Detached Retina- Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

When the retina (a thin layer of tissue at the back of the eye) pulls away from the usual position, this emergency situation is called as the retinal detachment. The retina is a light sensitive membrane and has an important function of converting the image to signal and transmitting it to the brain via optic nerve. The retina, along with lens, cornea and other parts of the eye and brain are responsible for producing normal vision.

In case of retinal detachment, the layer of blood vessels providing nourishment and oxygen gets separated from the retinal cells, which severely affects the vision. It is extremely important to get it treated on time else the risk of permanent vision loss increases if left untreated or if the treatment is delayed. Some of the warning signs of retinal detachment are- tiny specks that drift through field of vision or appearance of several floaters. It is a case of medical emergency, so contact your eye doctor immediately in case of any sudden vision changes.

Detached Retina Symptoms

There are several warning signs of retinal detachment which pop up before it occurs or has advanced, but it does not cause any pain. Some of the symptoms are-

• Shadowing effect which appears like curtain pulled over the visual field
• Gradual reduction in peripheral (side) vision
• Blurred vision
• Photopsia, which is flashes of light occurring in one or both the eyes especially when looking to the side.
• Sudden appearance of floaters or tiny specks which seem to be floating before the eyes.

Detached Retina Causes

The three main causes of detached retina are-

• Rhegmatogenous – it is one of the most common type of retinal detachment which occurs due to a tear or hole in the retina. The hole formed enables fluid to pass through and get collected near the retina. This pulls away the retina from the underlying tissues and the areas from where the retina detaches stops functioning due to the loss of blood supply. This severely affects the vision.

Rhegmatogenous detachment usually occurs due to ageing. The gel-like material present inside the eyes (called as vitreous) changes consistency and even shrinks becoming more of a liquid, due to ageing. Usually, the vitreous moves away from the surface of the retina. This condition is known as PVD (posterior vitreous detachment). As the vitreous peels off the retina, it might tug on the retina forcefully causing retinal tear. If left untreated, the vitreous passes on to the space behind retina, resulting in the detachment of retina.

• Exudative- the condition where fluid accumulates behind the retina without causing holes or tears are called exudative. It can be caused due to injury to the eye, age-related macular degeneration, inflammatory disorders or tumors.
• Tractional – when the scar tissues grow on the retina’s surface, this type of detachment occurs. As a result, the retina gets pulled away from the back of the eye. This type of detachment is commonly observed in those who have poorly controlled diabetes or other medical condition. Diabetic retinopathy treatment is performed to prevent vision loss due to diabetes.

Who are at risk?

• Previous eye disorder or disease which includes uveitis or lattice degeneration (thinning of peripheral retina), retinoschisis.
• Severe eye injury in the past
• Eye surgery or cataract removal in the past
• Extreme myopia (nearsightedness)
• Family history
• Detachment of retina in one eye in the past
• People above the age of 50 years

Detached Retina Treatment

Surgery is often required to repair a detached retina. For minor tears and detachment, minor surgery may be required at the doctor’s clinic.

• Cryopexy – this process involves freezing with intense cold. The eye specialist applies a freezing probe outside the eye area over the retinal tear site. The scarring caused helps in holding the retina in its place.

• Photocoagulation – Eye specialist performs a procedure called photocoagulation with laser in case there is a tear or hole in the retina but the retina is still attached. The laser is used to cause burns around the tear site so that the scarring affixes retina to the back of the eye.

• Retinopexy – eye specialists repair minor detachments with the help of retinopexy. The procedure involves putting gas bubbles in the eye, so that the retina moves back to its normal place, which is against the wall of the eye. After the retina moves back into its position, doctor uses freezing probe or laser to seal the holes.

• Vitrectomy – in case the tear is large, vitrectomy procedure is applied. In this, anesthesia is given to the patient and is performed as an outpatient procedure. Patients may be required to stay in the hospital overnight. The eye specialist removes scar tissue or abnormal vascular and vitreous using a small tool. The retina is then put back to its proper place using a gas bubble. Retinopexy or Cryopexy is performed during this procedure.

