What is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes damage to your optic nerve. It’s usually related to the build-up of intraocular pressure inside your eye. Most of the time, glaucoma can be inherited and you start to experience it later in life.

Our eyes produce a fluid called aqueous humor, and the constant production and drainage of this fluid help to maintain the pressure of this fluid.

Intraocular pressure happens when the eyes can no longer drain the aqueous fluid in the eye, and this affects your optic nerve. If the effect gets worse, it can lead to glaucoma, and glaucoma can lead to permanent blindness within some years.

Most people who experience glaucoma do not get any prior notice or symptoms, so you must visit your doctor for frequent checks and diagnoses for glaucoma. so that you don’t get caught unaware when it’s already too late. It takes only a miracle to bring back lost eyesight, so when you get the appropriate treatment, you will keep your vision.

Symptoms of Glaucoma

There are two types of glaucoma, open-angle, and angle-closure glaucoma. People with open-angle glaucoma do not experience any symptoms, and if they do, glaucoma must have already affected them. But the main symptom of a person with open-angle glaucoma is the loss of side or peripheral vision.

People with angle-closure glaucoma usually experience some symptoms before the disease fully strikes. So the moment you start to experience these symptoms, it’s best to seek medical attention as fast as possible.

• Seeing halos around lights
• Vision loss
• Redness in your eye
• The eye that looks hazy
• Upset stomach or vomiting
• Eye pain

Causes of glaucoma

There’s no specific cause for glaucoma, but it can be triggered by some health medical conditions. If a person suffers from primary glaucoma, there may be no cause for it, but if it’s secondary glaucoma, then there’s a cause, which could be diabetes, hyperthyroidism, tumor, or advanced cataract. Someone is most likely to have glaucoma if they relate to the following factors below:

• White people over 60 years old are likely to have glaucoma.
• Black and Hispanic people over 40 years old are likely to have glaucoma.
• A diabetic patient could suffer from glaucoma too.
• Glaucoma can be inherited from your parents or grandparents.
• Sustaining an injury to the eyes has an eye condition.
• If you’ve had eye surgery before,
• Severe myopia
• High blood pressure
• Genetic factors can also lead to glaucoma, especially in children.

Prevention of Glaucoma

1. Get eye examinations regularly: Visiting your doctor regularly, especially when you detect some symptoms of glaucoma, goes a long way in saving your eyes.                                                                                                                                                               
2. Ask questions about your family’s eye health history: Glaucoma can be inherited; if you know your family’s eye history, you can take appropriate steps to prevent it.                                                                                                                          
3. Engaging in regular exercise can help prevent glaucoma by maintaining eye pressure.                                                                                                                                                                                                             
4. Always wear eye protection to protect your eyes from injury.                                                       
5. Use prescribed eye drops every once in a while.