"Routine Eye Care to Protect Your Vision" with Andy Meau

Your eyesight is changing, and you might not notice until it is too late. That is the uncomfortable truth behind why we keep coming back to one simple habit: getting a comprehensive eye exam every year. I’m joined by Andy, an optometrist in Hong Kong and the founder of Central Eye Care, to explain how routine optometry visits protect your vision, uncover slow-developing eye disease early, and sometimes even reveal bigger health issues happening elsewhere in the body.

We talk about why childhood myopia is exploding in major cities, what “axial length” means, and why measuring it routinely can change the future for kids who are on a fast track to stronger prescriptions. Andy breaks down practical myopia control strategies parents can actually use, including outdoor time in daylight, specialized spectacle lenses, orthokeratology night lenses, soft contact lenses designed for myopia management, eye drops, and emerging red light therapy. The goal is not just seeing clearly today, but lowering the long-term risk that comes with an elongated eyeball, including glaucoma, retinal detachment, and myopic macular degeneration.

We also get into what tends to change after age 35, why eye strain and headaches show up more often, and how modern imaging can spot problems earlier than ever. One of the most memorable moments is a patient story where retinal hemorrhage found during a routine exam led to a diagnosis of high blood pressure and prediabetes. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people make eye care a yearly habit.

Andy Meau

linkedin.com/in/andymeau

https://www.centraleyehk.com/our-optometrist

Vincent Hiscox

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-hiscox-msc-mba-pn1-944237/

Pro Coach:  https://procoach.app/vincent-hiscox
Email: vincent.hiscox@outlook.com

Transcript

Why Annual Eye Exams Matter

Speaker 1 0:00

Most of your listeners are above 35 or 40. If they have children, get the children in to get a comprehensive eye examination. Not just to test the prescription, but to test, get the axial length measured, get the metrics, do it regularly, do it routinely so that we can monitor or they can track how the eyes will change in the future. And for themselves, go in for routine examinations. Eye diseases happen very slowly. When they do detect that they have eye issues, is usually at a very advanced stage. When we detect eye diseases early, the prognosis is much better.

Welcome And Meet Andy

Speaker 0:55

Hi, I'm Vincent Hiscox, a health coach, podcaster, and storyteller. Welcome to the Over 40 Wellness Podcast. We all have the ability to look better and feel better. Becoming healthy should not be complicated. On this podcast, I talk to health and wellness professionals, which are their stories and their expertise, so that you can optimize your health. The conversations will inspire and empower you. Look better and feel better. With the over 40 from this podcast. He examines eyes for vision problems and diseases, prescribes corrective lenses, glasses and contacts, and diagnoses and treats many eye conditions. He serves as a primary point of contact for eye and vision care. He focuses on vision correction and non-surgical eye care. He opened his first clinic in Hong Kong in 2011. His patients have a very wide age range from young children to adults in their late 30s, 40s, and beyond. Over 50% of his patients are children, and there is a strong demand for pediatric eye care. He recently opened a second clinic in Hong Kong that is entirely focused on children. Andy goes into detail in the podcast of how he supports his patients across the age ranges. Also in the podcast, Andy shares the story of a patient who, following a routine eye examination, was diagnosed with retinal hemorrhage, that's bleeding from a damaged blood vessel at the back of his eye. Following a referral to a medical doctor, the patient was found to have high blood pressure and was pre-diabetic. The patient was able to address his condition and a more serious outcome was avoided. Andy's key recommendations for his patients is to visit their optometrists once a year for a regular checkup. So hi Andy, how are you today? Fine. Thank you, Vincent. Thanks for inviting me to your podcast. Well, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. I mean, this is the first time we've had an optometrist on the podcast, and I'm really looking forward to sort of pulling out all your gems of wisdom for the benefit of for the benefit of the listeners. So the usual place that I start in the podcast is maybe for you just to introduce yourself. And this can be, I know you are from Hong Kong. It can be, you know, from your growing up in Hong Kong. How did you actually then become an optometrist?

Speaker 1 4:06

Okay.