• Scleral buckling- the severe detachments require eye surgery in the hospital. The sclera buckling process involves placing of band around the outside of the eye so that the wall of the eye is pushed back into the retina. This helps in getting it back in its place for complete healing. Scleral buckling is often done along with vitrectromy. Retinopexy or Cryopexy procedure is performed during sclera buckling.

Diagnosis

Thorough eye check up is performed to diagnose retinal detachment like-

• Ability to see colors
• Physical appearance of the eye
• Eye pressure
• Vision check

Also, the ability of retina to send impulse to the brain and blood flow throughout the eye and retina is checked.

Author Bio

Hello Readers !! Natalie and Caitlyn Bell are the founders of Healtholine, They started Healtholine to provide a platform where they could share informative articles related to health, technology, fitness, beauty, weight loss etc Natalie is a featured author at various authoritative blogs in the health and fitness industry. Connect with both sisters to know more

Sleep Your Way to a Healthier Weight

Cutting calories and working out are well-known ways to lose weight. Recent research shows, however, that another factor could significantly affect weight loss: sleep. Here are the ways that better sleep can lead to a healthier weight, and how to achieve it.

Avoids overeating

Missing your ZZZ’s can cause decreased levels of leptin, the hormone that gives a sense of fullness or satiation. This can increase appetite, often resulting in overconsumption. Similarly, levels of the hormone that makes you feel hungry, grehlin, increases when you are sleep deprived. This combination is what causes most tired people to eat an additional 300 calories a day than those who are well-rested.

Leads to better food choices

When people are tired, they’re more likely to reach for the easiest, tastiest food available, often in the form of high-fat snacks loaded with carbohydrates. This “eating for pleasure” sense is heightened in the afternoon for those who are sleep deprived and can lead to significant weight gain over a prolonged period of time.

Helps process sweets faster

Sleep deprivation can cause the food processing parts of your cells, the mitochondria, to shut down. This means that the sugar in your comfort foods just sits in your blood, raising your blood sugar levels. Your mitochondria are also what regulate your metabolism, or the number of calories burned for energy every day. Getting sufficient sleep can help maintain healthy mitochondria, and therefore, prevent weight gain.

To get better sleep…

Pay off your sleep debt. Most Americans don’t get the recommended eight hours of sleep every night, but it can be mostly made up over the next few nights. Over the weekend, go to bed at your usual weekday time, but then sleep until your body naturally wakes up the next morning. You will probably sleep for longer than usual, but it should go a long way in calibrating your sleep schedule.

Make sure you’re supporting these efforts with the best sleep essentials possible. Use a high-quality mattress and top it with pillows that are soft but supportive to help prevent waking up in the middle of the night.

Happy Guide: 6 simple lifestyle changes for health and happiness

There are a thousand problems with just one solution: lifestyle.

 

Poor lifestyle over years and decades causes all kinds of health problems.

 

Drugs and other medical interventions aren’t a long-term solution because they don’t address the underlying causes. A lifestyle problem needs a lifestyle solution!

 

Being happy and healthy is NOT complicated, and health-seekers are being bombarded with unnecessary and misleading information.

 

It makes me so sad to see people trying all kinds of expensive pills, patches and potions in an attempt to correct symptoms of not living well.

 

The only true solution is to see the “happy and healthy” finish line clearly and then manage the “change” period carefully, so there’s no resistance and no feeling of denial.

 

My half-brother Michael Kinnaird went through a living hell for 13 years. Desperate for answers, he searched for a simple guide to being happy and healthy. Every one, without exception, was complex, unclear or incomplete.

 

To cut a long story short, he ended up writing it himself. It’s a simple one-hour guide that I’m delighted to say is transforming lives. It’s called Happy Guide.

 

You can read the first chapter “The Happiness Secret” for free, on our home page.

 

And because The Zeit seems to be very much on our wavelength, we’ve agreed to offer a half-price discount on the eBook version to all its readers, for the next 7 days!

