Ophthalmologist Dr. Sandip Mitra joins Maria Botros on this week's Tell Me Why podcast episode to discuss the importance of blinking and proper eye care in preventing blindness.
Dr. Mitra: A study by the DHA in 2023 showed that 60-70% of people in Dubai should be wearing glasses
Uncorrected error of refraction is the most common cause of blindness, says Dr. Mitra
If you don’t have tears in your eyes, you won’t see very clearly which is why several people suffer from dry eyes, says Dr. Mitra
Dr. Mitra: Every time you blink, you produce the tear film in your eyes
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Dr. Mitra: A study by the DHA in 2023 showed that 60-70% of people in Dubai should be wearing glasses
Uncorrected error of refraction is the most common cause of blindness, says Dr. Mitra
If you don’t have tears in your eyes, you won’t see very clearly which is why several people suffer from dry eyes, says Dr. Mitra
Dr. Mitra: Every time you blink, you produce the tear film in your eyes
Read the full story here:
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
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NewsTranscript
00:00The number of people who are not wearing glasses is actually in millions, and that really affects
00:08the economy of the country, you know.
00:10Of course.
00:11So it's really a global problem.
00:14If we really go on seeing the statistics, by the year 2050, 50 percent of the world
00:19population will require glasses.
00:22Wow.
00:23So that's almost half the world population will have some or other form of wearing glasses.
00:29So it's really scary.
00:43All right.
00:44Welcome back.
00:45It's Tell Me Why.
00:46With me in the studio is Dr. Sandeep Mitra, who is an ophthalmologist and who's going
00:51to talk to us everything eye care, eye health, misconceptions and treatments.
00:57Dr. Mitra, how are you?
00:59Great.
01:00Thanks and welcome for welcoming me here in Kalk News.
01:04We're happy to have you.
01:06I feel like this is a topic that I've always wanted to discuss, to be honest.
01:10And first off, before we get started, I just want to get to know you a bit more.
01:14Why did you decide to become an ophthalmologist?
01:17Well, it's a long story cut short.
01:19When I finished medical school in India, for example, where I trained, it's very competitive
01:26to get into any branch of medicine.
01:30The reason I chose ophthalmology is it's a, it's first to say, combination of surgery
01:35and medicine.
01:37So it gives you an opportunity to go anywhere you like.
01:41So even if you're not a good surgeon, probably you can become a good medic, ophthalmologist.
01:46But later on, when I went into the field, I found it to be very fascinating because
01:51it's a microsurgery.
01:53It's growing every year.
01:55You know, there's a robotic surgery which is coming in ophthalmology.
01:58So it really fascinated me a lot.
02:02And that was the primary reason why I went into ophthalmology.
02:07Okay.
02:08And in your experience, I mean, you've had 20 plus experience now here in the country
02:14and abroad, I'm assuming.
02:16In your experience, how can we protect our eyes on a daily basis, like simple things
02:21that are actually, you know, that we take for granted, but that could actually protect
02:26our eyes?
02:27So I mean, it's a very important question, how to protect eyes, because without eyes,
02:31you don't see the world, you're blind.
02:34I think the most important thing is to understand what is the burden of eye problem in the world.
02:41If you just take the world statistics, not just UAE, the amount of people who are blind
02:48because of not wearing glasses is about in billions.
02:52It's about somewhere about 200 billion people who are not wearing glasses and they are blind.
02:58Wow.
02:59So it's a very, very important topic for us.
03:03As far as care is concerned, I think the most important thing is outdoor life.
03:08So you should have a balance between indoor life and outdoor life.
03:11That's very important.
03:14In case you have any problem, for example, you are not seeing well, you should immediately
03:19consult your optometrist or ophthalmologist and get your eye tested.
03:24So as far as eye health is concerned, from day to day basis, very important is try and
03:30balance your life, spend time outdoors, spend time indoors.
03:35It should be more outdoors to indoors, which is difficult in Dubai, for example, because
03:39of the weather.
03:40The next most important thing is nutrition.
03:44So what you eat affects your eyes.
03:46So the more you eat vegetables, the more you eat green leafy vegetables, you take a lot
03:51of vitamins, omega-3, they all keep your eye health good.
