Heritage for the Blind

More sunshine a day may keep vision loss away, U.K. researchers have found. But a sardine, which is rich in vitamin D or two a day may be helpful as well.

Increasing periodic intake of the vitamin seems to stem declining eyesight in older age, the U.K.’s Independent recently reported. In a trial of middle-aged mice, scientists from University College at London found that giving vitamin D over a period of six weeks could enhance vision. In addition to improving eyesight, increasing vitamin levels also cut amyloid beta, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and the onset of old age.

By the time people reach 70 years old, normal aging can cut the number of light receptive cells in the retina by almost one-third. Along with age-related cell inflammation, this can lead to macular degeneration, the top cause of blindness among people older than 50 years in developed countries.

One group of 1-year-old middle-aged female mice (one mouse year = 50 human years) was injected with safflower oil infused by vitamin D, while another received vitamin-free safflower oil. After six weeks, electrical responses within the retinal cells improved substantially in the eyes of the mice who were injected with the vitamin because of key biological and molecular changes, the scientists concluded.

Cells that can cause inflammation but are important to the immune system were reduced, but the remaining ones operated in beneficial as opposed to destructive ways. Amyloid beta deposits, which are considered to contribute to both age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as well as Alzheimer’s, were reduced as well. So, the findings should give hope to those at risk for or in the early stages of AMD as well as the aging population as a whole.

“Taking vitamin D supplements in the early stages of AMD may prove a very simple and effective route to limit disease progression,” the researchers wrote, in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, according to the U.K.’s Independent newspaper.

They added that the vitamin “may have a wider role to play in health and problems associated with aging than in AMD alone.”

The scientists hope to take their research to the next level with human subjects. So be sure to take a walk in the sun sometimes or take vitamin D periodically to keep your peepers in good shape as you age.

The practice of pilates proved a life-changer for 27-year-old Renee Clark, a legally blind woman based in Thames, New Zealand.

She sought out classes at the age of 20 to rebuild her body. “I had bad posture from hunching over trying to read and I thought I would give it a go,” she told the Fairfax New Zealand News recently.

But after her instructor left town, she felt compelled to step up and learn how to teach pilates herself. “The rest is history,really” she said to her local newspaper.
However, to become a full-fledged official instructor, she must travel to Toronto, Canada to sit her final exam. To achieve this goal, she’s soliciting contributions to enable her to afford to take the flight and she would become the world’s first visually impaired certified pilates instructor.

Her plan to get certified is just one of several dreams she’s achieved. She’s already a certified personal trainer and holistic lifestyle coach. “I have always had the attitude that if you want to do something, then just go and do it,” she contends.
Clark, who was born visually impaired to parents who carried recessive genes, and her guide-dog Fern can be seen daily in the streets of Thames on the way to work.

Her practice has gained popularity with up to 20 clients ranging from 19 to 76 years old. With a little peripheral sight at her disposal, she must rely on touch to make sure her students’ technique is correct. It makes her more in-tune with the body, they say.

Dianne Carter, one of three teachers Clark has had over the years, says she tends to see “very clearly” through her touch assessments.

“We are all very proud of her, she has shown incredible commitment and because of that we are all equally keen to do our best for her in return,” Carter told the Fairfax New Zealand News.

That her parents carried the recessive genes that caused her visual impairment is rare. As a result, she’s got an older sister who has perfect vision and another born visually impaired. But Clark has by far the worst eyesight of them all.
Because she’s nearly blind, Clark faces challenges that her sighted colleagues don’t. She must translate the certification materials — eleven pilates manuals — into Braille and back again.

She’s currently raising the $4,000 needed to get to Canada. She taking another New Zealand-based instructor along with her instead of her dog for logistical reasons. She’s worried the trek would be “too daunting” for Fern.

Once Clark has passed her final exam, she hopes to eventually go into training pilates instructors.

The San Francisco, California-based LightHouse For the Blind is seeing red over video rental giant Redbox’s self-service kiosks, claiming that they’re inaccessible to the blind or visually impaired.

The group recently filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit against the company on behalf of Californians with vision loss in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It is the first of its kind nationwide.

Recent technological innovations have changed the way consumers purchase produces and services. Self-service kiosks with touch-screen interfaces now enable customers to perform a broad spectrum of transactions independently, and they are able to be adapted for use by those with visual impairment through tactile controls and other assistive devices.

The suit argues that Redbox failed to adapt its kiosks to be accessible to customers with vision loss, thereby violating federal law that forbids discrimination against Americans with disabilities.

