Time for another local blogger that is truly embracing the message here with the Eyedolatry Sunglasses Initiative.  Christina at Carolina Charm  is a huge supporter of sun protection.  She even blogged about her daily routine to here.  What I love about featuring a lifestyle blogger like Christina is that she is showing us that sunglasses aren't just about fashion.  They are a product that she wears for function and protection, and fashion is the frosting on top.

When you are buying over-the-counter sunglasses, it can be hard to know how much protection you are really going to get from wearing them.  The truth is, not all sunglasses available for purchase really meet the standards required to protect you from diseases like macular degeneration or cancers, or painful conditions like photokeratitis (a sunburn of the eye).  Here's what you need to know before swiping your credit card:

• Know Your UV Coverage

  A sticker  like this verifies 100% UV Blocking, so make sure your OTC sunglasses have this sticker too! Via

If you haven't seen the styling of Megan from For All Things Lovely, you have probably never been on Pinterest before.  This South Carolina blogger dishes out fashion hits on a daily basis, and her sunglasses wardrobe makes even me envious.  I had such a hard time narrowing down her best sunglasses styles; this post is going to be very picture heavy.

What does she look for in sunglasses?

"I always go for sunnies that have a cat eye shape or a classic aviator.  I've tried to branch out so many times, but those shapes just seem to glam up any outfit.  And always, always have at least a little bit of gold or silver on them.  You can never go wrong with metallic's."

She is an expert at remixing her sunglasses to create casual and more sophisticated looks.  And she really knows how to fit the shape of her face with a designer's frame shape.  If you need sunglass inspiration, look no further.

Karen Walker Sunglasses

Ray Ban Sunglasses

Prada Sunglasses

Even her husband knows how to rock a good pair of sunglasses.

Scarring from Macular Degeneration

Megan from For All Things Lovely--our next Carolina Style Blogger to Be Featured this week!

Today's technology driven world is an incredible place.  Not too many years ago, your doctor dilated your eyes to look inside to check for bleeding, holes, tears, and growths.  He or she may have been able to describe to you what they were seeing, but you were left to using your imagination for the most part, even with the use of the best diagrams and artistic renditions.  With retinal photography available at most eyecare providers now, the world inside the eye is a place both your doctor and you as the patient are able to explore.

July is being dedicated to sunglasses here at Eyedolatry, so prepare yourself for a lot of fashion-inspired posts this month.  From now until late August, millions of Americans will be trekking to the coast or the community pool to enjoy the fantastic weather.  A must-have for your summer adventures? Sunglasses.  Even if you are just walking around at the Farmer's Market, or bustling around town in and out of doors, sunglasses are protecting your eyes not just from annoying glare, but the harmful UV light that leads to conditions like Macular Degneration and advanced or early onset cataracts (see this post).  I am going to be featuring local Carolina fashion and lifestyle bloggers this month on what they look for in sunglasses, and their favorite way to style their glasses for Summer 2013.

Up first is Caitlin, a blogger out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  Her blog Southern Curls and Pearls is an homage to her personal style and Carolina roots. Her featured glasses for the summer are a classic tortoise shell look that are 100% UV blocking that she was able to snag on sale at her local Anthropologie.





What does she look for in sunglasses?

"I want sunglasses that protect my eyes but are chic at the same time, and these are definitely it. The tortoise look is really "in" at the moment, so I knew I couldn't pass these up. They are also similar to a Karen Walker pair I've had my eyes on, but without the expensive price tag! "

Karen Walker Super Duper Strength Suns

Via

The Karen Walkers she refers to have been sported by celebrities like Gwen Stefani, but come with a $348 price tag.  Looking for designer shades but a chance to try them on and get great local service?  Remember, you can also find designer sunglasses at your local high end optical providers that are 100% UVA and UVB blocking with the quality of frames that will last for years and years, and often this time of year they will be running sunglass promotions to help you save by protecting your eyes.  And if you have vision insurance or a flexible spending account, you can use your benefits towards prescription sunglasses too (even if you have a very small prescription) because sunglasses are really medical devices that are protecting your eyes and eyelid skin from cancer and degenerative conditions for years to come.