03:55Stay away from the screen.
03:58You have to stay at least 30 centimeters away.
04:01So the more closer you are on the screen, the more chances your eyes are getting fatigue.
04:06You tend to lose sight early in life.
04:09This is the other thing, blinking exercises.
04:11So you need to have enough blinks.
04:13Really?
04:14Yes.
04:15So you should do at least every second, one blink is important.
04:19So you should have at least, and when you are looking in on object, you actually forget
04:23to blink.
04:25So voluntary blinking, you know, if you're working for half an hour, we say this 20,
04:2920, 20, you know, so 20 minutes of work, 20 seconds of break and 20 blinks.
04:36That keeps the eye health.
04:37That's so interesting.
04:38I've never heard that before.
04:40Like intentional blinking.
04:43That's interesting.
04:44And why is that the case?
04:45That's because, you know, every time you blink, you actually produce the tear film into your
04:50eyes.
04:51And you sort of exercise the tear film, which breaks with every blink and then forms again.
04:57So blinking exercises are very important because it maintains the tear environment, which is
05:02very important to see clear.
05:04I mean, if you don't have tears in your eyes, you actually don't see very well.
05:09And that's the reason why many of us suffer from dry eyes in this country, because we
05:13are not blinking enough.
05:14The simple blinking exercises really keeps you healthy.
05:17I love that.
05:18I love that.
05:20So you mentioned that the number is in billions of people that go blind because they haven't
05:25taken care of their eyes or are not wearing the right glasses or haven't even paid attention
05:29to get their eyes checked.
05:31So do you have any like statistics that you can share, like how many people wear glasses
05:35and and out of which how many actually led to blindness?
05:39Yeah, there is a there is a survey from Dubai, which is the Dubai Health Authority.
05:44We did a survey in 2000, 2023, which was just post COVID.
05:49And they looked at the problem of errors, refractive errors, you know, how many
05:56percentage of people in Dubai, for example, that's about 60 to 70 percent.
06:02That's pretty high.
06:03Wow.
06:04That we have.
06:05They should be wearing glasses.
06:06OK.
06:07It's not that everybody wears glasses, but that should be wearing that.
06:10So they have some or other form of refractive error.
06:13That means either they are short sighted, that's myopia.
06:16That means they can see close objects, but they cannot see far away.
06:19Or they are long sighted, like hyperopia, where they see far a little bit, but they
06:24cannot read.
06:25So all these combinations are very common in Dubai.
06:29But if you see the world statistics, for example, if you say US, for example, the number
06:34of people who are not wearing glasses is actually in millions.
06:40And that really affects the the economy of the country, you know, of course.
06:44So it's it's really a global problem.
06:47And it is.
06:48And for your information, this is the commonest cause of blindness is uncorrected error of
06:55refraction.
06:57So people not wearing glasses, they don't see the world well.
07:01And that is the commonest cause of loss of eyesight.
07:04So it's not a disease.
07:05It's just that you don't have proper glasses.
07:08Wow.
07:09You would think it was chronic illnesses or, you know, like external factors.
07:13But it's actually as simple as, you know, an eye issue that has gone uncorrected or
07:21hasn't been addressed.
07:22Yes.
07:23Yes.
07:24As simple as that.
07:25Wow.
07:26So the statistics are very shocking, very shocking.
07:28The problem is that if you see the world, the geography, the most people who suffer
07:34from myopia, that means the people who don't see objects far away is the Asian community,
07:41the South Asian community, for example, people in Japan, Singapore, China.
07:47They have the highest number of people who wear glasses.
07:51This could be the indoor lifestyle, for example, or they are working more on the computers,
07:56for example.
07:57So these people do suffer from myopia a lot.
08:01And if you if we really go on seeing the statistics by the year 2025, sorry, 2050, 50 percent
08:09of the world population will require glasses.
08:13Wow.
08:14So that's that's almost half the world population will have some or other form of wearing glasses.
08:19So it's it's really scary.
08:20It is shocking.
08:22And there are so many conditions that can that can happen or like so many issues that
08:25you can face when it comes to your eyesight.
08:27So we're going to mention a few, actually, and we're going to get into depth into them.
