Don’t blow the air conditioner so badly in summer or cause blindness!Many people don’t know it – air conditioning, blindness, air conditioning room – Kuai Technology (the media of Drive Home) – technology changes the future

hot hot hot

How many friends are like Xiaobian, the first thing after returning home is to turn on the air conditioner. That’s right, in summer, you have to rely on air conditioning to “continue your life”!

But many people don’t know that it is easy to cause eye strokes by continuously blowing low-temperature air conditioners!

What exactly is an “eye stroke”? What are the symptoms? How can I tell if I have this disease?

Let’s talk about the popular science of eye stroke today

What is an eye stroke?

Eye stroke is medically called retinal vascular occlusion, because it is similar to brain stroke, some people call it “eye stroke”.

Retinal vascular occlusion is the occlusion of retinal blood vessels caused by emboli, inflammation and other factors:

If the blocked blood vessel is an artery, it is called “retinal artery occlusion”, which is an acute and severe vision-impairing fundus disease that can cause irreversible damage to visual cells in a short period of time; if the blocked blood vessel is a vein, then Known as “retinal vein occlusion”, it is a common retinal vascular disease that can easily lead to visual impairment and even blindness due to complications.

Why Does Air Conditioning Cause Eye Stroke?

The weather is hot in summer. If the temperature of the indoor air conditioner is too low, the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor is large, and when suddenly entering a room full of cold air from the outside, it is easy to cause abnormal blood vessel contraction, which may not only cause stroke or myocardial infarction, but also may cause eye fundus. Abnormal vasoconstriction leads to eye stroke.

There are many other factors that can cause eye strokes, including:

hypertension

High blood pressure is closely related to all strokes, whether in the blood vessels of the brain, heart or eyes.

The normal vascular endothelium is smooth and flat. High blood pressure for a long time will lead to damage to the vascular endothelium. Substances such as platelets and blood lipids in the blood will deposit on the damaged part of the vessel wall to form plaques. When these plaques are stable, they will cause vascular stenosis and affect blood supply; once the plaque ruptures, the attached wall thrombus will fall off to the retinal blood vessels, which may cause retinal blood vessel occlusion and cause eye stroke.

Dyslipidemia

Hyperlipidemia can cause increased blood viscosity, abnormal blood rheological indicators, and lipid deposition in the vascular endothelium, which can easily lead to thrombosis.

smoking

The harmful substances in cigarettes can cause vasoconstriction or vasospasm, and long-term heavy smoking can even cause vascular embolism, resulting in eye stroke.

age

Older age is also one of the risk factors for ocular stroke because the elasticity of the blood vessels in the elderly decreases and the wall of the vessel gradually hardens. However, in recent years, with the change of people’s living habits and the accelerated pace of life, the incidence of eye stroke has become more and more younger, and young people also need to pay attention.

In addition, some patients may also experience ocular stroke during or after ophthalmic surgery due to high intraocular pressure and intraorbital hypertension.

How can I tell if I have an “eye stroke”?

Different types of eye strokes have different degrees of harm and different symptoms. According to the location of the blocked blood vessels, they can be divided into:

(1) Retinal artery occlusion

If the retinal artery is blocked, due to retinal ischemia and hypoxia, vision will be greatly reduced or even completely blinded in a short period of time, usually a painless onset in one eye.

Because the retina can tolerate ischemia for a short time, photoreceptors will die in a short period of time and cannot regenerate in a state of hypoxia, resulting in permanent loss of vision. Therefore, the occurrence of retinal artery occlusion must be treated immediately, and time is raced to save vision.

Due to vasospasm and other factors, some patients may have transient vision loss in the past and can recover on their own.

(2) retinal vein occlusion

When the lesions are relatively mild, there may be no obvious symptoms or only mild visual loss. Once the lesions accumulate in the macular area, secondary macular edema will lead to significant loss of central visual acuity, visual distortion, decreased contrast, and central scotoma.

If left untreated, new blood vessels may develop in the anterior chamber angle and iris, causing increased intraocular pressure, resulting in extremely severe neovascular glaucoma, which can eventually lead to blindness.

“Eye stroke” is very harmful to eye health. You can use the following methods to initially test yourself:

“Eye Stroke” Self-Assessment Method

1. Amsler Grid

Retinal vein occlusion will accumulate to the macula, secondary to macular edema, and the Amsler grid chart often used in ophthalmology can preliminarily measure the condition of the macular area.

How to use: Put the form at about 30 cm from the eye level, cover the left eye, use the right eye to look at the black dots in the form, and then use the same method to test the left eye. Be alert that macular degeneration may already be present.

Amsler Grid (Photo courtesy of the author)

2. Visual field test

Occlusion of blood vessels in the retina may reduce the field of vision. Accurate visual field inspection needs to be tested with a perimeter in the hospital, and you can roughly test the field of vision with both hands at home.

The visual field of both eyes is usually not less than 160 degrees, and you can simply understand your visual field through the visual field test.

It is worth noting that if you have symptoms such as vision loss, visual distortion, and reduced visual field, don’t blindly think that you have an eye stroke. Many diseases will also have similar symptoms, such as optic atrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, retinal choroid extensiveness. Lesions, etc., you need to go to the hospital for further examination to clarify your eye condition.

What do you need to pay attention to when using your eyes in summer?

Low air humidity, dry eye should be careful

In the hot summer, people generally choose to stay in air-conditioned rooms. However, if the doors and windows of the room are closed for a long time, the indoor air cannot be circulated and the humidity is reduced, and the eyes are easy to dry and fatigue.

Usually, pay attention to opening the windows for ventilation, avoid staying in the air-conditioned room for a long time, and do not let the air conditioner blow directly on the face.

Swimming is very cool, infection should be prevented

Summer is also a good time to swim, but you need to protect your eyes before swimming.

Try to choose a swimming place with good water quality and good sanitary conditions. If the water in the swimming pool is polluted and there is no effective protection for the eyes, it is very likely that acute conjunctivitis may be caused by bacterial or viral infection.

In case of severe conjunctival congestion and edema, increased eye secretions and other symptoms after swimming, rinse with clean water and seek medical attention immediately.

The sun is good in summer, protection can not be less

In summer, the sun is relatively abundant. In addition to sun protection for the skin, the eyes also need sun protection when outdoors.

Sunlight contains short-wave blue light that is harmful to the human eye. Long-term exposure to a large amount of short-wave blue light may cause damage to the macula. Therefore, you can wear sunglasses outdoors while trying to avoid looking directly at the sun.

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