You may have heard that medical marijuana is sometimes used by glaucoma patients. When most people in the United States think of marijuana, many different images, words, and opinions come to mind. Marijuana, or cannabis, is known for its psychoactive effects and medicinal properties caused by a chemical within the plant called tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC. Marijuana is most commonly recognized as a recreational drug and is subject to many legal restrictions ranging from its use, to possession of certain amounts of the plant product.
Continue reading “Medical Marijuana and Glaucoma: Does It Help?”
Everyone who suffers from migraine headaches wants to know how to prevent their next migraine. Recent strong research has resulted in guidelines for doctors to help prevent their patients’ future migraines, including the use of herbs, vitamins and minerals. The guidelines make recommendations for specific types of patients, such as patients with certain other conditions, obese patients, new migraine patients, and pregnant/lactating women.
Guest Blogger, Richard Keane
As people age, eye diseases and conditions that commonly occur include macular degeneration, cataracts, vitreous tears/retinal tears and detachments, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, dry eyes, and eye floaters.
The obesity epidemic may have an impact on the health of the eyes. While scientific studies do not seem to have found a direct link between obesity and eye disease, maintaining a healthy weight supports your overall health and helps prevent diseases that can harm the eyes. Here’s why.
Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has been found guilty of fraud in the way it reported research on, or marketed, on 3 of its medications in the largest settlement against a drug company in US history–$3 billion. The issues involved 10 drugs, and included marketing “off-label” use of the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbitrin and the asthma drug Advair, and not reporting all the safety data for the diabetes drug Avandia.
Want to reduce your risk of glaucoma? Stay physically active. A study in the Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science Journal showed that higher levels of activity seems to have a beneficial impact on ocular perfusion pressure (OPP). OPP is a crucial risk factor for developing glaucoma.
A pilot study published in Phytotherapy Research compared curcumin – derived from natural turmeric – with the drug diclofenac for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Natural curcumin actually reduced RA symptoms even better than the RA drug diclofenac: a 44% reduction in symptoms on the Disease Activity Score and the American College of Rheumatology criteria for reduction of swelling and tenderness of joins. Patients receiving diclofenac had a 42% reduction.
A research study published in Archives of Ophthalmology showed that ingesting omega-3 fatty acids and fish affects the incidence of AMD (age-related macular degeneration, or ARMD) in women. This large study (nearly 40,000 participants) over 10 years found that women who had the highest of intake of Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid) had the lowest risk of AMD versus subjects with the lowest intake. Women who ate at least one serving of fish per week had a relative risk of AMD of 0.58 compared with women who ate less than one serving per month.
A recent UK research study shows that 40% of all cancers are caused by avoidable lifestyle considerations, such as diet, excess weight, smoking, and/or alcohol consumption. Tobacco use was shown to cause the most cancers.