January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month

Known as the "silent sneak of sight" because it causes no pain or symptoms until it is in its late stages, glaucoma is a prevalent and devastating visual disease.

And there is only one way to make sure that you don't have it - see your eye doctor. Regularly. For most adults over the age of 30, that means at least annually. For people with eye diseases, more frequently.

People often mistakenly assume that if their eyeglass prescription hasn't changed, their vision is clear for driving and reading, and if their eyes aren't in pain, that everything must be healthy.

But glaucoma doesn't affect any of those things until the damage is rampant and irreversible. Instead, glaucoma "steals" sight from out side or peripheral vision, first in tiny spots, then in bigger chunks. What makes the loss of vision silent is that the losses don't appear black or gray so that you would notice them, but instead the vision losses are invisible, akin to being unable to see behind your head.

Doctors used to believe that glaucoma only involved high pressures inside the eye. But we now understand that there are several factors that can help to make the diagnosis. So simply getting your eye pressures measured isn't enough. 

The Glaucoma Research Foundation and American Academy of Ophthalmology are good resources. 

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If you are in the New York area, Shop VisiVite CEO Dr. Paul Krawitz, is a Fellowship-Trained Glaucoma Specialist who practices in Huntington, New York and teaches in New York City.