I truly believe my patients try to keep their eyes healthy.  We talk every year about the cornea getting enough oxygen under their contact lenses, and I know that my patients want to wear their contact lenses correctly so that their eyes stay healthy enough for another year of contact lens wear.  Imagine how hard it is for the patient (and for the doctor for that matter) when you have to have a conversation about not being able to wear contact lenses anymore -- for a few months, or perhaps even for a lifetime depending on the amount of damage.

This eye may look okay at first glance, but there is a huge scar in the central cornea!  This person will never be able to see clearly again!  Via

The biggest reason my patients tell me that they don't change their contact lenses on time is simply because they forget.  Their lenses are so comfortable, they just don't remember to change them after 14 or 30 days.  Some people even tell me that they will use comfort as a judge to know when to You cannot trust how a lens feels, because you cannot feel your cornea getting oxygen from the atmosphere.  If you fall into this category of lens wearers that has trouble remembering to change on time, here are some helpful aids to let you keep your eyes healthy enough for contact lens wear!
change the lenses.  If you wait until your lenses feel bad to change them, you have waited to the point that your eyes have suffered damage!  And all that lack of oxygen in an old contact lens smothers your corneal nerves, so next month, you will feel even less as your eye is starving more and more for oxygen.

1) Email Based
Acuvue as a brand makes some of the hardest lenses to remember to change on time (every 2 weeks!) so I appreciate their effort to help remind patients to keep healthy since they know they have a problem with their lenses being abused.  Their website Acuminder tool is free; can be used with any product (not just Acuvue lenses), and is very non-invasive.  You just sign up for a monthly or 2 week email (depending on your lens) that will remind you to throw your lenses away.  They also offer a text message based system.

2) SmartPhone Apps
There are number of apps out there that act as reminder alarms, but here is a breakdown of my opinion:

Contact Lenses Timer app: free and simple interface

• Lens Tracker LE: Free; Simple and clean.  It also tells you how many lenses you have left so you don't surprise yourself when you are on your last box.
• Contact Lens Tracker:  $0.99; To me the app has a little too much data -- it can track the number of times you wear a lens as well as how old the lens is, which is information that may confuse the issue.  If you have a monthly lens, you need to replace it monthly whether you wear it 28 times or 31 times.  The lens deteriorates every day it is opened from the package, not just every day you wear it.
• My Contact Lens:  $0.99; To me this one looks to be aimed for younger patients. It has linked data pages to tell you proper cleaning and care, removal strategies, etc.  
• Contact Lenses Timer: Free;  It also has a place for you to record you doctor's name and number, your brand and prescription, in case you ever need that information.  
• Contact Lenses: Free; Again, too complicated with the ability to "skip a day" of wear affecting the tracker.  And you have to record each eye separately.

There are certain ocular diseases that we all know can cause blindness, and we know that we should be checked for those at every eye examination.  But during my tenure as an optometrist, I have discovered that while most people have heard of conditions like glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration, we haven't done a very good job of telling people what those ocular conditions actually are. Glaucoma is a disease of the eye where the optic nerve is destroyed, causing permanent visual loss.  For more details, please read this post.  What most people don't realize is that diagnosing glaucoma is a very complicated process.  Your doctor can't just look at your eyes and say "You have it!" (unless it is very advanced that is).  Here is a breakdown of all the information your doctor is collecting to screen your eyes for glaucoma at every eye examination:

1) Checking the pressure inside the eye

Goldmann's Tonometry is a more accurate pressure reading that is often used to verify NCT (or air puff) data

The dreaded air puff test has an important goal-- it tells your doctor the pressure inside of your eye.  A range of pressure between 10 and 21 mmHg is considered normal, but some people are going to have higher pressure and it still be normal for them.  The air puff (or non-contact tonometer) is a preliminary screening tool.  If your pressure is high, it does not mean you have glaucoma.  If your pressure is normal, it does not mean that you don't have glaucoma.  Your eye pressure is going to be different depending on the time of day, the medications you take, whether you are sitting or lying down... Lots of things can vary.  But over the course of several years of pressure data, your doctor is compiling a trend for your "normal" pressure, which can help them find suspicious changes with time.  For example let's say you have a pressure of 10 for several years, and the next year we check your pressure and it is 18 mmHg.  That is still a normal pressure reading according to our "average range", but it is not normal for you!

