On December 21, 2010, Mr. Karl Jantzen established The Jantzen Fund for Vision Care at the Association for the Blind to help the needy with vision issues. This fund honors Mr. Jantzen’s mother and father by funding basic needs of those with imminent vision problems; eye exams, glasses and prescription medications. Mr. Jantzen, a former board member of the Association for the Blind, asked that each recipient of these funds receive his best wishes and love.

With holiday spirit in the air, Association for the Blind Development Director Stephanie Johnson notes that “This came as the perfect year-end holiday gift! We have encountered more heartbreaking need than ever this year, especially due to the economy. For the Jantzen family to help people obtain often unaffordable vision care is such a great way to memorialize loved ones and get in the holiday giving mood.”

AFTB conducts ReFocus mobile outreach eye care clinics, which offers free eye exams and glasses to underserved and uninsured community members onsite at homeless shelters, free medical clinics and other tri-county area outreach agencies serving over 1,000 medically indigent in the last year. “Preservation of vision is critical for self-sufficiency,” said Mr. Jantzen.

The Association for the Blind is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that serves and supports people with visual needs. For more information about creating your own fund to help those with vision needs or to help with other AFTB programs, visit www.aftbsc.org or contact Stephanie Johnson at 843-723-6915 or sjohnson@aftbsc.org.

Who is at risk for glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a group of diseases that can damage the eye’s optic nerve and result in vision loss and blindness. Glaucoma occurs when the normal fluid pressure inside the eyes slowly rises. People with diabetes are 40% more likely to suffer from glaucoma than people without diabetes. The longer someone has had diabetes, the more common glaucoma is. Risk also increases with age.  However, with early treatment, you can often protect your eyes against serious vision loss.

Normal vision. (Photo from National Institues of Health)

Same scene as viewed by a person with glaucoma. (Photo from the National Institutes of Health)

Anyone can develop glaucoma. Some people are at higher risk than others. They include:

• African Americans over age 40.
• Everyone over age 60, especially Mexican Americans.
• People with a family history of glaucoma.
• People with diabetes.

Among African Americans, studies show that glaucoma is:

• Five times more likely to occur in African Americans than in Caucasians.
• About four times more likely to cause blindness in African Americans than in Caucasians.
• Fifteen times more likely to cause blindness in African Americans between the ages of 45-64 than in Caucasians of the same age group.

While there may be no way to prevent glaucoma, there are several treatments. Some use drugs to reduce pressure in the eye, while others involve surgery. Eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise is one way to keep diabetes, one of the risk factors for glaucoma, at bay. Later in our series we’ll look at changes you can make in your diet to prevent diabetes.

Next, we’ll discover more about cataracts and the link this eye disease has to diabetes.

Before we look into disorders that can affect the eye when diabetes is present, it’s important to have a basic understanding of the eye itself.

National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health

THE CORNEA

The Cornea is the front cover of the eye, which protects the eye as well as focusing light.

THE IRIS

Pigmented tissue lying behind the cornea that gives color to the eye (e.g., blue eyes) and controls amount of light entering the eye by varying the size of the pupillary opening.

THE PUPIL

Variable-sized black circular opening in the center of the iris that regulates the amount of light that enters the eye.

THE LENS

The eye’s natural lens. The lens helps bring rays of light to a focus on the retina.

THE RETINA

Light sensitive nerve tissue in the eye that converts images from the eye’s optical system into electrical impulses that are sent along the optic nerve to the brain. Forms the thin lining of the rear two-thirds of the globe.

HOW IT ALL WORKS

After light passes through the cornea, it travels through a space called the anterior chamber (which is filled with a protective fluid called the aqueous humor), through the pupil (which is a hole in the iris, the colored part of the eye), and then through a lens that performs more focusing. Finally, light passes through another fluid-filled chamber in the center of the eye and strikes the back of the eye, the retina.

Like the film in a camera, the retina records the images focused on it. But unlike film, the retina also converts those images into electrical signals, which the brain receives and decodes.

One part of the retina is specialized for seeing fine detail. This tiny area of extra-sharp vision is called the macula.

Blood vessels in and behind the retina nourish the macula. The smallest of these blood vessels are the capillaries.

Next we’ll look into one of the eye diseases that affects diabetics: glaucoma.

Did you know that November is National Diabetes Month? This month we’ll be focusing on the way diabetes affects the eye, and how preventing or controlling Diabetes can save your sight! Stay tuned to our blog to learn more!