Why excessive computer use, tight neck ties could make you go blind

A man working on the computer.Glaucoma is a relatively common eye disease that can progress to blindness when untreated. Consequently, experts have warned against such habits as prolonged computer use and wearing of tight neck ties, saying they could contribute to a person’s risk of having this eye problem, reports Sade Oguntola.

Mrs. Tolani Adepegba, a secretary at a big firm in Lagos, for over two months had found it hard seeing objects to the side and out of the corner of her eyes. When she started noticing that her side vision was gradually failing, she complained to the nurse manning the firm’s clinic.

Mrs. Adepegba stated, “I just could not see objects to the side and out of the corner of the eye and I was worried what that could be. Although, my eyes were not red in colour, sometimes my vision got blurred. It was at the eye clinic that the eye doctor, after examining me, said the symptoms were that of glaucoma.”

Glaucoma – often called “the sneak thief of sight” because it can strike without pain or other symptoms – is one of the leading causes of blindness in many counties of the world, including Nigeria. This is a group of eye disorders that occur when internal pressure in the eye increases enough to cause damage to the optic nerve (the nerve that’s responsible for vision) in the back of the eye. Its exact causes are unknown, but potential risk factors include smoking, age above 60, black skinned people, having family members with glaucoma and high blood pressure.

Believe it or not, Mrs. Adepegba was very lucky. Her form of glaucoma produced symptoms, warning her of the need for medical attention; and she was able to obtain treatment in time to save her sight.

The chilling reality is that there is no cure for glaucoma and lost vision cannot be regained once it had caused irreversible damages in the eye, thus making its early diagnosis and treatment very paramount.

But, do you know that simple actions like ensuring that you spend less than eight hours a day on the computer working, if you are shortsighted or not wearing tight neckties might be protective from vision failure that may arise from glaucoma?

The possibility of excessive computer use as a threat to eyesight was raised by researchers at the Toho University School of medicine in Tokyo, Japan, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. They tested 10,000 workers with an average age of 43, as part of a general medical check-up as well as collecting their histories of computer use and eye disease.

These workers, drawn from four different Japanese companies were categorised into five-year blocks, ranging from less than five years to more than 20 years and took into account the average time spent in front of the computer, ranging from one to eight hours at a time.

The test revealed that 522 (5.1%) employees had visual field abnormalities. And there appeared to be a significant link between these and heavy computer use among those with either long or short sight, collectively known as “refractive errors.”

Results showed that around a third of these workers (165) had suspected glaucoma, characterized by distinct visual field abnormalities. Since the most common refractive error was short sightedness, the authors think that the optic nerve in short sighted eyes might be more susceptible to computer stress than it is in normal eyes.

Dr. Adeyinka Ashaye, a consultant ophthalmologist, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, explained that it was true that people that are shortsighted were more at risk of developing glaucoma. “The link between shortsightedness and primary open glaucoma is a strong one, though, why this is so is not well known. It could be as a result of the structure of the eye. This may be because the moulding of the eye in people with shortsightedness allows the damage that we see in glaucoma to be more evident in short sightedness, but nobody knows for sure.”

Dr. Ashaye declared that there was the possibility of prolonged computer usage leading to excessive exposure of the eyes to ultra-violet light, which invariably damaged the eyes, the cornea and the retina. “Computer lights that are not controlled can affect the eyes. Excessive exposure of the eyes to UV lights can cause damages to the cornea and the retina, which is the photographic lining of the eyes that make you see, but those two situations have not been linked with glaucoma.”

She pointed out that prolonged computer use can lead to eye strain. Eye strain occurs because the muscles are working continuously and as such, an individual may complain of eye pain, dryness of theeye and headache. Of course, the individual may develop neck pains because of poor posture of the eye while working on the computer.

According to her, “It is better to have your eyes at a slightly upward level to the computer rather than all the way down and that causes eye strain. The more the object is closer to your eyes, the more the eye strain that you would get if you use your eyes for a long period of time without break.”

Dr. Ashaye declared “taking short five minutes break in between work would ensure that the muscles can relax. That should reduce to a large extent the eye strain.

The practice of wearing dark eyeshades while working on the computer, Dr. Ashaye said, might help reduce the amount of light getting into the eyes, just as wearing glasses that that are slightly coated with a coatings that reflect off excessive light rays.

Also, eye specialists, last year, warned that wearing a tightly knotted tie could make the condition more likely. This was based on their finding in the British Journal of Ophthalmology that measured the intraocular pressures in the eyes of 20 people without glaucoma and 20 others with open angle glaucoma.

In both groups, wearing a tight tie produced a significant rise in intraocular pressures and loosening the tie brought the pressures back down to within baseline values.

Despite the fact that it could take several years of tie wearing to actually cause glaucoma, if a tie is worn during eye examination, the elevated pressures could lead to an incorrect diagnosis of glaucoma too.

Dr. Ashaye, “Definitely, when the neck tie is too tight, the pressure in the eye may go up temporarily for a few minutes and then it comes back to normal. The good thing about the eye is that it is made in such a way that quickly there is an adjustment process to make the temporary rise in pressure come down.

The eye expert emphasized that considering the fact that people that are shortsighted have a high risk of having glaucoma, it is important that they, before they change their recommended glasses, get their eyes well tested for glaucoma.

According to her, “when the short sighted people that have glaucoma notice that each time they are given glasses, it works for a few months and then they are unable to see well again, that may in fact indicate that the glaucoma might have reached an advanced stage. When the glaucoma is in the early stages, they just change their glasses like any other person do.”

Worried about safeguarding your eye health while using your computer? Expert advice includes:

•Take regular breaks. Looking away from the computer screen for five minutes per hour.

•Check your distance; sit 2 feet away from the screen.

• Position the computer screen below eye level