Childhood Myopia And Painful Lenses

Speaker 1 4:07

Yeah, so I grew up in Hong Kong. I was born here, born and bred in Hong Kong. I grew up through the education system in Hong Kong. But my journey to ultimately becoming an optometrist started with lots of crying. Ah. A lot of crying. When I was in a typical local primary school in Hong Kong, when I was in P1 or P2, I would start to cry myself to sleep, according to my mother. And we had no idea why. You know, I used to be, you know, I used to get sick quite easily. So I used to have to go visit the doctors all the time. So my mother thought that it was something related to, you know, me getting a virus or a cold or whatever. But there was nothing. The doctors couldn't find anything. And ultimately the doctor one day just said, Why don't you take Andy to go see an optometrist? Maybe he's got some vision issue. So lo and behold, my mother took me to a local optometrist, an optical shop. And right then and there I was found to be short-sighted or myopic. And my crying actually came from the headaches that I was getting throughout the night or after a day of school because I was squinting and straining my eyes all day long. And I didn't even know that it was happening until the optometrist asked some pointed questions. And so I was prescribed glasses at a very young age, um at P2. So I started wearing these really thick, ugly glasses. And so the crying stopped for a while. But then we go back for routine examinations every six months or nine months or what uh whatever. Um, it but my eyes continue to get worse, even with the glasses. Yeah, the glasses help me see, but my eyes continue to get worse. Um, so eventually the optometrist at the time suggested okay, there's a new treatment back then. This was like 40 years ago. Um the new treatment was to wear these types of contact lenses during the day instead of wearing glasses. So these contact lenses, they're not like contact lenses that we have today. They're not, you know, the contact lenses we have today are so soft and comfortable, you put them in, you don't even feel them. But back then, those contact lenses that were prescribed to me, they were made of hard plastic. So the crying started again because of the fact that you know I had to, number one, learn how to put these contact lenses in my eyes. And every time they were in my eyes, they felt like there was sand. It was painful. Um, so and I was so young, I hated them. But you know, but at the time, the optometrist thought that this would help to make my eyes not get worse so quickly. So we had to go like maybe every other day just for me to have lessons. And the lessons would take forever because I kept crying because they hurt so much. But eventually, I don't even remember how long it took. Um, I got over that and I got the contact lenses prescribed. And so that was maybe around P4, primary four or so. Yeah. Um, so I started using these contact lenses on a full-time basis, and I was getting good vision, and uh and then the crying again started because when I was in P4, P5, P6, you know, kids, we run around, we play in the dirt, we play football, um, and all of these dust and all of these um debris from just the general environment would get into my eyes. And when these things get into my eyes with a piece of hot plastic contact lens in the eye, the eyes would just start tearing. So um, but there's nothing you can do about it.

Speaker 8:16

Yeah, I I can I can empathize with you. I think for myself, I was prescribed glasses, I can't remember, from 10 years old, I think, and I never wore them.

Speaker 1 8:30

Yeah.

Speaker 8:31

I refused to wear them, and I refused to wear them all the way through secondary school. I just used to copy everything from my from my neighbor, you know, my classmate. I'd copy it, just be looking at their notes. I wouldn't be looking at the blackboard. Yes. Then uh then I got a pair of these, what you were talking about, the hard contact lenses. Which, yeah, I would agree with you, they're they're quite painful. And if you if you leave them in too long, if you go to sleep with them, it's it's an absolute sort of nightmare. And it got to the point where I had to stop wearing the hard contact lenses because I think as you said, it felt like I was there was sand in my eyes. Yes. And and it was painful, it was painful to put them in, it was painful to put them out, and yeah. So so how did that progress for you?

Speaker 1 9:25

Well, my mother um insisted, so I just had to wear them every single day. But even though I was using them every single day, every single day, my eyes continued to get worse. So the contact lenses gave me good vision without the glasses, but my eyes continue to get worse. So it wasn't helping, it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. Um, but I just got used to them. Sand will get in my eyes and they will they will hurt, but I learned how to manage that on my own. Um so so I used them all the way up until form three in Hong Kong, and then at that time my family moved to the states.

