Keyword: blindness
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A new research has found that constant use of computers may be linked to the development of a progressive eye disease, specially in shortsighted people, which eventually leads to blindness, according to a report published in the British Medical Journal. Glaucoma is a relatively common eye disease that develops very slowly, characterised by progressive sight defects or visual field abnormalities over time. Its exact cause is unknown, although potential risk factors, including smoking and high blood pressure, have been suggested. Researchers at the Toho University School of Medicine in Tokyo categorized the use of computers in blocks of five years,...
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You know, I've been trying to understand the bizarre ideological inconsistencies of the past week as our blue state liberals advocate Voltaire out of one side of their mouths and Russell Means out of the other. This spectacle of us "rednecks" being pummeled by a "tag team" of Charles Darwin and Sitting Bull has been bothering me for a very long time (for years, even). It's just that the whole issue has been omnipresent over the past seven days as the coasts fume at us for both rejecting Darwin and unforgivably altering the beliefs of "indigenous" religions (all that is...
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/> September 14, 2004 Method to Turn Off Bad Genes Is Set for Tests on Human EyesBy ANDREW POLLACK f all goes according to plan, about half a dozen elderly people at risk of blindness will visit Dr. Lawrence J. Singerman's retina clinic in the coming weeks to receive injections in the whites of their eyes. The experimental injections will contain a new type of drug based on a recently discovered genetic phenomenon, called RNA interference, that has excited scientists with its versatile and powerful ability to turn off genes. Having quickly become a...
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Eyetech Pharmaceuticals' drug to treat the leading cause of blindness in the elderly appeared to move closer to a broad government approval yesterday after an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration spoke favorably about it. The advisory panel was not asked to vote on whether the drug, Macugen, should be approved as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration. But committee members ruled unanimously that Eyetech had provided the F.D.A. with enough information to evaluate the drug. The panel members also did not seem to raise any serious new issues that would block approval. "It appears to me very...
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A rare tooth-in-eye operation has enabled a Thai teenager to see again after six years of blindness, news reports said yesterday. Luck Pewnual, 19, now reads books and watches football on television after surgeons in Singapore completed a two-part operation implanting parts of a canine tooth into his right eye. His vision has improved since the second stage was performed in June, well enough for him to legally drive a car. Several patients from Malaysia, the Philippines and Mauritius in addition to Singaporeans have been lined up for the procedure. Pewnual's case is believed to be the first carried out...
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MONDAY, June 14 (HealthDayNews) -- Bananas, oranges, and other fruits may reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among older people. Scientists have found that people who ate at least three daily servings of fruit had a 36 percent lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than people who ate fewer than 1.5 servings a day. "This is the first good study that has some statistical value that documents what we've been thinking all along," said Dr. Robert Cykiert, a professor of ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine in New York...
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Israeli technology does not have the ability, yet, to restore the gift of sight to the blind but it comes pretty close. VirTouch is an Israeli company which specializes in computer technology for the blind. Its CEO, Arnold Roth, described ViaTouch’s revolutionary work to Israel21c. Roth said that although text and numbers are readily accessible to the blind through Braille and software that reads text aloud, “when you look beyond the text…you run into problems - things like images, photographs, maps, charts and tables.” Roth said that initially there was no solution for graphic elements other than printing them out...
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The rate of syphilis infection has soared 800 percent in the past two years, prompting Toronto health officials to call for education and prevention funding. Nearly 280 Torontonians tested positive for syphilis in 2003, up nearly 45 percent from 195 in 2002, the Toronto Sun said Monday, quoting a report to be presented next week to Toronto's health board. Those numbers are up from just 30 cases a year from 1997-2001. Nearly three-quarters of the cases were among men who have gay, unprotected sex, the report said. The city tried to fight the rise last spring with a month-long poster...
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GREEN RIVER -- A young man from the Green River community diagnosed with an eye disease that results in blindness is participating in experimental research that has improved his vision. The experimental treatment conducted by an ophthalmologist in Connecticut could bring hope to thousands of people suffering from macular degeneration. Aaron Maybin, 23, was told in July by three area ophthalmologists that he had Stargardt's disease and would be completely blind in five to 10 years. Stargardt's disease is the most common form of juvenile macular degeneration. It is an inherited disease. Unaffected parents, who are carriers, have one gene...
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Michelle Thomas is learning to "see", not with her eyes but her ears. Blind since birth, Ms Thomas is able to recognize the walls and doors of her house, discern whether the lights are on or off and even distinguish a CD from a floppy disk after only a week using a revolutionary new system. She is "seeing with sound". Developed by Dr Peter Meijer, a senior scientist at Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, the system is called The vOICe (the three middle letters standing for "Oh I See"). It works by translating images from a camera on-the-fly into...
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A blind musher will be allowed to compete in the 2004 Iditarod Dog Sled Race, board members of the Iditarod Trail Committee decided Friday. The board voted unanimously to waive certain rules to allow Rachael Scdoris, 18, of Redmond, Ore., to be guided by another musher to advise her of trail conditions. The board also approved use of two-way radios so the pair can communicate. "It was a fair compromise that will allow Rachael to realize her dream," said Rick Koch, the board chairman. Scdoris had hoped the board would allow her to be accompanied by two...
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In one of the Gospel stories, Jesus gives the gift of sight to a blind man. Since we are not blind, we might think that the Gospel story has no relevance for us. In fact, it is because we can see that it has relevance for us. The question is: How well do we see? Because of his faith, the blind man, in a sense, saw things more clearly than the people who had physical sight. To see well, good eyesight alone is not sufficient. We must not think that blindness is an illness that affects the eyes only. There...
