Month: June 2016

From newborn babies to senior citizens and every age group in between, glaucoma is a risk for everyone. According to Glucoma.org over 3 million Americans are diagnosed with glaucoma, but only half of those are aware they have it. Glaucoma has many types, but the two most common types are open-angel and angel-closure. Open-Angel Glaucoma is caused by clogging of the drainage canals with results in increased eye pressure. The slowly developed condition can have symptoms that can go unnoticed. Angel- Closure Glaucoma on the other hand develops quickly with symptoms that are very noticeable and caused by blocked drainage canals that cause increased fluid pressure inside the eye. A relatable comparison would be a bicycle tire. The correct amount of pressure is required to ensure performance, but when the pressure is too high, risks for developing the disease are greater.
Glaucoma is not curable, but there are ways it can be controlled. From foods to incorporate in your diet, to medicine that comes in eyedrops or pill form. It can be detected from various eye exams from your eye doctor. Early detection is very important to decrease the chance of the eyes worsening. Below are some questions to ask your doctor, symptoms and some food you should incorporate to your diet.

Symptoms

• Severe pain in the forehead or eyes
• Eye Redness
• Decreased and blurred vision;
• Vision halos
• Headaches
• Nausea and Vomiting

Add the following to your diet

• Spinach
• Salmon
• Beets
• Argula
• Celery
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Fruits (peaches and apricots)
• Milk
• Liver
• Cheese
• Butter
• Green tea
• Dark chocolate
• Black tea
• Black coffee

Questions to ask your doctor

1.what are the common signs of glaucoma?

2. Which tests are performed to confirm I have glaucoma?

3. What is the long-term effect to the diagnoses?

4. Are there any activity restrictions?

5. How often do I need to have follow- up appointments?

6. How are my other health conditions affected with glaucoma?

In conclusion, one should avoid foods with high sodium and high-calorie fat foods and highly caffeinated beverages if diagnosed with glaucoma. Consuming a moderate amount of red wine, foods with omega-3 (fish and nuts) and eating lots of colorful fruit and vegetables will help reduce the risk.

This infographic explains the three different types of pink eye to look out for and can take anywhere from 7 to 10 days to combat.

MILAN — Applying a compounded testosterone cream on the eyelids offers patients long-lasting relief from dry eye symptoms, according to one speaker.
At the OSN Italy meeting, Brian S. Boxer Wachler, MD, encouraged his colleagues to “keep an open mind” and try this simple solution for the benefit of their patients.

Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is the most common cause of dry eye, present in about one-third of adults over 40 years of age. Correlation with testosterone deficiency was proved 17 years ago by David Sullivan, PhD, who published 24 papers on this topic, Boxer Wachler said.

“Once the diagnosis of MGD is confirmed, which can be done by simply pressing on the eyelids to squeeze out gland secretions, I treat my patients in two steps,” he said. “First, I clean out the meibomian glands with LipiFlow (TearScience). It is a 12-minute procedure, extremely safe and effective. Then, I prescribe a 10% testosterone cream from the pharmacy to apply on the eyelids every night at bedtime or twice a day for advanced cases.”

This treatment may require about a month to show improvements, but it is effective, according to Boxer Wachler.

“I have used it for over 11 years, and I have seen it work in 95% of my patients, getting relief after 5, 10, even 20 years of suffering,” he said.

He dispelled concerns about side effects, such as hirsutism in women, which occurs in five out of 1,000 cases and is reversible by lowering the dose. Only prostate cancer is a contraindication, he said. – by Michela Cimberle

Santa Monica was a sleepy town when I grew up there. That was a very good thing. My parents were hair stylists (yes, my dad, age 84, still cuts my hair…and straight too!). They owned a small hair salon. While I didn’t grow up with a lot of material things, it was all around me. Somehow I developed an immunity to it. For example to this day, I still wear some clothes over 10 years old. I have 19 year old comfy sweatpants from my grandpa. When it gets cold (by L.A. standards), I pull out a 30 year old thick, cozy sweater that I bought when I worked at Nordstrom department store in college. My philosophy is, “If it works and still looks good, then…..” (Don’t worry – my wife Selina has been sure to keep me presentable in public). I drove my ancient Saab until someone rear-ended me. My wraparound style sunglasses are 17 years old. The challenge is: how to instill solid values in our girls while raising them in Los Angeles – the hub of excess and materialism? A friend of mine in Malibu told me that when her son turned 16 years old he and insisted on getting a new Porsche as his first car. I said, “What did you do?” She sympathetically said, “So many other kids at Malibu High School have new fancy cars, so we got it for him.” I thought to myself, “ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME????!!!!” When kids get what they want, how can they learn to be motivated as teens and adults to work for ANYTHING? They can’t. These kids feel entitled. It’s a massive problem with a lot of kids in the entire U.S., not just L.A. And it’s NOT getting any better.