Moving To The US And Finding Mentors

Speaker 1 10:11

My whole family moved over there, and uh, and I would I continue to wear these lenses when I was in the States, when I was going to school there. And then at that time, it wasn't me who was crying because I was in high school. I just started high school, and in the states, you are required to do three sports per school year. So in the fall, I did football, like soccer. In this winter time, I did wrestling, and then in the spring, I did lacrosse. So all three of these types of sports are sort of contact sports, and it was my mother's turn who was crying all the time just because of the fact that I keep losing these lenses, and they were expensive to replace. I'm sure, I'm sure. So um eventually it got to a point where I said, okay, this is ridiculous, the amount of lenses that I lose. So I started to um get a part-time job on the school during the school holidays when I was in high school at a local optical shop. And that at that time I was living in Boston and going to school near Boston. So um I got a I got a job at a local optical shop thinking that you know I can get these lenses replaced at a lower cost. And that optical shop that I worked at was run by a very, very lovely Thai couple. They were the loveliest people I've you know met. And they were so caring, they were so kind, not just to us or the staff, but like to every single person that went into the store. That made me realize, wow, this is how you can help people. It was very different. I'm not saying anything bad about the uh experience I had in Hong Kong or the people that I had experienced in Hong Kong, but the way that these this Thai couple, this Thai optometrist couple, they helped their clients with such empathy and such, you know, caring, such heart, it made me realize, wow, this this you know, being a professional, being an optometrist can doesn't have to be all like high and mighty.

Speaker 12:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so really they were the they were the role model that persuaded you to go into uh optometry.

Speaker 1 12:36

Well, not just yet. They were the really the role model, well, they were sort of a role model as far as like how I what you know I learned from them how I, you know, how people should be treated when they come in for help. Yeah. Um, but so I worked at that place for for a few summers, and then um, and then I got these lenses, you know, they were really nice to me. So every time I lose a lens, they would just get me a lens at a lower, much lower cost. So then after high school, I went into college. And during my college years, and I was in Pittsburgh at the time, um, during the college years, I also worked in some optometry practices just so I can continue to get my lenses replaced and you know all of that. And then after college, I finished with a biology degree, and I wasn't interested in research or I wasn't interested in anything lab related. So I looked around for jobs and I found a job in Boston at an eye clinic. It was a multidisciplinary eye clinic with ophthalmologists, they were just treating eye diseases, doing um um surgeries for people. So I applied for a job as a technician. So I got the job, I moved back to Boston after college, and so I was the the we call it ophthalmic technician. So an ophthalmic technician, our job is to do all the eye examinations for the surgeons. So by the time the surgeons see the patient, they will have all the results in front of them. So I worked under two surgeons at the time in Boston. One, and I was really lucky to work with them. So lucky. One was the late Dr. Roger Steinen. He was like the pioneer or the godfather of the modern um LASIK cataract surgery procedures. He pioneered a lot of the modern uh surgical techniques. Um, so I was really lucky to work under him to learn all about these types of uh cataract surgeries, to learn all about laser vision correction. Um, and then another doctor that I worked under was Dr. Anne Beijart. And she was a really tough woman to work with, but she was the kindest person in front of patient. Like her bedside manner, her attention to detail, like what she writes in that clinical notes of hers. And she would teach us how to write these clinical notes about every aspect of that particular patient. It taught me so much about how to have good clinical record keeping, yeah. How to again help people in the right manner to make them feel comfortable, make them feel at ease. So I worked for them for about three years or so, and then I decided, okay, I don't want to be a technician. It's great, but I also want to be able to make my own clinical decisions, and optometry was one of the um next steps that I can go into. Yeah. So I looked into, and at that time, that's when I looked into optometry.

Speaker 16:01

Right. I'll summarize that. So from a very early age, you were having issues with your eyes. By whatever method you could, you found a solution. Yes. But that also continued when you went to the US, even when you were in college. The same, it seems that you found the right individuals at the right time.

Speaker 1 16:20

Yes, I was lucky that way.

Speaker 16:22

Yeah. And then uh working at the at the sharp end of sort of optometry at the at the technical end of it, you were having to deal with with clients uh with problems with their eyes, but then you decided I want to be the I want to be the doctor, I want to be the one who's doing the treatment rather than the one that's just doing the technical support uh for these people. Yes. So would would that then have been I mean, did you study that at university then?

Speaker 1 16:52

Well, I had to apply to go into optometry school. Right. Um, because optometry school in the US is a secondary degree. You you have to have a bachelor's before you can get an optometry degree in the US. So I applied for optometry optometry school then, um in the US. But then I also applied for optometry school in Hong Kong. Right. So when the office came, my family at that time, my parents have already moved back to Hong Kong. And uh and I decided, looking at the cost, the cost of doing a four-year optometry degree in the US is exponentially higher than me doing a four-year optometry degree in Hong Kong. Yeah. So I said, okay, so maybe this is a good opportunity for me to move, relocate myself back to Hong Kong and uh and just study optometry here. Right. So I moved back. Um the only place for optometry in Hong Kong is at the Polytechnic University. So I enrolled in a four-year program, and then I and then uh and then I graduated from there, and then I started my clinic.