 

Visit Happy Guide   (use code zeit at eBook checkout for 50% off) 

This is not an affiliate link, The-Zeit get’s no commission.

 

 

To your health and happiness!

James Riddett

Before You Ever Let Someone Stick Their Tongue Down Your Throat Ever Again

Tongue colors & shapes. A guide to help you. Photo courtesy of  Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine

People, you need to take your tongues seriously. I don’t mean like the way Miley Cyrus does. I mean she was recently sued for nearly killing someone with it according to a report by Rolling Stones.

What I am talking about is even more serious.  Did you know that you could see how fit or healthy you are just by examining your tongue?

Traver H, Bloem of breakingmuscle.com explains: “TCM believes the tongue is a microcosm of the entire body and will reflect its excesses and deficiencies. Being directly related to the stomach by proximity and availability, the tongue acts as a very good reflection of our digestive systems. If your tongue’s neighbor the stomach is having problems, it’s most likely going to spill over into your tongue’s life.”

3 Steps to Successful Stress Management

 

You can cope with stress if you have the right tools. Image by africa

Previously I talked about “The Crippling Effect of Stress on Your Organs”. We discussed the negative physical effects caused by stress ranging from heart problems to multiple sclerosis (MS).

Managing stress is all about taking charge of your life and your attitude towards dealing with problems.

Today we are going to look at the 3 steps that will help you manage and even overcome stress so that you don’t have to worry about the damage that stress can do to your body.

Step 1: Identify Source of Stress

The first step is successfully identifying the source of your stress.
photo by stock images

Let’s face it; identifying the source of stress in our lives is easier said than done. We can easily overlook our own negative behaviour such as stress-inducing thoughts and negative attitudes.

2 Alcohol Health Benefit Myths Busted!

The evidence about the possible health benefits of alcohol has always been uncertain .
Photo by Grant Cochrane

According to popular belief moderate alcohol consumption may provide the following health benefits:

1. Reduce the risk of developing and succumbing to heart disease
2. Possibly reduce the risk of ischemic stroke

The evidence about the possible health benefits of alcohol has always been uncertain and alcohol may not benefit everyone who drinks it.

5 Common Issues Children of Alcoholics Face as Adults

It is a club most never ask to join, but there is a solidarity among members that is hard to find anywhere else. Given a choice, most who belong wouldn’t have chosen the path that brought them there. Not only do they still carry the emotional, and sometimes physical, scars of that journey but some have been cursed to repeat the journey in their own lives.

Adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) spend most of their childhoods struggling to make sense of the insanity that is alcoholism, only to find out as adults that they still don’t have all the answers. Even more frustrating is the awareness that for all the promises that they were *never* going to be like *them* when they grew up, they often find themselves back in the vicious cycle of addiction.

One in four children under the age of 18 are exposed to alcoholism in their family, and those children are four times more likely to face their own addictions as adults. They are also more likely to marry someone dealing with alcoholism, either their own or with a similar family history. For some it can be a double-edged sword because they will either become the alcoholic, or marry one. Even if they escape the addictive personality, they are sometimes drawn to partners who will treat the as badly as they saw their parents treating each other.

Copycat Behaviors

Parents model many of the behaviors that children learn from, and that includes how to treat other people. If, for example, a son grows up seeing his alcoholic father or mother berate and belittle the other parent, he learns from their example how to 1) berate and belittle others; 2) what constitutes “acceptable” behavior in a relationship, especially if the other parent never stands up for themselves. It can create conflicting emotions as an adult because they will either look for someone they can bully, or try to find someone who will bully them.

Controlling Walls

As children, they saw or experienced painful behaviors from the alcoholic and so as adults, the walls they build are comprised of rigid routines, inflexible predictability, “no one will ever treat me like that,” and “I will never do that.” It is their way of controlling what they couldn’t control as children, and it helps to make them feel safe again.

When someone breaks one of their boundary rules, changes plans, or they feel  out of control in other ways, there can be a sudden reaction of anger and anxiety. Relationships can be swiftly and uncompromisingly ended. It is often “all or nothing” or “my way or the highway.”

