Blog Archive
Age ushers in many changes, including changes in our eyesight. While some of those changes are a normal part of aging, other changes can be a sign of a more serious underlying problem that needs prompt medical attention. Knowing when to seek treatment is the key to avoiding complications that...
Diabetes affects nearly 39 million Americans — almost 12% of the entire population of the United States — and every one of those individuals is also at risk of developing vision complications due to their disease. Knowing how diabetes affects your eyes is a key component for ensuring you take...
Vision problems affect millions of Americans. In fact, data show that about 5% of adults and almost 7% of kids have a diagnosed vision issue, including problems severe enough to take a toll on everyday activities at work, school, and social activities. Fortunately, most vision problems can be corrected or...
If you have cataracts, you have plenty of company: According to data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, more than 20 million Americans aged 40 and older have at least one cataract, which means most of those individuals are experiencing at least some degree of vision loss or other problems...
We depend on our eyesight for all sorts of activities, from the moment we wake up until we finally go to sleep at night. Many of us hardly give our eyes a second thought until we notice vision problems. Unfortunately, vision loss is a common problem for millions of Americans,...
Most parents expect their children to inherit physical characteristics, like eye shape, hair color, or even the way they smile. Seeing yourself reflected in your child can be a source of pride and joy — but one thing you don’t want to pass on is a medical problem, like a...
Itchy eyes aren’t just annoying — they can be a sign of an underlying problem that won’t get better without medical treatment. Understanding the causes of itchy eyes can help you decide when it’s time to call the office for an appointment. At Long Island Ophthalmic Concepts, our team offers...
Most of us know exercise offers lots of benefits for our cardiovascular health, our weight, and, of course, our muscles. But far fewer understand the impact regular physical activity has on our eye health and vision. At Long Island Ophthalmic Concepts, our team knows lifestyle habits can play a critical...
Nearly 40 million Americans have diabetes, which means they’re all at risk of developing complications that can seriously affect their health. Most people with diabetes understand the importance of regular checkups with their primary care doctor, but they may not know that regular eye exams are also critically important. The...
Almost 20 million Americans — roughly 8% of the population — have vision problems, including permanent vision loss. While vision loss affects people of all ages, it’s especially common among older people; in fact, people over age 65 have about three times the risk of vision loss compared with younger...
Many people know high blood sugar is bad for your kidneys and overall health. But many people don’t know that elevated glucose levels can damage your eyes, too. In fact, people with diabetes have a significantly higher risk of vision problems, along with several distinct eye diseases known collectively as...
About 3 million Americans have glaucoma, a group of diseases that damages the optic nerve and causes permanent loss of vision. Globally, glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness. Glaucoma damages the optic nerve located at the back of your eye. Once damaged, this nerve no longer transmits complete vision...
Cataract surgery is the most common surgery performed worldwide, with about 60,000 procedures performed each day. About 4 million cataract surgeries are performed annually in the United States alone. One reason why it’s so common: Millions of people have cataracts. In fact, it’s estimated that by age 75, roughly half...
Clear, crisp vision is essential for many activities, but if you’re farsighted, your vision can be altered, sometimes dramatically. Farsightedness affects millions of Americans, making it difficult to see objects close up, which means it can be hard to read, use a computer or phone, or do other tasks that...
Millions of Americans suffer from vision problems and eye diseases. If you’re one of the lucky people with good vision and healthy eyes, that doesn’t mean it’s OK to ignore your eyes entirely. In fact, having regular eye exams is important for maintaining your eye health and vision, especially as...
Now you see it, now you … kind of see it. That’s the effect you get with floaters, tiny specks or squiggles that dart across your vision, slipping to one side when you try to focus on them directly. Most of us have experienced floaters at some point, especially when...
More than 37 million Americans have diabetes, including nearly 9 million people who don’t even know they have it. Without proper management, diabetes can cause many serious medical problems, including problems with your vision. In fact, diabetes has been linked with several serious eye diseases, including cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic macular...
About 3 million Americans suffer from glaucoma, the second most common cause of blindness worldwide. Because it causes few symptoms early on, you may not even know you have glaucoma until you start to experience vision problems. Glaucoma is associated with risk factors or things that make you more likely...
