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Although popularly we know it as lasik eye surgery it is also known as refractive this surgery or vision repair surgery. The last name describes the surgery best as it actually repairs one’s vision. What does is that it reshapes your cornea thereby allowing you to have normal vision without any external aid like glasses or contact lens. And recently there has been a lot of advancement in the field of this operation.They has been embraced by many a patient over the last decade to correct some specific eye defects. It has caught the imagination of people and has been gaining popularity every year. But this surgery does have its own effects and it varies from one patient to another. So before you actually decide on getting an operation done, you should always consider the pros and the cons.Basically this is used to cure three main types of eye conditions - myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Myopia, also know as nearsightedness is the problem of not being able to see what is far away without glasses. Hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, is the other way round. Astigmatism is something different where the patient has irregularities in his cornea which as a result distorts the image formed on the retina of the eye. After this surgery the need for glasses or contact lens will either be negated, or your dependency on them will be significantly reduced.But eye operation comes with its own set of risks and they should always be considered seriously before you actually sign-up for an operation. First of all, you will not be eligible for the operation if you are suffering from diabetes, glaucoma, cataracts, arthritis, and lupus. Even pregnant women are not eligible. With these conditions, undergoing surgery can cause permanent damage to your vision. Other problems that might be caused due to surgery are double vision, glare, and halo. One’s nighttime vision can also be affected, especially for certain operation procedures. Even permanent blurry vision and diminished contrast may be the effects of the surgery. We are not trying to imply that surgery is something that involves a lot of risks. All that we are saying is that you should properly educate yourself about the risks also so that you can take a considered decision.Some patients experience discomfort in the first 24-48 hours after surgery. Other side effects, although rare, may include:Glare, Seeing halos around images, Difficulty driving at night, Fluctuating vision, Dry eyes. The FDA has found no long-term side effects from laser eye surgery.Lasik surgery is too new to know if there are any long-term ill effects beyond five years after surgery.Before the surgery, your surgeon should explain to you the risks and possible complications, and potential side effects, including the pros and cons of having one or both eyes done on the same day. This is the “informed consent” process. If you experience aggravating or unusual side effects, report them to your doctor immediately.

Opting for the right LASIK surgery to correct your vision today is not the same as it was a decade ago. This is comparatively a recent medical breakthrough. It was only in 1994 that the first eye surgery was performed. Back then surgeons didn’t have much option on how to go about the entire procedure. All they had was a microkeratome, a small mechanical blade which helped to create a flap on the cornea. Once the flap was created, conventional excimer laser was used for reshaping the tissue underneath. That would allow the cornea to focus light directly on the retina exactly as it happens in a normal eye. This is all the option that an optometrist had about a decade ago. Since the this surgery has gone through a sea change and amazing advancements have been made in the technology that is being used. Lasers have become much smoother and precise which has allowed patients to have better vision than they could have ever imagined before. One of the newest addition to this opertation technology is the machine called Intralase. This machine makes the metal blade redundant during a operation. Here flap creation is also done with the help of laser. So with the help of Intralase one can actually complete the entire surgery only using lasers. This makes the operation an all-laser surgery .The greatest USP of Intralase is that it significantly reduces the risks of flap complications. When one is using the microkeratome to create the flap on the cornea there are risks of complications. These would include a flap being cut too thin, that the flap can tear, or may be it will not cut completely. Once you start using Intralase, such possibilities are almost done away with. As the level of accuracy increases with the use of Intralase, the cases of re-operation also drop. That way it is a much safer option compared to microkeratome. But it must be understood that Intralase is not completely risk free. Flap related wrinkles and other similar problems are still a possibility eve with Intralase around. But it is also true that Intralase will bring down the actual cases of complications. There are detractors to Intralase whose man line of argument would be that it is too new a method to jump to conclusions and that there is no substantial evidence that prior risks are negated. Also Intralase increases the length of an operation thereby increasing the opportunity for other complications to be introduced.