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After 43 years of blindness, Michael May can see again. HE CAN play soccer with his sons, enjoy movies and, for the first time, gaze on the Sierra Nevada slopes he has expertly skied — sightless — since the late 1970s. But May can’t recognize his sons, Carson, 11, and Wyndham, 9, by their faces alone. The same goes for identifying Jennifer, his wife of 15 years. People “can’t fathom that,” said May, who owns a company in Davis, Calif., that makes navigational software for the blind. Three years after surgery restored sight to May’s right eye, researchers say May’s...
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LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of aging baby-boomers could be spared the need to use reading glasses to see the small print if a new treatment developed by scientists in Australia is proven safe and effective. The technique, which involves replacing the contents of the lens in the eye with a soft polymer gel, will initially be used to improve cataract surgery in elderly patients. "But once it is shown to be safe and effective, we think that more and more younger people who are starting to need reading glasses will adopt it as well," Arthur Ho, of the University of...
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Tight neckties 'could harm the eyes'July 30 2003Power-dressing businessmen could be increasing their risk of eye disease by wearing their tie too tight, research claims. A study, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, suggested that a tight tie constricted the jugular vein of the neck, which raised pressure in the veins and, in turn, increased pressure within the eyeball. This increased the danger of the serious eye condition glaucoma, which can severely affect vision. Researchers in New York tested the internal blood pressure of one eye in 20 healthy men and 20 male patients with glaucoma. To compare the...
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<p>WASILLA -- After putting off a decision in June, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officials will reconsider special accommodations for a legally blind Oregon teenager bent on competing next year.</p>
<p>Iditarod Board president Rick Koch has scheduled a special meeting for Sept. 19 with an agenda focused on two questions, Koch said Tuesday.</p>
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Wearing your tie too tight could put you at increased risk of blindness, say doctors. The small study in New York measured the pressure of the fluid in the eyeball in a small group of men before and after they attached their tie. They found a significant rise - and warn that long-term pressure rises have been linked to the condition glaucoma. Glaucoma is diagnosed when increases in pressure are likely to cause damage to the eye, and in its most common form, affects approximately 1% of 50-year-olds in the UK. It is the most common cause of irreversible blindness...
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Timmy's Song 2003-06-23 4:00 PM PST Deacon Keith A Fournier (c) Third Millennium, LLC It was a steamy day in the Nations Capitol. I was rushing to one final meeting in the Dirksen Building after attending Mass at noon. The morning had been packed and I was tired. This was a “stop by” visit, graciously accommodated at my request, in order to allow me to introduce a colleague of mine to one of the great Christian public servants of our age, the Honorable Rick Santorum. I have long admired Senator Santorum as one of the clear and consistent Catholic voices...
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little-known operation restores hope for people who lose sight from chemical or heat burns of the eye or certain rare diseases. The procedure, 50 to 100 percent effective in healing corneal damage, is used worldwide, including Iran, where it helps restore sight for victims of Iraqi mustard gas attacks. A variation on corneal transplants, the surgery grafts stem cells from a donor or a patient's good eye to the injured eye. The cells are from the limbus, a rim around the cornea. The cells resheath the cornea's surface, the 50-micron-thick epithelium, to maintain it as a transparent window. When burns...
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Too much MSG could cause blindness 15:32 26 October 02 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Eating too much monosodium glutamate - the flavour enhancer common in oriental and processed foods - could make you go blind. Easy on the tongue, hard on the eyes (Image: CARL DE KEYSER/MAGNUM) Researchers at Hirosaki University in Japan have found that rats fed on diets high in MSG suffer vision loss and have thinner retinas. Glutamate is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter. It has already been shown to cause nerve damage in experiments where it is injected directly into the...
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UCLA researchers have helped to develop a "vision chip" which can help some blind patients see again. The development is good news for one in four Americans over the age of 64, who suffer from a now curable form of blindness according to the Macular Degeneration Research Foundation. In humans, normal vision starts when an image passes through the eyeball and into the retina at the back of the eye. The retina contains photoreceptors which break down the image and creates the corresponding neural stimulus, or signals, to the brain. In many blind patients, the retina degenerates and the photoreceptors...
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Date: Posted 7/25/2002 Invasive Weed Can Cause Blisters, Blindness AMHERST, Mass. – Gardeners, landscapers, farmers, hikers and others who spend time outdoors are being urged by the state agriculture department and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to watch out for an invasive, noxious weed that has been found in Massachusetts. The giant hogweed, a native plant of the Caucasus region of central Asia and found in the western Massachusetts town of Granville last week, can grow to 15 feet tall. The sap can cause severe skin irritation, blisters and swelling and contact with the eyes can cause temporary or permanent...
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BOSTON (AP) _ To doctors' amazement, experimental new medicines are rescuing people from the brink of blindness so they can read and drive and sometimes even regain perfect vision. These lucky few are the first beneficiaries of an entirely new category of drugs that many hope will revolutionize the care of common eye diseases. Several competing medicines are in development, all based on similar principles. They are designed to stop the two top causes of adult blindness _ the ``wet'' form of macular degeneration, which affects the elderly, and diabetic retinopathy, the biggest source of blindness in working-age people. Vision...
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Horror writing superstar Stephen King is going blind, after developing a condition called Macular Degeneration. The Green Mile novelist - who was severely injured in an car accident in June 1999 that left him in critical condition - claims he has a hereditary disease and that he could lose his sight at any moment. But King refuses to let the prospect of blindness get him down. He says, "At least I'm alive - that's the way I feel about it."
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