08:32One that comes to mind is stigmatism.
08:35What is it and like how do you treat it or manage it?
08:38So if you take your eye like a ball, for example, around, it's called sphere.
08:44That means the light, if it goes through the eye, it comes to a point.
08:48But if you imagine the eye like not a ball, like a baseball, for example, that means it
08:53is curved more in one axis and is curved less in one axis.
08:58This is what astigmatism is all about.
09:00So in these eyes, if you have astigmatism, you cannot wear spherical glasses.
09:06So you need to have a combination of spherical and cylindrical power.
09:11So that means you need to converge the light of rays in different axis to one point and
09:17you need to have a different shape of the glasses.
09:20So astigmatism is a little bit complex, but in a very simple term, it looks like you're
09:27not looking like a sphere.
09:29You're looking like a cylindrical world.
09:31So in one axis, it is more curved and the other axis is less curved.
09:36But it is very well correctable with glasses.
09:38But we have to wear a combination of a spherical and a cylindrical glasses.
09:42OK.
09:43And how do you catch it?
09:44Like, how do I know if someone has it?
09:46So the very simple test which you can do is, if you remember these old clocks which
09:52used to hang on the wall, you know, those grandfather's clock.
09:55And if you have these Roman letters written on them, and if you have astigmatism and you're
10:00sitting far away and you look at those clock and you look at those letters, you will see
10:04some of the letters are very clear and some are very fuzzy.
10:09So the letters which are clear is the letters which you can see because you have a spherical
10:13aberration there.
10:14The letters which you are not seeing is because of your astigmatism.
10:19So in some axis, you are clear.
10:20In some axis, you are not clear.
10:22And all we do is we just correct it with cylindrical lenses.
10:25And then we ask, OK, can you now see all those letters in the dial?
10:30And they say, OK, yeah, Doc, I can see everything clear.
10:33And that's it.
10:34So one of the easy ways is, ask somebody, are you able to read everything in the classroom?
10:39He will say, no, I read a few and I miss a few.
10:43So that's the way they catch astigmatism.
10:45So it's not that you don't see.
10:49You see most of them, but some you miss.
10:51OK, great.
10:52So the follow up would be, then which tests should I do and how often?
10:58So I mean, to catch anything that might be wrong with my eyes.
11:02Look, if you say, when should we go to the doctor?
11:05So you should start from when you are a kid.
11:08So in terms of what is the normal date when we ask the parents to bring the child is,
11:16we ask the parents to bring the child at the age of three years.
11:20That's the first time they come to us for eye evaluation.
11:23And then just before they go to school.
11:25So these are the two checkpoints.
11:27But there are also early evaluation.
11:29For example, some child have not straight eyes.
11:32They have squint.
11:33So the eyes are looking inwards.
11:35Or a child is rubbing the eyes a lot.
11:38Or somebody who is not able to see when the light is going down.
11:41Some children, they just keep banging.
11:44So these are some extraordinary situations when we ask the children not to wait.
11:49Please bring the child immediately.
11:50You don't have to wait till three years.
11:53Or for example, you see the eye of the child and don't see the black ring there.
11:58So it appears whitish in color.
12:00Now, these are abnormal situations.
12:02When we ask, no, you don't have to wait.
12:04Please come before that.
12:06Or if the child is having infections.
12:09You know, you keep getting styes regularly in a small child.
12:13We say, no, you don't have to wait till three years.
12:15You can come before that.
12:16So any of these situations, or if you, for example, the child is going very close to
12:21the TV to watch the television, again, this is a red flag.
12:26So immediately you come to the doctor and visit the doctor.
12:29But what we say three years and then preschool.
12:33And then every year in the school, we do visit.
12:36At least the nurse or the doctor should visit and check the child's vision.
12:42Then as an adult, for example, you should visit at the age of, let's say, at 30, 35.
12:48Then you need to go for, for example, like check your eye pressure.
12:53Check whether you have you're developing glaucoma, for example, or you have any other disease
12:58in yourself.
12:59For example, hypertension, blood pressure, they can all affect eyes.
13:04And then the early invitation to old age.
13:07That's 40.
