If you’re one of the 1 million Americans who have been diagnosed with glaucoma … Consider yourself lucky!
You’ve been given the opportunity to preserve your vision, because vision loss from glaucoma can be prevented if it is caught and treated in time. Many others are not so lucky. Almost 80,000 Americans are blind from glaucoma, and another million are at risk for vision loss because they don’t know they have it.
In fact, glaucoma is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in the U.S., and the single most common cause of blindness among African-Americans.
Glaucoma is often called the “sneak thief” of sight because the most common type causes no symptoms until vision is already damaged. That’s why the best way to prevent vision loss from glaucoma is to know your risk factors and have medical eye examinations at appropriate intervals. (Your ophthalmologist can help you determine how often you should have your eyes examined.)
Help is available.