Speaker 18:04

As you explained earlier, so this is was a postgraduate sort of qualification that you got in optometry that then gave you the qualifications necessary to start your own business.

Speaker 1 18:15

Yes. Well, in Hong Kong, the optometry degree is a is actually a bachelor's.

Speaker 18:20

Ah, okay.

Speaker 1 18:21

Yeah. In the US, the optometry degree is a doctor of optometry.

Speaker 18:25

Right.

Speaker 1 18:25

So it was a different uh it's a different degree.

Speaker 18:29

Yeah, the academic content is the same.

Speaker 1 18:31

Exactly, pretty much.

Speaker 18:32

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, and thanks for sharing that message. I mean, starting from a very early age, eyes were a part of your life because they were sort of aching, they were watering, they were you know causing you problems. And then, you know, all the way through up to this, up to where we've got to in your story, eyes have been central in your life, and here you are, now you've become uh an optometrist in Hong Kong. Yes.

Speaker 1 19:01

So how long ago was that? Well, that was I graduated optometry school in Hong Kong in 2006. In 2006? Yes.

Speaker 19:11

Okay. And how did that develop?

Opening A Clinic Focused On Kids

Speaker 1 19:13

Um, afterwards, I uh worked for some local optometrists. Um my interest because optometry in Hong Kong is um it's a bit different from the rest of the uh different than the than the US at least, is that you know there are a lot of optical shops in Hong Kong. And a lot of optical shops, they will employ optometrists that are graduated from the Polytechnic University. But because they're optical shops, they're mostly retail operations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for retail operations, um the prime the primary job of an optometrist is to measure the the prescription so that people or customers can purchase glasses or they can purchase contact lenses. Eye health was never a part of the surface at optical shops in like the uh on the street level or in the shopping centers. So I wasn't interested in just measuring prescription. Right. You know, eye health. You know, I we studied eye health throughout the the four-year program. Um, we studied how to look at look for eye issues, and we study how to manage certain eye issues. I don't want to just um not do any of that after I graduated. So I looked for places that will allow me to, besides looking at people's prescription and division, that that will also allow me to perform eye examinations that will be able to look at people's eye health in general as a whole. So I focused on that and I found a place that allowed me to do that. And so I started also getting interested in kids at the time because a lot of kids were starting to have a lot of vision issues. After I graduated, I took a course in orthokeratology. Orthokeratology is a particular management for kids whose vision, short-sightedness, gets worse very quickly. By using orthokeratology, we can slow that process down. And uh so I took a special I took a course in that, and uh after the course I was able to start this treatment. So orthokeratology for kids basically is to use a contact lens for the kids to wear at night when they go to sleep. By wearing the contact lens at night, we reshape the front surface of the eye, and so that when they wake up in the morning, once they remove the contact lenses, they can see clearly. Without glasses. And number two, it creates a myopia control area on the front surface of the eye to help the eye from not getting worse that quickly anymore. Right. So, but we can go into a bit more detail about that a little bit later on these things that we can do for kids. Sure, sure. So basically, I so that's how I that's what I did when I was working for someone else for the five years. I focused on these things. And then after in 2011, I decided to start my own clinic. And my focus at the time was children. Right. And how to help children with various eye issues.

Speaker 22:46

And yeah. Throughout the story that you shared with us, I mean, you've come across individuals who have provided you with inspiration. I mean, you spoke about the Thai couple in the US that you found very inspirational. And now you're getting to a point where you're saying, yeah, I don't want to be working in a shop selling glasses. I don't want to be somebody that's just there, you know, fixing the problem or trying to fix the problem after the problem is developed. I want to try and go maybe behind that or you know get into something that I can do where I can actually help people not to be in that situation. And you've also uh you've also explained that now everything that you do in optometry is your business. So it's not that you're working for somebody else, it's not that you're doing a sub-job in the chain of uh what can be uh what can be in uh optometry, now you're working for yourself. Yes. Okay, let's let's get on to

The Myopia Surge In Big Cities

Speaker 23:51

that now. So when when you are working for yourself, I think from you know, certainly from the listener's point of view, and I always ask this question in the podcast, you are helping people, how can they help themselves?

