Some info on Glaucoma

Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff

 Movement of fluid in the eye
               Open-angle glaucoma
                                 Angle-closure glaucoma

Glaucoma is not just one eye disease, but a group of eye
conditions resulting in optic nerve damage, which causes
loss of vision. Abnormally high pressure inside your eye
(intraocular pressure) usually, but not always, causes this
damage.


Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness.
Sometimes called the silent thief of sight, glaucoma can
damage your vision so gradually you may not notice any
loss of vision until the disease is at an advanced stage.
The most common type of glaucoma, primary open-angle
glaucoma, has no noticeable signs or symptoms except
gradual vision loss.

Early diagnosis and treatment can minimize or prevent
optic nerve damage and limit glaucoma-related vision loss.
It's important to get your eyes examined regularly, and make
sure your eye doctor measures your intraocular

Movement of fluid in the eye

Aqueous humor continuously circulates from behind the iris

into the anterior chamber at the front of the eye. It exits where
the iris and the cornea meet. The fluid filters through a spongy
tissue containing microscopic channels (trabecular meshwork)
before passing into a larger channel called Schlemm's canal,
where it eventually merges with the bloodstream. ]

Angle-closure glaucoma

In angle-closure glaucoma, the angle formed by the
cornea and the iris closes. In this illustration, the iris
is plastered against the trabecular meshwork, which
prevents the aqueous humor from reaching the drainage
channels (see black arrow). This can lead to a rapid
 increase in intraocular pressure, a serious medical
 condition.

 Open-angle glaucoma

In this illustration the trabecular
meshwork is partially blocked,
impairing the flow of aqueous
fluid out of the eye (see black
arrow). This blockage of the
trabecular meshwork leads to
a gradual increase in intraocular
pressure. Within months or years,
an elevated pressure can result in
vision loss

 Anatomy of the eye

Your eye is a complex and
compact structure measuring
about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters)
in diameter. It receives
millions of pieces of information
about the outside world,
which are quickly processed by
your brain.
http://www.maycoclinic.com/



www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com
Is It Early-Stage Glaucoma? New Tests May
Provide the Answer

Loss of vision in people with glaucoma is due
to a progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells --
the cells that transmit visual information from
the retina to the brain through the optic nerve.
Doctors use a visual field test, also known as
perimetry, to detect the resulting functional vision
loss. The problem: Researchers now know that at
 least 50% of retinal ganglion cells are lost before
vision problems are identified on standard visual
field tests.
Some of the efforts to more accurately identify
early-stage glaucoma have focused on methods
that can better determine whether functional visual
loss has occurred.

Functional changes. By testing your visual field,
your doctor can learn whether your peripheral
vision is being lost from glaucoma. During a
computerized visual field test, you place your
chin on a stand in front of a computerized screen.
Whenever you see a flash of light appear, you
press a button. At the end of this test, your
doctor receives a printout of your field of vision.

•The most commonly used and best-studied test
displays white lights on a white background, but
some researchers have demonstrated that short-
wavelength automated perimetry (SWAP), which
uses blue lights on a yellow background, may
detect defects from glaucoma earlier.

•Another method of checking peripheral vision is
electroencephalography (EEG) using multifocal
visual evoked potentials (mfVEP). During VEP testing,
special sensors (electrodes) are placed on your scalp
to record your brain's response to visual stimuli, such
as flashing lights that flicker from black on white to white
on black on a video screen. In a person with normal vision,
repeated stimulation of the visual field evokes changes on
the EEG. But if there are no EEG changes, the brain is not
receiving signals from the eyes, suggesting loss of vision.
Multifocal VEP records separate responses from
multiple visual field locations.
•Another test, frequency doubling technology (FDT)
perimetry, has a unique approach to evaluating peripheral
vision in glaucoma. This test is based on an optical illusion
that can occur when viewing patterns of black and white
parallel bars. For some people, when the pattern is flashed
on the screen at a high speed, the number of bars appears
to double. Some research suggests that this illusion arises
from specific retinal ganglion cells, which have a high
tendency to get damaged in glaucoma.

K2 OR NOT TO K2

I do not know anything about this new or
so called new product (for lack of a better
word) that's out there in public or in our
society today. I have heard as probably the
rest of you about this on the news here and there.
I am concerned about it as I'm sure many of
you are because of how easy it is to get by our
 young kids!
I am starting to hear some horror stories about kids
being rushed to the hospital because of smoking this
K2 and the heart attacks, brain hemorrhages and
what ever else.
I have inserted below a small report from Newsweek's
home page, just some info on this K2, and I will be in
the future adding more things about it from the research
that I can find and check.