The company each month rents 60 million videos through self-service kiosks located in thousands of businesses throughout California, making up over one-third of the DVD rental market nationwide.

LightHouse contends that Redbox’s refusal to make their kiosks accessible to the estimated 100,000 legal blind Californians shuts out a large and growing segment of the population.

“A lack of accessibility in newly emerging forms of commerce is a symptom of the overall growing technological divide that blind people experience when companies fail to build in accessible features at the onset,” said LightHouse Executive Director and CEO Bryan Bashin.

In addition to LightHouse, plaintiffs also include five blind Californians.

“I’m not asking for the world here but simply for the ability to rent DVDs from Redboxes just like everyone else can,” said plaintiff Joshua Saunders of Union City, California.

Added plaintiff Lisamaria Martinez: ”I love watching movies with my husband and son and would like to independently rent movies for my family at Redboxes.”

Jay Koslofsky, who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs characterized technology as a “double-edged sword” capable of enabling and disabling millions if not made equally accessible to all segments of society.

The Berkeley, California-based Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a non-profit disability rights legal center, is also helping represent the plaintiffs.

Conjunctivitis, otherwise known as pink eye, is a fairly prevalent and usually minor eye condition but, if left untreated, could lead to serious vision problems — even blindness — later down the line.

It is the inflammation of the eye’s conjunctiva, the transparent mucous membrane covering its surface and inside the eyelids.

The conjunctiva’s blood vessels become irritated, producing the pink eye look, the condition’s main symptom, among others.

Allergies, bacteria and viruses can cause conjunctivitis. If you suffer from allergic pink eye, you are likely to experience typical allergy symptoms, including runny nose, sneezing, swollen and watery eyes, as well as redness and itchiness in both eyes. Antihistamines administered orally or through eye drops are usually the way to go in terms of treating this kind of pink eye.

Pink eye can also be caused by bacteria and viruses and spread by personal contact. Bacterial conjunctivitis could also be accompanied by other infections, including sinusitis, middle-ear infection or strep throat. It is marked by eye redness, burning, tearing and mucus draining from the eye. It begins in one eye and moves to the other within 48 hours. Sufferers will oftentimes awake in the morning with their eyes swollen shut. It is usually treated with a course of antibiotic eye drops for around a week.

The adenovirus causes viral conjunctivitis as well as respiratory infections. This type of pink eye is usually seen before or after such situations. It moves quickly from one eye to another. Sufferers observe burning, itching and redness of eyes and eyelids, a watery discharge and gritty feeling around their eye. Unlike bacterial pink eye, its viral counterpart isn’t as easy to treat with antibiotics, which have no real effect. It’s about relieving symptoms with oral antihistamines and antihistamine eye drops.

How to prevent the various forms of pink eye? Good question. It depends. Frequent and thorough hand-washing, putting your hand over your mouth when you cough and other infection-control efforts are ways to prevent or keep the spread of bacterial and/or viral conjunctivitis to a minimum. After you’ve got it, be sure to get rid of all eye-care products to prevent getting it again.

It’s okay to return to work or school where you have contact with the public after a week in the case of viral pink eye, but be sure the symptoms have cleared up. For bacterial conjunctivitis, take up to two days after the eye discharge and other symptoms go You don’t have to worry about allergic pink eye because it can’t be transmitted to other humans.

If you wear contact lenses, you should be extremely vigilant in your eye hygiene if they want to fend off pink eye because you are at higher risk for serious bacterial infections. Only use sterile eye-care products to clean and moisten their lens and never your own saliva or tap water. When wearing your lenses, use antibiotic or antihistamine eye drops to prevent irritation. If you get pink eye, be sure to destroy or sterilize your contact lens after it has cleared up.

Sometimes, redness of eyes can be a symptom of something more serious. In that case, pay a visit to the doctor, especially if you’ve noticed major vision changes, light sensitivity and eye pain with nausea, headache or vomiting. If it’s the result of splashing something toxic in your eye or other eye trauma, get yourself to the emergency room for treatment.

Not just for wine anymore, grapes could assist in the prevention and delay of age-related macular degeneration, the California Table Grape Commission recently concluded.

The group along with the National Institutes of Health funded the research by Fordham University to determine the fruit’s health effects. AMD, the leading cause of blindness in seniors, is a progressive eye condition that causes the deterioration of the macula.

The fruit’s antioxidant content seems to protect vision in test mice prone to developing retinal damage, the study discovered. Mice used in the research were divided up into three groups, receiving a diet high in grapes, a diet with added lutein and a normal diet, respectively.