Any surgery has its own sets of risks and complications. So it is advisable that before going into a surgery a patient should have a clear and complete knowledge of what the operation involves. It is generally the surgeon who explains beforehand what the patient might expect prior to and after the operation. Even the process of operation is at times explained, albeit in a lucid and easy to understand manner. It should be no else with this surgery also.Why would one go for LASIK surgery? Primarily because it is generally accepted these days that that surgery comes with the promise of improving one’s vision permanently so that the need for glasses or contact lenses is no longer there. So you are no longer dependent on them. In a way, you discover new liberty and freedom.So whom do you go to for a LASIK surgery? To the optometrist, of course. The first thing he will do is to conduct a number of tests on you to see if you are the right candidate for this surgery. Basically this eye surgery is used to cure three main types of eye conditions myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Myopia, also know as nearsightedness is the problem of not being able to see what is far away without glasses. Hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, is the other way round. Astigmatism is something different where the patient has irregularities in his cornea which as a result distorts the image formed on the retina of the eye.What will the optometrist be looking for? There are a few basic things that any optometrist will look for before a eye surgery. That would primarily include your eye health history. In case of a particular few diseases the chances of you undergoing a this surgery will significantly decrease. These would include glaucoma, herpes, eye injuries or thin corneas. Any of these conditions can disqualify you as a suitable candidate for eye surgery. Another important criterion is whether there has been an alteration in your eyewear prescription over the last year. Before this operation your eyes should be steady. If they are not then the optometrist might just postpone the surgery for a few months until he is satisfied that your eyes are ready to undergo that surgery.These are some of the basic things that you need to know as part of your pre-surgery preparation. Of course once you are considered suitable for the operation the doctor will brief you about the surgery itself and post operative care.

The Wavefront technology in LASIK eye surgery has been touted as the greatest advancement in LASIK eye surgery for the past year or two. But a new innovation has revolutionized the field of LASIK eye surgery which promises to be bigger and better than the Wavefront innovation. This is iris registration.

Before we go into the details of what iris registration is let us first understand how a LASIK surgery is performed.

It takes about five to ten minutes to complete the operation. First a mild anesthetic will be administered. Also eye drops are used to numb the eye and avoid pain during the operation. Though the operation is pain free there have been patients who have complained of discomfort. Once the eye is numb, a little device known as the microkeratome is attached to a suction ring placed on the eye. The microkeratome has a blade which cuts a thin flap on the surface of the cornea. The doctor will next fold back the flap and expose the stroma which is basically a layer of tissue. The stroma is searched for debris and is then dried. Now the surgeon will ask you to focus on a fixed spot while he, with the aid of laser mends the corneal tissue according to results of pre-operation examination. Once through, the flap is put back to position and an eye patch is provided to allow it to heal.

Today the microkeratome has been replaced by Intralase where instead of the metal blade cutting the flap, the job is performed by a computer guided laser.

So what is iris registration? Previously, lasers followed the patient’s eye moving up, down, left or right. Therefore as long as you move your eye left or right or up or down the laser beam can track the movement of the eye fine. However, there are other ways in which you can move your eye. For example, you can you’re your eye closer to the laser or away from it. Iris registration can track such movements and relay them to the laser so that the operation becomes more accurate. So is the case with you eye rotating. You can rotate you eye clockwise or anti-clockwise, which previous lasers wouldn’t have tracked. But Iris registration doesn’t fail here too. This is truly a remarkable progress in the field of LASIK eye surgery.

Nearsightedness

Nearsightedness occurs when the eye is too long and light rays focus in front of the retina, instead of focusing on the retina. Some of the symptoms of nearsightedness are blurred distant vision, eyestrain, and squinting, along with having a difficult time seeing at night.

Although nearsightedness can be easily fixed with glasses or contact lenses (when not too severe), many people don’t like to hassle with either one. With this new lasik procedure, folks will now be able to have pure vision.

With much enthusiasm for our native countries, Bengi Korkmaz, MBA 2, Christos Stergiou, MBA 2. and I organized a trip to Turkey and Greece this past summer. While we wanted the trip to give an opportunity to GSBers to explore the history, culture, food, nightlife, and beaches of both countries, our only constraint was time. Of course this was nothing new to GSBers, so we planned an itinerary that covered Istanbul, Bodrum (a popular summer destination on Turkey’s West Coast), and Patmos (the famous Greek Island where Sir Christos Stergiou renews his soul.
On the 3rd of September, the official start date of the trip, I was very excited. Nonetheless, the idea of hosting 25 curious, hyperactive GSBers in my country made me nervous. The first day of the trip, Bengi and I were bombarded with questions about the history of every building, stone, or dish we ran into. We then decided to memorize the guidebook. However, realizing that some people on the trip, like Abbas Hasan, MBA 2 actually knew more than the guidebook, we decided to hire a guide who, unlike us, actually knew what he was talking about.
In the limited time we had in Istanbul, we tried to see most of the “must see” places including the ancient grandeur of Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia); the Ottoman architectural piece of Sultanahmet Camii (the Blue Mosque); the lavish home of the Sultans, Topkapi Palace; the Middle-Eastern atmosphere of Kapali Carsi (the Grand Bazaar) and Misir Carsisi (Spice Bazaar); the Byzantine mosaics of Kariye Camii (Church of St. Saviour in Chora) and Reina, Angeliquebuz and Pasha (the must visit clubs of the city).
During our stay in Istanbul, people were most surprised by the followings startling facts:

