Visionworks(R) Brings High Quality Eye Care & Eye Wear to Western PA

On Friday, February 26 Visionworks will celebrate the grand opening of its newest locations in Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village.  Visionworks is a full-service optical retail center that features several thousand private label and designer frames along with contact lenses at value prices.

One of the nation’s leading providers of eye care services, Visionworks recently debuted stores in the Cranberry Commons Mall and The Mall at Robinson.  Four more Visionworks sites are expected to open soon.

“Discriminating consumers can count on Visionworks for high-quality frames, lenses, contact lenses and sunglasses – plus the leading technology in vision correction,” said John DiIanni, Regional Vice President. “And because we have a state-of-the-art processing laboratory on site, we can provide one-hour service on most prescriptions.”

The new Visionworks stores will feature:

* Exclusive brands developed to provide Visionworks customers with fashionable designer styling and impeccable quality at a fraction of the price
* Best-selling designer brand frames including Bebe, GUESS, Nine West, Gant, Liz Claiborne, Candies, Rampage, Armani Exchange and Michael Kors
* The region’s largest selection of durable kids’ frames and a huge selection of impact- and scratch-resistant lenses
* A broad range of contact lenses and related products from leading manufacturers
* Convenient hours with stores open seven days a week including evenings
* In-store licensed Doctors of Optometry (no appointment necessary) who provide comprehensive eye exams and contact lens evaluations and fittings
* Acceptance of most vision insurance plans
* A 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee

“Because we’re committed to providing the most complete assortment at the best value, Visionworks is a perfect fit for value-seeking residents across western Pennsylvania,” said John DiIanni, Regional Vice President.  “We want patients to leave our stores feeling confident that they got the correct frame and lenses, all at the right price.”

Visionworks plans a total of eight sites in the region, including the newly opened locations in Cranberry Commons and The Mall at Robinson, plus additional sites in Ross Park Mall, Southland Four Seasons, Waterfront Towne Center, and a still-to-be-finalized location in Greensburg. Because each location is expected to employ 12 – 14 local residents, Visionworks’ entry into the marketplace will create more than 100 new jobs in western PA.

Two Simple Eye Exercises Improve Your Eyesight

People who have eye problems often think that the only way to improve their eyesight is through artificial methods such as wearing eye glasses, using contact lenses, or undergoing laser eye surgeries. Many people ignore that there are easy-to-do eye exercise that can improve your vision.

According to the Bates theory, blurred vision eye problems such as myopia, hypermetropia and astigmatism are mainly caused by the shape change of eyes due to the high tension of the muscles around eyes. Fortunately, most of these eye problems are not permanent.

Eye exercises are developed specially to improve eye vision by strengthen the muscles around the eyeball and improve the circulation of the blood around the eye area.

Here we’d like to introduce two kinds of simple eye exercise which can be done in your spare time to help you see much better.

The first eye exercise is designed for tired and stressed eyes. This eye exercise including the following steps. First, you should sit comfortably and doing some deep breathing or visualization. Then rubbing your hands together briskly to warm them up. Cup your hands over eyes gently without putting any pressure on the eyeballs. Repeat the process for several times.

The second eye exercise including three steps. First, close your eyes for about 5 seconds then to open it widely for another 5 seconds. Repeat this process for several times. After that, you can gently massage your eyes in a circular motion for one minute, remember not press to hard. Finally, press three fingers on your upper eyelids for 5 times, each time 1 to 2 seconds.

There are many more beneficial eye exercises available online to help people improve their vision naturally. People with eye problems will definitely benefit a lot from these eye exercises.

