Latest news with #visionloss
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurse Suddenly Lost Her Sight While Treating Patients. Then Came an Unexpected Diagnosis (Exclusive)
While working in the ER, Breanna T. suddenly lost her vision and kept treating patients as her sight deteriorated She was told it wasn't emergent, but days later, a specialist diagnosed her with acute angle closure glaucoma Breanna's vision has returned, but her story, and viral TikTok, have sparked wider conversations about advocacy and medication side effectsOne moment, Breanna T. was helping patients during a routine emergency room shift, and the next, the world around her was a blur. The ER nurse had no warning before her vision disappeared in both eyes, kicking off a frightening medical mystery that would later go viral on TikTok. In the video, Breanna reenacts what unfolded in those first 48 hours with a pointed 'put a finger down' challenge, recounting how she finished her shift while barely able to see, and the journey that followed before she received a diagnosis. 'I looked up to see who was calling my name, and I couldn't see her at all,' Breanna tells PEOPLE, describing the moment everything changed. 'It was just very shocking to me, because literally 10 seconds before that, I was seeing just fine.' She had just stepped out of a patient's room to assist a fellow nurse when the sudden loss of sight occurred. As panic swelled beneath the surface, her clinical instincts kicked in. 'I cleaned my glasses, I took my blood pressure, I took my blood sugar … I was just trying to go through everything I could think of to fix it,' she says. 'I was also at work, still responsible for helping care for patients, so I was doing my best to keep my composure.' Rather than alerting her team right away, Breanna first tried to troubleshoot the situation herself. She didn't want to raise the alarm until she had ruled out the basics. 'I was like, 'Here's the situation … do you guys have any ideas? Because I've already done everything I can think of,' ' she recalls telling her coworkers and several doctors. 'So then we started spitballing, trying to figure out what else we could test.' She had been trained to recognize red flags for emergencies and was deeply concerned about the possibility of a stroke. But her symptoms weren't fitting into any box. 'Loss of vision is a pretty standard stroke symptom,' she explains. 'But because it was both eyes at the same time and I had no other symptoms, I tried to stay levelheaded.' Her coworkers asked all the right questions, but nothing beyond her vision seemed to be affected. 'People were asking, 'Do you have a headache? Are you nauseous?' But literally, it was just my vision change,' she says. 'So I was honestly at a loss, because this didn't look like the heart attacks, strokes or brain bleeds I've seen before.' After confirming there were no immediate life-threatening causes, the ER team told her to follow up outpatient. As a nurse, Breanna understood why, but as a patient, it felt unsettling. 'I tell patients this all the time, and being on the other side of it was eye-opening,' she says. 'It wasn't life-threatening, but it was still scary not knowing what was going to happen next.' After her shift, she tried to book an urgent appointment with her optometrist, but found herself stuck. She couldn't even get far enough into a conversation to explain why she needed care. 'They'd say, 'We don't have openings,' before I could tell them I was having an emergent vision change,' she says. 'I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.' With emergency services having done all they could, and no specialist available, she was left waiting and hoping. Her boyfriend began calling providers on her behalf, trying to get her seen. 'It was just really frustrating,' she says. 'I felt like I was being stopped before I was even able to tell anybody why I needed an immediate visit.' In total, Breanna spent five days with severely compromised vision. On the first day, she received contacts that somewhat helped, but even those came with side effects. 'They weren't perfect, and they gave me more headaches than not being able to see,' she says. 'So I was only wearing them when I absolutely had to.' When she finally got an appointment with an optometrist, she decided to go alone. She had no idea just how serious the visit would become. 'He stayed really calm, but started asking questions that felt odd,' she says. 'Then he told me my eye scans didn't look normal. My pressures were way above average, and he could see swelling.' The diagnosis was acute angle closure glaucoma, a rare condition that can come on rapidly and without warning. The optometrist told her she needed to see a specialist immediately or head straight to a hospital with ophthalmology on call. 'It was 4:30 p.m. on a Friday,' Breanna says. 'I was scared I'd have to go back to the ER and start all over again.' Though her boyfriend and mom rushed to be with her, Breanna had faced the alarming news alone. And in that moment, her thoughts went straight to her son. 'I'm a mom. I have a toddler,' she says. 