Newsweek Homepage


Close Search Fake-Pot Panic


Local media is abuzz about 'K2'. A scary drug, or just another drug scare?


Jack Shafer, the media columnist at Slate, is famous for pointing out "bogus trend stories," especially those involving drug use. Of them, he once said, "Whenever I fall into a funk over the press corps' abysmal coverage of illicit drugs, I console myself with the knowledge that, as awful as the coverage is, it's always been that way." He's even blasted drug coverage in sister publications The Washington Postand NEWSWEEK.


What would he make of all the recent stories about K2, or "fake marijuana," which is essentially a legal, smokable form of psychoactive potpourri? Breathless news reports about the substance have been popping up all over in the last few days. If you live in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, or Wisconsin, you've probably seen one. Maybe you even caught a Missouri detective's panicked prediction that K2 is "going to end up killing somebody." As far as we know, though, it hasn't. Why is it suddenly getting all this attention?


There's a legitimate news hook for some of these stories: Kansas became the first state to ban K2 last week, and there are similar bills pending in Nebraska and North Dakota. But why the states are banning the stuff now is unclear. K2 isn't new. It's been around since the mid-'90s, when John Huffman, a Clemson University chemist, synthesized a substance he called JWH-018. The chemical was structurally similar to THC, the active ingredient in pot, and apparently quite a bit more potent. (There's a good explanation of the science here.) Like its illicit cousin, JWH-018 made users mellow and euphoric. Pot enthusiasts picked up on Huffman's work, mixed or bought batches of JWH-018 themselves, and started spraying it onto varying mixes of dried herbs, flowers, and tobacco leaves. The result was K2—a.k.a. "Spice," "Genie," or "Zohai"—which quickly caught on in head shops and on the Internet as a way to get high without breaking the law. Although the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has listed K2 as a "drug or chemical of concern," it isn't officially "scheduled," and that makes it legal (unless you're buying it in Kansas).


Is JWH-018 dangerous? No one really knows. There's not a lot of research on what it does to mice and almost nothing on what it does to humans. Its effects shouldn't be that different from marijuana's, but then, we could argue all day about how dangerous marijuana is. Even researchers who have found that pot use has long-term detrimental effects, like the link to psychosis that was announced earlier this week, tend to qualify their statements by noting that the link is "by no means simple" and arguing that we need a lot more research.


Maybe there's been an explosion in K2 use, then, and that's what people are flipping out about? This story from Arizona quotes a smoke-shop owner saying that "the trend has just exploded in the last 60 days," but one guy in Phoenix does not a compelling data source make. In St. Louis, Anthony Scalzo, a pediatrician and toxicologist at Saint Louis University Hospital, says he's seen nearly 30 teenagers come through local ERs suffering from bad trips on K2 just in the last six weeks, but this is an aberration. Scalzo says he's spoken with his counterparts at poison-control centers in Atlanta, New Jersey, and New York City. Their recent case loads, respectively: 12, 2, and 0. And no one's tracking K2-related medical cases nationwide. There is a database, the National Poison Data System, that could. But Scalzo says, "It doesn't even have a code for K2."


More likely, the greater danger involved in buying K2 stems from the fact that it's an unregulated mixture of God knows what. "You don't know what you're getting," says Scalzo. "It's buyer-beware."


That leaves Scalzo very worried about the kids coming through the ERs in his area, because they aren't acting like you might expect a K2 user to act. "They're jacked up. They're agitated and anxious, sometimes delirious," Scalzo says. "And they're completely surprised by what has happened to them, because they were just expecting to get mellow." Scalzo also notes that cannabinoids (a fancy word for potlike chemicals) "have protective effects on the cardiovascular system, which again goes against the grain of what we are seeing with cardiovascular stress with K2." In other words, these kids' hearts are racing and their blood pressure is way up—which is exactly the opposite of what it should be on K2. All this, Scalzo says, "leads me to conclude that we may have a contaminant in the product."


Nobody wants to start a "bad batch" scare. So Scalzo is trying to find out through scientific means—rather than speculation—if there is indeed something toxic in some bags of K2 being sold in the Midwest. He recently sent an alert to Missouri ERs advising them that local K2 "may be tainted with an unidentified substance that is causing untoward adrenergic-like [i.e., stimulating] effects." It also says, "We do NOT suspect that the untoward adrenergic-like effects are due to [JWH-018]." Then it asks the ERs to collect urine samples from suspected K2 users. One problem: so far, most patients don't want to cooperate, which means that evidence will be slow to materialize. That won't stop newspapers or local TV stations, we suspect, from running sensationalist stories about the dangers of K2 in the meantime.