Many people think cataracts are an eye problem affecting only older seniors, but that’s not true. While cataracts do become a lot more common as we get older, they can start forming much earlier. In fact, the American Academy of Ophthalmology reports that nearly 25 million Americans aged 40 and...
About 16 million Americans suffer from dry eye and the uncomfortable symptoms it causes. But dry eye isn’t just uncomfortable — it can also increase your risk of corneal damage and vision loss, so treating it should be a priority. With offices in Bellmore, Great Neck, and Huntington, New York, Long Island Ophthalmic Concepts, offers...
Regular eye exams might not seem like a big deal if your vision is fine. But those exams are very important for helping maintain good vision, especially as you get older. In fact, about 93 million American adults are at high risk of “serious vision loss,” according to the CDC...
When was your last eye exam? You may think your eyes are healthy since you don’t have any eye symptoms that bother you. That’s not always the case. Glaucoma is an eye disease that often has no symptoms until an advanced stage, and your vision gets compromised. Because open-angle glaucoma,...
Improve Your Vision And Address Impeding Cataracts With Multifocal Implants! Our eyes have natural lenses within, which the lens bends light rays to help us see our best. A healthy lens is clear, but when someone has developed cataracts, the lens becomes cloudy. If you’ve ever driven with dirty glasses...
Dry Eyes Disrupt Your Life And Can Be Extremely Frustrating To Manage — Find Solutions For Your Dry Eyes Today! Dry eyes can be both temporary and chronic, but they really begin to affect your quality of life when the symptoms just don’t seem to resolve on their own. You’re...
Dry Eye Syndrome Affects Many People Beyond Just The Occasional Day Or Two Of Irritated Eyes. Learn More About The Reasons Behind Dry Eyes. Dry eyes can be so frustrating, especially when it becomes a chronic issue. The irritation alone can dramatically affect your quality of life — it becomes...
Too Much Exposure To UV Light Impacts Our Eye Health, So It’s Important To Protect Your Eyes From The Sun’s Rays While Basking In Everything The Summer Has To Offer. When it comes to sun safety, we know how important applying sunscreen is at combating harmful UVA and UVB rays,...
Visual Skills Support Your Eye Health As An Athlete — Get More Of Them Here Today! In part one, we began our exploration of visual skills and how visual acuity, hand-eye-body movement, eye tracking, visual concentration and more give us a competitive advantage as athletes and fitness enthusiasts! Ready to...
Healthy Eyes Are Vital How We Navigate Our Days, But Can It Enhance Our Athletic Performance? Consider the health and wellness industry for a moment, what comes to mind? Do you conjure images of weight loss products or supplements and powders to help you build muscles? The supplement aisle is...
Successful Diabetes Management Is Completely Tangible — Find Information About Diabetic Eye Conditions And How To Better Manage Your Eye Health When Living With Diabetes. In part one, we examined what diabetes is and how it affects our eye health. We began a discussion on diabetic retinopathy, which we’ll continue,...
Managing And Controlling Type 2 Diabetes Is Vital For Optimal Eye Health! Eye health is a vital part of managing diabetes because unchecked blood sugar levels — the severe highs and dramatic lows — are damaging to the eyes. When left unmanaged over time, any one from a group of...
Are There Any Risks To Taking Nutritional Supplements Like Zinc To Help Prevent The Effects On Aging On My Vision? We all know, usually from experience, that just because something is good for us in a small amount, it does not necessarily follow that more of it will be even...
Can Taking Nutritional Supplements Like Lutein Help Prevent Or Delay Cataracts And Macular Degeneration? Lutein is often referred to as “the eye vitamin.” It is actually a carotenoid, which along with zeaxanthin, form the yellow pigment of the retina. It is in their role as antioxidants that it is believed they filter...
Are There Treatment Options Other Than Surgery For Glaucoma? We may all be extremely different in lots and lots of ways, but there are some things that we pretty much all agree on. No one likes to go the dentist. And, no one likes to try and hold still while...
What Causes Cataracts And What Are The Early Signs? One of the more memorable quotes from silver screen legend Bette Davis is “Old Age Isn’t for Sissies!” Unfortunately, the truth in that statement gets clearer with each passing year. Diet, exercise and advances in medicine are increasing longevity and adding...
