Free Republic

Rising costs under President Joe Biden are not an optical illusion. Prices of dental care, eye care, and personal care have increased since 2023, March Consumer Price Index (CPI) data revealed Wednesday: — Dental services: Up 4.1 percent since March 2023 / Down 0.5 percent since February 2024 — Eyeglasses and eye care: Up 3.1 percent since March 2023 / Up 0.0 percent since February 2024 — Personal care products: Up 3.4 percent since March 2023 / Up 0.2 percent since February 2024 Overall, the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in March compared with February. The headline index is...

Millions of people around the world wear contact lenses, including reusable ones. But these plastic lenses don't last forever, and lenses need to be replaced every few days, weeks or months. Though scientists are still grappling to understand the health and environmental impacts of microplastics, it is important to understand where they can appear and what systems they could impact. When measuring aquatic microplastic pollution, researchers generally filter plastic fragments from large amounts of sampled water. The researchers gathered six kinds of contact lenses from various brands and of different lifespans. To mimic normal wear and care, the lenses were...

Marion Kleinfeld got up one Sunday morning, picked up the newspaper, settled down to read it, and couldn't see the words. Kleinfeld, 79, of Delray Beach, Fla., already blind in her right eye, lost sight in her other eye because of a condition called wet age-related macular degeneration, AMD, the leading cause of blindness in people over 55. Leaking blood vessels in the back of the eye cause a large black spot in the center of vision. "I could not see at all. It was very frightening," she said. After years of having to tell patients losing their eyesight to...

If U.S. and coalition forces here are going to be successful in their quest to kill, capture and deny sanctuary to al Qaeda and Taliban militants, they must first be able to see their nemesis. And with the help of the 452nd Combat Support Hospital's ophthalmology unit, troops in the Afghanistan theater will never have to go into a combat operation with "blind" ambition. They'll see the big picture clearly – an Afghan nation rid of unwanted oppressors. "Our role is to provide eye care for the U.S. troops in the theater and to provide emergency eye care for the...