More info

Attach Importance of Eye Health Maintenance

A Balanced Diet is Essential for Good Eyesight

Personal Eye Care

Applying Everyday Best Eye Makeup

Like organizing our closets we must from time to time clean out our makeup cabinets and make sure what we have is still working for us. If you want flawless makeup and professional looking results you must use the correct makeup tools. The right blush brush for example, will make it possible that your blush gives you a perfect glow rather than a harsh streak or blob. Also, the right tools are necessary to do the job correctly – to define and conceal.A good blush brush is soft with bristles that are about 1 inches. Don’t use the small, hard brushes that come in compacts because it will be difficult to get a nice even finish. An eye shadow brush should also be soft. Look for a lipstick brush that is retractable. It helps keep the brush clean and in great shape. A blending brush should be about wide and will help blend the different color eye shadows together to create a natural look. Use a brow brush to keep eyebrows under control and give them a smooth look. Your powder brush should be large, soft, firm and fluffy.

To have radiant skin you must keep it clean. A cleanser that is compatible with your skin type will do that and keep it moisturized.The best mascara brush has wide spaces and does not cause mascara to clump. Only wear waterproof when you plan to get wet and change your mascara every 3 months to avoid it drying out or attracting bacteria.Powder shadows are easier to apply than creams. Use a matte shadow if you have wrinkles around the eyes and keep eye shadow light.Applying eye makeup can be the most difficult part of putting on makeup. However, it is by far the most important part to. When people speak to you, they are looking at your eyes. What are your eyes telling the world about you? Here, I will break down this beauty procedure for you, so you can really put your best ‘face’ forward.

Use a large shadow brush to sweep your color across the lower lid. Don’t put anything on the upper lid, leave it looking natural. Use your brush to also dab shadow on the inner portion of your lids along the edges of the nose’s bridge. And another dab on the outer corner of the eye lid, across the lower portion of the brow bone. This will allow the light to bounce off of those areas, creating a more youthful appearance.If you mess up on your eye liner, use your pointer finger to smudge downward on the area that is uneven.To many eye shadow colors for your day look can be a pain, and appear unnatural. White shadow looks good on all women and matches everything. If you are concerned with wrinkles, go with a matte white shade. If you want to stand out more, go with a shimmer-white shade.

Economies and eye health to be debated in March

Future economics related to eye care and vision research will be discussed at a high profile conference in Edinburgh next month.

Called ‘Informing difficult decisions: the role of health economics in eyes and vision research’, topics will range from diabetic retinopathy screening, screening for glaucoma, and the optometrist’s perspective.

The influential Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) is to stage the conference that will include well-known speakers from optometry and other visual professions on March 24 at the city’s Royal College of Surgeons.

A spokesman for HERU said: “The NHS has to make difficult decisions on which treatments should be provided. Eye diseases are no exception, and examples of this have been seen in recent months, for example, guidelines on glaucoma treatment or on treatment for macular degeneration.

“Health economics, and particularly economic evaluation of treatments, can help to inform these difficult decisions. Over the last few years researchers from HERU and their collaborators have been involved in a series of eye disease-related projects. Within this conference we will discuss the current role and future contribution of health economics in the area of eye diseases.”

In a special session chaired by Dr Jennifer Burr, director of the Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials, Health Services Research Unit, the optometrist’s perspective will be presented by Stephen McPherson, from McPherson Opticians in Aberdeen. Other speakers in the ‘Challenges for evolution and implementation’ session will present perspectives from patients, and from nurses.

The keynote speech of the event will be made by Richard Wormald, consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, who will present ‘Health Economics in Eyes and Vision Research’.

Dr Burr will present ‘RCT platform screening for glaucoma’ ahead of chairing the ‘challenges’ session, and Dr John Olson, director of the Grampian Retinal Screening Programme in Aberdeen, will speak on ‘the role of automated grading within Scotland’s diabetic retinopathy screening collaborative’.

Three health economists from HERU  – Professor Luke Vale, Rodolfo Hernandez and Dr Paul McNamee – will also contribute to the event, with John Cairns, Professor of health economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine scheduled to speak on ‘Directions for future research’.

Seeing — and believing

When Dean Lloyd, a 68-year-old Palo Alto lawyer, was in his mid-30s, a hereditary eye disease began taking his sight. By his late 40s, he was completely blind.