Role Reversals

In some single parent homes where the parent is the alcoholic, children may roles reverse and it is the child that takes care of the parent. Often if there are multiple children in the home, the oldest child becomes the parent for all of them, because there were no other options. As an adult, an ACOA may become overly responsible, taking responsibility for things that are out of their control such as problems they didn’t cause or other people’s feelings.

Isolation as a Wall

With a childhood that was often filled with neglect, abuse, rejection, or feeling unloved, unwanted, and alone, ACOAs can have a hard time trusting others, making it hard to develop lasting relationships because they can’t bring themselves to open up to others in an effort to protect themselves from getting hurt again. They may not even know how to trust themselves, or honestly know who they are. They may have hidden their own emotions for so long, going along with what others wanted just to keep people from knowing them.

Approval Seekers

ACOAs want to be liked, loved, accepted and approved after childhoods filled with everything but those needs. They want to avoid conflict, and so they do whatever is necessary to make everyone happen, even at the sacrifice of their own desires. Hand in hand with people pleasing, ACOAs can also be perfectionists. In another effort to avoid conflict and criticism as a child, they sometimes had unattainable goals of perfection which may carry into adulthood.

A Brighter Future

While these are just a few of the traits that Adult Children of Alcoholics may have learned as coping mechanisms, there is hope for change. Counseling, or (free) groups like Al-Anon and ACOA, can provide help, direction, support, materials, and just the knowledge that you are not alone in your struggles. Sometimes the road to recovery begins with a  welcoming hug.

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Jennifer Landis is a tea-drinking, yoga loving, clean eating blogger, writer, wife, and mother. You can find more from Jennifer at her blog, Mindfulness Mama.

No Surprise Medical Bills – Medical Procedure Estimate Tools

You deserve to know the cost of caring for your health.

Amino @AminoHealth recently launched new health care cost estimate tools that you will be interested in.

See cost estimates for ~50 medical procedures and services nationwide (USA) across dermatology, diagnostics, men’s health, orthopedics, preventative care, surgeries, and women’s health.

Amino tools now let you:

• Compare cost differences in your region based on your insurance.

• Calculate what you might pay from your own bank account with an out-of-pocket cost calculator.

• View and compare cost estimates for individual doctors–and book an appointment with the doctor of your choice for free through Amino.

As part of their  launch campaign, they created an exclusive infographic that will walk you through the complexities of estimating health care costs.

Launch the health procedure cost estimate tool

Why Vaping Is as Dumb as Smoking

There’s a lion enclosure at your local zoo. The lions have a well-documented history of attacking people on sight. The lions have not yet been fed that day. Given the data at hand, deciding to jump into that enclosure would be pretty stupid, wouldn’t it?

Say there’s a different lion enclosure at another zoo. The lions are new to captivity. There’s no data regarding their reactions to humans. They’ve been fed.

Which enclosure would it be safer to jump into?

The second, obviously. The lions have at least been fed, so a human leaping in doesn’t look like a magically appearing meal. There’s no proof they’ve attacked before, so there’s at least a chance they won’t attack now. But is it safe to jump into that enclosure?

The answer, of course, is an emphatic no. Just because an activity is safer than, it doesn’t make it safe, especially when the data needed to make that decision is incomplete.

Vaping: Safer Than

Vaping delivers a nicotine fix without the tobacco, sating an addiction without the known carcinogenic and other medical dangers of tobacco. As such, it’s touted as a safe, satisfying alternative to smoking. It’s marketed as a fun hobby and an effective way to quit smoking cigarettes. Fact: neither of those marketing claims is facts.

Not enough studies and tests have been completed to support sweeping statements regarding the safety of e-cigarettes and vaping. There is no conclusive evidence that these alternatives are effective tools for kicking a tobacco habit.

Where’s the Data?

Over the last decade, the e-cigarette and vaping industry have exploded, resulting in a largely unregulated $3 billion global industry.