* The number of mosques in the city (yes, there are about 6000 mosques but given 99% of the Turkey’s population is Muslim this should not be so surprising)
* One meal in Istanbul can be equivalent to three meals in other places (or five Arbuckle meals)
* People in Spice Bazaar can say “Turkish Viagra, 5 times a night” in 10 different languages in 30 seconds
* Good negotiation skills are required in the bazaars (Turks should teach Negotiation Class at the GSB)
* People are good looking. I guess the trip members were not convinced by the Turkish representation in our class.

After three hectic days in the city, we set off to Bodrum. As summer was coming to an end, Bodrum was relatively empty. So we chose to relax on the beach, eat a ton, and swim a lot. One day we took a boat trip, which really excited the male members as they made friends with the topless women on the other boats in the bay.
After two peaceful days, the moment of truth hit Bengi and me, as we had to hand the reigns of our 6-day hegemony to Christos. While we were on the boat on our way to Patmos, Christos delivered a touching speech, which can be summarized as “from now on, do what I tell you to do.” During our two days in Patmos we pretty much did what he told us to do.
What we learned in Patmos:
* The scenery is amazing, especially its sunsets and its moonlit nights
* Jeff Kuo is an amazing singer. We recorded him singing so wait to see it yourself
* Christos’ mom is a great cook, hence his growing stomach is well-justified
As our wonderful trip came to a close, I left Patmos with a heavy heart, but not without a promise to return. On my journey back to Istanbul, I thought to myself how wonderful it was to have shared my country’s culture and landscape with my friends.

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On average, 20 percent of individuals in the United States suffer from hayfever. Hayfever is caused by an allergic reaction mainly to different forms of pollen and ragweed. Hayfever has different effects on every individual depending on how severely they suffer from allergies. Some individuals may experience slight discomfort whereas the pain can be practically unbearable for others. So how do you know if you have hayfever? The following is a list of categories to consider in order to determine whether or not you are suffering from hayfever:

When Does It Occur?

Hayfever is a seasonal reaction which often starts in early June and continues through to the middle of July. Whenever pollen and ragweed season begins (usually near the beginning of seasons) is when you are most likely to start experiencing the symptoms.

Symptoms

There are many symptoms which may indicate you are suffering from hayfever. The most common symptoms are listed in categories below:

1. Eyes – An individual suffering from hayfever will experience many difficulties with their eyes. Itchy, watery eyes are an indication of hayfever as well as swollen red eyes. The best way to prevent yourself from scratching your eyes is to use Visine or some other form of eye drops. These drops will also reduce the redness your eyes may be experiencing.

2. Nose – Sneezing, running and stuffy noses are usually a good indication that you may be experiencing hayfever. Sinus problems (especially a plugged nose) can potentially cause severe headaches. To treat these symptoms use any form of nasal spray to clear your nose as best as possible.

3. Breathing – If you have hayfever, you may find it difficult to breathe. You may also notice wheezing or tightness in you chest. These symptoms are often identified as the same symptoms of asthma. They can be treated with the same forms of treatment for asthma sufferers. Possibly a puffer.

Suffering from hayfever can make it difficult to work and function on a daily basis. Unfortunately, hayfever tends to strike at the most inappropriate times such as when exams are being held for college or university students. It can also greatly affect your appearance and performance at work. There are easy ways to treat hayfever; the most appropriate perhaps is to visit your doctor who will prescribe medication to help you cope with your symptoms.

Not only do temperatures and weather conditions change as the fall season approaches, but those annoying allergies you get every year, around this time, are likely to hit again. But don’t worry just yet, there are ways to fight the annoyance so you can be as allergy-free as possible this fall.

Sometimes it is hard to distinguish whether the symptoms you are experiencing are due to a cold or allergies. The clear difference between the two is colds usually tend to be short-lived whereas allergies can run for weeks or even months. The most common allergy is pollen (also called hay fever), which causes symptoms to flare-up due to the pollen grains floating through the air. Allergies tend to occur when the seasons change and you may notice your allergies approaching at almost the exact same time every year.

