The Background

Over the last several years, research has indicated a strong correlation between the presence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and glaucoma. Information from some of these pivotal studies is presented below.

Did you know

• Glaucoma affects over 60 million people worldwide and almost 3 million people in the U.S.
• There are many people who have glaucoma but have not yet had it diagnosed.
• Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness in the U.S. behind macular degeneration.
• If glaucoma is not detected and goes untreated, it will result in peripheral vision loss and eventual, irreversible blindness.

• Sleep apnea is a condition that obstructs breathing during sleep.
• It affects 100 million people around the globe and around 25 million people in the U.S.
• A blocked airway can cause loud snoring, gasping or choking because breathing stops for up to two minutes.
• Poor sleep due to sleep apnea results in morning headaches and chronic daytime...

There have been studies undertaken over the past several years to try and understand if there are any of our day-to-day activities that either help or hurt the management of glaucoma.

Most of the studies demonstrated very little impact on the course of glaucoma. Here are some of the things researches have looked at.

Aerobic exercise: This means doing something at least four times per week for more than 20 minutes at a time that raises your pulse rate to a level that makes your heart work harder. Going from a sedentary lifestyle to active one with aerobic exercise resulted in a very slight decrease in baseline eye pressure.

Yoga: A study conducted at the Mount Sinai Health System (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144505) showed a significant increase in eye pressure with any head-down positioning. People with glaucoma would be wise to avoid any exercise that involves a position where your head is lower than your heart.

Weight lifting:...