Do Early Cataracts Predict Cancer Risk?

Cancer Risk & Early Cataracts

There has been an association between the early onset of cataracts-in patients under 55 years old and the potential risk for developing cancer. This is thought to be due to the fact that early onset cataract is linked to insufficient antioxidative activity in one’s metabolism-which is also a known factor for increasing the risk of cancer.  Researchers reporting the journal Cancer Science, the official journal of the Japanese Cancer Association investigated the risk of cancer after being diagnosed with early onset cataract. The researchers examined claims from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of patients with early onset cataract, aged 20-55 and also compared it to a group of the same age range without cataracts. By using powerful statistical analysis they found that the overall incidence rate of all cancers was 2.19-fold higher in the early onset cataract group as compared to those without cataracts.  Further they were able to analyze where these patients were at greatest risk of developing cancer and found head and neck areas highest, followed by liver cancer and then breast cancer. This study suggests that patients with early onset cataract are at an increased risk of being diagnosed with cancer in subsequent years.

If you or someone you know is concerned about early cataract development or needs a regular eye exam where do a routine cataract screening and exam, please share this information with them and ask them to call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.

Use It or Lose It

Not sure how to use your FSA dollars before they expire? Check out six great ways to splurge.

n  Tired of wearing the same glasses every day? Pick up a second or third pair.

n  Be fashionable in prescription sunglasses. They’re important all year long!

n  Upgrade to premium lens options like no glare coatings and transitions.

n  Stock up on contact lenses.

n  Pay for other out of pocket costs like co-pays and deductibles.

n  Ready for LASIK surgery? It’s eligible too!

By: Guest Blogger Lynette Cababa, Optician

If you or someone you know has a question about Flex Plans please call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.

Can a Mediterranean Diet Help Dry Eye?

At The Eye Care & Surgery Center we are always looking for ways to help patients with dry eyes or dry eye problems and symptoms. 

Research has shown that eating a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, as well as a reducing the incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Diseases, and thus raises the question of whether the traditional Mediterranean diet might be helpful for any eye problems. Researchers tried to determine whether eating a Mediterranean diet could provide help for dry eyes. Reporting in the journal Cornea, the researchers had patients fill out the Block Food Frequency Questionnaire and a Dry Eye Questionnaire, and then studied their tear film, measuring its quality and quantity along with blood levels of vitamin D.

Unfortunately, the results suggested that eating a Mediterranean diet was NOT associated with an improvement in dry eye symptoms and complaints, BUT higher vitamin D levels had a small but favorable effect on dry eye syndrome symptoms. So, while the Mediterranean diet itself doesn’t directly reduce dry eye symptoms, it does seem to be an eating plan that can help promote health and prevent disease for your whole family.

If you or someone you know has a question about dry eyes or needs help for dry eye problems or symptoms, please call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.

How Long Does Eyelid Surgery Last?

How Long Does Eyelid Surgery Last?

Rest assured - cosmetic eyelid surgery and the youthful facial rejuvenation it brings last for many years. Even with the removal of a small amount of eyelid skin and repositioning or removing eyelid fat in your 40’s or 50’s there is generally a fairly considerable rejuvenating effect that will last for many years, during which patients report that they look and feel better. However, aging is a dynamic process, influenced by many factors such as the pull of gravity, sun exposure, and even genetics.

Patients often ask me if they should wait until their condition worsens. My answer is that each person perceives the aging process differently, both psychologically and physically.  Most people understandably feel younger than their chronological age but may feel that their appearance does not reflect the way that they feel.  Rejuvenating the eye area helps address such common concern.

If you or someone you know would like to learn more or schedule a consultation for cosmetic eyelid or blepharoplasty, please call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999 to schedule a consultation with Cosmetic Eye Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon Baljeet Purewal, M.D.

