Category: Eye health

Here are five things we are never told about how pregnancy affects the mother’s eyes…

1. Your glasses didn’t change, your eyes did.

Pregnancy changes a lot of things: metabolism, appetite, and blood circulation. It can also change the thickness and curvature of your cornea (front of the eye), which can make your vision (temporarily) blurry. Even if you wear prescription glasses. Don’t worry, your eyesight will come back to where it was after the delivery.

2. You may cry more often, but your eyes are drier.

Pregnancy hormones can change the quality of your tears. If the delicate balance of oils and water in your tears is disrupted, your tears evaporate quicker on your eye, leaving them gritty and dry. Pregnancy dry eyes can continue for months after delivery. Luckily, there are a range of safe eye drops to treat the problem.

3. Your eyes can provide doctors important warning signs of serious conditions.

An increase of floaters or spots in your vision during pregnancy is very serious. It could be a symptom of Pre-eclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure). If you experience these vision problems, please contact your healthcare provider or a hospital immediately.

4. If you have glaucoma, it could get better.

When it comes to glaucoma and pregnancy, eye pressure tends to decrease, which alleviates intraocular pressure (IOP).  Unfortunately, it’s only temporary.

5. Most of the changes go away.

The majority of changes that occur in your eyes are temporary and can be handled by your Eyecare Plus optometrist or general practitioner.

Most of the unwanted symptoms of pregnancy, including in the eyes, will gradually disappear following delivery, allowing you to focus on your baby’s growth and development.

Every mum-to-be has a range of things they expect to experience while they carry their child: nausea, weird cravings, swollen ankles. But most are surprised to learn that, even though it is quite common, pregnancy often affects vision.

Luckily, most of the changes that affect your vision during pregnancy are only temporary. Once your baby is born, vision usually returns to normal without treatment. However, in some very rare cases, the changes are a sign of more serious problems.

Blurry eyes

The hormones released during pregnancy are essential for the development of your growing baby, but they are also responsible for water retention and swelling which can increase pressure on your eyeballs and make your vision blurry.

Approximately 15% of pregnant women experience blurry eyes, and report having trouble seeing things up close or when they are reading.

Often, in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, the shape of the cornea changes temporarily. When this happens, vision can be impaired or distorted. Suddenly, a pregnant woman finds that her prescription lenses or contacts aren’t as effective as they used to be – or don’t work at all.

This is a well-known temporary side effect of water retention; you can expect the blurry eyes symptoms to reverse themselves within a few months after your delivery.

Although blurry eyes during pregnancy is a nuisance, your local Eyecare Plus optometrist will usually advise against getting a new prescription for your glasses or contact lenses because any new prescription lenses that correct your ‘pregnancy vision,’ will be useless after your vision returns to normal.

Puffy Eyes

There is a 50% increase in blood volume and bodily fluids in the pregnant woman’s body. This increase causes changes throughout the body and often, there is a noticeable change in the area around the eyes. Pregnancy puffy eyes and eyelids are a common side-effect of fluid retention and although annoying, remember that it is temporary and nothing to worry about.

Dry Eyes

The cascade of hormones of pregnancy can also change the quality and amount of tear production in the eye, leading to another common problem: dry eye. Many expectant mothers complain of scratchy, gritty, and stinging feelings in their eyes.

Dry eyes during pregnancy means that pregnant contact lens wearers experience discomfort with their contacts. The best advice is to take a break from the contacts and opt for glasses for the duration of your pregnancy.

As with most other conditions caused by surging pregnancy hormones, you can expect the symptoms of dry eye will go away a few weeks after the baby is born. That doesn’t mean you need to suffer through it without relief. Your Eyecare Plus optometrist can prescribe a range of safe artificial tears or lubricating eye drops to help reduce discomfort.

Pre-eclampsia

Vision symptoms in pregnancy can also provide warning signs of pre-eclampsia, or dangerously high blood pressure. Pre-eclampsia is a serious condition of pregnancy. It’s especially dangerous because many of the pre-eclampsia symptoms seem like normal parts of pregnancy. Although it’s hard to feel your blood pressure rising, changes in vision—like spots or flashing lights—are conspicuously obvious.