? kombucha ?

I don't know anything about this drink
other than there seems to be alot more
of a rush to take it from the shelves and
to ban it now.


There seems to be a problem with it
having a little bit of alcohol in it and it's
not being labeled as having any in it.


But when something is fermented doesn't
that mean it's got at least a percentage of
some alcohol in it...that's why it is fermented!


I really just wanted to get some kind of information
out to ones that by chance haven't heard anything
about it yet to be careful with this product and do
more research on it and ask other people about it,
because if you can not drink for what ever the reason
and or on medication, then you need to be very care
with what is taken.


There is some other info on this product just below
from a news station in Washington, please read it
may give some insight.
Thank you.

A BAN on KOMBUCHA (tea)

Kombucha Ban


Staff Reporter
07/28/2010 ShareThis

Kombucha is a type of tea that's been around for centuries, but has recently become quite popular. It's usually found in health food stores. People who drink it say it has many benefits. But now it's been pulled from stores in Seattle and across the country because of its fluctuating alcohol content. KUOW's Meghan Walker has the story.

TRANSCRIPT

Chris Joyner is in his fermentation room in Seattle's Central District. It's a tiny room in the back of his kitchen, which is filled with empty kombucha bottles.

Joyner: "Its 78 in here. Do you smell vinegar?"

Walker: "Yup."

Joyner: "Yeah it's a strong smell of vinegar. So we've got two shelves and a number of 10 gallons containers here. And, a few fruit flies, which we keep out by covering the containers with cloths and rubber bands."
Joyner is the founder of local kombucha brand called Communitea; that's tea with a T–E–A.


Joyner: "So it starts with making tea and we've got a big steam kettle here it's a 40 gallon steam kettle. And we make a tea concentrate. So we heat say 30 gallons of water in this. We use green tea because it has more antioxidants and polyphenols."


Kombucha is a fermented tea made from yeast and bacteria. Joyner has been making it for 17 years. Regular drinkers claim it aids digestion, sleep and weight loss. But Joyner, along with all other kombucha bottlers in the country, have halted sales on their bubbly teas. That's because the alcohol content is fluctuating unpredictably. It's going above 0.5 percent on some batches, which is the legal limit for non–alcoholic beverages.


Joyner: "Since we didn't understand why it had changed so quickly, we felt that it was better for us to stop selling because, we need to be able to trust labels. Pregnant women, people recovering from alcohol problems need to be able to look at a label and if it says less than 0.5 percent, they need to know that it actually is. And although ours sometimes is, it obviously isn't, all the time. So we stopped selling."


The tea began vanishing from grocery stores last month after the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, suggested testing on commercial kombucha brands. As a result, nearly every bottler has suspended sales until further notice. Joyner's trying to find a way to manage the alcohol levels on his own tea.


Joyner: "It's kind of a dance. The sugar levels go down as the yeast eats the sugar, so the alcohol levels rise. And then the bacteria eat the alcohol, and that makes the alcohol go down and the acids rise. So there are several things happening. I'm testing every day now, I've gotten testing equipment so that I can test all those things everyday and find out how this works. Perhaps there's some simple way by changing the temperature or changing the amount of sugar or changing the time, and have it be predictable and stable."
Nailing down the alcohol percentage in each batch will be a time–consuming process. Cecile Andrews of Seattle is a regular kombucha drinker. She's disappointed that she can't buy the tea in stores or from Joyner.


Andrews: "I mean I have never felt any effects of alcohol from it, I have never! And it's so crazy. I mean it's great that Chris is being as responsible as he can, why not just put a label on it: may contain some alcohol."
And the amount of alcohol, Andrews says, doesn't merit federal regulation.


Andrews: "Their time can be spent better elsewhere than focusing on this little thing that not that many people drink, and that those of us who do, do it for health reasons, we're not doing it to get drunk. And it's like, you know, why not get our priorities straight?"


There are pasteurized versions of kombucha in stores; that process eliminates the alcohol. But Joyner is among those who believe the raw kombucha has a healthier kick.


Joyner: "Kombucha helps your body detoxify. It would be a way to remove heavy metals that come in from things like fillings. That was how we started. We were at a homeopaths office and he suggested having amalgam fillings removed because that has mercury which is a toxin. And kombucha then is a way to help that process after you've stopped adding it to your system by taking the fillings out, then the kombucha will help your liver be more effective at detoxifying your body."


Joyner used to sell his kombucha in bulk to the Fremont PCC store. The store invested in a kombucha keg last month, which now stands dry. Leon Bloom is PCC's deli manager.