The data has, simply put, not had the time to catch up to the market. Policymakers and lawmakers are struggling to decide if and how to regulate e-cigarette use. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), World Health Organization (WHO), and other guardian entities of health and public safety are scrambling to find the footholds they need to even begin studying the effects of vaping on the human body.

In other words, there isn’t enough data to show that vaping is a definite health threat, but there also isn’t enough data to prove that it’s safe.

Emerging Health Concerns

A lack of definitive answers does not equal a complete lack of data or concerns.

Health organizations like the American Lung Association are beginning to compile and investigate a growing list of concerns including, but not limited to:

• Manufacturers have not revealed the chemicals used in their products
• Early tests have already found significant cancer-causing chemicals
• A child has already died from accidentally ingesting liquid nicotine from e-cigarettes
• Preliminary studies also raise concerns over the risks of secondhand emissions

Frightening Setbacks

Thanks to diligent research and effective communication, the population of cigarette smokers in the United States has dropped to between 12 and 28%, depending on the state.

But while Big Tobacco’s control and influence are waning in traditional cigarette sales, they are starting to make up for it through vaping. In the case of youth sales, vaping has allowed them easy, unchecked access to a new market.

As of 2013, “over a quarter of a million youth who had never smoked a cigarette used e-cigarettes.” That’s triple the amount from 2011. Imagine what that figure would be today.

Between flavoring options and marketing, it is clear that the vaping industry is taking advantage of the lack of oversight and regulations to create an addicted consumer base among youth and children.

Pro-Profit, Anti-Truth

Whether it’s Big Tobacco at the helm or new vaping manufacturers, the end-goal is clear: profit. If the decades of runarounds, cover-ups, and deceptions from the tobacco industry have proven anything, it’s that the manufacturer of the goods has no incentive to reveal the dangers and risks their goods pose to consumer health and safety.

Does that sound too cynical to be true? For some light reading, read WHO’s information revealing just how much the tobacco industry was willing to lie, deny, and cover up in the name of profit.

With vaping profits on the rise, consumers need to ask: why should we believe an addiction-for-profit based industry’s word now?

Why Is Vaping as Dumb as Smoking?

It’s like jumping into that second den of lions because the lions told you: “Come on in – I already ate.” 

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Jennifer Landis is a tea-drinking, yoga loving, clean eating blogger, writer, wife, and mother. You can find more from Jennifer at her blog, Mindfulness Mama.

Superbug: The End of Antibiotics? Are We All Going to Die?

What on Earth is a superbug?

Imagine having an incurable bacterial infection that doctors can’t stop from spreading. How long have you got to live? You are asking yourself, how this can be possible in the 21^st century. The era of the superbug has dawned upon us. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2 million people get sick from a superbug every year, out of which 23,000 die.

How super is a superbug?

The term ‘superbug’ is a sensational one that has been coined by the media because it resonates by creating fear. We all know how the media loves a little bit of drama right? Brian K. Coombes, PhD, of McMaster University in Ontario explains:

Doctors often use phrases like “multidrug-resistant bacteria.” That’s because a superbug isn’t necessarily resistant to all antibiotics. It refers to bacteria that can’t be treated using two or more.

And yes, on the 27^th of May the case of a 49 year old woman with a superbug that beat even the last-resort antibiotic was all over the news:

However as the article on CNN’s website shows, it all ended well:

So no big deal right?

Wrong! Let’s not even think of belittling the situation. The threat is real, and 23,000 deaths a year is no joke. Besides, antibiotics are the backbone of modern medicine.  Here is more from Brian K. Coombes:

Cancer chemotherapy, organ transplants, surgeries, and childbirth all rely on antibiotics to prevent infections. If you can’t treat those, then we lose the medical advances we have made in the last 50 years.

How do I protect myself from a superbug?

1. Avoid antibiotic misuse

Do not misuse antibiotics by taking them when you don’t need them or by not finishing all of your medicine. According to the CDC, this is the “single leading factor” contributing to this problem. Also know that the more antibiotics you’ve taken, the higher your risk of catching a superbug.

