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National Eye Health Week

This week, 22-28th September, is the 5th Annual National Eye Health Week which sees eye care professionals and eye health charities coming together to promote the importance of regular eye examinations and looking after your eyes.

Regular examinations are important as you can loose up to 40% of your vision before you may notice. Many eye conditions such as glaucoma, macula degeneration, diabetic eye disease and eye tumors have no symptoms at all in their early stages. Eye examinations can help detect the earliest sign of problems and allow prompt treatment to prevent conditions developing and stealing your sight.

Mrs Clifton explains how her eye examination saved her life

"It is fair to say that if it wasn’t for Alisdair, I wouldn’t be alive today. I had been experiencing poor vision for a while, and whilst other opticians could not solve my problem, I visited Alisdair after a recommendation from my brother. Within an hour of seeing me, he suggested I go to the hospital, who then diagnosed a tumour, which was subsequently removed. The hospital since told me that if it hadn’t been discovered I would have been dead within three weeks. Thank you Alisdair."

In practice we are promoting several aspects of eye care including children’s eye care, healthy eating and safe computer use.

Children’s Eye examinations

Eye examinations for children are also very important, as they often do not complain about eye problems because they do not necessarily know what normal vision is. Children may appear to see well but may have underlying issues such as muscle problems or reading difficulties known as Irlen Symdrome. All children should have an eye examination before starting school or earlier if you have a strong family history of eye problems or notice their eyes turning.

Mrs Russell explains the relief she felt when a recent eye examination at Buchanan Optometrists diagnosed her son’s reading difficulties :

"It was by chance that I was recommended Buchanan Optometrists for a Dry-Eye condition and whilst in the waiting room I read a leaflet all about Irlen syndrome and thought ‘that’s my Neil’. I must admit I cried due to the relief a reason for him falling behind at school could easily be helped and also from guilt at having never heard of this before and not asking the right questions regarding words moving on the page and others.

Since his assessment with Kathryn Neil has been using the coloured overlays she prescribed. Two months on, all Neil’s dyslexic symptoms are gone, he has reached the national reading target; in fact, Neil is overall a different child, more confident now he can participate in learning and is like a sponge soaking it all up."

Kara explains her experience of bring her 3 year old daughter for an eye examination.

"Having been in for eye tests myself I never realised you would be able to test Holly’s eyes so young until you spoke to me about bringing her in. At just 3, I thought she may have been frightened by the experience but this couldn’t be further from the truth- she loved her first eye test.

I thought Holly’s clumsiness could be due to her feet but since you diagnosed her eye problem and gave her glasses it has changed her life completely. She can run around without fear of an accident. She finds playing easier because she can see what she is doing. I am so pleased you detected her problems so early as she is about to start reading and I realise an eye problem at this age could really have affected her learning. She’s already has more interest in books and uses her computer pad easily."

 

Take the strain out of computer use

According to the Eyecare Trust each of us spends an average of 2,740 hours (or three and a half months) a year staring at a screen.

90 % of computer users complain of symptoms such as dry eyes, eye strain and headaches.
 
So here’s our top tips to prevent eye strain on the computer.

 

Eat your way to healthier eyes

To promote National Eye Health Week, we have been experimenting with recipes which can help boost your eye health. The recipes form a cook book designed by leading chefs specifically for Eye Health week, are rich in certain vitamins and minerals that can considerably cut your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration and help dry eye symptoms – they are also very tasty. We have 40 copies of the cook book to give away. You can pop in and collect your free copy of the 'Feast your eyes' cook book from the practice any time before the 28th September.

To get you inspired I decided to get our 1 year old Godson George to help me try the special bread recipe from the cook book.
 
 






 I will never be allowed to babysit again!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t have a 1 year old to help you or simply can’t face the mess of cooking these eye-boosting recipes, there are some new eye nutritional supplements to help prevent macular degeneration and cataracts and improve dry eye symptoms. Read more here.

Have fun cooking and looking after your eye health.