighs on them. Juan Felipe and Elizabeth miss their family time.

Juan Felipe loves learning, and he rattles off answers to his teacher’s questions so fast that he often forgets to raise his hand. He’s fascinated by building things and can spend hours playing with Legos.

It’s Elizabeth who is the family princess, though. “What’s your favorite color?” Rangel asks. “Pink!” No one can keep up with her imagination. She sings, plays dress-up and re-creates Mass for her little friends.

Rangel dreams that someday her children will go to college, but she worries that the family’s growing debt will haunt them forever. Assistance with paying down the $25,000 in medical expenses, gift cards for grocery and clothing stores, a computer for the children and money for Martinez to get certified as a mechanic or electrician would help lift the family.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/season-for-caring-help-with-eye-care-on-the-way-fo/ncRq8/

Misconceptions About Eye Care

Just like other areas of medical practice, misconceptions and myths about vision are important to understand. Knowledge is power when it comes to eye care. We are an optometrist clinic in Torrance, Advanced Eyecare Center, and we know firsthand how confusing the myths about eye care can be. This is why we set out to expose these misconceptions in our latest blog post. To read the full version please visit: http://advancedeyecarecenter.net/blog/industry-news/An_Optometry_eyecare.php

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Ada Lions establish permanent eye care clinic in Guatemala

Read this interesting article we found:

Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala — The Ada Lions Club has gone international. In November, the club began its own permanent Eye Clinic in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, a city with a population of 40,000, primarily Mayan Indians.

Dr. John Garber; president Bronson Warren; Jim Speed, CPA and Mary Garber, CPA, are spearheading the project. Garber recently returned from the city where the Catholic Church of Satiago had dedicated a room in the Saint James Rectory to establish the Eye Clinic. With state-of-the-art equipment, exact prescriptions, and the help of the Mayan people; the Ada Lions Club is dramatically raising the bar for quality eye care.

In two days, 105 people were examined and prescribed glasses that will be sponsored by many of the generous citizens of Ada. When the five-person Lion’s Club team returns in January, they will dispense the glasses, then perform 200 more eye exams the following two days. The club’s goal is to provide four clinics a year.

Garber stayed on the Church grounds in a room two doors down from where Father Stanley Rother, from Okemah, was assassinated in 1981 during the Guatemalan Civil War. The room has now been turned into chapel, and a sign beneath the brownish-red stains on the wall identifies them as the blood of Father Rother.

Garber said this was an incident that took place more than 30 years ago and that Santiago is now a vibrant city of thousands of entrepreneurs, ongoing religious worship and wonderful people.

Garber said he believes that even though the Mayan people are very poor, Benjamin Franklin might have considered them wealthy. Franklin said, “Content makes poor men rich.” The Ada Lions Club plans to alter that wise statement just a little: “Content and 20/20 makes poor men rich.”

- See more at: http://www.theadanews.com/local/x1186888737/Ada-Lions-establish-permanent-eye-care-clinic-in-Guatemala#sthash.CK7w0Tr8.dpuf

Monday, December 9, 2013

Eye Health: Books blurry? Trouble threading a needle? Happens to everyone over age 40

Read this article we found:

Are books looking blurry? How about computer screens? The issue could be more than just needing a good night’s rest.

Presbyopia usually occurs beginning at around age 40, when people experience blurred near vision when reading, sewing or working at the computer.

Even if you’ve never had vision problems, you can’t escape presbyopia. It’s caused by an age-related process: the gradual thickening and loss of flexibility of the natural lens inside your eye.

With less elasticity, the eye has a harder time focusing up close.   When people develop presbyopia, they often need to hold reading materials at arm’s length in order to focus properly. When they perform near work, such as handwriting or embroidery, they may develop headaches, eye strain or feel fatigued.

  It’s interesting to note that women often need correction for presbyopia earlier than men. It’s believed this is because women’s arms are usually shorter than men’s, so when it becomes difficult for them to read at arm’s length, women must turn to presbyopia correction sooner.

  Eyeglasses with bifocal or progressive addition lenses are the most common ways to correct presbyopia. Reading glasses are another choice.

Unlike bifocals and PALs, which most people wear all day, reading glasses typically are worn just during close work. If you wear contact lenses, your eye doctor can prescribe reading glasses that you wear while your contacts are in.

http://www.kyforward.com/our-health/2013/12/09/eye-health-books-blurry-trouble-threading-a-needle-happens-to-everyone-over-age-40/

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Geographical differences found in causes of blindness worldwide

Read this article we found:

A new study has revealed that the proportion of vision impairment and blindness worldwide that is caused by cataract and macular degeneration varies geographically. The findings are published in The Lancet Global Health.

The team of researchers, led by Rupert Bourne of the Vision and Eye Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin University, say their study is the largest ever analysis of worldwide vision impairment and blindness.

To reach their findings, they analyzed geographical trends of the disabling conditions between 1990 and 2010, alongside their main causes.

The investigators used published and unpublished data to reach their findings, and say they defined blindness as "visual acuity in the better eye less than 3/60" and moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI) as "visual acuity in the better eye less than 6/18 but at least 3/60."

The investigators looked specifically at cataract, glaucoma,macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, trachoma and uncorrected refractive error, and estimated how these conditions contributed to visual impairments in proportion to age, geographical region and year.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269260.php

Eye Color

Many people believe that eye color is determined by genetics. This is true, however there are other things that factor into the color of one's eyes. Your eye color is unique to you, just like your personality. Melanin pigment determines eye color just like your hair and your skin. Darker eye color has more melanin pigment than a lighter eye color. So, if you have blue eyes your eyes have less melanin pigment than someone with dark brown eyes.

For more information please visit this optometrist in Redondo Beach's blog.

http://advancedeyecarecenter.net/blog/industry-news/An_Optometris_in_Redondo%20Beach.php