Latest Office News
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Have you ever wondered if there was anything you could do to prevent cataracts and age-related macular degeneration? Lutein and Zeaxanthin are two answers! These two carotenoids are antioxidants located in your eye! There are over 600 carotenoids in nature but only these two are found in high quantities in the retina (macula) of the eye!
Lutein and Zeaxanthin filter harmful high energy blue wavelengths of light and help protect and maintain healthy cells in the eyes. Due to the way antioxidants neutralize free radicals, lutein and zeaxanthin play a role in preventing cataracts or significantly decreasing the risk of their formation. The human body does not naturally make these carotenoids so getting these in your diet through green vegetables or nutritional supplements can help maintain good eye health.
There is also evidence that lutein and zeaxanthin reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Ankeny Family Vision Center has instrumentation called MPOD that measures the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin in your eye. This MPOD has become useful for predicting disease and visual function.
Are you getting enough lutein and zeaxanthin in your diet? They can be found in kale, spinach, collards, turnip greens, peas, broccoli, romaine lettuce, beans and eggs. If adding these "greens" do not interest you, Drs. Hansen, Pietig, and Young recommend supplements of which we have in the office for your convenience.
Schedule and appointment for your comprehensive, individualized eye health exam and be sure to mention you want an MPOD to see how your levels of lutein and zeaxanthin are in your eyes!!
Protect your eyes!! You will be glad later in life that you did!!
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The new school year is right around the corner...less than a month away!! Have you scheduled that appointment for your child's comprehensive eye exam? Drs. Hansen, Pietig, and Young encourage you to schedule an eye health exam for your child each year to ensure good vision for their educational needs!! Struggling with reading and other school work may indicate a vision problem. Your child's eyes are used constantly at work and at play.
The "basic skills" of vision are needed to see and learn well. They include:
- Near vision - used to read books and papers and see the computer clearly
- Distance vision - used to see the board and projector information clearly
- Eye teaming - used as their eyes move together as a team
- Eye movement skills - used to move and aim their eyes back and forth across the page and shift from one object to another quickly
- Focusing skills - used to move the eye from near to far and back again keeping vision clear - required for copying or notetaking
- Eye hand coordination - used for writing, drawing, jumping, etc as eyes and hands work together
1 in 4 children may experience vision problems, and they may not even realize the way they see is not normal! 80% of all learning up to age 12 comes through vision!
There are screenings each year in school to hopefully uncover some of these problems, but vision and eye health is more than being able to see 20/20 on an eye chart! The doctors at Ankeny Family Vision Center take children's vision and eye health very seriously. It is recommended that part of your back to school preparations be a comprehensive, individualized eye health exam. During this exam, your child's health and vision history will be reviewed along with visual acuity. A refractive error may be determined and assessed, and the doctors and techs will also test for those "basic skills" listed above.
At Ankeny Family Vision Center, Drs. Hansen, Pietig and Young, and our staff, strive to give all our patients from infants on "the personal vision care you deserve"!! Schedule that back to school appointment today and ensure that good vision and eye health needed for those long school days!!!
(information taken from an article on the Iowa Optometric Association web page)