'All I could think was, 'Am I going to be able to see my son grow up?' ' The disease typically takes years to develop, but Breanna had deteriorated within hours. Doctors were optimistic her case would be reversible, but the wait was excruciating. 'I wasn't ready to stop my medication, but that's what ended up solving it,' she says. 'I stopped taking it that day, and by the time it was out of my system, my vision returned.' Her care team believes the antidepressant triggered the event, likely due to an underlying condition. And for Breanna, the timeline made sense. 'The half-life of the medication lined up with when my vision came back,' she says. 'They're almost 99% sure it was [that].' Breanna hadn't been familiar with her diagnosis before that day. Glaucoma wasn't something she had seen often in the ER, especially not in this form. 'The patients I've cared for had long-term glaucoma, with black spots or floaters — not blurry vision like I had,' she says. 'Even the symptoms didn't line up.' At one point, she was even questioned about exposure to rare diseases due to her line of work. Ebola, measles and Lyme disease were all floated. 'I said no, and I still stand by no,' she says. 'But contact tracing takes weeks, so it's still something we may have to revisit.' Still, because her symptoms cleared after stopping the medication, her team now leans heavily toward that explanation. And they found something else along the way. 'I have an enlarged optic nerve on my left side, which predisposes me to glaucoma,' she says. 'That may be why it happened to me and not someone else.' Breanna will now have yearly checkups to monitor her eye health. The goal is early detection should anything change in the future. 'It was an incidental finding, but a good one,' she says. 'Even though my symptoms have resolved, I'm still at risk for developing another type of glaucoma later on.' Returning to work felt emotional and empowering. It reminded her why she became a nurse in the first place. 'I was just grateful to still be able to do my job,' she says. 'I didn't want to lose my career, and I didn't want to lose my motherhood.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. As for advice for others, Breanna wants people navigating confusing health issues to keep advocating for themselves, even when the answers are slow. It only takes one person to listen. 'You're your biggest advocate,' Breanna says. 'You're the only one who can really explain what's going on in your body.' She also acknowledges how often women are dismissed in medical spaces. And though she works in healthcare, she felt it herself. 'Being a woman makes it harder as they're quicker to brush you off,' she says. 'You just have to keep fighting until you find someone who takes you seriously.' Looking back, she wishes more people understood the emotional toll of being caught between not fitting a diagnosis and not getting answers. Her case didn't follow a pattern, which left even doctors unsure where to start. 'If you don't meet the classic symptoms, people don't know where to begin,' she says. 'That doesn't mean you're not sick.' Her TikTok has sparked wide conversation but she never meant to scare anyone. She just wanted to tell the truth. 'I wasn't making that video to tell people to stop their meds,' she says. 'If you're afraid of side effects, that's okay … just talk to your doctor first.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Diabetic patients taking GLP-1s may face increased risk of eye disease, study suggests
Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss in people between 18 and 64 years old, according to the American Diabetes Association — and the best way to prevent this is to control blood sugar levels. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, have become popular medications for controlling diabetes and treating obesity — but new Canadian research suggests they can also lead to a paradoxical side effect in the form of eye problems. Young Police Officer Dies By Suicide After 'Debilitating' Laser Eye Surgery Complications A retrospective study conducted from January 2020 to November 2023 included more than 139,000 diabetic patients, some of whom were taking GLP-1s for at least six months and some who were not taking the medications over a three-year period. The average age of the participants was 66 years old, and approximately 47% were women. Researchers found that the participants taking the weight-loss medications had twice the risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) compared to the people not taking them. Read On The Fox News App "There have been growing reports of [eye] adverse events with GLP-1 receptor agonists, but no clear consensus regarding their impact on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) progression," study author Dr. Rajeev Muni, an ophthalmologist and vice-chair of clinical research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto, told Fox News Digital. 