2) Inspecting the Anatomy of the Eye
I don't want to make this too complicated, but when the doctor looks at the surface of your eye in the microscope, they are checking for numerous medical conditions, including suspicious structural changes that could cause acute spikes in your eye pressure.  If the anatomy of your eye where the cornea meets the iris (colored part of the eye) is very narrow, you are in a higher risk category for having this acute spike.  This is something your doctor measures at every examination, and will record in your chart whether this structural meeting place is "wide open" or grade the amount of narrowing on a scale of 1 to 4.  If you are in the 1-2 range on this grading scale (very narrow), your doctor will be discussing the signs and symptoms of an acute angle closure attack.  If you have acute onset redness, pain, blurry vision, and halos around lights, you need to be seen immediately!

3) Inspecting the Anatomy of the Optic Nerve

Via

The optic nerve is a like a chord that hooks the back of the eye to the brain.  In the retinal photographs that many doctors take, it looks like a yellow circle.  Inside of this chord, blood vessels run through delivering oxygen and nutrients to the eye.  That means that there is a hole inside of the nerve to let the vessels pass through.  In doctor-speak, this hole is called "the cup".  To make things as simple as possible, the bigger your hole, the more at risk you are for glaucoma, because in glaucoma the nerve tissue is dying, which would cause the hole to get bigger and bigger, or more hollowed out if you will.  Here's the catch -- not everyone with a large hole or "cup" has glaucoma.  Some people just genetically will have a large hole.  And not everyone with a small cup does not have glaucoma.  I have seen several patients with a small cup that had diffuse visual field loss from glaucoma.  There are some trends that help your doctor determine if your nerve "cup" size is normal:

• Is the size of the cup the same in both eyes?  If you have one large hole and one small hole, there is a greater chance that the eye with the large hole has a disease process.  Usually in nature we are symmetric in anatomy, so we would expect the right and the left eye optic nerve to look the same if it was healthy and normal.
• Is the size of the cup the same as last year?  As 10 years ago?  This is where photodocumentation is pivotal.  In a normal eye, the size of the hole in the nerve will not be changing from year to year.  If you have photos of your eye over a lifetime, it can be very beneficial to have your doctor compare to check for gradual changes.  If you started out with a smaller hole and now have a larger hole a few years later, that is very suspicious for glaucoma.
• Is there bleeding around the nerve?  A hemorrhage near the nerve is often a sign of glaucoma (called a Drance hemorrhage).
• The bigger the nerve, the bigger the cup.  This is a just a rule of thumb -- not everyone has the same size optic nerve.  If you have a larger optic nerve, your doctor expects you to have a larger hole inside the nerve.  What is a normal size hole in one person with a large nerve, could be a major glaucomatous process in another person with a smaller nerve size.  It is all relative!

This picture is from the right and left eye of the same patient.  Look at the asymmetry of the cup or hole inside the optic nerve!  The large hole inside the nerve on the right side of the photos is a major giveaway that this person probably has advanced glaucoma.

Ever been at a friend's house and realized you didn't bring your contact lens case or solution?  Or flying and suffering from the displeasure of horrendously dry contact lenses, but being unable to take them out because your case and solution are in a checked bag?  For a contact lens wearer, life is not always conducive to the items you need to properly care for your lenses.  And every time you stretch those lenses a little longer than comfortable, or you don't store them properly in fresh solution, you are risking infection they may permanently mean the end of your contact lens wearing days (not to mention the chance of permanent blindness!).  Luckily, a group of entrepreneurs out of California have created a product that can solve these contact lens issues without compromising safety.

via

The Refresh Card was this year's winner of Duke's Start Up Challenge for good reason.  The idea is so remarkably simple and accessible, it will leave you wondering why it wasn't available sooner.  Contact lenses have been mainstream since the 1970s, but solutions and the contact lens cleaning process have been overwhelmingly the same for at least 20 years.  The Refresh Card is the size of a credit card so that you could even store one or a few in your wallet or purse, but has pop-out compartments that can be manipulated to to make a contact lens case and 2 packets of solution.  All those years playing with Transformers paid off for these entrepreneurs.




