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Monthly Archive for: ‘October, 2012’
Kingscourt Holiday
Due to a lack of cover and the need to have a break, our Kingscourt practice will be closed for the week of the Bank Holiday.
We will be closed from Saturday 27th October, reopening on Monday 5th November. If you have any problems or require any running repairs on your specs, our practice in Bailieborough will be open as normal.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Chrome Daltonize!
We seem to have a lot of hits resulting from searches for pages which simulate colour vision deficits.
There is an interesting plugin for the Google Chrome browser which attempts to simulate colour vision deficits, and also attempts to recolourise a webpage so that a colour deficient person might see it more like a normal would. Its purpose is more to attempt to aid a person who might have issues with certain colours on certain sites, rather than an attempt to give them a taste of what normals see.
Because the algorithm cannot adjust for each and every individual’s deficiency, it is at best a simulation, but if you are interested it can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store. It doesn’t seem to work with every site, but it might be worth a look.
Our simulation pages used a similar concept to produce them and are available here. (Just realised that the new masthead I added does not adjust properly, will need to correct that in the coming days!)
Statin Therapy reduces Glaucoma Risk
There is a new study, published in this month’s American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Journal “Ophthalmology” which has shown that treatment of high cholesterol (hyperlipidaemia) using the class of drug called Statins significantly reduces the risk of developing Open Angle Glaucoma. It is thought that the reduction in risk may be approximately 9 or 10% after 2 years of therapy.
The study investigated the previously noted fact that people with raised cholesterol levels were less likely to develop Open Angle Glaucoma than normals, but their hypothesis was that it was the Statin treatment, and not the raised cholesterol was the protective factor. By comparing people who were treated with Statins, other non statin cholesterol lowering drugs, and those on no treatment at all, the study concluded that the Statins were the protective factor.
People on treatment with Statins have a 4% reduction in risk after 1 year of treatment, and this rises to a 9 to 10% reduction after 2 years of treatment.
The authors caution that at the moment, Statin class medicines should not be considered primarily as a treatment for Open Angle Glaucoma, but they suggest that further investigation should be undertaken to investigate this possibility- many people who have Glaucoma are elderly and find insertion of drops into their eyes to be particularly difficult.
Halloween and illegal Contact Lenses
Halloween is coming, if you have a fancy dress party coming up, you might consider some cosmetic contact lenses to finish off your costume. Many fancy dress sales and hire shops sell cosmetic contact lenses, without requiring a prescription. Many attempt to justify their supply by stating that because they are not correcting a defect of sight (they are plano, unpowered lenses), and contact lenses are lenses placed on the eye to correct a defect of sight, the lenses they supply cannot be contact lenses. They consider them cosmetic eye enhancements.
This loophole was closed some years ago in the UK, and a few years later in Ireland.
Every contact lens is legally classed as a medical device, and must be fitted and prescribed by a qualified legally competent person- a doctor or an optician. In Ireland, it is illegal for any one to sell contact lenses unless they are supplied to a valid contact lens prescription- if the costume shop is selling contact lenses, they are probably breaking the law.
If you purchase contact lenses from one of these establishments, it is important that you follow all of the rules that contact lens wearers should follow- if you don’t know what those rules are, how to care for the lenses (admittedly not difficult as all solutions do come with instructions, assuming you bought any) and most importantly how to get them in and out, then you should not wear them.
As I would say to everyone who is booked for a contact lens teach “You can’t damage your eyes by not getting contact lenses in, but you must be able to get them out”. Remember that if you are a non contact lens wearer, it may be rather difficult to remove those lenses after a few or more drinks at a party!
