A Single Dose of Targeted X-Rays When You're Young Could Provide Lifelong Protection From Glaucoma
Through the Eyes of a Glaucoma Patient NIH Glaucoma affects more than 4 million Americans, many of whom don't even realize they are affected by it. It's a leading cause of blindness with no known cure. But researchers at the non-profit Jackson Laboratory have found that a single, targeted X-ray treatment of a single mouse eye is enough to provide complete and lifelong protection from glaucoma, even in mice who are prone to the disease. Radiation has long been known to have some effect on glaucoma, but the connections (and associated risks) were previously not very clear. Epidemiologists following Japanese survivors of the atomic bombings that ended World War II had recorded that individuals exposed to doses of radiation tended to experience myriad other health problems but that glaucoma incidence appeared to decrease relative to the norm. And a decade ago, researchers discovered that a single dose of whole-body irradiation along...