The Heart Eye Connection ♥️ 👁️

 

They say the eyes are the window to your soul, but did you know they can also show how healthy your heart is? If you weren’t aware, you’re not alone. Specifically, researchers found that approximately half of the nearly 2.2 billion cases of vision impairment worldwide could be improved, or even prevented, by taking simple steps to improve your overall cardiovascular health.

Eye exams are the most reliable, non-invasive way to identify a number of serious—often fatal—cardiovascular conditions.

An annual eye exam detects risk factors consistent with heart disease much sooner than tests and checkups conducted during an annual physical, including identifying high cholesterol 65% of the time, high blood pressure 30% of the time, and diabetes 20% of the time.

In most cases, patients are unaware of minor changes occurring in the vascular system located at the back of the eyes. Changes may include:

• Increased force against the arterial wall—a sign of hypertension
• Tiny embolisms or clots in and around the retina—a sign of blocked arteries
• Small changes in the blood vessels of the eye caused by increased blood sugar levels—an indication of diabetes

Long-term eye health effects

Obviously, left untreated, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes result in debilitating and even deadly outcomes, but over time they also result in specific vision issues, including age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma.

The good news is that researchers now believe, with increasing confidence, nearly 50% of all eye health issues can be improved or prevented by making heart-healthy lifestyle changes.

5 lifestyle changes for a healthy heart and vision

1. Quit smoking

Smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death, by far. Thousands of studies have proven smoking causes significant damage to your blood vessels and your heart health. It’s also a leading contributor to high blood pressure and contributes to increased insulin resistance and diabetes.

2. Live an active lifestyle

You don’t need to run marathons but should make some sort of physical activity a part of your day, every day. Your heart and eyes are muscles, and the stronger your muscles, the better they function. Specifically, the stronger your heart, the easier it is for blood to be pumped throughout your body, including to your eyes. Research consistently shows walking 15-20 minutes a day, or even for 10 minutes after each meal, lowers your blood sugar and improves blood pressure.

3. Lose weight

Being obese, or even overweight has devastating effects on your health. In fact, even being slightly overweight adds additional stress to your heart, increases blood pressure, and contributes to nearly 30% of heart disease in the U.S.

4. Eat a heart and eye-healthy diet

Research shows us that eating a healthy diet prevents heart disease, lowers cholesterol, and helps maintain a healthy weight. 

A healthy diet means many things to many different folks, but at its core, a healthy diet focuses on eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and beans, while eating less saturated fat and avoiding processed foods at all costs.

You can get as specific and detailed with a “healthy” diet as you’d like but focusing on the essentials is the key to improved heart and vision health.

5. Reduce your stress

You’ve heard that stress kills, right? It can cause serious damage to your heart as well as your eyesight.

Some of the ways to reduce stress include exercise, yoga, meditation and deep breathing.

The connection between the health of your eyes and the health of your heart is just one example of how the health of one organ can affect the health of another and can be a key indicator of your overall health.

Make sure to schedule an annual eye exam with Dr Boyer and Dr Brian. It’s crucial in taking care of your overall health. 

Drboyeroptometrist.com

(909)596-6756  2443 Foothill LaVerne CA 91750 

(909) 982-0100  1637 Mountain Ave Upland CA 91784 

Preventing Sports-related eye injuries

 

Sports-related eye injuries are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year. The good news is that 90% of serious eye injuries could be prevented by wearing appropriate protective eyewear.

How to Prevent and Treat Sports Eye Injuries

Different activities and sports have different levels of risk for eye injury. Make sure that you’re using the right kind of eye protection for each activity. Regular eyeglasses do not offer proper eye protection and in some cases can make an injury worse if they shatter.

Be careful during activities or games involving projectiles and other sharp objects that could create injury if in contact with the eye.

If you have an eye injury call our office, even if the injury appears minor. Delaying medical attention can result in permanent vision loss or blindness.

What Sports Cause Eye Injuries?

Eye injuries can happen in almost any sport, but some sports are higher risk than others.

Basketball causes most sports eye injuries in the U.S.