What Have We Learned About Patient Satisfaction After Decades Of LASIK Cases? If you wear glasses or contact lenses and have thought about getting rid of them or if you have an astigmatism that you would like to have corrected, chances are you’ve heard of the LASIK procedure. Laser-assisted in situ...
Does It Really Matter If You Leave Contact Lenses In Longer Than The Prescribed Wearing Time? The earliest versions of contact lenses were made of very thin glass. Think about that for a moment: a small piece of glass was placed directly on the eye. If you have any imagination...
Are There Different Kinds Of Conjunctivitis? Conjunctivitis, or the more common “pink eye”, may be a relatively common condition but it is one that we all dread. This is especially true for parents. It is so common in pre-school and elementary school children that it is expected to strike all...
What Is Presbyopia And How Do I Know If I Have It? There are a lot of things that we can do to prepare for growing older. We can follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Paying attention to our finances to make sure that there will be adequate funds...
Can Staring Too Long At My Computer Or Phone Screen Cause My Eyes To Dry Out? Judging by all the things that are blamed on current screen time practices, you might think that this fairly recent phenomena is the root of most of our problems. It would be nice if...
Can My Child’s Lazy Eye Be Corrected? Amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye”, is partial or complete loss of vision in one eye due to conditions that prevent normal development. In amblyopia, the brain favors one eye and, basically, ignores the other, leading to lack of stimulation and maturity in...
What Can Be Done For A Drooping Eyelid? There are many conditions that can affect vision and these change as we age. Not all of these come from problems with the eye, itself. With aging, the skin begins to lose its elasticity. Eyelids stretch as the muscles supporting them weaken...
Is It True That I Can Wear Soft Contacts Even If I Have An Astigmatism? It increasingly seems like the world is changing faster than we can keep up. Cars are driving themselves, nano robots are delivering chemotherapy to specific sites in the body and Elon Musk believes his hyperloop...
Why Do They Only Do Surgery On One Eye At A Time When You Have Cataract Surgery? As we age, most people are resigned to the fact that there is a good chance that, sooner or later, they will have to deal with cataracts. That seems to be a fair assumption....
Can astigmatism be corrected with refractive surgery? Astigmatism, a common type of refractive error, can be the result of disease or injury but is most often a natural occurrence that most individuals are born with to some degree or other. Refraction is the result of light being bent as it...
Can nutritional supplements reduce the risk of AMD? AMD, which stands for age-related macular degeneration, is the leading cause of vision loss in those over 50. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) nearly 2 million people currently suffer from AMD and more than three times that many are...
Can I Improve My Vision Without Surgery? If you’re like most people, you are fascinated by the idea of Ortho-K lenses since they actually correct your vision overnight. Imagine how freeing it would be not to need eyeglasses or contact lenses during the day! Although Ortho-K lenses have been around...
Am I At Risk For Diabetic Retinopathy? Diabetes is a serious medical problem, not just here in the United States, but worldwide. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly one-and-a-half million Americans are newly diagnosed with diabetes every year as a result of dietary changes and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle....
Q: What Treatment Options Exist For Age-Related Macular Degeneration? “I’d rather stick needles in my eyes”. Long before Jack Nicholson uttered that memorable line in the 1983 movie Terms of Endearment, the idea of sticking a needle in the eye made most people uncomfortable if not downright squeamish. That same...
A recent study found timely cataract surgery resulted in a 40% mortality risk reduction compared with no surgery. The results suggest that correcting visual impairment caused by cataracts has health benefits beyond merely improving eyesight. The findings also support previous research showing a link between visual impairment and increased mortality...
Did you know that one out of four children have a vision disorder that interferes with their ability to learn? Many of these children struggle in school as discouraged students who are unable to meet the expectations of parents and teachers.A standard eye exam does not always test a child’s...
Macular Degeneration is a progressive ocular disease that causes people to lose central vision. Risk factors include smoking, sun exposure, poor nutrition and family history. For the last ten years, it has been scientifically proven that vitamin supplements can decrease the progression of Macular degeneration and prolong the onset. Supplements...