As a parent, you need to have a strong will, strong enough to ignore peer-pressure. In high school, peer pressure was to smoke pot, get drunk, and perhaps run naked across the football field during the Homecoming game (actually that last one was for the class clown). As a parent, peer-pressure now is 1) to over-schedule your kids depriving them of “free time”, 2) honor many of their desires for ‘stuff’, 3) spoil them in affluence, and 4) allow them hours of “electronics time” each day. What is often sadly missing is denying them certain things that they have not earned. Let’s face it: when kids grow up, life can be tough and cruel. Certainly no one is just going to hand your children the “keys to the kingdom” even if they grew up in so-and-so neighborhood and went to Posh School. While our daughters are in private school, it takes a lot of CONSCIOUS EFFORT to keep them grounded with solid values – that’s really my #1 job, not being an eye surgeon. Absent that effort, it would be a disservice to them. “Prepare the child for the path. DO NOT prepare the path for the child” as an educator at our school says.

I leave you with two parenting nuggets: Natural Consequences. My parents raised me and my two younger brothers with this philosophy. You need to allow the consequences of your child’s action or inaction to play out (as long as it’s not life-threatening). That is how she/he learns. Example: let’s say your child refuses to come to the dinner table when you call him. You first give a warning, “It’s time for dinner. This is the one and only warning. If you don’t come now then, you are showing you are not capable of eating dinner tonight and it might be over when you come here.” Then you eat dinner and finish and clean up. Your child then arrives ready to eat and says, “Where’s dinner?” You calmly reply, “Oh, dinner’s over. You’ll have another chance tomorrow.” Expect a lot of fussing, perhaps even an Oscar-worthy saliva-spewing-screaming-like-fingernails-getting-removed-on-the-floor-tantrum. You MUST remain calm, keep cleaning up then walk away. No audience, no tantrum (FYI – no healthy child ever died of missing one dinner, so don’t feel guilty). The classic parenting book that I follow is Children: The Challenge by Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs which my parents followed, too. It and its revisions have stood the test of time.

The second nugget is: Love is spelled T-I-M-E. “Quality time” is as real as unicorns. What matters is being ACTIVELY present during the time with your children (not checking texts on your smartphone). The more time you spend WITH THEM, the better FOR THEM. Otherwise your kids won’t be there for you when you are old. Google search the lyrics of Cat Stevens’ song “Cat’s in the Cradle”. It’s incredibly insightful and timeless. (The above tips from Zig Ziglar). I take Monday afternoons off from the office to pick up my daughters from school. I coach their basketball team on the weekends. I also love snuggling with them at night before they fall asleep and read to them. They come to the office on weekends to help. They are growing up fast and my window of influence seems to grow smaller each year, so I know that I need to make the most of it. You too can keep your children grounded in the midst of ‘excess’. It will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Keeping your children grounded is an investment in their future and yours too.

It is no surprise that smoking is responsible for a numerous amount of diseases and over 480,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. Age –related macular degeneration, cataracts, optic nerve damage and often blindness are just some of the effects smoking can cause. With 4,000 different toxic chemicals a single cigarette contains, the average smoker dies 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. If that does not convince you to put the cigarette down, maybe the facts below will.

