Whether you develop glaucoma depends on the amount of pressure your optic nerve can handle — and this amount is different for each person. For most people, eye pressure above 21 is higher than normal. Getting regular dilated eye exams can help your eye doctor figure out what level of eye pressure is normal for you.
Interocular pressure which is the pressure in your eyes is greater than 22 mm Hg it is considered higher than normal. This can cause ocular hypertension. While ocular hypertension is not an eye disease in itself, it is an indication that you could develop glaucoma (see symptoms).
Any patient with IOP above 40 mmHg should be considered at high risk and started on treatment to lower the IOP. [4] Others consider baseline IOP of >30 mmHg an indication to start treatment. Patients with an IOP of >28 mmHg and CDR of >0.6 require treatment due to the high risk of developing glaucoma.
stages: stage 0 (normal visual field), stage I (early), stage II (moderate), stage III (advanced), stage IV (severe), and stage V (end-stage).
If undetected and untreated, glaucoma first causes peripheral vision loss and eventually can lead to blindness. By the time you notice vision loss from glaucoma, it's too late.
Stage 4 (End-Stage) Glaucoma – This occurs when there is little to no healthy eye tissue left, and vision is increasingly limited. While blindness during end-stage glaucoma isn't a certainty, the risk is significantly elevated when this stage is reached.
Normal eye pressure ranges from 12-21 mm Hg, and eye pressure of greater than 21 mm Hg is considered higher than normal. When the IOP is higher than normal but the person does not show signs of glaucoma, this is referred to as ocular hypertension. High eye pressure alone does not cause glaucoma.
[15] Advanced glaucomas appear to need an IOP of <14 mmHg and preferably a mean of 12 mmHg with minimal fluctuations over time. For normal tension glaucoma, a fall in IOP of 30% from baseline has been shown to significantly reduce progression.
While the average eye pressure is approximately 15 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury), the range of normal eye pressure is much larger. About 90 percent of people will fall between a pressure of 10 and 21. Even so, this does not mean that if you have a pressure of 22 or higher it is abnormal.
In general, pressures of 20-30 mm Hg usually cause damage over several years, but pressures of 40-50 mm Hg can cause rapid visual loss and also precipitate retinovascular occlusion.
High trans fats have been proven to cause damage to the optic nerve. Time to cut out fried foods, baked goods and any product with an ingredient list that includes hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Saturated foods that include red meat, beef, lard, shortening and oils can also worsen glaucoma.
Absolutely. The aim of treating patients with glaucoma is for them to be able to maintain their quality of life and live as normally as possible. Patients with glaucoma have a normal life expectancy and, with treatment, can carry out activities as they did before diagnosis.
Maintaining a healthy weight, controlling your blood pressure, being physically active, and avoiding smoking will help you avoid vision loss from glaucoma. These healthy behaviors will also help prevent type 2 diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Even with treatment ,15% to 20% of patients become blind in at least one eye in 15 to 20 years of follow-up. In a recent study, Peters et al. found that at the last visit before death, 42.2% of treated patients were blind unilaterally and 16.4% bilaterally.
“Pressure is highest typically in the morning, when you're just waking up, and lowest in the afternoon,” says Johnson. “So if you have a 4:00 pm. appointment at the doctor's office, that particular pressure may be the lowest pressure you'll have that day.”
Determining Extent of Damage
For most clinicians today, that means obtaining objective structural data by scanning the retina and optic nerve using optical coherence tomography, as well as performing visual fields to get a more subjective measure of visual performance.
Central corneal thickness is a non-modifiable risk factor and the most robust factor in the development of glaucoma. It is the most significant fact in patients with high IOPs.
Blood pressure tends to downregulate during sleep hours in the early morning, which is also the time of day where IOP tends to be the highest.
With the eye's drainage channel completely blocked, eye pressure skyrockets in a very short amount of time. This spike often leads to intense, sudden pain in the eye that can even cause vomiting. The pain can further spread to the head, causing intermittent headaches.
Regular exercise may reduce eye pressure. Talk to your health care provider about an appropriate exercise program. Limit your caffeine. Drinking beverages with large amounts of caffeine may increase your eye pressure.
Whether you develop glaucoma depends on the amount of pressure your optic nerve can handle — and this amount is different for each person. For most people, eye pressure above 21 is higher than normal. Getting regular dilated eye exams can help your eye doctor figure out what level of eye pressure is normal for you.
Glaucoma is a slowly progressing problem. On an average, untreated Glaucoma takes around 10-15 years to advance from early damage to total blindness. With an IOP (Intraocular Pressure) of 21-25 mmHg it takes 15 yrs to progress, an IOP of 25-30 mmHg around seven years and pressure more than 30 mmHg takes three years.
At this time, there is no cure for glaucoma. However, with early detection and regular treatment from an eye doctor, glaucoma can usually be successfully managed to allow people living with glaucoma to live a normal, active life.