One study found that basketball was the leading cause of sports-related eye injuries in the United States followed by basketball, softball, airsoft rifles, pellet guns, racquetball and hockey.

Protective sports glasses with shatterproof plastic, called polycarbonate lenses, should be worn for sports such as basketball, racquet sports, soccer and field hockey. Our office can help provide you with the ASTM  standard of eye protection.

Sports that require face masks or face shields for eye protection

In ice hockey and men’s lacrosse, wear a helmet with a polycarbonate face mask or wire shield. Hockey face masks should be approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

On-the-Field Visual Test Helps Diagnose Concussions in Athletes

About 3.8 million Americans sustain sports-related concussions each year. A quick, reliable screening test is useful on the sidelines to keep injured athletes from returning to play too soon. An on-the-field visual test (which consists of reading a series of printed numbers, and their responses were scored for accuracy and time) helps physicians better diagnose, treat and rehabilitate patients with concussions.

(909) 596-6756  2443 Foothill LaVerne CA 91750 

(909) 982-0100  1637 Mountain Ave Upland CA 91784

www.drboyeroptometrist.com

Emergencies

Ocular emergencies can happen in a heartbeat. Our doctors have treated numerous ocular emergencies in their years of optometric practice. An eye doctor is the best first contact for ocular emergencies.  Optometrists have specialized equipment and training to treat eye problems.  Urgent care centers are not well-equipped to deal with ocular emergencies.

Here at Dr Boyer Optometrist, the Doctors routinely treat ocular emergencies promptly, often on a walk-in or same-day basis.  Since emergency department visits can be costly, it also makes economic sense to see an eye doctor first.

Some eye conditions require seeing an eye doctor promptly.  These include:

Sudden loss or change of vision	Flashes of light
Severe eye pain	Seeing double
Eye trauma	Chemical splash
Foreign body in eye	Injuries from fireworks

(909) 596-6756  2443 Foothill LaVerne CA 91750

 (909) 982-0100  1637 Mountain Ave Upland CA 91784

 #drkennethboyerOD #drbrianboyerOD drboyeroptometrist.com

Diabetes and your eye exam

There are 30 million American adults living with diabetes. Another 84 million are living with prediabetes, yet 90% of them don’t know they have it. People living with diabetes or prediabetes face increased risk for glaucoma, cataracts, diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in working age adults. 

Blurry vision is often one of the first warning signs of diabetes. Your vision may be blurry because fluid is leaking into the lens of your eye. This makes the lens swell and change shape. Those changes make it hard for your eyes to focus, so things start to look fuzzy. If you have diabetes, you’re at increased risk for a variety of eye problems. It’s important to have regular checkups and eye exams. This should include a comprehensive eye exam, including dilation, every year.

Fortunately, we can effectively manage and even prevent diabetic eye disease with early detection and treatment. For those living with diabetes, an annual eye exam is a must – offering a simple way to prevent or delay disease and vision loss caused by diabetes. 

Dr’s Ken and Brian Boyer are specially trained and certified to treat and manage eye care for diabetics. Call for an appointment to receive an exam and treatment information today.
(909) 596-6756  2443 Foothill Blvd, La Verne, CA 91750 drboyeroptometrist.com 

What was wrong with Joe Biden's eye?

Many people were shocked to see Joe Biden's eye turn blood red during the last debate on CNN. It looked scary. What was that? Is he going to be OK? 

First: it was a subconjunctival hemorrhage. The conjunctiva is a thin clear tissue that covers the white part of the eye. There is a very thin space between the conjunctiva and the white part of the eye. If you get a bleed in that space, even just a few drops of blood, capillary action will cause the blood to spread to cover a large part of the eye. It looks scary! 

Second: Mr Biden should be ok. Subconjunctival hemorrhages are almost always idiopathic. That is we don't know why they happen and they're nothing to worry about: almost like a nose bleed. Rarely, they can be associated with high blood pressure. However, it is wise to have your eye doctor check your eye and be sure there is nothing more serious going on. If they're chronic in nature it would be smart to check your blood pressure.

Dr Boyer and Dr Brian can answer and help you with your concerns. Call for an appointment at Dr Boyer Optometrist