Heavy use of computers may be linked to the development of a progressive eye disease, researchers claim.

A study in Japan has found that staring at a screen could be related to glaucoma, which can lead to blindness.

The latest study, by the Toho School of Medicine, Tokyo, finds the risk is particularly strong for the short-sighted.

Glaucoma is more common in old age and happens when the optic nerve in the eye is damaged, leading to visual abnormalities. The exact causes are unknown.

The researchers questioned 10,000 workers at four Japanese companies with an average age of 43.

The researchers, writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, say that those classified as heavy computer users tend to be younger and male.

The team says there appears to be a significant link between visual problems and heavy computer use among those with either long or short sight.

A third of these workers were found to have suspected glaucoma. The researchers conclude: "Computer stress is reaching higher levels than have ever been experienced before."

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Question from : John A. Janis

Since loss of vision in one eye, I am experiencing balance problems. I am unable to walk without a walker. Is this due to loss of vision or could it be induced through a neurological disorder? Thank you.

Dr. Webber:

The loss of vision in an eye will eliminate all depth perception, and may create a balance problem. However, that usually is overcome in short order. If it persists, then see a neurologist because there may be another systemic issue that is causing it.

There could be a major development in treating macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness for older Americans.

It is also one of the things that our viewers call about and are interested in the most.

It's a devastating illness that robs people of their central vision.

At the Cleveland Clinic on Friday, one woman was the first person ever to get a new kind of drug that may not only stop this disease in its tracks, but it may reverse it and give people back some of their vision.

Marty Russell is the first in the world to undergo injections with a new type of drug that may not only stop macular degeneration, but it may improve vision too.

"It's a little scary without a doubt," says Russell. "But I'm game."

In age-related macular degeneration, unwanted blood vessels grow into the center of eye, they bleed and leak, and central vision is lost.

This experimental treatment uses a small interferon RNAs. In animals, they dry the genes making the unwanted blood vessels.

It's a major development in the treatment of this devastating disease.

They have to find out whether the drug is safe in humans. And they're going on right here at the Cleveland clinic, and also at UCLA, Harvard and Johns Hopkins.

The eye is numbed, then injected with the drug.

This could just be huge. If this works as researchers hope for macular degeneration this could be a whole new way to treat other illnesses, too, like diabetic retinopathy, heart disease and cancer.

  Pick up a 5-pound dumbbell and hold it straight ahead of you...for 8 hours. Not a chance, right? That is the strain you are subjecting your eyes to every workday. Locking your focus on a computer screen for an entire day fatigues your eye muscles, resulting in pain, blurred vision, focus problems, and sensitivity to light.

 Starting tomorrow morning, make sure every one of your daily to-do lists includes "look away" at least eight separate times, once for every hour of your workday. When you avert your gaze, focus on something out the window or across the office.

The external muscles that move the eyes are the strongest muscles in the human body for the job that they have to do. They are 100 times more powerful than they need to be.

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