2. Stay alert in hospitals

The hospital is also a high-risk place to be. The more visits you to the hospital setting, the more you risk catching a superbug. In the hospital environment, you may catch a superbug through what experts call ‘healthcare-associated infections’ (HAIs).  According to the CDC,” Many of the most urgent and serious antibiotic-resistant bacteria threaten patients while they are being treated in healthcare facilities for other conditions, and may lead to sepsis or death.” So make sure the doctors and nurses are following the right protocol to avoid infections.

Please see the CDC infographic below:

 

3. Avoid antibiotic-tainted meat

The use of antibiotics in farm animals leads to an increased risk of antibiotic resistant infections in humans. Get your meat from your local farmers, it may be more expensive but it tastes better and is much safer.

What can science do to fight antibiotic resistance?

Anya Vanecek put this question out on Quora and we found the best answer for you. Mary Bushman who does research on resistance in malaria had the best answer. I have put it down word for word:

There are multiple ways we can manage antibiotic resistance. The following is a mix of current, well-accepted methods, as well as some ideas that are still being explored/tested.

1. Preserve the effectiveness of the drugs that still work

(a) Limit use of antibiotics (agricultural use and inappropriate prescribing, as well as over-the-counter availability in many countries) and encourage correct use (finishing the course of treatment).

(b) Prevent resistant bugs from infecting others (infection control in clinical settings, plus regular public health interventions to reduce transmission).

(c) Combination therapy – treating with multiple drugs simultaneously. Using two or more drugs makes it harder for resistance to emerge, since the bug would have to develop resistance to both drugs.

(d) Vary the selection pressure. The more consistently a drug is used, the more advantage there is in being resistant. Using a variety of drugs (by giving different drugs to different people or switching the “drug of choice” every few years) may help prevent or reduce resistance.

2. Develop new drugs

(a) Find drugs with mechanisms of action (ways of killing) that don’t overlap with current drugs. When drugs share a mechanism, resistance to one will often mean resistance to the other. Finding drugs that work in different ways helps avoid this, and also works better for combination therapy.

(b) Search for drugs that are hard to develop resistance to. As we learn more about how different drugs kill, and how resistance works, drug development can be smarter and more targeted (as opposed to random screening of thousands of compounds for antibiotic activity).

(c) Unfortunately, developing new drugs is expensive, and pharmaceutical companies weigh the cost of development against a new drug’s money-making potential. We badly need new drugs for malaria and tuberculosis, but since these are mainly diseases of “poor people” who can’t afford expensive new drugs, pharm companies consider it a bad investment.

3. Try to reverse existing resistance

(a) In some cases, when a drug stops being used because of resistance, the resistance will actually start to go back down. This is because of a “cost” of resistance, meaning when the drug is not there, the resistant types don’t do very well. An example is that chloroquine-resistant malaria is present in many places, but in a number of places where chloroquine is no longer used, the resistance has decreased. If we can control drug use enough to make this happen, we may be able to “save” some drugs that are losing their effectiveness.

(b) In some cases, there can be a “trade-off” with resistance to different drugs. You can be resistant to drug A, or to drug B, but not both. If resistance to drug A is very common, and you start treating everyone with drug B, the bug might evolve resistance to B, but would have to lose the resistance to A. So, you might be able to start using A again in the future. This won’t happen in every case, or even very often, but when it does happen it can be a neat solution.

See the original answers to”How do we solve antibiotic resistance?”

Conclusion

So we can conclude that antibiotic resistance is not the end of antibiotics. The superbug that just came to the U.S. is still treatable as I explained. We have been creating more and more resistant strains by misusing antibiotics, be it through direct consumption or through farm animals. Perhaps someday all bacteria will be resistant to all types of current antibiotics, but that just means we will have to discover a new type of cure.

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Source:

Superbugs: What They Are and How You Get Them

Superbugs threaten hospital patients

A dreaded superbug found for the first time in a U.S. woman

New CDC report links factory farms to antibiotic resistance

Brian K. Coombes Profile