Just pop-out the contact lens wells (conveniently marked R and L), clean your lenses with the provided solution packet, and store.  The blue top portion of the card will slide back on to seal your lenses safely overnight. Currently the product is available for pre-order at the company's website, so not yet available for mainstream use.  I had reached out to the company to see what brand of contact lens solution they would be using, but got no answer, so I am surmising that is still in the works.  I will update this post as soon as I learn more details (like projected cost and solution brand to be used).

Package as photographed by me

Maybe it is my relative youth in the world of optometry, but trying out a new contact lens product still really excites me.  For the past few months, I have heard a constant buzz about Ciba's new daily lens material that is being used in the freshly launched in America DAILIES TOTAL 1.  The product is a water gradient delivery system, (for more information read here) that aims to prevent the contact lens from pulling water from your eye to stay hydrated, the culprit causing end of day dryness in so many contact lens wearers.

Whenever anyone tells me they have the newest, latest greatest anything, I am always suspicious.  When Ciba declared this lens "a game changer"  it sounded to my skeptical ears like a product destined to flop.  When I saw the packaging (it looks like a toothpaste box) and saw the obnoxious ALL CAPS in the nomenclature, it grated on my contact lens critic nerves.  But Ciba is on to something with this lens.  My rep for the company kept telling me that frequently when someone puts on the lens in front of him, they say they can't feel it.  So I decided to test drive it for myself.  I put the lens in.  I tried to feel it.  I really did.  But Ciba won round one:  I could not even really convince myself that the lens was on my eye without looking in the mirror.  It was that comfortable.

Come on, you know you are thinking toothpaste too

I also have to admit that I am a tough critic for more reasons than just my skeptical nature.  I have very dry eyes with contact lens wear, and I typically wear my glasses 5 days a week, as much for comfort as for style.  I have only a few products that I really swear by.  Avaira is the only multiple wear product I can stand on my eye for longer than a few hours.  Proclear 1-Day used to be my lens of choice for comfort, but about 12-14 hours in, I would have to manipulate the lens under my eyelid to try to relieve dryness, or use a re-wetting drop.  Then I discovered Acuvue 1-Day Moist.  This has been my favorite product for nearly 2 years.  I wear this lens comfortably late into the day and on airplanes.  But I still find I get issues with comfort and lens awareness around that 14 hour mark.  The DAILIES TOTAL 1 is the first contact lens that I have worn where I really didn't get lens awareness until close to 16 hours into the day.  I was able to wear them with acceptable comfort all the way to the 18 hour mark.   I really didn't even start feeling like I had a contact lens in my eye until 6-8 hours of wear had passed.  And did I mention that some days I was wearing this lens under exceedingly poor circumstances?  I have a lot of grass and pollen allergies that typically make my lenses feel like steel cages in my eyes after being outdoors for a few hours, but the Dailies TOTAL 1 still felt comfortable after spending 4 hours outside.  I am a contact lens cynic, and the type of patient that typically finds no true satisfaction with contact lens wear, and now I am a believer that we really do have a new product to offer patients that can truly help make their contact lens wearing life better.

Now is this lens perfect?  No, I still got a little dry and irritated towards the very end of my (very long) day.  But I was able to wear the lenses comfortably longer than with any other contact lens I have ever put in my eye.  I had good vision (I wouldn't say the clarity was a real remarkable point, but it was at least as good as any other daily lens I have been wearing over the past 3-4 years).  The major drawbacks are going to be availability and price. The lens is only available in minus spherical powers (no astigmatism, no multifocal, and no plus!) so only a certain population of patients will even be eligible to wear the lens.  Ciba does plan to utilize the science of their water gradient technology to expand into different lens types, so larger ranges of vision issues can benefit.  Price is going to be a huge factor, and like any premium product new to the market, it is priced accordingly.  You won't be able to find this lens for much less than $100 for a box of 90.  Compared with the price of even other dailies on the market, you will definitely be paying a premium to enjoy the extra benefits of this lens.

