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Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days’ respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come...

Two blind friends have been told they can’t go on holiday to Majorca together just two weeks before they were due to fly because they need a carer. Lauren Wigglesworth, 27, and Stephen Sherwood, 24, were told by Thomson that they must take someone with them because they won’t be able to see the in-flight safety demonstration. Lauren was looking forward to the break at the the luxury C’an Picafort resort as she recovers from a grueling 11-hour operation and prepares for her next stint in hospital. … Lauren and Stephen, from Hereford, were told that they would not know...

A new Harvard study has discovered a high incidence of vision problems among men and women who drank three or more cups of coffee a day. The research, published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, http://www.iovs.org/content/53/10/6427.abstract?sid=9dd04ef5-beba-4204-b980-19a9afd4a3aa linked heavy consumption of caffeinated coffee with increased likelihood of developing exfoliation glaucoma, an eye disorder that affects about 10 percent of adults over age 50 and can lead to vision loss or blindness. Specifically, the researchers reported that adults who drank three or more cups of coffee daily were 34 percent more likely to develop exfoliation glaucoma, compared to those who abstained from...

Two researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have deciphered a mouse's retina's neural code and coupled this information to a novel prosthetic device to restore sight to blind mice. The researchers say they have also cracked the code for a monkey retina -- which is essentially identical to that of a human -- and hope to quickly design and test a device that blind humans can use.

UNIVERSITY of Sydney researchers could be on to a remedy to fight blindness caused by long-term diabetes. Lead researcher Professor Basil Roufogalis said pharmacy researchers have identified the ancient Tibetan goji berry could help fight diabetic retinopathy. "Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness for people with diabetes, with up to 60 per cent of people living with either type one or type two diabetes developing chronic hyperglycaemia, a condition which can damage retina cells," he said. Prof Roufogalis said the goji berry is abundant in taurine. "We found that goji berry protected against the death of cells caused...

British actress Judi Dench has said friends must read film scripts to her because she is gradually losing her eyesight to macular degeneration. "I can't read scripts any more before because of the trouble with my eyes and so somebody comes and reads them to me, like telling me a story," she said. The actress, who won an Oscar for her role in "Shakespeare in Love," said she can no longer see faces in front of her due to the condition, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday. "You get used to it. I've got lenses and glasses and things and very...

Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark... The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun of my driving. “You’re going to leave it that far from the curb?” he asks. He’s standing on his stoop, a good 10 paces from my car. I glance behind me as I walk up to him....

THE HEALING OF GEMMA DI GIORGIAmong the many miracles of healing attributed to Padre Pio, some are so unusual and unique that they have been the subject of much discussion and controversy in medical circles. In these particular cases, the person who has been healed lives a completely normal life afterward, even though they continue to have all the physical symptoms of their illness. From a scientific viewpoint, they are still sick. One such person is Gemma di Giorgi.Gemma di Giorgi was born on Christmas day in 1939, in the Sicilian town of Ribera. Almost immediately, her mother realized that...

The Washington Post yesterday commented that the Muslim Brotherhood , which was founded in 1928 by Hassan Al Banna, and inspired Hamas and Al Quida , was inspired by the YMCA. “inspired by the YMCA when it was founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been under a ban since 1948, and its real size is difficult to gauge. The group was brutally repressed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, it has at times been propped up as a foil – especially for Western audiences – with periodic crackdowns that have sent many of...

Last week I shared with you a story and a video of Rowan, the German Spitz  that was born no eyes, but used echolocation to see. In the article I explained the nature of echolocation and how Rowan uses it to see the world around him. Today, I have something even more amazing than the blind dog who sees like dolphins and bats. I have a story with an accompanying video of a boy who lost his eyes to cancer at the age of three, but you would never have known it if you had seen him riding his bike....