Bloom: "It's hard to say you know, it seems like maybe this is one of those situations where the letter of the law and the reality don't completely match up. I don't know that a probiotic beverage with a trace amount of alcohol should necessary be regulated the same as an alcoholic beverage."
But, that's what might happen. In order to sell the raw kombucha with fluctuating alcohol levels, bottlers will have to get an alcohol license. Chris Joyner is now considering doing just that.


Joyner: "I'm sure we'll be able to sell it, it's just a question of whether people who've always looked at kombucha as being in a different category, how they would feel about it if all of a sudden it was being sold as an alcoholic beverage, but we'll just have to see."
But some kombucha lovers can't wait. Joyner also sells yeast and bacteria masses, called kombucha mothers. You use them to make the tea at home.


Walker: "Is it fairly easy to get your own culture and make it yourself?"


Joyner: "Well, like a lot of things, it's not hard to do, but it's hard to do well."


Leon Bloom from PCC thinks some customers won't wait for the tea to return. He wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in bathtub kombucha in Seattle.


For KUOW News, I'm Meghan Walker.
© Copyright 2010, KUOW

Revitalash (Growing Eyelashes)

I will be selling Revitalash in the next few weeks,
this is a GREAT PRODUCT!

If you have thin and sparse eyelashes, or have
because of aging losing lashes, not growing,
thin, short then you need to try Revitalash
for real! You will be amazed on how it will
help regrow and replenish your eyelashes.
There is also Revitalash for eyebrows.

This was develop by a Dr. for his wife
in the beginning.

More info to come, you can email me for
more info or to buy Revitalash.

Heart Attacks - Strokes - Cardiac Arrest

Just a small bit of info on HEART ATTACKS,
STROKES and CARDIAC ARREST
HEART

Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center
of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that
goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable
pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.

Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both
arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

Short of breath
with or without chest discomfort.

Other Discomforts
may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or
lightheadedness.Some heart attacks are sudden and intense —

the "movie heart attack," where no one doubts
what's happening. But most heart attacks start
slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people
affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long
before getting help.

Immediately call 9-1-1 or your emergency response
number so an ambulance (ideally with advanced life
support) can be sent for you. As with men, women's
most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or
discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than
men to experience some of the other common symptoms,
particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and
back or jaw pain.

Learn the signs, but remember this: Even if you're not sure
it's a heart attack, have it checked out (tell a doctor about
your symptoms). Minutes matter! Fast action can save lives
— maybe your own. Don’t wait more than five minutes to
call 9-1-1 or your emergency response number.

Calling 9-1-1 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving
 treatment. Emergency medical services (EMS) staff can begin
 treatment when they arrive — up to an hour sooner than if
someone gets to the hospital by car. EMS staff are also trained
 to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest
 pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at
the hospital, too. It is best to call EMS for rapid transport to the
emergency room.

STROKE

NUMBNESS OR WEAKNESS OF THE FACE, ARM OR
LEG, ESPECIALLY ON ONE SIDE OF THE BODY
CONFUSION, TROUBLE SPEAKING OR UNDERSTANDING

- TROUBLE SEEING IN ONE OR BOTH EYES
- TROUBLE WALKING, DIZZINESS, LOSS OF BALANCE
OR COORDINATION
- SEVERE HEADACHE WITH NO KNOWN CAUSE

.Immediately call 9-1-1 or your emergency response number so
an ambulance (ideally with advanced life support) can be sent for
you. Also, check the time so you'll know when the first symptoms
appeared. It's very important to take immediate action. If given
within three hours of the start of symptoms, a clot-busting drug
called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can reduce long-term
disability for the most common type of stroke. tPA is the only FDA-
approved medication for the treatment of stroke within three hours
of stroke symptom onset.


A TIA, or transient ischemic attack, is a "warning stroke" or
"mini-stroke" that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting
damage. Recognizing and treating TIAs may reduce your risk of
a major stroke. The usual TIA symptoms are the same as those
of stroke, only temporary. The short duration of these symptoms
and lack of permanent brain injury is the main difference between
TIA and stroke.

CARDAIC ARREST
No response to tapping on shoulders
The victim does not take a normal breath when you tilt the head
up and check for at least five seconds.


If these signs of cardiac arrest are present, tell someone to
call 9-1-1 or your emergency response number and get
an AED (if one is available) and you begin CPR immediately.



If you are alone with an adult who has these signs of cardiac arrest,
call 9-1-1 and get an AED (if one is available) before you begin CPR.