6 Simple Ways To Protect Your Hearing Now Before It's Too Late, According To Experts "In particular, we observed a dose-response relationship — the longer patients were exposed to these medications, the greater their risk appeared to be," added author Reut Shor, a researcher in the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences at the University of Toronto. The findings were published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of vision loss in those aged 50 and older in the developing world, according to the American Society of Retinal Specialists. Approximately 20 million adults in the U.S. have the condition. It mainly affects people's central vision, which means they have a challenging time seeing in front of them, but their peripheral vision is intact, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are two types of AMD – dry and wet. Dry AMD, the most common type, occurs when small yellow deposits of protein develop under the macula, but symptoms may not occur in the early stages, experts said. In about two out of every 10 cases, dry AMD develops into wet AMD — also known as neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). With this more advanced type of disease, abnormal blood vessels form under the retina and start to leak, causing damage to the central part of the retina, known as the macula, according to WebMD. "When this occurs, symptoms include loss of central vision, distortions in vision and blank areas missing in the central vision," Nishika Reddy, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at Moran Eye Center's Midvalley Health Center at the University of Utah, told Fox News Digital. (She was not part of the study.) Risk factors for nAMD include chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease and diabetes – all of which often overlap with those who take GLP-1s, experts confirmed. The study authors cautioned that their findings should be taken in the context of the overall higher risk of eye disease in older people. The incidence of nAMD in the general population is about one in 1,000, and it doubled to two in 1,000 for the group taking the GLP-1s in the study. However, the overall absolute risk is still small, according to the researchers. The study's main limitation is that it was observational in nature, meaning the researchers could not confirm that GLP-1s medications cause neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The study also could not draw conclusions about younger populations, the researchers acknowledged. "Also, our findings apply only to diabetic patients aged 66 years or older, and cannot be directly generalized to non-diabetic individuals using GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss," Shor told Fox News Digital. GLP-1 receptors are present in the retina regardless of age or diabetes status — so theoretically, the risk could apply to younger populations. More research is needed to better understand why diabetic people on GLP-1s have increased eye disease, Shor said. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter "While the risk of developing macular degeneration while on a GLP-1 drug is low, patients should be aware of the possible eye side effects related to these types of medications," Reddy said. If someone notices blurred or distorted vision, straight lines appearing wavy, or any new blind spots, they should seek medical attention, according to Muni. For more Health articles, visit Early detection of eye disease is crucial, experts agree, as timely treatment can reduce the risk of vision loss. The study authors said they hope their findings will empower patients to monitor for early article source: Diabetic patients taking GLP-1s may face increased risk of eye disease, study suggests
Medical News Today
2 days ago
- Health
- Medical News Today
Instant coffee tied to almost sevenfold higher risk of vision problems, study finds
About 200 million people around the world are living with the vision loss condition age-related macular degeneration (AMD).Of the two types of AMD, most people have dry research shows there are several risk factors for AMD, including nonmodifiable factors such as genetics, and modifiable ones like eating a healthy diet. A new study has found that a combination of genetics and drinking instant coffee may increase a person's risk of developing dry AMD. Researchers estimate that about 200 million people around the world are living with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — an eye condition impacting a person's central vision, causing blurriness or other vision the two types of AMD, most people have dry AMD, where damage to the eye's macula — an area located in the back of the retina — happens naturally with age. Wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow in the back of the eye, harming the are several risk factors for AMD. Some of these risk factors are not changeable, such as age and genetics. Others are modifiable risk factors, such as smoking, weight, exercise levels, and following a healthy diet that is high in antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, minerals like zinc, vitamins C and E, and omega-3 fatty acids could help lower the risk for AMD.'AMD is a leading cause of vision loss among the elderly in developed countries,' Siwei Liu, MD, a researcher in the Department of Ophthalmology for Shiyan Taihe Hospital at Hubei University of Medicine in China, told Medical News Today.'As there is currently no cure, identifying new modifiable factors is crucial for slowing disease progression, preserving vision, and improving patients' quality of life,' Liu is the lead author of a new study published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition, which has found that a combination of genetics and drinking instant coffee may increase a person's risk of developing dry AMD. How are coffee and genetics linked to macular degeneration?For this study, researchers first obtained coffee consumption data for more than 500,000 participants from the UK Biobank genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics. Scientists broke participants into decaffeinated, ground, and instant coffee consumption groups. Scientists also obtained both dry and wet AMD data for adults 50 and over from the Finngen GWAS dataset.'Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide and is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants that may offer neuroprotective effects,' Liu explained.'At the same time, growing evidence shows that genetics influence dietary preferences. Studying the genetic predisposition to coffee consumption and its relationship with AMD risk may help reveal potential causal links between diet and eye diseases,' the study author coffee may increase dry AMD risk sevenfoldResearchers used the collected data and a variety of methods to determine their study's findings, including mendelian randomization and linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) to evaluate any genetic correlations. At the study's conclusion, researchers identified an overlap between a person's genetic disposition towards drinking instant coffee and their risk for dry AMD. Additionally, within this genetic correlation, scientists found that drinking instant coffee, compared to other types of coffee consumption, increased dry AMD risk by about sevenfold. 'This genetic overlap suggests that there may be shared biological pathways or metabolic mechanisms connecting the preference for instant coffee with the risk of developing dry AMD,' Liu said. 'It provides new insight into AMD pathogenesis and offers a potential direction for personalized prevention strategies, such as gene-informed lifestyle interventions.'Researchers stated they did not find any association between coffee consumption and wet AMD risk. For the next steps in this research, Liu said she and her team plan to validate the association in independent populations and conduct functional studies to explore whether the metabolic pathways linked to instant coffee consumption are directly involved in AMD pathophysiology. 'We also aim to perform longitudinal cohort analyses to clarify the causal relationship between coffee intake and AMD progression,' Liu added. Too soon to make assumptions about instant coffeeMNT had the opportunity to speak with David I. Geffen, OD, FAAO, director of optometric and refractive services at the Gordon Schanzlin New Vision in La Jolla, CA, about this study. 'This study finds an interesting association with instant coffee and AMD,' Geffen, who was not involved in the research, commented. 'With our population living longer, AMD is one of the leading disabilities in the senior population. Any change in lifestyle to minimize this risk is well worth exploring.' 'With the large increase in AMD seen in [the United States] it is important to continue with vital research in this area,' he added. 'The costs associated with caring and treating AMD patients it is worthwhile to find ways to minimize the risk associated with this disease.'Geffen said that while he found this research interesting, he would need to see a more direct association before he would tell patients not to drink instant coffee. He explained that:'Questions like how much instant were being consumed by those individuals with AMD. Also, is social economic class associated with this? Is there some lifestyle associated with the risk in these individuals? This is way too early to make large assumptions about instant coffee drinking.' More evidence on the health risks of processed foodsMNT also spoke with Benjamin Bert, MD, a board-certified ophthalmologist at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, about this research, who shared that it fascinated him in two different ways. 'First the study demonstrates one of the future directions of medicine that we have been hearing about: directing care based off of someone's specific DNA risk profile,' Bert, who was not involved in the research, explained. 'In this study they found that people have a higher risk of dry AMD with certain genetic markers and consumption of instant coffee.''Which brings the second fascinating part of the study, food as medicine,' he continued.'More and more we are realizing how our food and drink choices can impact our overall health. This study once again points to the dangers of highly processed foods, like dehydrated instant coffee, compared to its more natural form of brewed coffee, which had no added risks.' – Benjamin Bert, MD'With additional research, it would be beneficial to know other foods that could be risks for these patients,' Bert added. 'Is instant coffee the only food risk? Does the conclusion of this study apply to all highly processed foods?'
