Vision Loss

Impotence drugs such as Viagra and Cialis can increase the risk of eye damage in men who have a history of heart disease or high blood pressure, researchers reported Tuesday in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. In a small study, scientists at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that men who had suffered a heart attack were 10 times more likely to have a form of optic nerve damage called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy if they had been taking anti-impotence pills.

For parents looking to sneak some nutrition into their kids' school lunches, brightly packaged fruity snacks — many of which promise they're the equivalent of a serving of fruit or more — are undoubtedly tempting. After all, the plastic-wrapped bars, sticks, rolls and strips contain no pits, seeds or cores and require no washing, peeling or slicing. And kids tend to eat them without any fuss. But convenience aside, parents shouldn't kid themselves. "They're not as good as eating regular fruit," no matter the promises on the package, says Mark Kantor, professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland in College Park.

The City of Monterey Park is about to give seniors in the San Gabriel Valley a chance to brush up on their driving skills and reduce their automobile insurance rates. State legislation went into effect in July, requiring insurance companies to offer a discount on automobile liability insurance to drivers over 55 who complete a course approved by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Insurance companies have said that the discount could be between 5% and 10% of annual premiums.

Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco said patients with age-related macular degeneration who received its experimental drug could read almost 1 1/2 more lines on an eye chart after a year compared with vision loss for those on a placebo. The trial involved 716 patients with the "wet" form of the eye disease, the leading cause of blindness in older adults.

Some patients with glaucoma may have greater pressure in their eyes during sleep, meaning that the severity of the disease can go unrecognized during daytime exams, researchers have found. Higher intraocular pressure, the force within the eyeball, and greater daily fluctuation in pressure may increase the risk that glaucoma will develop or worsen, according to the report in the February issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. Untreated glaucoma can lead to vision loss.

Physicist Kent Cullers of Menlo Park, who lost his sight at birth, was the guest speaker at a recent benefit of the Auxiliary of the Braille Institute of Orange County. "I have had a joyous life," said Cullers, 48, addressing hundreds of guests at a luncheon at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. "That has happened because of good people who care. Whether you know it or not, you're here today because you're part of the function that makes this society care."

In findings that promise radical changes in the care of the 20 million U.S. patients with Type 2 diabetes, two new clinical trials have shown that weight-loss surgery brings about dramatically greater improvement of blood sugar control in obese diabetics than standard diabetes care. In both studies, even rigorously supervised regimens of diet, exercise and medications failed to bring blood sugar under good control after a year or more. In contrast, two teams of researchers - one in Italy, the other in the United States - reported that surgical procedures to reduce the size and sometimes the placement of the stomach often allowed subjects to discontinue diabetes medications within weeks.

A laser treatment that stops leakage in the retina of the eye can cut by half a type of vision loss that afflicts hundreds of thousands of diabetics, researchers reported Thursday. Because of the promising results, eye specialists said additional thousands of diabetics now have become eligible for laser treatment. The specialists recommended that most of those afflicted with the disease get annual eye examinations to see if they need it. In a study published by the American Medical Assn.

If you're older than 50 or someone close to you is, you may want to learn more about macular degeneration. It's an eye disease that accounts for about 20% of vision impairment in people over age 75. There are two types of macular degeneration, in which the macula--the part of the eye that controls central, detailed vision--becomes damaged.