April 20, 2012 — Caffeine can increase tear production and may someday be a treatment for dry eye, a new study shows.

The study was small, including only 78 people with normal tear production, says researcher Reiko Arita, MD, PhD, a clinical researcher at the University of Tokyo School of Medicine and an associate professor at Keio University in Japan.

She also found those with certain genetic variations had more tears in their response to caffeine. These variations differ among ethnic groups.

“However,” she says, “I suppose a third to a half of the population has the possibility to respond to caffeine.”

The study is published in the journal Ophthalmology.

About 5% of the U.S. population has dry eye syndrome, usually over the age of 50, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Those who have it are not able to maintain a healthy layer of tears to coat the eye. The eyes can sting and burn.

Treatments include wetting drops or artificial tears, lubricating ointments, hot compresses, and prescription medicine to increase tear production.

For most people, moderate amounts of caffeine is not harmful, according to the National Institutes of Health. However, too much caffeine can make you restless, anxious, and irritable. It may also keep you from sleeping well and cause headaches, abnormal heart rhythms, or other problems. If you stop using caffeine, you could get withdrawal symptoms.

Some people are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine than others and should limit their use of caffeine. So should pregnant and nursing women. Certain drugs and supplements may interact with caffeine.

Caffeine for Dry Eye: Study Details

In earlier research, Arita found that caffeine users were less likely to get dry eye. “Actually, this study was started because a patient with dry eye told me that his eyes were more comfortable when he had a cup of coffee after lunch than without having a cup of coffee,” Arita says.

Women are more likely than men to have dry eye, as are older people. Certain medicines as well as laser eye surgery can increase the risk of getting dry eye.

Arita also knew caffeine was likely to stimulate tear glands, since it also increases saliva, digestive juices, and other secretions.

It’s also known that people differ in their response to caffeine, depending on their DNA. Arita’s team analyzed the DNA of everyone in the study. They looked at two genetic variations that affect caffeine metabolism.

None of the men or women had dry eye, eye allergies, or other problems. They participated in two sessions, separated by six days or less. In one, they took either a caffeine capsule or a placebo, which looked the same.

The amount of caffeine given depended on a person’s weight; those who weighed 127 to 165 pounds, for instance, got a 400 milligram caffeine capsule. One 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine.

During the second session, they were given the other capsule.

Arita’s team measured the total volume of tears. Everyone had more tears after taking the caffeine capsule than the placebo. Some participants reported caffeine side effects such as increased heart rate, sweating, trembling, palpitations, and wakefulness.

Those who had the genetic variations had higher tear production than those who didn’t.

Arita can’t explain yet exactly why caffeine appears to boost tear volume.

Caffeine for Dry Eye: Perspective

The idea could have merit but needs much more research, says Pedram Hamrah, MD, attending physician and surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.

He reviewed the findings but did not take part in the study.

“All they are showing is in a normal person who doesn’t have dry eye, if you give them caffeine they have some increase in tear production right after,” he says. It’s not certain if the effect lasts, Hamrah says.

Most who have dry eye also have a high rate of tear evaporation, he says. The caffeine research doesn’t address that.

Hamrah reports serving as a consultant for ReVision Optics, Allergan, Alcon, and Fovea Pharmaceuticals.

“It is logical that caffeine might stimulate tear production in many individuals,” says Marguerite McDonald, MD, an ophthalmologist in Lynbrook, N.Y., and a clinical professor of ophthalmology at NYU Langone Medical Center. She also reviewed the findings.

The increased tear production is linked to certain genetic markers, she says. This explains why some people have a reaction to caffeine and others have little response. The research “may lead us to new medical therapies for dry eye,” says McDonald, who is also an adjunct clinical professor of ophthalmology at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

McDonald reports consultant work for Allergan, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, and Abbott.

Copyright ©2009, WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved

MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) — Women who consume fish regularly — and the abundance of omega-3 fatty acids found in that meal choice — have a lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), new research suggests.

This latest evidence of a protective link between fish oil and eye health mirrors past research that has found the same benefit. In this study, Harvard researchers performed a dietary analysis on more than 38,000 women.

