CHEERS to your ocular health!

Did you know that nutrition plays a vital role in your ocular health?

Cardiologists stress lean meats, red wine, and exercise for your heart health. But what about your eyes? Well, studies show there are distinct food groups that show extreme benefit to the well being of your vision.

Macular Degeneration is a condition of the retina in the back of the eye that causes symptoms of loosing the fine detail vision we have been used to, replacing it with a central scotomas or blind spots. Your central vision gets destroyed by this disease. Macular Degeneration is an inherited disease, as well as some cataract formations, so check your family history to see if you are at greater risk. Lutein, found in green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, and broccoli create an added insulation in your retina against macular degeneration. Yellow vegetables and fruit (squash, yellow watermelon) and Omega III supplements (fish oil or flax seed oil) also help...

What’s up with people wearing those big sunglasses after cataract surgery?

The main reason is for protection - physical protection to assure nothing hits the eye immediately after surgery, and protection from sunlight and other bright lights.

We want to protect the eye from getting hit physically because there is a small incision in the eyeball through which we have both removed the cataract and inserted a new clear lens. In most modern cataract surgeries that incision is very small - about one-tenth of an inch in most cases. The vast majority of surgeons do not stitch the incision closed at the end of surgery. The incision is made with a bevel or flap so that the internal eye pressure pushes the incision closed.

The incision does have some risk of opening, especially if you were to provide direct pressure on the eyeball. Therefore, immediately after surgery we want you to be careful and make sure that you or any outside force doesn’t put direct pressure on the eye. The...