Optometry

Diabetes has been diagnosed in 23.7 million Americans, and 57 million more have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. This disease costs our health care system more than $218 billion per year. New cases of diabetes are more prevalent in the age group 40 to 59 years — an increasing trend. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death and the leading cause of blindness in adults ages 20 to 74 years. Diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year. Overall, the ris...

The Ocular Nutrition Society held its Spring 2012 educational symposium in conjunction with the University of Missouri, St. Louis School of Optometry’s fifth annual Nutrition and Eye Symposium in St. Louis on April 14 and 15. This was the first time the ONS teamed up with UMSL. A top-notch agenda headlined the meeting of more than 150 attendees. First up was keynote speaker John Morley, MD, who spoke on “What is successful aging?”, “The heart and aging,” “The ...

The body requires consumption of the essential oils for lubrication of the joints and the eyes, as well as for restoration of normal lubrication to the body. The important fats, especially the omega-3 oils, are polyunsaturated and are found in cold-water fish, flaxseeds and walnuts. There has been a large amount of debate on the nutritional aspects of treating dry eye, but we now know that the fish oils and omega-6 essential fatty acids, in the right combination, can effectively treat this condition.

Optometrists have a long history of balancing their professional services and dispensing products. Since our very beginnings, we have offered the patient eyeglasses and then contact lenses to facilitate their transition from faulty to excellent vision.

Seventy-eight percent of baby boomers rank vision as the most important of the five senses according to Eye on the Boomer, a new survey released by the Ocular Nutrition Society. What’s more, many (55%) baby boomers surveyed worry about vision loss – almost as much as they worry about heart disease (60%) and cancer (65%). Despite this worry, almost half of respondents said they don’t typically have an eye exam at least annually, and even fewer are aware of important nutrients that play a key role in eye health.

Should sugar be regulated like alcohol? That's the premise of a new position paper published last week in the journal Nature by three leading obesity researchers from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Building your diet around low glycemic index (GI) plant foods such as whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds gives you all the nutrients you need for long-term health and well-being along with plenty of protective antioxidants and phytochemicals. Not only that, there’s a wealth of evidence to support the fact that eating a vegetarian diet can reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

The glycemic index describes how carbohydrate-containing food affects blood glucose levels.

No. Cholesterol is a part of what clogs the arteries, causing heart disease and stroke. It’s a disease called arteriosclerosis. Cholesterol and saturated fat are not directly related, but they are indirectly related.

Yes! There is a difference between fats that are healing and fats that are harmful; in fact, the difference can mean life or death.