We are publishing a preview of part of an article in the new Corriere Salute. You can read the full text on the issue at newsstands for free on Thursday 8 July or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
They call him the silent thief of sight because slowly, over the years, it can make you lose it almost without you noticing it. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide after cataracts, which can be easily cured; for glaucoma, on the other hand, there are no definitive therapies and if, as often happens, the disease remains undiagnosed for a long time, the ocular damage progresses and in one case out of five it can lead to blindness. With prevention and above all early diagnosis it is possible to limit the visual consequences, as was reiterated during the recent congress of the Italian Glaucoma Society (Abbreviation): most cases do not have a certain cause and therefore prevention is not very easy, but something is can do to keep the eyes healthy and even more possible to have an early diagnosis to prevent loss of vision.
Glaucoma is now considered a neurodegenerative disease, it is no coincidence that drug-based therapies that have also been tested on Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s are being studied, explains Stefano Gandolfi, president of the Sigla and director of the ophthalmology department of the Parma university hospital. In glaucoma there is in fact a slow degeneration of the optic nerve (which starts from the eye and carries the visual information collected by the retina to the brain, ed), partly due to the aging process of the nervous tissue, partly connected to the increase of intraocular pressure. High blood pressure in the eye presses on the nerve and damages it, but also a direct consequence of the degeneration of another eye tissue, a sort of “strainer” responsible for regulating the amount of fluid in the eye. As we age, the drainage function of this “strainer” worsens, the liquid accumulates, the pressure rises and the nerve, which over the years itself undergoes a slow deterioration, is gradually damaged.
This is also why glaucoma, which affects two percent of the population, it becomes more frequent with the years and has a double incidence after the age of seventy. False myths There are many false myths about glaucoma (see also the box on the right, ed), including those on prevention, Gandolfi notes. The only elements on which we have evidence of efficacy are to keep the weight in the norm and to regularly do aerobic physical activity, which therefore provides for a constant consumption of oxygen. The others, in terms of prevention, are only speculations. The biggest problem is that the disease works on the nerve fibers slowly and so The patient gradually gets used to a progressive worsening of vision which he does not notice, intervenes Francesco Bandello, director of the Eye Clinic of the Vita-Salute University – San Raffaele Scientific Institute from Milan. When the symptom becomes evident, the nerve injury is now irreversible: since there are therapies capable of avoiding the progression of the damage, promptly identifying glaucoma is a great challenge. Also because the cases do not concern only the seventies, but also the forties.
You can continue reading the article on the Health Courier on newsstands for free on Thursday 8 July or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
July 6, 2021 (change July 6, 2021 | 19:06)
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