• Female Smokers over 80 years old are 5.5 times more likely to develop AMD that non-smokers the same age
• Children exposed to tobacco smoke have a 20% greater chance of developing allergic conjunctivitis
• Smokers are four times more likely to go blind in old age
• Studies suggest people who live with a smoker double their risk of developing AMD
• Cataracts is the leading cause of vision loss
• People who smoke double their risk of developing cataracts
• Everyday more than 3,200 people 18 or younger smoke their first cigarette
• Women who smoke while they are pregnant have higher risks of giving premature birth, and risk of the baby developing crossed eyed.
• Smokers are 2.2 times more likely than non-smokers to develop Uveitis ( inflammation of the eye’s middle layer)
• Smoking harms eye tissue and has been associated with 25% of age-related macular degeneration
• The more you smoke the higher risk of severe vision loss and possible blindness

If these facts aren’t enough to convince you to put the cigarette down, perhaps the following disease caused by tobacco abuse will.

Dry Eye: Tobacco is known to worsen and cause dry eye syndrome. Second-hand smoke also may affect people, but smokers are twice as likely to suffer from dry eyes.

Uveitis: This eye disease is inflammation of the eye’s middle layer which harms the eyes structure including the iris and retina. Smokers are 2.2 times more likely to develop Uveitis.

Diabetic Retinopathy:Can cause loss of vision and damaged blood vessels.Smokers double their risks of diabetes.

Smoking and Infant Eye Disease: Smoking while pregnant can cause many complications during child birth, from strabismus or crossed eyes, to premature birth.Strabismus leads to a blinding disease.

Mascara, a common makeup must-have is used by millions of women around the world every day. But the question is, do you really know what’s going into your mascara? Most women don’t. Commercialized mascara you see on the shelves are packed with harmful chemicals that can lead to deterioration of ones vision if you are not hygienic about it. The harmful chemicals are known to have synthetic dye and other toxic minerals. The dangers these chemicals cause when seeped into the tiny pores around the eye is irritation, allergic reaction and possible eye infection. A healthy alternative is to use a natural mascara whose ingredients are a host of natural antioxidants. The ingredients come from fruit and vegetable pigments that promote the luscious lashes commercial mascara uses without the hazardous toxins. The lash stimulating oils help relieve eyelash shedding and are also pleasantly scented. Some popular natural mascaras are called “100% Pure” and “Pure Anada”. Both mascaras are available online; the only difference is the pricing. For contact lens wearers “Lavera Long Lash Mascara” is recommended. Ingredients that contain organic oils, flower extracts and waxes enhance natural beauty without the harmful chemicals. Organic mascara recommended is “Physicians Formula” and “ZuZu Luxe”. Zuzu Luxe is a vegan based with organic formula proven to thicken eyelashes. Both of these mascaras can be found on Amazon. The importance of being hygienic when applying eye makeup is crucial during your beauty transformation. Not sharing eye makeup with anyone can save you from developing an eye stye and conjunctivitis also known as pink eye. The result of the infection in the eye’s lining, is itchy watery eyes that are highly contagious. Sleeping with eye makeup can also lead to irritation of the eye, allergic reaction and possible eye infection. Safely removing your makeup every night can insure healthy eye which leads to healthy vision. Below is a list of recommended organic mascara.

• LUSH’s Eye Right
• Lavera’s Double Black
• Mineral Fusion’s Lengthening
• Jane Iredale’s Pure lash
• Josie Maran’s Instant Natural Volume Argan Mascara/Eyeliner
• Pure Anada
• 100% Pure
• ZuZu Luxe
• Physician’s Formula
• Benecos Maximum Volume Natural Mascara
• Couleur Caramel Long Eyelashes Natural Mascara
• Organic Glam Natural Mascara
• Zuii Organic Eyeliner
• Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques
• Inika

Over 86 million people in the U.S are affected by a chronic, inflammatory disease in the eyelid, caused by an abundance of bacteria in the base of the eyelashes and along the inner eyelids. Blepharitis is responsible for the common symptoms that dry eye patients suffer from- crusting of the eye, itching, red inflammation, and foreign body sensations. BlephEx’s main goal is to elongate the time between the Lipiflow treatments. This 2 minute per eye procedure, is the third and final component of the dry eye treatment. The painless procedure is done by a technician here at our office. The technician focuses on thoroughly eliminating eye debris by walking you through the step by step process. Numbing drops are applied to the patient’s eye as the technician holds the eyelid open, and begins the scrubbing. Much like a dentist appointment, this procedure should be done post Lipiflow as a “checkup” every 6 months to ensure proper eye maintenance. Check  out our BlephEx video down below for a more visual representation of the procedure.