“Our observational data needs to be confirmed in randomized trials,” cautioned study author William G. Christen, an associate professor with the division of preventive medicine in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“But already the message seems to be simple and strong,” Christen added. “Fish oil, that is the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, that have long been thought to be protective against cardiovascular disease may also be of significant benefit in the primary prevention of AMD among women who have no disease or have undetected early signs of disease, and have not yet been diagnosed with AMD.”

Christen and his colleagues report on their research, which was funded partly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in the March 14 online edition of the Archives of Ophthalmology. The study will also appear in the June print issue of the journal.

The authors noted that about 9 million U.S. adults over the age of 40 have experienced some degree of AMD. Most have an early-stage form of the disease, while about 1.7 million have the advanced stage of illness that results in a serious loss of vision.

To date, there is no recognized method, aside from advising patients not to smoke cigarettes, to prevent or slow the onset of AMD among those who do not have the disease or only display the symptoms of early illness.

To explore how diet might function as a prevention tool, the investigators examined tens of thousands of food questionnaires completed by female health professionals who were enrolled in a heart disease and cancer prevention trial called the Women’s Health Study.

No men were included in the study. All of the participants were in their 40s at the time of enrollment in 1993, and none had AMD at the study’s start.

Eye health was also tracked over the course of a decade, during which time 235 women developed AMD.

The team observed that older women were more likely to consume higher amounts of both omega-3 fatty acids (which include docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), as well as omega-6 fatty acids (which include arachidonic acid and linoleic acid).

Those who consumed the greatest amount of one or both omega-3 fatty acids (DHA, EPA) were found to have a 38 percent lower risk of developing AMD compared with those women who consumed the least.

Specifically, women who ate one or more servings of fish every week had a 42 percent lower risk of AMD than those who consumed fish just once a month or less, the study found.

Most of the lower risk was linked to fish diets composed mainly of canned tuna and dark-meat fish, the researchers noted.

Although the authors uncovered a suggestion that higher consumption of one of the omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid) might actually boost the risk for AMD, that link was not deemed significant.

Christen and his associates concluded that their findings are “the strongest evidence to date” that omega-3 fatty acids protect against the onset of AMD.

Dr. David M. Kleinman, an associate professor and retina specialist with the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., described the findings as “unsurprising, but very helpful.”

“All scientists are going to say they need more research,” he noted. “But this is great data, and it’s supportive enough for me to already say to my patients, ‘Eat fish. Or almonds.’ Because realistically, we’re talking about an intervention that has very little risk, and is something that we believe is really good for the eye.”

More information

For more on age-related macular degeneration, visit the U.S. National Eye Institute.

Thanks to Tracey Oliver C.O.T. @ Advanced Eye Centers who shared this article with us.

Katie Piper suffered third degree burns when a former boyfriend arranged for acid to be thrown in her face.

She lost sight in one eye, but following treatment by doctors at the Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead, it has been restored.

She said prior to her operation her sight was like “being underwater”.

Ms Piper, 28, has had nearly 100 operations to treat damage done to her face in the attack in 2008.

But doctors held out little hope of her sight being restored after the acid burned into her cornea and left a scar across it.

However, experts took tissue from an anonymous donor, grew it and then stitched it into her damaged eye.

‘Scared and vulnerable’

She said: ”I can see silhouettes, I can judge depth, I can see movement, I can see shapes -

if someone holds their hand up I can see how many fingers they are holding up.

”I would say the most significant thing about restoring my sight is I can be more independent if I have operations on my good eye.”

A Channel 4 documentary team followed Ms Piper as she underwent the surgery.

She said: ”Of all my injuries, it’s the damage to my left eye that has the most impact.

“The hardest part is not being able to see anything on one side. In crowded places it leaves me feeling scared and vulnerable.”

Eye specialist Sheraz Daya, who treated Ms Piper, said: “We had these cells manufactured by the eye bank in East Grinstead and we transplanted them on to Katie’s eye.

“The fascinating thing about all this is while we’re taking tissue from somebody who died, in the long term what we have found is that there’s no DNA from that individual.

“So we expect, in Katie’s case, all the cells that we’ve transplanted to be dissolved and for them to be replaced by Katie’s tissue.”

