In this era of fitness every- one is concerned about what he/she is eating. Everyone is calorie conscious and prefers drinking a lot of water/fluids. It is generally good for everybody, but not for a glaucoma patient.
Glaucoma or “Kala Motia” is a disease where eye pressure increases to a level that is not safe for the optic nerve. The balance between the fluid produced inside the eye and drained out from the eye is disturbed, resulting in increased pressure and damage to the optic nerve.
Glaucoma presents in different forms like open angle glaucoma, angle closure glaucoma and secondary glaucoma. Also there are various factors which affect the progression of glaucoma. In angle closure glaucoma the fluid drainage is affected.
Water therapy and different shuddhi-kriyas as per yoga are commonly practised in our country. There is a belief that taking a large quantity of water in early morning helps in bowel movement and flushes the body clean. In this water therapy the person drinks almost four-six glasses of water at a time in the morning empty stomach. This may do well for his/her digestive system, but create problems for the eye of the glaucoma patient. Many people are not aware of this.
Anything which overloads our body fluid will increase the load on the drainage system. When one drinks a large amount of water like this, it gets absorbed in the fluid spaces of the body. So, fluid in the eye is produced in excess quantity. This increases the load on the drainage system of the eye.
In angle closure glaucoma the drainage system is affected and so will lead to a rise in the eye pressure. Such intake of a large quantity of fluids in a short span will give rise to short spikes of increase in the eye pressure that may be missed on an examination by the eye specialist. So, this type of glaucoma may get presented or aggravated if one drinks a lot of water in a short span.
Every patient of glaucoma or having a family history of glaucoma should be cautious about the water therapy. In the case of such patients, if they continue the water therapy habit, glaucoma may progress in spite of the best treatment. This should not be practised in families with glaucoma. Glaucoma is a multifactorial disease and one needs to control this factor as far as possible.
The water drinking test, commonly used to detect such cases of glaucoma, is based on similar observations. During this test we check the eye pressure after drinking one litre of water in a short time.
The eye pressures are checked every half an hour for two hours. Persons with a positive water drinking test should avoid large quantities of fluid intake empty stomach in the morning.
Be careful and watch for your glass of water!
The writer is Chairman and Medical Director, Centre for Sight, New Delhi. E-mail: msachdev@bol.net.in
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