While it would be hard to choose, but out of their five senses, many people consider sight to be their most precious. So if you or a loved one suffers from glaucoma or if you think about the possibility of losing your sight you can understand the seriousness of the disease.
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In a hurry? Here are the best selling wedge pillows that you can use to help with glaucoma.
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What is Glaucoma?
According to The Glaucoma Research Foundation, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness. Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve resulting in progressive, permanent loss of vision.
Glaucoma is a complex disease and in fact, there is not just one type of glaucoma. The two most common types are marked by an increase in intraocular pressure (IOP), which refers to the fluid pressure inside the eye. People who have increased or elevated IOP are at risk to develop glaucoma. The worry is that the pressure will become too high and damage the optic nerve resulting in vision loss.
While higher than normal IOP doesn’t guarantee that a person will develop glaucoma it is a serious risk factor that should not be ignored. There is no substitute for regular eye exams and care from a medical professional. That being said, people are not helpless and unable to make a positive impact on their condition. There are things you can do to help prevent your condition from worsening and positively impact your IOP.
What Can Make Glaucoma Worse? Things to Avoid
In a recent article on the Huffington Post, Dr. Robert Ritch, MD talked about avoiding certain activities to reduce the chance of your glaucoma worsening and causing further damage to your optic nerve and eyesight.
His advice included:
- Avoid certain yoga positions
- Avoid surgeries where you are in an inverted position with your head being lower than your heart for long periods
- Avoid holding your breath while exerting yourself
- Avoid holding your breath while exerting yourself
- Don’t ignore possible sleep apnea
- Try to not sleep on your side
What Can You Do To Improve or Lower High Intraocular Pressure (IOP) Naturally?
As we just noted there are things you want to avoid doing to making your IOP and/or glaucoma worse, but is there anything you can to improve or lower your IOP? Actually, there is something easy that you can do to lower your pressure.
Wedge Pillow for People With and Without Glaucoma
In the article by Dr. Robert Ritch that we mentioned earlier he encouraged people with glaucoma to avoid sleeping on their side so they don’t have their eye pressing into the pillow. Sleeping on a wedge pillow is a known way to encourage people to sleep on their backs.
In addition to helping people avoid sleeping on their side wedge pillows elevate the user’s head. This is important because it is known that sleeping on a wedge pillow that raised a person’s head 20 degrees decreased nocturnal intraocular pressure (IOP) compared with lying flat in people with and without glaucoma. We know from the information we covered earlier that having a reduced IOP might help control or reduce the risk of glaucoma.
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If you are a side sleeper and find it impossible to sleep on your back traditional wedge pillows could cause you some back discomfort. However, there are No products found.. These contour wedge pillows will elevate your head and you could consider using eye shields to protect your eyes from the pressure of sleeping on your side. You can see an example of one of these contoured wedge pillows No products found..
If you want to learn more about wedge pillows you can read an article that discusses wedge pillows here.
Here are some bestselling wedge pillows on Amazon:
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