There are many things you can do to help ensure you do not get allergies this fall season, and here are some of the most effective prevention tips:

• Close Your Windows - keep your windows closed in both your house and your car especially at night. This will prevent pollen and mold spores from entering your house and into the air you breathe.

• Stay Indoors - staying indoors (with your windows shut) is probably the best way to ensure you don’t get allergies this season. Most of the pollen is found outdoors, so eliminate this allergic element as much as possible.

• Use Your Air Conditioner - Turning on your air conditioner provides relief by cleaning, cooling and drying the air in your home. Dehumidifiers or air filters will also help in these situations.

• Use Air Ionizers& HEPA Filters – These products remove particulates from the air you breathe.

• Protect Yourself - If it is necessary for you to go outside to do yard work (or for other reasons), protect yourself by wearing a mask or a cover-up of some sort to keep you from breathing in the “contaminated air”.

• Take Showers and Baths - If you are outdoors for extended periods of time, take either a shower or a bath when you return home. Showers and baths will wash away some of the pollen that is left on your body. Changing your clothes when you come in from being outside is also a good idea.

If none of these things work for you and you find yourself suffering from allergy symptoms anyway, there are treatments which can help. Nasal Sprays, oral antihistamines and decongestants are all great for allergy relief. For itchy and watery eyes there are many forms of eye drops like Visine which you can purchase at any drugstore.

Immunotherapy (an allergy shot) is also a great way to help with your allergies this season. Check with your doctor before using any medications or treatments since some can potentially cause harmful side effects.

In a significant shift in strategy in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control recently recommended that tests for HIV be extended to all patients entering hospitals and clinics in the U.S. The CDC also recommended that doctors begin offering routine voluntary HIV tests to patients between 13 and 64.

It is estimated that of the more than 1 million people in the U.S. with HIV and AIDS, about 25% are unaware they have HIV. The new strategy is aimed at discovering these cases before HIV develops into AIDS. It is also hoped these measures will curb the spread of the disease since these 250,000 people are carriers who unknowingly infect others.

This marks a departure from the previously followed strategy of testing only people in high risk categories.

This policy change will also involve a shift away from the promotion of abstinence and condom use to prevent the spread of the disease, towards more emphasis being placed on testing for HIV status and early treatment.

According to a spokesperson for the CDC, what explains this change in policy is that drugs now exist that can prevent the development of AIDS from HIV. Early detection can therefore result in early treatment. In the past early detection did not necessarily mean much since there was very little that could be done for someone infected with HIV.

It is also hoped that early detection will result in less transmission of the disease. A recent CDC survey found that sexually-active adults altered their sexual behavior patterns after they were diagnosed with HIV. They were less likely to engage in unprotected sexual activity, in many cases opting for a condom or for not engaging in sex at all.

Drug companies and makers of oral tests stand to benefit significantly from this change of emphasis. It is expected that tests which are now administered at hospitals and clinics will soon be available over the counter. People interested in testing themselves will be able to do it at home. This should result in a significant increase in sales of HIV testing kits.

There should also be a rise in HIV treatment drugs as hundreds of thousands of people learn they have HIV and begin treatment with anti-HIV drugs. Currently anti-HIV drugs account for about $6-billion in sales in the U.S. That number should increase dramatically if the new testing procedures prove to be effective.

Some argue that as in so many areas within the health industry, efforts aimed at prevention will be replaced by promises of a quick cure brought to us compliments of the incredibly influential and increasingly invasive drug companies.

Drugs For Treating Aids May Prevent People From Catching Aids

In one of the most promising developments in more than 20 years, scientists claim that drugs used to control HIV/AIDS in patients may also be effective in preventing the disease in the first place.

The drugs in question are tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine, or FTC (Emtriva), sold in combination as Truvada by Gilead Sciences Inc. Gilead is the California company best known for inventing Tamiflu.

Previous research has been aimed at finding a vaccine against HIV/AIDS, with the intention of conditioning the immune system against the disease. But these drugs work differently. They simply keep the virus from reproducing, and have already been used successfuly by health care workers to prevent them from being infected by the virus carried by patients.

This approach to fighting HIV/AIDS has been tempting researchers for many years, but has only recently become feasible as preventative drugs have been developed that are safe for non-infected persons to take. Previous drugs had unreasonable effects for uninfected persons.

That situation changed when Tenofovir came on the market in 2001. Tenofovir is powerful and safe, and it only has to be taken once a day. It also does not interact with other medicines or birth control pills, and manifests less drug resistance than other AIDS medications.

