6 lifestyle changes to help prevent glaucoma

Glaucoma refers to a group of eye diseases which can cause vision loss and sadly impacts millions of people worldwide. While there are many types of glaucoma, all of them place your vision at risk. This is scary, because without having the confidence of good eyesight, your quality of life can be profoundly compromised. Thankfully there are some lifestyle changes to help prevent glaucoma.

But first, what causes this illness? Glaucoma occurs when the optic nerve becomes damaged. This nerve is responsible for sending visual information from your eye to your brain, so it plays a crucial role in having good vision. Once detected, glaucoma can be treated to prevent or delay further vision damage but when left untreated, it can unfortunately lead to blindness.

TYPES AND SYMPTOMS OF GLAUCOMA 

Before we dive in, it’s important to understand the different types of glaucoma and their symptoms. There are many types of glaucoma, but the two main types are open-angle and closed-angle.

Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type accounting for 90% of glaucoma cases in Australia. This type of glaucoma is nicknamed the ‘sneaky thief of sight’ as there are often no obvious symptoms in the early stages. At first you may lose peripheral vision, but you might not notice this until there is significant damage to the optic nerve.

Acute Angle-Closure Glaucoma can cause many symptoms including severe eye pain associated with nausea and vomiting, headache, watery eyes, sudden onset of blurred vision or seeing halos around light. This is a medical emergency and immediate treatment is required. Glaucoma can be very serious and while vision loss can’t be restored, there are ways to prevent serious vision loss and blindness from glaucoma. Here are our 6 lifestyle changes to help prevent glaucoma:

1. ATTEND REGULAR EYE EXAMINATIONS

We recommend seeing your optometrist regularly for eye exams, especially if you are at risk of glaucoma. Having regular eye tests can ensure early detection and treatment of glaucoma and reduce the chance of long-term damage to your vision. Clinically, if we can pick it up early enough, 95% of the time we can prevent further deterioration. In a small number of cases surgery may be required but you don’t want to wait until it’s too late. 

Remember there are very few noticeable signs so the best thing to do is come in for a regular eye examination at least every two years. For people who have a family history of glaucoma, or are over the age of 50, or you have high intraocular eye pressure, you may need to attend regular eye exams every 12 months or on a more regular basis set by your optometrist for closer monitoring. 

Early detection is key!

2. EAT A HEALTHY DIET AND STAY HYDRATED

Maybe carrots do help us see in the dark! According to Glaucoma Australia, eating a healthy diet rich in antioxidants and nitrates found in fruits and vegetables may reduce glaucoma risk. They recommend loading up on foods high in Vitamin A and C, carotenes (found in carrots) and nitrates as well as green leafy vegetables, cruciate vegetables, berries, citrus fruits and peaches. Eating Omega-3 fatty acids found in chia seeds and oily fish such as salmon have also been shown to lower rates of glaucoma.

Drinking filtered water and staying hydrated is also important, however, drinking too much water within a short time frame may increase eye pressure so it’s best to drink smaller volumes of water spread over a greater time.

 3. EXERCISE AND WEIGHT MANAGEMENT 

Obesity is linked with rising eye pressure so maintaining a healthy weight is beneficial in preventing glaucoma, as well as many other diseases. A recent study showed that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity slowed visual field loss in glaucoma patients by 10%.

Regular moderate to vigorous exercise such as brisk walking, swimming, biking or using stationary machines increases blood flow to the eyes and brain and helps to lower intraocular pressure which is beneficial for people with glaucoma.

However, we recommend speaking to your Optometrist before commencing an exercise program as some people with less common eye conditions such as pigmentary glaucoma (PG) are at risk of raised intraocular pressure. Regular low impact exercise is beneficial for your overall eye health and is a relatively easy lifestyle change to help prevent glaucoma.

 4. REDUCE AND MANAGE YOUR STRESS

Stress causes many negative impacts on our health, including our eye health but a recent study has shown that stress reduction is an important lifestyle change to help reduce and manage glaucoma.

In one of the types of glaucoma (primary open-angle glaucoma), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was shown to reduce intraocular pressure, normalise the stress biomarkers, modulate gene expression, and also improve the quality of life in glaucoma patients. We recommend practising restorative yoga (excluding inversions), meditation, breathwork and getting out into nature to release the stressors of everyday life and to promote optimal eye care.

5. QUIT SMOKING FOR BETTER EYE HEALTH

While we know smoking is not beneficial for our overall health, especially our heart and lungs, many people don’t know that smoking can lead to vision loss. Smoking is a major risk factor for developing glaucoma. There is a strong link between smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes – all of which are risk factors for glaucoma. Smoking is also a risk factor for many other eye diseases including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataract and dry eye syndrome.

Quitting smoking is a crucial lifestyle change to help prevent glaucoma. There are many resources available to help you on the path to quit smoking so you can prevent eye diseases including glaucoma.

6. PROTECT YOUR EYES FROM THE SUN 

In Australia, our conditions expose us to extreme ultraviolet (UV) and visible sunlight. Excessive light can cause blurred vision and glare sensitivity for patients with glaucoma and the treatment medications used to treat glaucoma can make the problem more noticeable. 

Optometrists recommend wearing UV sunglasses that block out UV rays to protect your eyes but there are other ways to protect your eyes too. 

Wearing a broad brimmed hat that shades your eyes is also a great help in protecting them from harsh light. Avoid sun exposure during high UV times, typically between 11:00am and 3:00pm and seek shade where possible. We have a range of fashion forward sunglasses to protect your eyes.

LIFESTYLE CHANGES TO HELP PREVENT GLAUCOMA – A FINAL WORD FROM DR NICK

There you have our 6 lifestyle changes to help prevent glaucoma. We recommend visiting your optometrist regularly to have your eyes examined including OCT scanning and intraocular pressure measurement. If you have any further concerns about glaucoma, book an appointment today with myself or one of the team.