Mice given grapes were less likely to go blind or sustain substantial oxidative retinal damage than the other test subjects.

“The protective effect of the grapes in this study was remarkable, offering a benefit for vision at old age even if grapes were consumed only at young age,” said Silvia Finnemann, the study’s lead investigator from Fordham’s Department of Biological Sciences.

The three-year study also suggests that age-related sight loss results from years of oxidative damages and that lifelong consumption of natural antioxidants can go a long way toward improving retinal health later down the line.

“We’re not suggesting that you need to eat grapes like crazy, but that a life of having a healthy diet of natural anti-oxidants makes a difference to changes in the human eye,” Ms. Finnemann said.

Of the test group, mice not fed grapes until the human equivalent of 60 years old experienced little or no vision improvement, suggesting that consuming antioxidants on a periodic basis is most effective if started earlier in life.

“Once the changes have started to happen, it may be too late to reverse them,” Finneman noted.

AMD is a progressive eye condition, leading to the deterioration of the center of the retina, called the macula. It is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Oxidative damage and oxidative stress are thought to play a pivotal role in the development of AMD.

University of Buffalo’s Regional Institute recently concluded that agencies designed to disabled New Yorkers find employment are having an impact, the Buffalo News recently reported.

The institute found that such nonprofits have secured employment for 900 workers, including 440 blind or visually impaired ones.

Still, despite these efforts, two out of three New Yorkers with vision loss are out of work, a statistic that bears out nationally, the study concludes.

But various state organizations devoted to helping those with vision loss improve their quality of life managed to generate $88 million a year in direct sales of 240 goods and services and another $80 million from spinoff industries.

The nonprofits represented have a strong affiliation with the Blind for New York State, a network that aims to eliminate barriers to employment for the disabled statewide.

“The UB Regional Institute report proves what our affiliates and workers have known for years. Blind and visually impaired workers are productive members of our community. They can be efficient, conscientious and exceptional employees,” said Richard Healey, president of the Blind of New York State, which commissioned the report, in a press release. “The missing ingredient is the opportunity,” Healey added.

A celebrity chef in Scotland recently put together a recipe book for the blind and visually impaired in Braille to coincide with the language creator’s birthday and National Braille Week in the United Kingdom.

Tony Singh’s getting a little help from the children of the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh. The cookbook comes in Braille and large print, and will be distributed nationwide. It includes 43 recipes, including instructions for haggis pakoras and bloody bay scallops.

“Cooking is about creating and enjoying delicious meals together and visual impairment should not act as a barrier to this fundamental, fun part of life,” said Singh, owner of a restaurant called Oloroso who appears on national cooking shows, to the BBC News.

Singh said that the cookbook was created to allow the blind and visually impaired to “both celebrate the art of cookery and use the recipes in a practical way to actually make delicious meals,” BBC reported.

Braille continues to be “as essential” as it has ever been, said Richard Hellewell, head of Royal Blind, which finances the Royal Blind School. “Braille enables incScottish Celebrity Chef Writes Cookbook In Braille

A celebrity chef in Scotland recently put together a recipe book for the blind and visually impaired in Braille to coincide with the language creator’s birthday and National Braille Week in the United Kingdom.

Tony Singh’s getting a little help from the children of the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh. The cookbook comes in Braille and large print, and will be distributed nationwide. It includes 43 recipes, including instructions for haggis pakoras and bloody bay scallops.

“Cooking is about creating and enjoying delicious meals together and visual impairment should not act as a barrier to this fundamental, fun part of life,” said Singh, owner of a restaurant called Oloroso who appears on national cooking shows, to the BBC News.

Singh said that the cookbook was created to allow the blind and visually impaired to “both celebrate the art of cookery and use the recipes in a practical way to actually make delicious meals,” BBC reported.

Braille continues to be “as essential” as it has ever been, said Richard Hellewell, head of Royal Blind, which finances the Royal Blind School. “Braille enables inclusion and opportunity, and allows us to dispel the myth that people with visual impairments cannot participate in the joys of everyday life, such as cooking,” he told BBC News.

All proceeds of the book will go to the group, which has helped the blind and visually impaired for more than 200 years.

A courthouse is usually a prime place for depressing stories about mankind run amok but fortunately for the folks of Detroit, Mich., they’ve got Craig McGlassion, the blind owner of the snack bar located at the seat of Detroit, Michigan’s court system.
With his loyal black Labrador Booker T at his side, he gives court-goers an alternative to the typical fare, the Detroit Free Press recently reported. The blind man’s shop is two doors down from where drug dealers and felons get arraigned.