Monkey studies show exciting results

A major study by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in Atlanta, Georgia involved six macaques. The monkeys were given a combination of Tenofovir and FTC and then administered a deadly combination of monkey and human AIDS viruses. They were given the viruses in rectal doses to simulate contact between gay men.

Each was given 14 weekly exposures of the virus, and none of the monkeys became infected. In a control group which did not receive the drugs, all but one got the disease, normally after just two exposures.

The scientists then stopped giving the drugs to the test group to see if the prevention was only temporary. The results were equally impressive. None of the monkeys contracted the disease. “We’re now four months following the animals with no drug, no virus. They’re uninfected and healthy,” reported a CDC researcher.

Now other research teams are pushing to have this drug combination tested on humans. A $29 million CDC study of drug users in Botswana will now be switched to this new drug combination.

Another study of 400 heterosexual women in Ghana by the Family Health Initiative, and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is studying the effects of tenofovir alone.

But several other studies have failed to materialize because studies of this nature immediately raise suspicions that scientists are using local people as guinea pigs. The fear is that they will intentionally expose the test subjects to the virus.

The cost of tenofovir and Truvada also make testing difficult. In African countries condoms are now liberally donated by companies, aid groups, UN agencies, and western governments. While the drugs are relatively cheap, the cost remains an impediment.

Nevertheless researchers have been reinvigorated by the stunning results out of Atlanta, and new tests are going ahead in pockets of interest around the world.

AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome it causes a destruction of the immune system. It is the most advanced stage of the HIV virus (HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus). AIDS is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the presence of a positive HIV antibody test and one or more of the illnesses known as opportunistic infections.

The HIV virus, type 1 or 2 is widely known to be the cause of AIDS. HIV breaks down and attacks your T cells so your body is unable to defend itself against different infections. The HIV virus also attacks your peripheral nervous system, this causes nerve and muscle pain, especially in the feet, legs, and hands.

HIV is spread through direct contact with semen or blood of an individual that is infected. This can be transferred in many ways the most common is unprotected sexual intercourse. Other means of infection are infected blood transfusions, mother to infant (at time of birth, or through breast milk), sharing needles with an infected person, and rarely a healthcare worker that gets pricked with an infected needle.

Often people who are infected with HIV have few symptoms and in some cases there are none. Other times, symptoms of HIV are confused with other illnesses such as the flu. This may be severe, with swollen glands in the neck and armpits, tiredness, fever and night sweats. This is where as much as 9 out of 10 of the infected individuals will develop AIDS. At this point the person may feel completely healthy and not even know that he/she has the virus. The next stage begins when the immune system starts to break down and the virus becomes more aggressive in damaging white cells. Several glands in the neck and armpits may swell and stay swollen for an extended period of time without any explanation. As this disease progresses boils or warts may spread over the body. They may also feel tremendously tired, night sweats, high fevers, chronic diarrhea, and they may lose a considerable amount of their body weight. Most cases have shown thrush as a symptom as well. At this point the person is in the final stages of HIV–AIDS. Severe chest infections with high fever are common and survival rate is above 70% but decrease with each recurrence.

A person is diagnosed with AIDS when he/she has one or more positive HIV screening and the presence of an AIDS defining condition. Some of the common conditions include but are not limited to: Meningitis, Encephalitis, Dementia, Pneumonia, Kaposi sarcoma, and Lymphoma. There is also a blood test called an Immune Profile that can be done. This test is used to measure the loss of immunity and help decide on the best treatment. There is a test that is rarely used due to its high cost, it is known as a Viral Load: This test detects the virus itself, and also measures the amount of HIV in the blood. It shows how quickly the HIV infection is likely to advance. A high viral load suggests that the person may progress rapidly to AIDS.

Although there is no cure for AIDS there are medical treatments that aide in prolonging, and maintaining the best quality of life possible. These include two nucleoside inhibitors, lamivudine and zidovudine. Actual treatment plans will vary with each patient, along with the physical aspect of this disease. The psychological side has to be addressed in order for a treatment plan to be effective.

The easiest way to escape contracting this disease is to avoid the risk factors that you are in control of. Such as: unprotected sex, not sharing a needle, and if you are in the healthcare field be sure to use all precautions necessary to avoid an accidental prick from a possible infected needle (remember that in this diseases early stages it is common for the person not to even know they are infected). Today AIDS is the fifth leading cause of death among all adults aged 25 to 44 in the United States. Among African-Americans in the 25 to 44 age group, AIDS is the leading cause of death for men and the second leading cause of death for women. Our society needs to become aware that by not protecting ourselves we are killing ourselves and that this has to stop.