All pregnant women are urged to contact their healthcare provider or go to the hospital immediately if they experience these pre-eclampsia symptoms.

Diabetes

Developing diabetes while pregnant (gestational diabetes) or having diabetes before becoming pregnant can increase your risk of diabetic retinopathy.

Although at first, diabetic retinopathy might cause no symptoms or only mild problems, it can lead to serious problems as the condition progresses.

If you were diagnosed with diabetes before getting pregnant, or have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, schedule a complete eye examination with your optometrist. They have the equipment to look for damage to the blood vessels in your eyes, monitor your condition and provide the healthcare professionals involved in your pregnancy with assistance.

Collaborate with your Optometrist

If you are pregnant and experiencing a change in your vision, no matter how small, let your optometrist know. Collaboration is the by-word of a healthy pregnancy and only an in-person, comprehensive eye exam can determine if the eye problems you are experiencing are harmless and temporary, or a sign of something more serious.

As you embark on your new adventure, you can count on Eyecare Plus to provide the level of eye health care that you, and your baby, expect and deserve.

Diabetes is the forgotten epidemic of the 21^st century and stands as one of the biggest ongoing challenges confronting Australia’s health system.

Diabetes remains the number one cause of blindness in Australian adults.

The disease causes a range of serious health problems in the body; some of the most serious problems are the ones that develop in the eyes, otherwise known as diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness. The worst thing about the condition is that there are often no symptoms of diabetic retinopathy during the early stages, so people don’t even know they have it.

If you have diabetes, the only way to know if you have diabetic retinopathy is to have a diabetes eye test done by your optometrist.

What is Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetes complications fall into two groups: ‘microvascular’ and ‘macrovascular.’

Macrovascular complications involve large blood vessels; microvascular complications involve small blood vessels.

When a person has diabetes, they have high levels of glucose, or blood sugar. High blood glucose levels over long periods of time damages blood vessels. Basically, the blood vessels lose elasticity and that causes them to narrow, which restricts blood flow.

Examples of macrovascular diabetic complications would be conditions such as heart disease, stroke, or the loss of feeling in the legs, hands, or feet.

Diabetic retinopathy is an example of damage to the small blood vessels in the retina, which is located at the back of your eyes. The retina is a thin tissue that contains millions of nerve cells, which are responsible for detecting light, shapes, and colours.

In the first stage of diabetic retinopathy, (called ‘non-proliferative’), the damaged blood vessels in the retina become weak and leak. In the second, more advanced stage of diabetic retinopathy (called ‘proliferative’), the damage to the retinal blood vessels is more widespread. That causes the growth of new, abnormal blood vessels. When that happens, there is severe loss of vision, increased eye pressure leading to glaucoma and the potential for total blindness.

Risk Factors of Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Anyone with diabetes can develop it, but the risk of vision loss can go up based on the following factors:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Smoking
• Long periods of elevated blood glucose levels
• The longer you have diabetes

People with diabetes are not powerless to stop the advance of diabetic retinopathy. It’s important to remember that regular eye exams and dedication to maintaining control of blood sugar and blood pressure are the best ways to prevent diabetes vision loss.

Vision Loss Prevention

Most vision loss from diabetic eye disease can be prevented if it is caught early enough.

If you or someone you care about has diabetes, don’t wait for visual diabetic retinopathy symptoms to develop to book an eye check. Often, by the time vision problems are experienced, the disease is in the advanced stages, and it will be more difficult to manage.

As a rule of thumb, people with diabetes should have their eyes checked after being diagnosed with the condition, and then at least once every two years. Often, some people will need to have eye checks more frequently. Speak with your local Eyecare Plus optometrist to determine the schedule that is right for you.

In July each year, Diabetes Australia focusses on raising public awareness about the seriousness of diabetes and to encourage all Australians to check their risk. The 2022 National Diabetes Week takes place from 10 to 16 July and focuses on the emotional health and well-being of the 1.8 million Australians living with the condition.

Too many Australians have already lost their sight as the result of diabetes. In recognition of National Diabetes Week 2022, let’s all commit to changing these statistics.

For more on diabetic retinopathy, go to the Eyecare Plus Eye Health and Conditions page on our website.

