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Eye Health And Alcohol: How Drinking Affects Your Eye Health?

As part of routine eye care, it is important to lower your alcohol consumption. We shall discuss how uncontrolled alcohol consumption affects your eye health:

1. Distorted/double vision

Distorted and double vision are two of the most common manifestations of regular and heavy alcohol consumption. When you are under the influence of alcohol, the communication between your brain’s neurotransmitters are sedated. The delayed communication impairs eye muscle coordination leading to distorted and/or double vision.


Double vision is not something that you could ignore- and that is irrespective of your drinking habit. Treat it as a medical emergency. Consult an eye specialist immediately if you notice double vision. You could now directly consult with an eye doctor online.

2. Slower pupil reaction

Alcohol slows down the speed at which the iris constricts and dilates. This becomes an issue while performing activities that require constant focus. For example, drunk drivers may not be able to quickly adapt to flashing headlights.

3. Bloodshot eyes

Alcohol causes the blood vessels in the eyes to dilate which leads to eye redness.  Also, bloodshot eyes are characteristic to people who heavily or regularly consume alcohol.

4. Worsening of dry eyes

Heavy consumption of alcohol is linked to worsening of dry eyes. Dry eyes occur when the tear glands aren’t able to produce sufficient or quality tears for proper lubrication of the eyes. In rare cases, the eye complication occurs when the tears quickly evaporate.

5. Impaired peripheral vision

Regular consumption of alcohol has been linked with impairment in the peripheral vision, the part of the vision which occurs on the side gaze. As a result, you may risk having tunnel vision in the course of time.

6. Visual auras of migraines

A study found out that alcohol is commonly reported to be a migraine trigger. If you drink heavily, you put yourself at the risk of migraine. You may see visual auras such as graying of vision, patterns of lights, and/or blind spots before the onset of headaches. 

Tips to lower/quit alcohol 

Even if you are well aware of the fact that heavy alcohol consumption can be harmful for your eye health, quitting or even controlling your habit may come across as a tough challenge. Here are some of the ways you could control your alcohol consumption:

1) Avoid temptation

You might find it tempting to gulp a glassful on certain days in a week or in a specific time of the day. Fight the urge by keeping yourself occupied during those hours. Suppose you have a habit of drinking on weekends during the evenings, to break the habit – you could watch movies, spend time at the park or go to the gym.

2) You don’t have to quit it altogether

Gradually lowering your alcohol consumption is the key to letting go of the habit.

3) Reward your progress

Making changes to your lifestyle is one of the biggest challenges you may have to face. Rewarding yourself for even the little progress you make to quit the habit helps you stay motivated to reach your goal.

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Tips for Living With Glaucoma

 

Tips for Living With Glaucoma

Glaucoma is one of the most common eye diseases as it affects millions of people worldwide. The eye disease is common in older adults. It involves build-up of pressure in the eyes and impairment of vision.

Glaucoma can affect the quality of life as patients face discomfort and difficulty in doing regular activities with deteriorating vision.

Do you have Glaucoma? Here are the essential tips for living with the eye disease:

Coping with changing vision:-

As Glaucoma starts to worsen, it affects the vision. Low vision is one of the most common symptoms of the eye disease. Low vision can hamper the quality of life as it can cause difficulty in doing everyday work such as reading, working on a computer, driving, cooking, etc. In most cases, patients aren’t able to cope with low vision caused by Glaucoma even by wearing prescription glasses or contact lenses.

The best way to cope with low vision is to use visual aids or visit the best eye care hospitals in Kolkata for glaucoma treatment. There are a number of visual aids available including colours lenses, magnifiers, and computer text enlargers. Talk with your doctor to choose the visual aid that best suits you.

Getting organized:-

Getting organised is the key to dealing with vision changes caused by Glaucoma. It’s important to designate a specific place for every item. For instance, keep the keys, medicines, and your purse in a specific place where you have no difficulty reaching for them. It’s highly important that other members of the family respect and maintain the organisation system.

Marking and labeling items:-

Glaucoma patients with low vision face a great deal of difficulty working with specific items such as washing machine, microwave oven, etc. If you are on the same track, use a dimensional fabric paint to mark everyday items to feel the correct positions with your fingers.

Label your medicines with a highlighter to properly store them and have no difficulty finding them.

Improving lighting:-

One of the most important changes to make for dealing with low vision caused by glaucoma is to improve lighting in the home. Make sure that your home is properly illuminated. Use additional lights while working on a specific task. Also, improve lighting in rooms such as kitchen, hallway, and bathroom where there are risks hazards. When your home is properly illuminated, dealing with low vision becomes much easier.

Increasing contrast:-

Increasing contrast in every item helps you to better cope with low vision. For instance, use a white cup for your tea and coffee, use white chop boards for dark coloured vegetables. Increasing contrast is the key to effectively dealing with vision changes.

Listening to audiobooks:-

Googling all of your concerns can be a difficult task when you have low vision caused by glaucoma. This is where Audiobooks come as a great help as you don’t have to rely on your vision while taking in information.

Choose Glaucoma treatment in Kolkata at a reputed eye hospital:-

Do you or your loved ones suffer from Glaucoma? Opt for a professional treatment at Disha Eye Hospital as it is one of the best eye hospitals in India. The team of eye care experts provides meticulous care when it comes to addressing proper treatment not just for Glaucoma but for other major eye diseases as well.

Learn more about Disha Eye Hospital at http://www.dishaeye.org.