13:08When you, when you don't see things, which is very, and you see, you have to elongate
13:12your hands.
13:13So that's again is the checkpoint.
13:15So these are the important checkpoints in life when you should go to the doctor.
13:19I'm glad you mentioned that point because it brings us to our next, you know, order
13:23of business, which is, you mentioned that glasses can help you maintain good eye health
13:29and can actually help you prevent further complications.
13:33So then what happens if your eyesight is being affected by a chronic illness?
13:40So in the case of diabetics, it's a diabetic retinopathy.
13:45I mean, what are other chronic illnesses that can actually affect your eyesight?
13:50And how do you handle it differently than someone that's going in for regular checks?
13:54So what happens is, as an ophthalmologist, we are very much linked with other parts of
14:01medicine.
14:02Of course.
14:03One of them, as you correctly mentioned, is diabetes.
14:04Now, diabetes are basically, grossly, are two types.
14:08One, which is insulin dependent, which starts in early in age, and the type two, which is
14:14non-insulin dependent, which starts later in age.
14:17Now if you are insulin dependent, you actually have to visit very early to the doctor because
14:23you start, let's say, at the age of 15, 18, you start taking insulin.
14:29Every year you must come to an ophthalmologist to check your eyes.
14:32Now, if you are a type two diabetes, your diabetes is not diagnosed very late in life.
14:38So you come very late, at the age of 35, 40 plus, even 50 years.
14:44Diabetes per se affects the retina.
14:47So the retina is the screen on which the images are forming.
14:50Now if you are diabetic, for some reason or so, the eye demands more oxygen, okay?
14:58And in diabetic patients, the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood goes down, okay?
15:03So there are formation of abnormal blood vessels in the retina, which then can bleed.
15:09So it's very important for us to take pictures of the retina, make the patient aware, okay,
15:15you are diabetic, your retina is good, not to worry.
15:18No, you are diabetic, your retina is not good, you need to have close follow-ups.
15:22So it's very important for us to diagnose if you're having a diabetic retinopathy.
15:28And then depending on the stage of the retinopathy, we then advise what's the next treatment.
15:34It can be a laser treatment, it can be injection, it can be anything.
15:39But you need to have a constant visit to us and your endocrinologist.
15:43So keeping your sugar down is very important.
15:46And keeping your appointment with ophthalmologist is equally important.
15:50So these are the two important things for diabetes.
15:53But there are other diseases.
15:54We have hundreds of diseases where our eyes are affected.
15:57So there are many other diseases.
15:58Could you mention like any other diseases, chronic illnesses at least, that people are
16:02dealing with, have to look out for when it comes to their eyesight?
16:05Yeah, for example, if you are hypertensive, okay, again, your retina can get affected
16:10because of hypertensive retinopathy.
16:12For example, if you're having any other rheumatoid disease, you have joint pains, okay, you have
16:18a problem with your spine, your eyes can get affected.
16:22You can suffer with severe dry eyes, you know, you can not even be able to see in those eyes.
16:27So that's affected.
16:29Many neurological conditions, you know, where you have, for example, multiple sclerosis.
16:33Patients have a problem with their nerve.
16:36Eyes can affect and suddenly you can lose your eyesight, it's called optic neuritis.
16:40The patient has eye inflammation, suddenly the vision goes down.
16:44And the problem is these are young individuals.
16:47And that could be the first sign.
16:48You don't have any problem in yourself and suddenly you lose your eyesight.
16:53And the ophthalmologist actually catches you and then we diagnose multiple sclerosis or
16:58optic neuritis.
16:59We treat this patient with steroids, they do very well.
17:02And then we refer them to the neurologist for further management.
17:05So there are many conditions.
17:07Cataract, for example.
17:08Diabetic patients do develop cataract very early in life.
17:11Sometimes young patients, they come to us, my father developed cataract at the age of
17:1680.
17:17Why am I having cataract?
17:19So we tell them, look, you have some other issues.
17:21You have some comorbidities.
17:23For example, you have hypertension, you have diabetes, you have thyroid disease.
17:28All these conditions can produce early onset cataract.
17:32So there are many, many diseases which affects the eye if your body is not perfect.