Most people who wear contact lenses say they know about the wear and care recommendations, but almost none actually comply with them, a new study shows. More than 80% of contact lens wearers surveyed prior to an eye exam believed they followed good lens wear and care practices, but just 2% actually complied with most recommended lens hygiene steps. And less than 1% were found to be fully compliant with recommendations such as washing their hands before handling lenses, using fresh lens solution every time instead of topping off old solution, and replacing lens cases frequently. The new survey included patients undergoing eye exams in private practice or university-affiliated optometry settings. Overall, 85% of the patients perceived themselves as compliant with all lens-wearing practices, but only 0.4% was considered fully compliant. The study also showed that while most of the contact wearers knew what they needed to do to avoid complications, few actually followed all the recommendations. The researchers concluded that patient awareness was not the problem. The most frequent complications reported by the surveyed contact lens wearers were discomfort (72%) and infection (47%). In their analysis published in the December issue of the journal Optometry and Vision Science, researchers Danielle M. Robertson, OD, PhD, and H. Dwight Cavanagh, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center called for new strategies to improve compliance with safe contact lens use. American Optometric Association (AOA) spokesman Randall Fuerst, OD, says one of the most common causes of contact lens-related complications is failure to replace contacts as recommended. "This is particularly common with lenses approved for two-week use," he tells WebMD. "People often use them for three weeks or even a month, which can cause problems." When wearers use lenses longer than recommended or don't follow proper handling and storage practices, there is a greater likelihood of deposit buildup that can lead to chronic eye redness or infection. Among the other AOA recommendations: 1. Always wash and dry your hands before handling contact lenses. 2. Clean lenses often, as recommended by your eye doctor. Rub the lenses with your fingers and rinse thoroughly before soaking lenses overnight in sufficient multi-purpose solution to completely cover the lenses. 3. Use only fresh solution every time to clean and store contacts. Never top off old solution with new because the active ingredient in some solutions can break down over time. This is also why contact lens solutions should never be used after the discard date on the bottle has passed. 4. Never use tap water in any area of lens care, including rinsing the lens and lens case. Tap water may contain microorganisms that can cause eye infection. 5. Store lenses in the proper lens storage case and replace your case at least every three months. Clean the case after each use and keep it open and dry between cleaning. 6. Never swim in lenses or wear them in a hot tub. Fuerst also recommends that people who choose to sleep in their contact lenses use a wetting drop made for contact wearers before going to bed at night and upon waking in the morning. Most lenses sold today are approved for a seven-day continuous use, but some newer lenses have been approved for 30-day use. Fuerst says people who do not take their contacts out for extended periods need to be especially vigilant about "listening to their eyes." "If your eyes are feeling gritty, sandy, or irritated, or if they are more red than normal, take your contacts out and don't wear them when you sleep for a while," he says.

Posted by Sanjeev Rai
Thursday December 29th, 2011

People with relatively high levels of certain pesticides in their blood may have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes particularly if they are overweight, a new study suggests. The study, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, is not the first to link chemical pollutants to diabetes. A number of studies have found a connection between diabetes risk and exposure to older pesticides known as organochlorines, PCBs and other chemicals that fall into the category of "persistent organic pollutants." Organochlorines are now banned or restricted in the U.S. and other developed countries, after research linked them to cancer and other potential health risks. PCBs, which were once used in everything from appliances to fluorescent lighting to insecticides, were banned in the 1970s. However, as the name suggests, persistent organic pollutants remain in the environment for years and build up in animal and human body fat. In the U.S., diet is the main potential source of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with fatty foods, like dairy products and oily fish, topping the list. Lab research has suggested that some persistent organic pollutants impair the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, which could help explain the link to type 2 diabetes. Some of the compounds also have been shown to promote obesity, which is itself a major risk factor for diabetes, noted Riikka Airaksinen of Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, who led the new study. For the study, Airaksinen's team measured blood levels of several persistent organic pollutants in about 2,000 older adults. Just over 15 percent had type 2 diabetes. The risk was higher, the researchers found, among people with the highest levels of organochlorine pesticides. Those with levels in the top 10 percent were about twice as likely to have diabetes as their counterparts in the bottom 10 percent. But the link appeared to be limited to people who were overweight or obese. That, the researchers write, suggests that the pollutants and body fat "may have a synergistic effect on the risk of type 2 diabetes." The results alone do not prove that organochlorine pesticides were the reason for the higher diabetes risk, Airaksinen told Reuters Health in an email. The researchers accounted for participants' age, sex, waist size and blood pressure levels. But they had no information on things like diet and exercise habits -- which might help explain the pesticide-diabetes link. But the overall body of research, according to Airaksinen, is pointing toward a cause-and-effect relationship. The findings are "highly concordant" with past studies on persistent organic pollutants and diabetes risk, agreed Dr. David R. Jacobs, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who has worked on some of that research. "I fear that the association of chlorinated persistent organic pollutants with diabetes is causal," Jacobs, who was not involved in the current study, told Reuters Health in an email. "There is a large scientific background of cell-based and animal research that shows that these compounds disrupt endocrine (hormonal) function," he noted. And unlike the current study, which was done at one time-point, some others have found that people's levels of persistent organic pollutants predict their odds of developing diabetes in the future, Jacobs said. Experts say that one way to limit your exposure to the chemicals is to limit the animal fat in your diet. The fat in fish like salmon and tuna, however, is considered generally healthy. "In Finland," Airaksinen noted, "we have studied a group of professional fishermen who consume a lot of fish in their diet, and have found that their mortality from various common diseases is actually lower than the general Finnish population. This suggests that the health benefit from eating fish surpasses the potential health risks." Though most persistent organic pollutants have been long banned, Jacobs said, "they are generally all around us in fatty tissues of living organisms." Those chemicals are released in various ways, he said, and are being constantly recycled. Pesticides and other industrial chemicals in use now are safer, in the sense of not being persistent, Jacobs said. "But," he added, "a chemical that is bad for the health of one life form -- say insects and weeds -- is not likely to be good for humans. We need much better and more thorough safety testing for substances that we use in industry and for pest control."

Posted by Roland Howard
Thursday August 18th, 2011