More on This Story

Zephyr Under Armour E39-Shirt

Want to empower consumers to improve healthcare and their own health status? Build a Tricorder and convince youngsters to “be like Mike.”

Those were the takeaways from a high-level session featuring Dr. Leslie Saxon of the University of Southern California Center for Body Computing and Qualcomm’s Don Jones at the third annual Digital Health Summit at 2012 International CES last week in Las Vegas.

Saxon, a cardiologist who is executive director of the USC Center for Body Computing, said that researchers are readying results from a study of wireless monitors on pro and college football players that revealed previously undetected conditions in elite athletes. “If the NFL monitored the heart rate of all players, they’d end up benching 30 percent of them,” Saxon declared.

That doesn’t mean that nearly a third of National Football League players have heart conditions, just that sometimes they overexert themselves, according to Saxon. This could easily be applied to children and weekend warriors, too, through the sensor-equipped apparel that athletic clothing maker Under Armour supplied for the NFL’s annual scouting combine.

Under Armour is a popular brand already. Adding sensors to clothing sold to the general public could spark a revolution of sorts.

“Kids won’t just want to wear Michael Jordan’s sneakers,” Saxon said. “You’re getting them to wear sensors to ‘be like Mike.’”

Saxon recalled how she and her sisters persuaded their mother to quit smoking in the 1970s, after information started coming out that smoking was bad for health. A similar thing could happen with health information in the near future, and it could help with early detection of potentially fatal conditions. “Many of these problems are occurring asymptomatically, where the first symptom is death,” she said.

Add in a gaming element, and more people will want to be involved in collecting health information to promote wellness, according to Saxon, “I think a lot of what will happen with health in the home will happen with children who get engaged with health information,” she said.

Saxon, who has pushed for multidisciplinary collaboration among various USC departments, reported that a USC film student came up with the idea of applying the Farmville concept to blood to encourage blood testing among certain patient populations. The school’s engineering department then built a prototype game called Vampire Rancher.

“You’re suddenly sitting on all this amazing research data” when people start getting engaged in health through gaming. This leads to the “monetization of data,” according to Saxon. And when that happens, healthcare payers will start to take notice.

“If you can aggregate things together, then you can do something,” said session moderator Jones, vice president of wireless health, global strategy and market development at Qualcomm.

“In some cases, the business model is the Kindle model, where you order supplies with the device,” Jones added.

“The Tricorder really is the pinnacle of the concept,” Jones explained. That idea, based on the fictional Tricorder device from the original 1960s “Star Trek” series, is a handheld device that can diagnose medical conditions as well as any physician.

As MobiHealthNews has reported, Qualcomm has funded the Tricorder X Prize competition.

What else can you do to fight skin creases? Here’s a look at science-based strategies that help keep your skin looking young and healthy:

Find out which foods protect your skin from damage.

Swap coffee for cocoa.

Dietary flavonoids called epicatechin and catechin, found in cocoa, help keep blood vessels elastic, raising nourishing flow to both the skin and internal organs. A German study published in Journal of Nutrition found that after three months, women who drank an epicatechin-rich cocoa drink daily not only had smoother skin, but were also more resistant to sun damage (with less redness and scaling when their skin was exposed to UV light).

Sleep on your back.

Ironically, beauty sleep can actually increase wrinkles. Over the years, habitually snoozing on your side or belly, with your face mashed into the pillow, gradually etches “sleep lines” that eventually become permanent. According to a study published in Scandinavian Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery, side sleeping contributes to more wrinkling of the cheeks and chin, while slumbering facedown furrows the brow. Sleeping on your back prevents sleep lines or may even reverse the problem. Getting enough Z’s spurs release of a “youth hormone” called human growth hormone, leading to thicker, healthier skin and fewer lines, says Nicholas Perricone, MD, author of The Wrinkle Cure.

Wear sunscreen—even when driving.