Take home points:

Try this lens if you feel like you have never really had a comfortable contact lens for one reason or another: dryness, lens awareness, redness, allergies.  This lens may be the closest thing available to solve your problems.
Try this lens if you want to see what the best contact lens technology for comfort on the market can provide.
Try this lens if you are a skeptic; maybe you might become a believer too!

Disclaimer:  I am in no way affiliated with Ciba and was not compensated for trying their product or writing this post.  

Here's a post for all the nerds out there:  Yesterday I got the news that what we thought we knew about the cornea (the clear layer of tissue located on the front of the eye) was actually all wrong.  Scientists have a discovered a new layer of corneal tissue, and since the cornea is where many ocular surgeries are performed, this new discovery could have a huge impact on the way we treat corneal diseases and procedures for corneal transplants.

Cornea with scarring from surgical procedures (via ) The new discovery of Dua's layer could help surgeons target this strong tissue and hopefully limit surgical complications.

Traditional thought had the cornea with 5 distinct layers: the epithelium, Bowman's layer, the stroma, Descemet's layer, and the endothelium.  Each layer is susceptible to particular corneal degenerative conditions, and these layers are routinely used as markers for the depth of incisions needed for surgeries.  The new layer, named Dua's layer after the scientist who discovered it, is located between the corneal stroma and Descemet's.  It
is remarkably thin -- only 15 microns in total!  But it is incredibly strong, able to withstand a large amount of pressure.  Due to its strength, surgical procedures may utilize this area in future as a location to guide laser incisions, preventing damage to weaker corneal layers. With a discovery this new, we have yet to realize the impact on applied science.  But we do know that a lot of textbooks will need to be rewritten!

Looking for something a bit different in sunglasses this summer?  Mirrored sunglasses have been a staple in sportswear for athletes in highly-reflective or bright conditions (like most snow sports), but have crept into the fashion scene this summer for street wear. Try this retro-look for something new this summer:

Trussardi

Wildfox Couture

RayBan

Via Marie Claire China

If you can't tell by the subject matter of my last few posts, I have been really inspired by the wave of new technology on the horizon in the eyecare industry.  Whether it is the more universal intrigue of Google Glass or the promise of sophisticated performance goggles that could monitor pulse and heart rate while protecting you from UV damage, our eyes are at the forefront of tomorrow's innovations.  And living where I do, my patients are often telling me about new technologies at the companies they work for before I even hear about them in optometric journals!   Here's another example of a local Raleigh company bringing the ocular world the next wave in advancement:

Corinthian Ophthalmic is a small start up that has received funding to produce the first electronic ocular  dropper.  This device would help solve major issues for patients who take eye drops every day but have trouble either getting the drop in or remembering to do so.  Imagine trying the squeeze a small eye drop bottle when you have arthritis, and then trying to be certain that you actually got one drop out, and in to the eye instead of on your cheek.  Patients will even routinely scratch their corneas when struggling with instilling eye drops!  An electronic drop delivery device could eliminate all of these problems by:

Corinthian's early prototype via

• controlling the exact size of the drop that enters the eye; preventing wasting of drops which can greatly help with a patient's monthly bills
• electronic guiding system that would tell the patient when the device is centered to deliver medicine to the eye's surface
• reminder alarm to tell you when to put the drop in
• reporting system that your doctor could access to see if you have been using the drops as directed
• no squeeze necessary, so no difficulties with small bottle size or highly viscous drops getting stuck in the bottle
• potentially a shake setting that would shake the medication for the patient if needed (studies routinely show that patients do NOT shake their drops on a regular basis when educated to do so by their doctor and on the prescription label)

Do you get a lot of build-up on your contact lenses by the end of the day?  See if these symptoms sound familiar:

• your lenses feel very uncomfortable as you blink
• your vision gradually reduces as you go through your day
• when you take your lenses out at night you see debris or film on the surface of the lens

1) Check your disposal time
If you know you are prone to overwearing your lenses, build-up is a big red flag that your lenses are past their expiration date.  Check with your doctor or you can look things up online to reaffirm how often you should be throwing away your lenses.  Many of my patients that get depositing in Acuvue lenses find that their issues completely resolve once they begin throwing the lenses away every 2 weeks like the lenses are approved for.