So when a clinical trial was started to test an artificial retina that would restore at least partial sight, he seized the opportunity. It didn’t hurt that he was a longtime science aficionado and fascinated by the new technology.

“For me it’s kind of a fun project, because I love science,” he said. “They say as far as guinea pigs go, I’m the prize pig.”

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have the lead role in advancing the technology, working in collaboration with nine other U.S. research institutions. The effort, which began in 2004 and

is funded by the Department of Energy, has yielded the most promising technology to date for potentially restoring sight to millions of people worldwide blinded by eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, the disease that destroyed Lloyd’s vision. The same condition is diminishing the vision of Las Vegas hotel magnate Steve Wynn.

And the technology shows that an electronic device can create a lasting connection with living cells such as neurons. That advance is opening the door for research into tiny, futuristic-sounding medical devices which could treat conditions ranging from spinal-cord injuries to Parkinson’s disease to brain injuries, by directly stimulating nerve cells. The sensitive-but-durable

electronic array, which can function in the harsh environs of the human body, also has potential uses in other fields, such as the detection of biological weapons released into the air or water.

Three years ago, Lloyd underwent an hours-long operation in which a tiny tack the width of a human hair was used to implant the device into his retina. The artificial retina resembles a contact lens and is fitted with 60 miniature electrodes that bypass damaged photoreceptor cells — called rods and cones — on his outer retina and directly stimulate his still-healthy retinal layers below.

And voilà, Lloyd could see again.

His vision is far from normal. But after some tinkering with the tiny camera affixed to dark sunglasses and a video processor that’s strapped to his waist, he could make out moving cars and tell where grass ended and a sidewalk began. The processor, without wires, relays the camera’s video signal, as well as power, to the prosthetic retina.

“It restores some sort of images,” Lloyd said.

White and reflective objects, such as water, glassware and people’s eyes, stand out in particular.

So what does he see when someone’s standing in front of him?

“I see your eyes,” Lloyd said. “You flash like a cat under the bed when you put a flashlight on it.”

Costa Rica Developers Eye Health Care Centers

The Costa Rican government is promoting a plan to help developers build projects centered on health care facilities for foreign retirees.

New developments would offer clusters of services, including nursing and research facilities, catering to senior citizens looking for an inexpensive alternative to medical care in their own countries

In the wake the global economic slowdown, health care centers are an opportunity for developers to “change strategy,” Minister for Competitiveness and Regulatory Improvement George Woodbridge told La Prensa.

Retirement communities generate “two to three times” the revenue of traditional tourism and real estate projects, Woodbridge said. A population of 10,000 retirees could produce 40,000 jobs and $340 million in foreign exchange, the government estimates.

Last year, medical tourism attracted 30,000 visitors to Costa Rica, according to government data. That number is expected to increase as health care costs continue to rise. The U.S. is expected to generate 1.3 million medical tourists in 2011, according to a report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, which ranks Costa Rica in the top 10 destinations for medical tourism.

Until recently, most of the traffic in the past has been young people looking for cosmetic surgery and dental work, not seniors, Deloitte says.

“With health care at the center of attention in the U.S. this concept could certainly gain ground if implemented properly,” Panama developer Sam Taliaferro notes in his Panama Investor Blog. “If Obamacare gets legs one area that you can be sure will be left out in the cold is alternative health care practitioners. I bet they will head south with technology and skills.”

The Function of Lutein

It is known that lutein is a very strong antioxidant which is very critical for the health of eyes. However, it can not be reproduced automatically by human bodies, though it is an inborn substance.

Some people may ask whether lutein is effective in the improving of people’s visions if they are suffering from some sight loss. Here is one example that can explain all. It is very common that some senior citizens are suffering from macular degeneration, an age-related problem. Some of them choose to receive surgeries to deal with this problem.

It is true that, nowadays, great achievements have been scored in many fields. But people tend to find their own solutions for their own problems.