Use an AED as soon as it arrives.

the web site to go to find out more important information is:
http://www.heart.org/
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

What Is A Pacemaker

My Dad has a pace maker, he had to have one
put in a yearand half ago during Thanksgiving holidays.
Dad had had a stroke and I took him to the hospital
and while he was there the doctors told him because
of his heart condition and the ARRHYTHMIAS
he needed to have a pace maker that it would help
with the arrhythmia he had plus with his heart condition.
Dad has had heart trouble since he was a child, but it
seems the older he gets the worse it gets. He actually
started having alot of trouble with it when he was in
the service.

Dad has had several heart attacks and some strokes,
also he's had some mini strokes. Some of the mini
strokes are referred to as TIA's, and some are referred
as a cluster of mini strokes.
My Dad's heart is not like everyone else's, by that
I mean shaped like most peoples, Dad's heart is shaped
oblonged and kinda narrow.
It sits on the side of a sink in place right in the middle
of his chest. This can not be fixed from what we've
been told.
There are a lot of other people out there that do not have any
idea what a pace maker is or what it does, so I thought I would
just put a note in and maybe this might in some small way help
with a little bit of information about a pace maker.

*******************

What Is a Pacemaker?

A pacemaker is a small device that's placed
in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal
heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses
to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate.
Pacemakers are used to treat arrhythmias
(ah-RITH-me-ahs). Arrhythmias are problems
with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an
arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow,
or with an irregular rhythm.

A heartbeat that's too fast is called tachycardia
(TAK-ih-KAR-de-ah). A heartbeat that's too slow
is called bradycardia (bray-de-KAR-de-ah).
During an arrhythmia, the heart may not be able to
pump enough blood to the body. This may cause
symptoms such as fatigue (tiredness), shortness of
breath, or fainting. Severe arrhythmias can damage
the body's vital organs and may even cause loss of
consciousness or death.
A pacemaker can relieve some arrhythmia symptoms,
such as fatigue and fainting. A pacemaker also can help
a person who has abnormal heart rhythms resume a more
active lifestyle.

Understanding the Heart's Electrical System

Your heart has its own internal electrical system that
controls the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat.
With each heartbeat, an electrical signal spreads from
the top of your heart to the bottom. As the signal travels,
it causes the heart to contract and pump blood.

Each electrical signal normally begins in a group of cells
called the sinus node or sinoatrial (SA) node. As the
signal spreads from the top of the heart to the bottom,
 it coordinates the timing of heart cell activity.

First, the heart's two upper chambers, the atria (AY-tree-uh),
 contract. This contraction pumps blood into the heart's two
lower chambers, the ventricles (VEN-trih-kuls). The ventricles
 then contract and pump blood to the rest of the body. The
combined contraction of the atria and ventricles is a heartbeat.

For more information on the heart's electrical system and
detailed animations, go to the Diseases and Conditions
Index How the Heart Works article.

Overview

Faulty electrical signaling in the heart causes arrhythmias.
A pacemaker uses low-energy electrical pulses to
overcome this faulty electrical signaling. Pacemakers can:
*Speed up a slow heart rhythm.
*Help control an abnormal or fast heart rhythm.
*Make sure the ventricles contract normally if the atria
are quivering instead of beating with a normal rhythm
(a condition called atrial fibrillation).
*Coordinate the electrical signaling between the upper
and lower chambers of the heart.
Coordinate the electrical signaling between the ventricles.
Pacemakers that do this are called cardiac resynchronization
therapy (CRT) devices. CRT devices are used to treat
heart failure.

Prevent dangerous arrhythmias caused by a disorder called
long QT syndrome.
Pacemakers also can monitor and record your heart's
electrical activity and heart rhythm. Newer pacemakers
can monitor your blood temperature, breathing rate, and
other factors and adjust your heart rate to changes in your
activity.

Pacemakers can be temporary or permanent. Temporary
pacemakers are used to treat temporary heartbeat problems,
such as a slow heartbeat that's caused by a heart attack,
heart surgery, or an overdose of medicine.
Temporary pacemakers also are used during emergencies.
They're used until a permanent pacemaker can be implanted
or until the temporary condition goes away. If you have a
temporary pacemaker, you'll stay in a hospital as long as
the device is in place.
Permanent pacemakers are used to control long-term
heart rhythm problems. This article mainly discusses
permanent pacemakers, unless stated otherwise.

Doctors also treat arrhythmias with another device called
an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). An ICD is
similar to a pacemaker. However, besides using low-energy
electrical pulses, an ICD also can use high-energy electrical
pulses to treat certain dangerous arrhythmias.