Ever wonder why age spots are most likely to sprout on the left side of the face? Many people don’t realize that UVA rays, the culprits in most wrinkling, easily penetrate car windows, even on cloudy days, accelerating such signs of aging as brown spots and creases on the left side of the driver’s face. The best defense is using broad-spectrum SPF30 sunscreen every day, even in the winter, since the sun’s damaging rays are the number one cause of wrinkles. If you drive frequently, you may also want to invest in tinted car windows, which help block UVA.

The Best Facial Moisturizers on the Market.

Eat more fish and soy.

Salmon, tuna, mackerel and other cold-water fish are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which nourish skin and help keep it smooth, glowing and youthful. Other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which also help protect against heart disease and stroke, include walnuts, flaxseed oil, and canola oil. Another age-defying food is soy: A 2009 study also found that consuming an isoflavones-rich soy supplement reduced skin wrinkling and increased collagen in 86 percent of the women studied, after just six months of daily use.

Avoid squinting—and get your vision checked.

A common cause of crow’s feet and bunny lines on the nose is overworking the facial muscles, creates grooves that turn into wrinkles.  The underlying problem is often presbyopia, age-related vision changes that affect almost everyone after age 40—and if you get reading glasses soon enough, it could help relax lines that are starting to form from straining to read fine print. It’s also crucial to wear sunglasses outdoors, both to reduce squinting and to protect skin around the eyes from sun damage.

Get the beauty sleep you need for a youthful glow. Follow these ten natural tips for better sleep.

Terminator-style info-vision takes step towards reality

The streaming of real-time information across your field of vision is a step closer to reality with the development of a prototype contact lens that could potentially provide the wearer with hands-free information updates.

In a study published today in IOP’s Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, researchers constructed a computerised contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes. There were no signs of adverse side effects.

At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel but the researchers see this as a “proof-of-concept” for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right before your eyes.

The device could overlay computer-generated visual information on to the real world and be of use in gaming devices and navigation systems. It could also be linked to biosensors in the user’s body to provide up-to-date information on glucose or lactate levels.

The contact lens, created by researchers at the University of Washington and Aalto University, Finland, consisted of an antenna to harvest power sent out by an external source, as well as an integrated circuit to store this energy and transfer it to a transparent sapphire chip containing a single blue LED.

One major problem the researchers had to overcome was the fact that the human eye, with its minimum focal distance of several centimetres, cannot resolve objects on a contact lens. Any information projected on to the lens would probably appear blurry.

To combat this, the researchers incorporated a set of Fresnel lenses into the device; these are much thinner and flatter than conventional bulky lenses, and were used here to focus the projected image on to the retina.

After testing the contact lens in free space, it was fitted to the eye of a rabbit, under the strict guidelines for animal use in the laboratory, to evaluate the effect of wearing the contact lens on the cornea and the body in general. In addition to visualising techniques, a fluorescent dye was added to the eye of the rabbit to test for any abrasion or thermal burning.

After demonstrating the operation and safety of the contact, the researchers state that significant improvements are necessary to produce fully functional, remotely powered, high-resolution displays. For instance, the device could be wirelessly powered in free space from approximately one metre away, but this was reduced to about two centimetres when placed on the rabbit’s eye.

Co-author of the study, Professor Babak Praviz, said “We need to improve the antenna design and the associated matching network and optimize the transmission frequency to achieve an overall improvement in the range of wireless power transmission.

“Our next goal, however, is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens.”

More information: ‘A single-pixel wireless contact lens display’, Lingley A R et al 2011 J. Micromech. Microeng. 21 125014 http://iopscience. … 21/12/125014

Provided by Institute of Physics (news : web)

Versace 3151 frames Photo: Devon Jarvis

The right specs can be your best beauty asset. See how to pick the best glasses for your face shape.

Widen an Oval Face

Skinny rims can make a narrow mug seem stern. To soften things up, choose glasses with extra deep rims, so they cover more real estate. “Opt for frames that go just beyond temples. The added width will help fill out a sharp face,” says Larry Leight, founder and creative director of Oliver Peoples in Los Angeles.

Mosaic-like Versace 3151 frames transform square into sexy. Versace frames starting at $115; Yahoo! Shopping.