Blue light glasses are becoming more and more popular, but there are still ways to decrease eye strain and reduce blue light exposure. No matter how old you are, it is a good idea to protect your eyesight from prolonged exposure to blue light.

1. If you use a computer or look at screens for more than two hours a day, ask your Eyecare Plus optometrist about blue light filter glasses. The coating on these glasses is especially sensitive to glare and they help the eye by filtering out blue light and reducing eyestrain.
2. Limit your screen time. The most obvious thing that you can do to help give your eyes a break from blue light is to limit your screen time as much as possible.
3. Use a blue light filter, like the iPhone’s ‘Night Shift’ function which alters the colours of the phone’s display to the warmer end of the color spectrum, exposing the viewer to less blue light. (Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift).
4. Increase Text Size on computers and phones. Increasing the text size will help define screen content and to make reading more comfortable for your eyes.
5. Reduce glare. Adjust the brightness of your screen with your device’s control setting. If your computer wallpaper is bright white, consider changing it to a darker colour.
6. Dim surrounding lights in your house. Reduce the amount of light competing with your screen. Dim indoor lighting at your desk. If you’re using your computer or phone outside, avoid direct sunlight.
7. Use LED lights with warm white bulbs and less blue light. There are also reduced-blue LED bulbs for warmer lights in the bedroom.
8. Remember the 20-20-20 rule. When working on a screen, for every 20 minutes you spend in front of a screen, look at an object in the distance, 20 feet away (or 6 metres away) for at least 20 seconds.
9. Eat right. A diet rich in leafy green vegetables and colourful fruits contributes to our eyes’ natural defences against the effects of blue light. Look for foods like broccoli, peas, and carrots.

The light we can see is made up of red, orange yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet light. When these colours are combined, it becomes white light. Each of these colours vary in frequency and wavelength. The blue colours in the spectrum are known to have the highest frequency and energy.

Blue light is everywhere in nature, and we are exposed to it every day just by being outdoors.

The largest source of natural blue light is the sun. Artificial blue light is just about everywhere too: electronic devices, energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, TV and computer screens and LED lights.

Even though we understand that it is vital to protect our eyes from long-term exposure to the sun by wearing sunglasses, we are only now starting to consider the importance of protecting our eyes from artificial blue light.

Scientific research has shown that normal digital displays present minimal risks, but this only considers short-term exposure. Unfortunately, increased blue light exposure times are becoming the norm.

Even before the COVID lockdowns, Australians were averaging 5.5 hours of screen time a day— (approximately 33% of our waking hours).

In fact, a recent survey found that the average Aussie will spend a total of 145,800 hours—that’s 17 years – of their life looking at their phones, playing video games and consuming content from screens.

Over the past two years, the pandemic has only accelerated these trends.

Blue overload

We have all experienced an increase in screen-time, due to remote learning, video games, working from home, Zoom and Teams meetings, social connections and just hour-upon-hour recreational consumption of Netflix and YouTube videos.

A study has confirmed that screen-time behaviour among Australian families intensified during COVID lockdowns, with children spending almost 27 more hours each week on their screens. Parents, on average, put in an extra 14 and a half hours on their screens each week, compared to pre-COVID.

Basically, we are spending most of our days exposed to a near-constant beam of artificial blue light aimed directly at our eyes until we go to sleep.

The problem isn’t blue light – the problem is too much blue light.

While exposure to natural blue light from the sun helps to maintain our natural sleep/wake cycle, boost our mood and memory, prolonged exposure to artificial blue light from electronic devices may cause eye strain, headaches, physical and mental fatigue and potentially, damage to the retina.

Why do I need blue light glasses?

Our eyes don’t naturally provide protection against natural blue light rays, which is why we are encouraged to wear UV-blocking sunglasses when we are outside.

To guard against the prolonged effects of artificial exposure to blue light, lens technicians have developed a special coating for spectacle lenses. The ‘blue light filter coating’ is designed to reflect and diminish blue light penetration through the lenses.

Because the blue light is reduced, screen brightness is decreased, and contrast is improved. Which means that, in addition to blocking blue light, the lenses ensure that there is less eye strain and fatigue.

What are the benefits?

Proponents of blue light blocking glasses say they increase screen contrast, make it easier to focus and reduce eye strain. At the end of the day, they report fewer headaches, and their eyes are more rested, have reduced dry eye symptoms and they look and feel less tired.