Happy is not the operative adjective for the atmosphere that envelopes the building. Stressful is more like the appropriate word. McGlassion tries his best to lend some cheer and calm to a place that is far from cheerful and tremendously chaotic.

Blinded at birth, the shop owner knows the usual suspects by their voice. He also remembers what they purchase and what they prefer from Italian Wedding Soup to PayDay candy bars. He knows what his customers want and he’s always courteous in obliging their requests.

“If you’re in a bad mood or have had a bad day, you go in there and you talk to Craig, and within a minute, you have a whole different outlook,” court spokesman Rod Hansen told the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t think I’ve run into anybody who is quite so upbeat.”

McGlassion, a 57-year-old father of seven children, is also a big joker as well as fan of the Detroit Tigers as well, a human dispenser of the latest baseball statistics, with games playing in the background on a small television.

He got into the snack bar racket in 1993 after enrolling in a program at the Michigan Commission for the Blind that encouraged entrepreneurial instincts of blind and visually impaired Michiganders.

He started off his career at the Environmental Protection Agency and in 2007 moved to his current place, serving over 400 customers daily.

In the past four years at the courthouse, which gets its fair share of criminals, he’s only been defrauded of money three times — each time by a customer claiming to give him a $20 but really offering a $1. Now, he’s got a bill-reader for customers whose voices he doesn’t recognize.

As for the future, McGlassion hopes to take to the stand-up comic stage, making light of being blind in a sighted world.

As part of a senior research project, Springfield, Missouri’s Michael Jarvis discovered the key to a new life, proving that it never hurts to do your homework.
The once legally blind teens came across a new surgery used to improve a condition that robbed him of much of his sight in the first place.

Since having the surgery, his eyesight has strengthened considerably to 20/30 — enough to allow him to drive and partake in usual teenage activities.
“I can see things a lot faster and I have more peripheral vision,” he told the Springfield News Leader recently.

The 19-year-old teen had nystagmus — otherwise known as involuntary eye movement — that affects one in 3,000 people and makes it very difficult to focus.

In the literature amongst the information about botox injections and prescription drugs to provide short-term relief emerged news of horizontal tenotomy, an outpatient surgical procedure that involves cutting the muscles around the eye to allow it to relax and then reattaching those very muscles.

Jarvis was, at first, a little skeptical about the results but about a month later, he began to see some serious progress. “My eyes were so painful and I couldn’t even open them the first day after surgery,” he told the Springfield News-Leader. “I really didn’t notice that big of a difference until after a month or so.”

By September, his sight was so good that he began to regret having only signed up for two classes during his fall semester at college.

The incidence of blindness is increasing worldwide and the United States through leading causes including cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, trachoma, river blindness and leprosy.

Over 42 million people around the world are blind, including 1.5 million in the U.S. But all hope is not lost. The good news, according to Dr. Alan Taylor of Tufts University Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research on a recent syndicated radio show, is that 70 percent to 80 percent of blindness cases in developing countries are treatable or preventable.

The rate of blindness in the U.S. is rising at a slower clip than in other areas. However, the root causes of vision loss here are more difficult to treat. Blindness related to air pollution, dry eye, dehydration, obesity and poor diet requires more than a mere operation or drug regimen to treat or prevent. They require major lifestyle changes.

Dr. Taylor recommends that Americans eat better to protect their sight later down the line. The better your diet the more improved your prospects of keeping your vision in old age.

Many of the recommendations go hand-in-hand with improving overall health. Control weight, exercise a lot, drink plenty of water and eat five servings of raw vegetables and fruits. The more anti-oxidants in your system the better because they remove cell-harmful free oxygen. Also, keep refined sugar to a bare minimum as it brings on diabetes as well as macular degeneration. Meat proteins also become sugar in the body and interfere with the absorption of good proteins.

Vegetables are best eaten raw but frozen or cooked vegetables are better than nothing. Juice is fine if there is no refined sugar or additives. Sugar is strongly associated with macular degeneration and with diabetes. Many meat proteins are modified in the body to sugars that accumulate interfere with absorption of beneficial proteins.

Dr. Taylor also suggests consuming lots of water to avoid aging and diseases associated with dehydration, including chronic dry eye. In conclusion, well-nourished eyes are healthy eyes.

To hear the full radio broadcast, see: http://www.SharonKleyneHour.com