Moderate Exercise and Glaucoma

Glaucoma is an eye disease that can cause blindness. It causes pressure in the eye and often goes undetected until the damage has begun. It’s not painful and doesn’t have any signs or symptoms to watch out for.

With early detection and prompt treatment, the effects of glaucoma may often be delayed for a significant amount of time. The only way to tell if you have glaucoma in the early stages is by having regular eye examinations by your eye specialist.

People who have glaucoma have to be careful of certain things. For example, some types of medications should not be taken by someone who has glaucoma, because the medications may increase the intraocular pressure (IOP), the pressure in the eye.

Whether exercise is good for people with glaucoma has been asked by some people, particularly because increased activity gives the impression that it would increase the pressure in the eye as well. But, is the fear valid? Not really, say the results from a study published last month in the journal BMC Ophthalmology.

Researchers in Greece studied 100 athletes and 45 patients who had controlled glaucoma (medicated with eye drops). The subjects were divided into 7 groups.

• Normal blood pressure (BP) who exercised regular, no eye drops
• Normal BP who received timolol maleate drops in their right eye
• Normal BP who had latanoprost drops in their right eye
• Normal BP who had brimonidine tartrate drops in their right eye
• Patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) who had timolol maleate in both eyes
• Patients with POAG who had latanoprost in both eyes
• Patients with POAG who had various combinations of eye drops in both eyes

Exercise was in the form of jogging, aerobics, or cycling.

The researchers found that

A statistically significant decrease was found in IOP during jogging. The aerobic exercise reduces the IOP in those eyes where [either of the drops were] previously instilled. The IOP is also decreased in glaucoma patients who are already under antiglaucoma treatment.

In conclusion, the authors of the study wrote that there was no reason, according to these test findings, that someone with glaucoma shouldn’t participate in moderate aerobic activities.

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