Research team at UH sees novel changes in retinal anatomy, results published in high-impact journalHOUSTON, Oct. 25, 2010 – Some unexpected effects of lead exposure that may one day help prevent and reverse blindness have been uncovered by a University of Houston (UH) professor and his team. Donald A. Fox, a professor of vision sciences in UH's College of Optometry (UHCO), described his team's findings in a paper titled "Low-Level Gestational Lead Exposure Increases Retinal Progenitor Cell Proliferation and Rod Photoreceptor and Bipolar Cell Neurogenesis in Mice," published recently online in Environmental Health Perspectives and soon to be published in...

Los Angeles - Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells--a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday. The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

Gene therapy for a severe inherited blindness, which produced dramatic improvements last year in 12 children and young adults who received the treatment in a clinical trial, has cleared another hurdle. The same research team that conducted the human trial now reports that a study in animals has shown that a second injection of genes into the opposite, previously untreated eye is safe and effective, with no signs of interference from unwanted immune reactions following the earlier injection. These new findings suggest that patients who benefit from gene therapy in one eye may experience similar benefits from treatment in the...

CHICAGO – Almost three months have passed, and the Chicago Police Department appears no closer to solving one of the most bizarre acts of fan-on-fan violence in recent memory. One that left Pittsburgh Steelers fan Zack Heddinger blind, and local authorities searching for a group of Chicago Bears fans that allegedly poisoned him. The frustrating search for clues began a few days after Heddinger passed out at South Loop bar Kitty O’Shea’s, and was taken to Rush University Medical Center following Chicago’s Sept. 20 win over Pittsburgh at Soldier Field. After drinking alcohol that was allegedly offered by a Bears...

Gene Therapy Transforms Eyesight Of 12 People With Rare Visual Defect A single injection in a patient's eye brings 'astounding' results. The findings may offer hope for those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Thomas H. Maugh II October 24, 2009 Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The team last year reported success with three adult patients, an achievement that was...

Blindness first began creeping up on Barbara Campbell when she was a teenager, and by her late 30s, her eye disease had stolen what was left of her sight. Reliant on a talking computer for reading and a cane for navigating New York City, where she lives and works, Ms. Campbell, now 56, would have been thrilled to see something. Anything. Now, as part of a striking experiment, she can. So far, she can detect burners on her stove when making a grilled cheese, her mirror frame, and whether her computer monitor is on. She is beginning an intensive three-year...

Jennifer and Jason Bott knew immediately there was something terribly wrong with their newborn daughter. "Something in my heart said something was wrong," said Jennifer Bott, 31, whose daughter, Emily, was born with slightly misaligned eyes and "cloudy" corneas, a condition that was initially a mystery to the young Vernon parents -- as well as to their doctors. "We were on such a high, to be parents again, and this was like a slap in the face. They didn't alert us of any problems until the next day," added 32-year-old Jason Bott. The Botts eventually learned their daughter, now 20...

Millions of people could have their eyesight saved thanks to ground-breaking laser treatment that has the potential to eradicate the most common cause of blindness. One of Britain's leading eye experts has developed a technique to reverse the disabling effects of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which leaves many older people unable to read, drive or live independently, and eventually robs them of sight in one or both eyes. Professor John Marshall has developed a way of "cleaning" eyes which, due to the ageing process, have accumulated tiny particles of debris which start to cloud their sight. His pioneering technique uses...

BOSTON (June 18, 2009) - Omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish such as tuna and salmon may protect against progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but the benefits appear to depend on the stage of disease and whether certain supplements are taken, report researchers at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research (LNVR), Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University. The researchers calculated intakes of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from dietary questionnaires administered to 2,924 men and women, aged 55 to 80 years, participating in an eight-year supplement trial, the...

Look to the retina as a likely site for the first success in stem-cell therapy. "The eye is the best place to test proof-of-concept for stem cell-based therapies," says Martin Friedlander of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Friedlander is co-founder of EyeCyte, also in La Jolla, whose investors include industry heavyweight Pfizer. Several laboratories are exploring stem-cell-derived transplants to delay or prevent blindness, and Pfizer recently put up funds for a project nearing human trials at University College London (UCL). Why the eye appeal? As organs go, it is easily accessible, somewhat protected from the immune system's...