Laser Cataract Surgery: A Gentler Approach

Laser Cataract Surgery Offers a Gentler Approach

When you visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center for a cataract evaluation and decide to have cataract surgery to help improve your vision, lifestyle and mobility, based on our eye examination and the health of the delicate structures and tissue inside your eye, we may recommend using laser cataract surgery to provide you with a more gentle cataract surgery and lens implant procedure.

 

LenSx Laser Cataract Surgery Laser

According to researchers reporting in the Journal of Refractive Surgery, laser cataract surgery does indeed allow for a gentler cataract surgery procedure. While there is really little or no difference between  traditional or manual cataract surgery and laser cataract surgery in uncorrected distance visual acuity, corrected distance visual acuity, surgically induced astigmatism, and corneal aberrations, the laser cataract surgery was gentler on the cornea as it caused less loss of fragile endothelial cells and less corneal swelling from the cataract surgery. This is related to the fact that by using the laser energy to “presoften” the cloudy lens material of the cataract we are able to use considerably less ultrasound energy during the “phacoemulsification” portion of the procedure making the overall procedure much gentler. In addition, the amount of time required for the more intense phacoemulsification parts of the cataract surgery procedure-chopping, fragmenting and removing the cataract are significantly lower with the laser cataract surgery. 

If you or someone you know has a question about laser cataract surgery and lens implants please call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment. 

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.

Osteoporosis & Cataract Risk

What do calcium, osteoporosis and your risk of developing cataracts have to do with each other? Quite a bit as it turns out! Researchers reporting in the journal Clinical Ophthalmology shared some interesting information regarding an association between cataracts, cataract surgery and osteoporosis.

Calcium, Osteoporosis & Risk of Developing Cataracts

Most of us know that calcium is an important nutrient necessary for bone health and avoiding osteoporosis. But, did you know that calcium is an important factor in cataract formation? The researchers evaluated the association between osteoporosis and cataracts and found that age, female sex, higher socioeconomic class, smoking, chronic renal failure, hyperthyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases are all associated with an increased prevalence of osteoporosis. Then through careful statistical modeling also found that these factors and osteoporosis are ALL associated with an increased prevalence of cataracts. 

Thus, they concluded that osteoporosis is associated with the presence of cataracts which may be related to calcium imbalance, hormonal abnormalities, and even a shared genetic predisposition.

If you or someone you know is concerned about osteoporosis and their risk of cataracts, please feel free to call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.

Cataract Surgery-Taking the Fear Out

I am still working full time in Manhattan and noticed my vision was decreasing rapidly. I live in New Jersey and began asking around and doing research as to the best cataract surgeons. The same name kept coming up, Dr. Joel Confino.  I went to see Dr. Confino in his Westfield office for a consultation and learned that I had cataracts.  Dr. Confino and his staff explained that given the underlying good health of my eyes, I qualified for a multifocal lens implant that would allow me to see both distance and read without glasses. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I have worn glasses for over 60 years and I knew nothing else. They had become part of me.

Dr. Joel Confino, M.D.

I was a little scared, as we are dealing with my eyes. The entire staff put me at ease and treated me like one of their family. Once I had my first eye done, I couldn’t believe the difference in the quality of my vision. Everything was so clear, crisp, colorful and vibrant. I couldn’t wait to have my second eye done two weeks later.

Now I have completed both of my surgeries and I am thrilled. It has helped me excel at my job; daily tasks are much easier without having to look for glasses or try to find my reading glasses. The process from the first examination through both treatments was PAINLESS! I mean it…No Pain.  Now that I am done, I telling all my friends that are still scared to go get checked, GO, it’s nothing.

Thank you to The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Dr. Confino and his team for making me feel young again.

Ted M.

If you or someone you know has a question about cataracts, laser cataract surgery or lens implants, please call The Eye Care & Surgery Center at 908-789-8999, visit The Eye Care & Surgery Center, Google+ or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.

The Eye Care & Surgery Center is located at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100, Iselin, New Jersey 08830, and is conveniently located for patients from throughout central and northern New Jersey.