Blue light glasses are designed to provide relief from the increasing hours we spend staring at screens. While they are scientifically proven to block blue light, their effectiveness at relieving headaches, eye fatigue and dry eye often varies from person to person.

To find out if blue light filter glasses are the best option for you, speak with your Eyecare Plus optometrist.

The extreme flooding events in regional Australia have raised alarm among eye care professionals.

Increased floods mean increased contact with polluted flood and storm water. Doctors are now concerned that; and could potentially increase the amount of eye infections caused by the water-borne parasite acanthamoeba.

Although the microbe rarely targets humans, when it does, the infection is painful, debilitating and difficult to treat. Contact lens wearers are most at risk, and the potential rise of eye infections has motivated eye doctors to stress again the importance of contact lens hygiene.

Acanthamoeba keratitis (eh-can-tha-mee-bah kehr ah tie-tus) is a very rare, very serious, infection of the eye that can lead to visual impairment or blindness if not treated.

Sufferers experience severe pain in their eye, seemingly out of nowhere. Typically, the person with the infected eye complains of redness, inability to see and sensitivity to light. The pain can be so excruciating that those infected are often forced to spend weeks in darkened rooms. In the worst cases, the infection causes permanent damage to the cornea and eye tissues, leaving sufferers blind in one or both eyes.

What is an acanthamoeba?

‘Acanthamoeba’ is the name biologists have given to a particular type of microscopic parasite. It is a single-cell organism found almost everywhere in nature: in dust, soil, seawater, swimming pools and spas, freshwater, tap water, bottled water, and sewage.

What is keratitis?

‘Keratitis’ is the medical term for inflammation of the cornea — the outer layer of the eye. It can be as mild as a general irritation, redness, and light sensitivity, or as serious as developing a corneal ulcer leading to blindness.

Acanthamoeba keratitis is serious

Acanthamoeba keratitis is a painful inflammation of the cornea caused by a parasite infection. It is very serious and fortunately very rare.

Acanthamoeba keratitis occurs most among contact lens wearers who do not practice proper contact lens hygiene. The contact lens infection is a consequence of not properly washing your hands when handling your lenses, using tap water to clean your lenses or case, or wearing your contact lenses while swimming or showering.

If the acanthamoeba organism contacts the eye from a contaminated contact lens or from water, it attaches to the cells on the surface of your cornea, and slowly destroys the layers of the cornea. The infection can affect both eyes, but it usually affects one.

It is important to point out: contact lenses are extremely safe.

Acanthamoeba keratitis is very rare. It is estimated that the incidence of the acanthamoeba infection in developed countries is about one to 33 cases per million contact lens wearers.

Acanthamoeba Keratitis Symptoms

It can take several days to several weeks for symptoms to show up after the acanthamoeba enters your eye. Most commonly, it affects only one eye.

You should see your Eyecare Plus optometrist or your general practitioner immediately if you or your child experience any of these symptoms…

• Blurred vision or vision loss
• Cloudy or dirty-looking cornea
• Excruciation eye pain
• Eye redness
• Sensation of something in the eye
• Sensitivity to light
• Watery eyes
• Whitish rings on the surface of the eye

If you are a contact-lens wearer and you experience these symptoms, stop wearing your contact lenses and switch to glasses. Also be sure to tell your eye doctor or GP that you wear contact lenses, it could be the essential clue they need to make the diagnosis of acanthamoeba keratitis.

Treatment

Eye care professionals and doctors admit that acanthamoeba keratitis is difficult to treat.

It is vital to have an acanthamoeba infestation diagnosed in the early stages. It can be a race against time before the acanthamoeba invades more deeply into the cornea and causes permanent tissue damage.

Antiseptic drops may be used in the early stages of infection. The antiseptic drops fight microorganisms, but there are no specific ‘anti-acanthamoeba’ drops available. The drops are applied to the surface of the eye, an acanthamoeba keratitis treatment that can last over six months. If the infection doesn’t improve with the eye drops, surgery may be required.

If you have any questions about eye diseases such as Acanthamoeba Keratitis, contact your local Eyecare Plus optometrist as they are the best and most informed to assist you.