Miraflow is hard to find, so I often recommend the Walgreens version below.  Both via

2) Change your Cleaning Process
There is a reason that so many contact lens solutions are available on the market -- different people need different options to get the best results from their contact lenses.  There are a number of great cleaning options out there, so here is how to best maximize your results.

• Add a specific daily cleanser to your regimen

• Products like Miraflow Extra Strength Daily Cleanser or even the generic Walgreens version are specific cleansers safe to use with soft contact lenses and Synergeyes hybrid contact lenses for removal of deposits.  They are alcohol based, so it is always best to rinse the lenses with a cleanser afterwards.  Just apply a drop to your contact lens in the palm of your hand, and gently rub in a circular motion for 15 or so seconds.   Then you can rinse off with your regular multi-purpose contact lens solution or sterile saline

Change to Clearcare for overnight cleaning

Anyone who reads this blog has picked up on the fact that I am enamored with Clearcare.  This solution solves so many of patients problems due to the strong overnight cleans you receive with a peroxide based solution.  Just remember to let the lenses sit overnight and never put the solution directly into your eye.  This solution works perfectly with soft contact lenses of all shapes and sizes, and if you are a known depositor I still use it with my Synergeyes patients (though for many patients in Synergeyes Duette the preferred solutions are Aquify or Biotrue).  All other types of Synergeyes lenses (Clearkone, etc) should use Clearcare for best results. 

3) If you are still having issues, it is time to see your doctor
 Sometimes there is a medical condition causing you to get more build-up on your lenses, and without treatment, you may not have complete resolution.  Allergies or the more aggressive GPC (giant papillary conjunctivitis) where your eye basically rejects contact lens wear can cause depositing as a side effect. Treating the eye with anti-histamines or stronger steroid eye drops can help decrease the inflammation to your eye and make lens wear possible again.

4) Change to Daily Disposables
While dailies aren't available in every prescription, sometimes it is easiest to just change to a lens that you throw away every day instead of trying several cleansing products nightly to combat lens build-up.  Check with your doctor to see if daily lenses are available for you.

Imagine biking down a winding mountain road, wind in your face--but not your eyes because they are protected by full coverage sports goggles.  And then oh no, your bike chain breaks.  And you don't know how to repair it.  But wait--those goggles that were shielding your eyes from sun and wind just a second ago can also access an electronic repair guide!

Bolle designs performance goggles for outdoor sports ranging from biking to snowboarding.  Via

Smart goggles like these are not so distant in our future according to entrepreneurs at Laut Design.  They are partnering with performance glasses enterprise Bolle to help design the next generation of sports goggles.  The concept sounds similar to Google Glass with electronic projection that can be accessed to view maps, odometers, heart rate monitors, and endless possible applications.  All while utilizing the highly performance based goggle design that Bolle has popularized with glare and UV protection, and specialized tints to enhance performance in a variety of light conditions.

There are no projected release dates on when a smart goggle design may first hit the market, but expect the next generation of performance glasses to perform at a whole new level!

The product has launched in Europe, but not yet in America.  Via

We are merely months away from the American launch of another new daily disposable product, this time courtesy Ciba Vision!  Daily disposable products are the major forces on company's pipelines these days, with Bausch and Lomb's new Biotrue daily launching earlier this year, and Cooper Vision's Proclear 1-Day Multifocal launching last fall.  For contact lens wearers suffering from dry eye, the new daily materials offer a reason to hope!