No one can deny the importance of eyes. And some people even think eyes are the most important sense for human beings. So, no one wants his eyes to be suffered.

Whether lutein can really enhance people’s visions is still unsettled. But what has been settled is the way to get it.

People who want to find more information about lutein and its related supplements are suggested to visit http://blog.firmoo.com .

Experts don’t see eye to eye on treatment

You’re making a lot of mistakes at work. You feel clumsy. You have trouble copying notes from a blackboard. You read slowly, and sometimes see double. But at your regular eye exam, the optometrist says you have 20/20 vision.

What gives?

You might suffer from a visual efficiency problem such as poor depth perception, lax eye coordination or focusing difficulties, which won’t show up on a traditional eye exam.

And you may be able to overcome these issues with vision therapy, a little- known treatment program that incorporates exercises and specialized devices to improve eye problems unsolved by eyeglasses or contact lenses alone.

“We’re retraining the brain on how to use the eyes,” said Dr. Lori Nishida-

Eugenio, an optometrist at the Burbank Optometric Center.

Like physical therapists for the eyes, practitioners tailor each therapy program to the individual patient. They may use corrective lenses – such as glasses or contact lenses – but they also employ specialized equipment such as balance boards, prisms, eye patches and electronic targets with timing mechanisms.

Standing on a balance board, for example, may teach patients to engage both their left and right sides, improving the left-to-right directional eye movements used in reading. Prism glasses appear to shift the location of objects and force patients to overcome the visual distortion.

Eye care initiative piloted in north Essex

NORTH Essex has been chosen as one of three regions to initially pilot a new NHS eye care initiative.

The EPIC (Engagement, Partnership, Information, Communication) Project is a scheme funded by the Department of Health, which will work with local partnerships to develop and implement eye health and sight loss support strategies.

NHS North East Essex, Worcestershire, and North of Tyne have been chosen as the first of 23 pilot areas that will develop local vision strategies as part of the project.

Kathy Flegg, Primary Care Commissioning Manager at NHS North East Essex, said: “We see this as an excellent opportunity to work with a wide variety of partnership groups concerned with eye health to develop a strategy that will deliver and improve current services to be effective and sustainable for the population of North East Essex and in turn the UK.”

It will initially run for three years, until March 2012.

What Is Photo Refractive Keratectomy

Photo Refractive Keratectomy (PRK), which is commonly known as laser vision correction procedure, has been performing well in the treatment of eye correction recently. It is a simple eye surgery using lasers and local anesthesia, including cataract treatment, contact lens implants, glaucoma treatment, PRK refractive surgery, refractive lens replacement surgery and squint surgery, etc.. Thus with this procedure, it is believed that most eye problems can be cured, however, one has to get a general idea of the procedure, as well as its diseases and surgical procedures before making a decision of the eyesight correction so as to prepare yourself.

The procedure is processed on corneal tissue, thus before the operation, the surgeon would firstly remove the thin, transparent protective layer over the cornea (known as the epithelium) so that the corneal tissue is exposed. Next, the surgeon reshapes the cornea with laser technology by removing a part of the tissue. Thus the focusing ability is regenerated. Then, the accomplishment of operation is in the offing. A ‘bandage’ contact lens is going to implant on the cornea to protect the eyes until the epithelium is regenerated, in addition periodic drops are necessary to keep eyes moist. Usually, 5 to 7 days are enough for eyes to get recovered.

After the surgery, one needs to have a frequent visit to the surgeon, one time each or every two weeks at the beginning, and every two to three months when eye condition comes to be stable. By this way, eyes will, to a maximum degree, be protected from infection and expedite the healing process.

Any surgical procedure is important for anyone, so is a corrective eye surgery. Besides knowing the information above, you also have to consult a professional eye health center which will offer you a comprehensive lead, and in most circumstance, Photo Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) is always their preferable recommendation.

If you want to know more about Vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/