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Monthly Archive for: ‘June, 2013’

Blue Eyed Men Prefer Blue Eyes
Natural selection gave blue eyed men a preference for blue eyed women.
Blue eyed partners will almost always have blue eyed children – the gene for blue eyes is recessive to brown, which means that is a blue eyed man and a blue eyed woman have a brown eyed child, there has probably been some infidelity, and the child is likely not his.
Eighty-eight male and female students were asked to rate facial attractiveness of models on a computer. The pictures were close-ups of young adult faces, unfamiliar to the participants. The eye color of each model was manipulated, so that for each model’s face two versions were shown, one with the natural eye color (blue/brown) and another with the other color (brown/blue). The participants’ own eye color was noted.
Both blue-eyed and brown-eyed women showed no difference in their preferences for male models of either eye color. Similarly, brown-eyed men showed no preference for either blue-eyed or brown-eyed female models. However, blue-eyed men rated blue-eyed female models as more attractive than brown-eyed models.
That may mean there is a place or set of places in the genome where genetic variations give some of us our pronounced preference for blue eyes.
In a second study, a group of 443 young adults of both sexes and different eye colors were asked to report the eye color of their romantic partners. Blue-eyed men were the group with the largest proportion of partners of the same eye color.
According to Bruno Laeng and colleagues, “It is remarkable that blue-eyed men showed such a clear preference for women with the same eye color, given that the present experiment did not request participants to choose prospective sexual mates, but only to provide their aesthetic or attractiveness responses…based on face close-up photographs.”
“Blue-eyed men may have unconsciously learned to value a physical trait that can facilitate recognition of own kin.”
So there you go!

Microbial Keratitis – Again
There is a Facebook page called DangerInContactLenses, highlighting, obviously the danger in contact lenses. The lady who set up the page had a very unfortunate experience with soft contact lenses, which caused her to be in hospital for many weeks, and eventually, after 22 operations she had to have one of her eyes removed.
An outcome like this is the worst case scenario possible, but it is up to each individual contact lens wearer to minimise their risk.
Always wash and thoroughly dry your hands before applying and removing contact lenses, and whenever possible before touching them at any other time.
Use the solutions recommended by your eye care practitioner, and use them properly. Do not reuse contact lens solutions- the case must be emptied each and every morning and allowed to air dry. Even if the solution you use says that it is a “No Rub” formula, rub them!!! A ten second rub and rinse will reduce the contamination on the lens one hundred thousand fold, meaning that the solution has less microbes to deal with overnight.
Never use tap water with contact lenses, it is not clean enough. For the same reason, swimming, hot tubs, baths and showers should be done without contact lenses.
There have been studies investigating the efficacy of contact lens solutions against various types of microbes, and some do perform better than others- that is why we would always recommend Alcon solutions, as there has never been any question marks hanging over this brand.
It is as well to point out that own brand solutions, be they from the supermarket or elsewhere, will advise that they were manufactured by, or for the chain. But who actually manufactures the solution??
Contact Lenses are safe, but care is required.
Floater Videos
Here are a couple of videos of floaters inside the eye, they can be really annoying, but are usually nothing to worry about. New floaters should always be checked out to ensure the are not a problem, but ones that have been there for a long time are innocuous. Still annoying though.

Approval for Medical Cards
We lost a customer today- a lady came in for an eye test, expecting to use her Medical Card, but the authorisation form had not been received by her from the HSE in Navan. She asked if she could pay privately and then be refunded when the Medical Card came to her- she had been told by one of the HSE staff that it was “on the way”.
Unfortunately we are not allowed to see medical card patients prior to authorisation- this seems like a silly rule in a situation such as this, but unfortunately it is a rule that the HSE strictly enforces, and is completely beyond our control. The fact that there is an approximate 8 week waiting list to have an application approved is also unfair- the HSE states that this should normally be authorised and returned within 28 days.
This situation is frustrating to the client, and also to us- she booked an appointment that she then did not attend, which leaves me time to write this when I should be working, and she then informed us that because of our refusal to break the rules she would go elsewhere. If there is someone in the area who does not follow the HSE rules, that is even more frustrating.
Coincidentally, we received another letter from the HSE this morning, once again stating that we are not allowed to test HSE clients before authorisation- a copy will be uploaded when I can get it scanned.
The original letter can be viewed here. The Memo received yesterday can be viewed here.
We have replied to the most recent letter to enquire why we cannot charge and refund at a later date- we will update if we receive a reply.

Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Glaucoma
A recent study by Sophia Wang, PhD, from the Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine has shown an increase in the incidence of Glaucoma in people who are taking Calcium supplements, and also those who take Iron supplements. The study also found that people who take both supplements are at the highest risk. The study also reported that there seemed to be a protective mechanism by adding a Magnesium supplement.
Further investigations into the mechanism of action of these supplements will be required, to fully understand why they have the effects they do.
Like the post on Glucosamine, you should be aware that taking these supplements may increase the risk of glaucoma, so regular eye examinations are important.
A report on the article is available here, you may need to login or register to read it (registration is free)