What makes the new DAILIES TOTAL 1 product different?  Ciba reports that this lens is the first "water gradient" technology on the market.  The daily is made from a new silicone hydrogel material called delefilcon A.  At the central core the lens has only a 33% water content, allowing for record high oxygen transmissibility (a stunning 156 Dk/t!).  But this relatively low water content would have meant questionable comfort as the lens drew water from the eye during the course of the day.  The solution?  The water content of the lens increases gradually towards the front and back surface of the daily lens.  At the surface of the lens, the water content reaches 80%, which matches the water content of the cornea.  The theory is that if the contact lens and the cornea have the same water content, there will be less drawing of water from the eye into the lens, meaning better end of day comfort.  Another plus?  The lens has an 8.5 base curve, whose closer fit to the eye can offer better initial comfort to the average myopic lens wearer with steeper corneal curvature.

We are hoping to see these lenses available in our office later this fall, and can't wait to see the results.  As with any product, this lens may or may not work for your particular needs, but it is great to see companies focusing so much on combating dryness and switching concentration to daily disposable products which offer the best in comfort and safety to all contact lens wearers!

Somewhere in the distance a bone chilling screech breaks the silence of the exam room.  "You mean, I can't wear my contact lenses at all?  For an entire week?"  If you are a contact lens wearer, nothing chills the heart more than hearing the dreaded words: "you have to wear your glasses."

For over 2 million people worldwide diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, finding a treatment that controls the disease can be both costly and time-consuming where time is of the essence.  With MS, trial and error with a drug could mean the difference in permanent debilitation.  Luckily, more and more promising drugs are hitting the market.  Newly launched Tecfidera is one of the most promising oral medications (and for those with MS, an oral treatment is a brave new world because traditional medications have required daily injections!), but comes with a hefty price tag around $54,000 for a year of treatment.  Like all medications, you won't know if it works for you with the same effectivity seen in trial data.  New research from Johns Hopkins suggests that your eye doctor may be able to work in conjunction with your primary care provider to track if your MS medication is working effectively for you!

OCT imaging showing the thickness of individual retinal layers via

Ocular tissue is neural tissue, just like the tissue that makes up the brain.  As such, changes seen in the retinal tissue appear to reflect changes going on in the brain tissue with people diagnosed with MS.  Over a period of 21 months, Johns Hopkins researchers monitored the OCT (Ocular Coherence Tomography) scans of 164 patients with MS.   An OCT is a advanced scanning device that measures the thickness of retinal and optic nerve tissue, and compares the eye to a normative data base.  To date, the technology is routinely used to track changes associated with glaucoma and macular degeneration.  Researchers found that retinal thinning greatly increased in patients with new T2 lesions and in patients who had worsening levels of disability over the course of the study.  The data looks promising for testing new neuroprotective agents -- after starting a new medication, doctors could potentially use OCT readings to determine if the medication was effective before debilitating progression of the disease caused functional changes in a patient's daily life.  More research is required before this use of technology is implemented in normal protocol, but in a few years, MS patients may be routinely referred for eye examinations to monitor how well their medication is working!  Just one more way to utilize the amazing window into the brain that our ocular tissue provides.

via

Have you or a loved one been diagnosed with MS?  I am partnering with Healthline to promote their video campaign: "You've Got This" where people living with MS can post inspirational video messages that can inspire and encourage others who are recently diagnosed.  Visit the link here to check out the videos or post your own!  Healthline is donating $10 for every video submitted so please take some time to post your story or words of hope for this great cause!

It is the year 2013, and Google is not about to let us forget it.  The world is abuzz with news releases from the company's latest tech venture: Google Glass.  This "wearable" computer is basically a smart phone -- sitting on your face.  And while Google Glass isn't going to help you see (protocols are in development for a future version that can be fit over prescription glasses), these glasses are letting us see into our possible future.

Almost everyone has a pair of basic brown or black sunglasses, but if you are ready for a real statement, try wearing bolder prints with your sunglasses.  The fashion world is all about mixing, matching, and layering competing prints these days, so there is no better time to add a fashion-forward printed sun to your spring wardrobe.

Dolce and Gabbana

Tory Burch

Kate Spade--I know I have posted these before but I really do love them

via