The Fillmore in Whiskey Tortoise by Warby Parker Photo: Devon Jarvis

Downplay a High Forehead

An elongated upper deck can look stark, especially if you want to wear a slicked-back ‘do. Rather than resigning yourself to a lifetime of bangs, try frames that sit high up on your face and cover your eyebrows, Leight suggests. They will help close the distance between the top of the frames and your hairline.

Project low-key glam with The Fillmore frames in Whiskey Tortoise by Warby Parker. $95 with lenses; WarbyParker.com

DKNY 5623 Frames Photo: Devon Jarvis

Soften a Strong Jaw

If a prominent chin is drawing focus away from your brilliant baby blues, browns or greens, pick up frames with rounded curves or embellished rims, preferably accented with a bright color or detail along the brow line. Steer clear of spectacles with hard 90-degree angles; they’ll emphasize the pointiness of a chiseled jawbone.

Slip on delicate DKNY 5623 glasses for a flash of femininity. DKNY frames starting at $87; Yahoo! Shopping.

Ray-Ban 5244 frames Photo: Devon Jarvis

Beef Up Disappearing Brows

Fake fuller brows and direct all eyes to your face by getting brow-line-style frames. The specs feature a thick plastic top line or have gradient shading. (The color of the rims fades from dark at the top to light on the bottom.) Choose frames that mimic the contours of your brow bone to bring even more attention to your peepers.

Vintage-inspired Ray-Ban 5244 frames are effortlessly hip. Starting at $100 on Yahoo! Shopping.

Fall River Location pictured provided by Dr. Lori B. Michaud, O.D.

We have ALL done it…driven by that Big Blue Victorian Building right off the rotary and watched it being built…sitting there vacant…waiting for it to become occupied, wondering…

“What is that going to be?”

THE WAIT IS OVER!
We are
Advanced Eye Centers, Inc.!

Join us on Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 10am-Noon for our GRAND OPENING!

It will be an exciting morning with a Live Broadcast from Neil White of Fun 107.1 FM!

Here’s your chance to get to know our Doctors and our chance to offer you extra money-saving specials!

Schedule a free LASIK Evaluation!

Check our Optical Shop and ALL its brand name selections!

Refreshments will be provided and there will be lots of prizes, discounts, giveaways & an Optical Shop Trunk Show!

We look forward to meeting you!

Several reports indicate that prolonged viewing of mobile devices and other stereo 3D devices leads to visual discomfort, fatigue and even headaches. According to a new Journal of Vision study, the root cause may be the demand on our eyes to focus on the screen and simultaneously adjust to the distance of the content.

Scientifically referred to as vergence-accommodation, this conflict and its effect on viewers of stereo 3D displays are detailed in a recent Journal of Vision article, The Zone of Comfort: Predicting Visual Discomfort with Stereo Displays.

“When watching stereo 3D displays, the eyes must focus – that is, accommodate – to the distance of the screen because that’s where the light comes from. At the same time, the eyes must converge to the distance of the stereo content, which may be in front of or behind the screen,” explains author Martin S. Banks, professor of optometry and vision science, University of California, Berkeley.

Through a series of experiments on 24 adults, the research team observed the interaction between the viewing distance and the direction of the conflict, examining whether placing the content in front of or behind the screen affects viewer discomfort. The results demonstrated that with devices like mobile phones and desktop displays that are viewed at a short distance, stereo content placed in front of the screen – appearing closer to the viewer and into the space of viewer’s room – was less comfortable than content placed behind the screen. Conversely, when viewing at a longer distance such as a movie theater screen, stereo content placed behind the screen – appearing as though the viewer is looking through a window scene behind the screen – was less comfortable.

“Discomfort associated with viewing Stereo 3D is a major problem that may limit the use of technology,” says Banks. “We hope that our findings will inspire more research in this area.”

The team of investigators suggests future studies focus on a larger sample in order to develop population-based statistics that include children. With the explosion of stereo 3D imagery in entertainment, communication and medical technology, the authors also propose guidelines be established for the range of disparities presented on such displays and the positioning of viewers relative to the display.

“This is an area of research where basic science meets application and we hope that the science can proceed quickly enough to keep up with the increasingly widespread use of the technology,” adds Banks.

Source:
Katrina Norfleet
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology