Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 4-9-21

Health
YOU HAVE DIABETES
YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE IS LOW
Feeling weak and dizzy, too? Your blood pressure might be too low because you're dehydrated -- maybe from too much activity in the hot sun. Things like some medications, heart problems, poor nutrition, and hormone imbal- ances could also cause low blood pressure and related blurry vision.
YOU NEED GLASSES
When your eyeball is shaped more like an egg than round, or your cornea or your lens isn't curved just so, light can't focus in the right spot. That can lead to seeing clearly only at certain dis- tances (nearsighted and far- sighted) and distorted vision (astigmatism). Contact lenses or minor surgery can correct these "refractive errors."
high cholesterol, and diabetes can ular edema and a detached retina.
YOU'RE GETTING OLDER
Starting around 40, you'll no- tice it's harder to focus on up-close tasks like reading. The clear lens inside your eye isn't as flexible as younger people's. This is called presbyopia, it's a normal part of aging, and it happens to everyone. Your eye doctor can help you with reading glasses or contacts. There is no surgery that can reverse the aging effects of the lens of your eye.
The retina (which includes your macula) is the back part of your eye where light gets focused, like a movie screen. If something happens to that surface, like swelling or tear- ing, the picture can be distorted or lost. A family history of retinal dis- ease, poor diet, smoking, previous eye injuries or disease, and health is- sues such as high blood pressure,
raise the odds of problems like mac-
YOU HAVE A CATARACT
That's a cloudy area in the nor- mally clear lens of the eye. They grow slowly, usually in both eyes, after age 55. But younger people, even kids, can get them, too. Col- ors may seem faded, it may be harder to see at night, and you may be more sensitive to glare. Special glasses and lens coatings can help you see. Surgery can re- place the cloudy lens with a man- made one.
When your blood sugar isn't well-controlled, fluid may seep into the lens of your eye and make it swell. This can happen before you're diagnosed or if you're changing your treatment, like starting insulin. As your glucose level gets back to normal, the lens should, too. People with diabetes are more likely to get retinopathy, or bleeding in the back of your eye, and other eye problems, which your eye doctor will check for at your yearly exam.
YOUR EYE IS INFLAMED
Eye tissue may swell because it's been bruised or something bad was splashed in it. The herpes virus from a cold sore could move to your eye. Sleeping in your con- tacts, not cleaning them correctly, or not throwing them away when you should can also lead to serious infections. Immune system dis- eases that affect other parts of your body, like psoriasis, IBS, and rheumatoid arthritis, can also cause inflammation in your eye.
Have you been staring at a screen or page or focusing on a task for a long time? People tend to blink less often when they're concentrating like that. And each time you blink, you're spreading tears across the surface of your eye to keep it lubricated, clean, and refreshed. You may need to remind yourself to blink more often, take breaks, and look around to prevent vision fatigue. It can also be helpful to use arti- ficial tears during the day to help keep your eyes lubricated.
YOUR RETINA IS DAMAGED
YOUR EYES MAY BE TIRED OR DRY
PAGE 8-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021