6 Facts to Know About Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a medical condition that causes some serious damage to your eye’s optic nerve and gets worse over time. Glaucoma is associated and caused by a build-up of pressure in the eyes. Since it is inherited, it may not show up in your for a long time and can cause problems after decades. The increased pressure in your eyes, called intraocular pressure, usually ends up damaging the optic nerve, which is needed to transmit images to the brain. When this damage continues for a long time and is not treated at early stages, you can lose your vision for good. No one is really sure what causes glaucoma, but less common causes include an injury in the eye that could be chemical or just blunt trauma, infections of the eye or a blockage of a blood vessel inside the eye, inflammatory conditions of the eye, and sometimes rarely surgeries in the eyes. Although Glaucoma can affect both your eyes, the problem in one eye can be more than the other. Here are some facts to know about Glaucoma.
1. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the later stages
When it is left untreated, it can cause blindness. This blindness is not curable and your vision is lost for good.
2. There is no cure (yet) for glaucoma
Getting diagnosed for glaucoma is the first and most important step you can take to treat Glaucoma. You can try and halt further loss of vision with medication and surgery, but since open- angle Glaucoma is a chronic condition you may have to monitor it for life.
3. Everyone is at risk for glaucoma
There is not specific age group that is at high risk for Glaucoma. Although senior people are more susceptible to it, there are a lot of babies that are born with it. A recent survey shows that one out of every ten thousand kids born in the country suffer from Glaucoma. Young adults too can get glaucoma.