Fox News
2 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
Predicting weight loss, reversing diabetes and relieving depression
STAY COOL – Keep comfortable during heat waves with these portable and household fans. Continue reading… EYE ON HEALTH - Diabetic patients taking GLP-1s may face increased risk of vision loss, a study suggests. Continue reading… Fox News LifestyleFox News Health
Fox News
5 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
Diabetic patients taking GLP-1s may face increased risk of eye disease, study suggests
Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss in people between 18 and 64 years old, according to the American Diabetes Association — and the best way to prevent this is to control blood sugar levels. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, have become popular medications for controlling diabetes and treating obesity — but new Canadian research suggests they can also lead to a paradoxical side effect in the form of eye problems. A retrospective study conducted from January 2020 to November 2023 included more than 139,000 diabetic patients, some of whom were taking GLP-1s for at least six months and some who were not taking the medications over a three-year period. The average age of the participants was 66 years old, and approximately 47% were women. Researchers found that the participants taking the weight-loss medications had twice the risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) compared to the people not taking them. "There have been growing reports of [eye] adverse events with GLP-1 receptor agonists, but no clear consensus regarding their impact on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) progression," study author Dr. Rajeev Muni, an ophthalmologist and vice-chair of clinical research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto, told Fox News Digital. "In particular, we observed a dose-response relationship — the longer patients were exposed to these medications, the greater their risk appeared to be," added author Reut Shor, a researcher in the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences at the University of Toronto. The findings were published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of vision loss in those aged 50 and older in the developing world, according to the American Society of Retinal Specialists. Approximately 20 million adults in the U.S. have the condition. It mainly affects people's central vision, which means they have a challenging time seeing in front of them, but their peripheral vision is intact, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are two types of AMD – dry and wet. Dry AMD, the most common type, occurs when small yellow deposits of protein develop under the macula, but symptoms may not occur in the early stages, experts said. "The longer patients were exposed to these medications, the greater their risk appeared to be." In about two out of every 10 cases, dry AMD develops into wet AMD — also known as neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). With this more advanced type of disease, abnormal blood vessels form under the retina and start to leak, causing damage to the central part of the retina, known as the macula, according to WebMD. "When this occurs, symptoms include loss of central vision, distortions in vision and blank areas missing in the central vision," Nishika Reddy, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at Moran Eye Center's Midvalley Health Center at the University of Utah, told Fox News Digital. (She was not part of the study.) Risk factors for nAMD include chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease and diabetes – all of which often overlap with those who take GLP-1s, experts confirmed. The study authors cautioned that their findings should be taken in the context of the overall higher risk of eye disease in older people. The incidence of nAMD in the general population is about one in 1,000, and it doubled to two in 1,000 for the group taking the GLP-1s in the study. However, the overall absolute risk is still small, according to the researchers. The study's main limitation is that it was observational in nature, meaning the researchers could not confirm that GLP-1s medications cause neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The study also could not draw conclusions about younger populations, the researchers acknowledged. "Also, our findings apply only to diabetic patients aged 66 years or older, and cannot be directly generalized to non-diabetic individuals using GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss," Shor told Fox News Digital. "While the risk of developing macular degeneration while on a GLP-1 drug is low, patients should be aware of the possible eye side effects." GLP-1 receptors are present in the retina regardless of age or diabetes status — so theoretically, the risk could apply to younger populations. More research is needed to better understand why diabetic people on GLP-1s have increased eye disease, Shor said. "While the risk of developing macular degeneration while on a GLP-1 drug is low, patients should be aware of the possible eye side effects related to these types of medications," Reddy said. If someone notices blurred or distorted vision, straight lines appearing wavy, or any new blind spots, they should seek medical attention, according to Muni. For more Health articles, visit Early detection of eye disease is crucial, experts agree, as timely treatment can reduce the risk of vision loss. The study authors said they hope their findings will empower patients to monitor for early symptoms.