Speaker 1 24:06

Well, I think that uh number one, for for they need to be more aware of their eyes. Um, especially for parents who have young children. Um, I always tell parents that if their kids are growing up in Hong Kong and going through the Hong Kong education system and growing up in Hong Kong, it's inevitable that the kids are gonna develop short-sightedness. Short-sightedness, or another word for is myopia, meaning that the kids will need glasses to see far. Um be just because of the fact that the latest you know survey in Hong Kong is that for a six-year-old, for six-year-old kids in Hong Kong, about 20, 25 percent of them are already myopic, who need glasses for distance vision. And when they're at 12, about 60 percent are already short-sighted. So um Hong Kong environment is it's an environment that that can lead make kids eyesight get worse very easily. And it's not just a Hong Kong issue, any big cities in Asia, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul, these are all cities with kids full of kids with vision issues because of the the uh academic demand and also because of the limited outdoor spaces. So when we see parents or when I talk to parents, I always say, okay, it's inevitable that their kids will develop short-sighted. Our goal is to delay that development as late as possible. So now, Vincent, I want to say something about short-sightedness. Short-sightedness is a big thing in Hong Kong. Um, besides short-sightedness, kids can also develop have have issues with far-sightedness or astigmatism. But these are another two really big topics that we might not be able to cover during this podcast. Um, so I want to focus on myopia or short-sightedness. Short-sightedness develops because of one metric. The eyeball, just like the rest of the body, grows when the child grows. So the eyeball, we measure that metric, it's from the front surface of the eye all the way to the back of the eye in the head. So that is called axial length, axial A-X-I-A-L, axial length. And the axial length of the eyeball should grow at a certain rate according to the age. Now, when the axial length grows too fast, that's when the child will have a much higher likelihood of becoming short-sighted, because short-sightedness is a condition where the axial length of the eye is too long. So we we we tell parents, okay, we need to slow down the growth of the axial length back down to the normal rate.

Axial Length And Outdoor Time

Speaker 1 27:18

And one way they can do that before even their kids have any vision issue is to go outside and play. Right. Outdoor activity.

Speaker 27:28

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:29

Yeah. Um, the recommendation is at least one hour a day. That will that natural light will help to slow down that axiolength growth.

Speaker 27:40

Okay. So, yeah, so this is, I mean, it's it's gems of wisdom like this that you know make the the podcast valuable for the listeners. So this means that anybody with uh with young children, you're giving a very strong recommendation that they get outside. They get outside regularly and they're looking, I guess that means they're looking far, they're not looking near. Exactly. I mean, that that I would assume is what's happening when they go outside.

Speaker 1 28:11

Yes. And also it's it has something to do with the natural light and outdoor as well. Right, right. So being outdoor during the daytime versus being being outdoor at night, there's a difference in the benefit as well. It's more beneficial to be outdoors during the daytime. And I know it's difficult in Hong Kong because kids have a lot of commitments after school. Um, but we do as much as we can um to let them be outdoors and not be indoors all the time. Just find one hour a day.

Speaker 28:45

Yeah. So in terms, are we now up to date with you and and you know your business? Is everything up to date with respect to that story? Yeah, pretty yeah, pretty much. So now we're in the now we're back in the present.

Speaker 1 29:02

Back in the present, yeah.

Myopia Control Options For Children

Speaker 1 29:03

I think we're back in the present, and uh, and so for for children with myopia, okay, if they do develop myopia, this is one thing that we again we want to slow down because the eyeball growth is growing too quickly. So what we want to do is we want to slow that down. And in order for us to slow that down, uh, we there are different methods, there are different ways. So, glasses, optical lenses that are specially designed so that when children need to wear glasses, they can wear those types of lenses, and that will help to slow down the eyeball growth. Right. As I mentioned earlier, orthokeratology. orthokeratology is a contact lens. It's actually a hard contact lens, but the material is very different from what you or I were given as a young child. These hard lenses, they're much softer. Well, not soft, but like the the material is very high oxygen level. They're designed specifically for kids, custom-made lenses. So when they when kids wear them at night, there's not so much of an adaptation painful issue that we had in the past. And so most kids are able to tolerate it, and so they just put them in at night and then they uh they take them out in the morning. And then there are also specially made soft lenses, special design soft lenses, soft contact lenses. The material is like contact lenses that you and I wear during the daytime. The lens design is specifically for children to help the children's biopia from getting worse very quickly. So these are the optical interventions that we have that can help children from their eyes getting worse too quickly. And then there are also pharmacological methods such as eye drops. There are eye drops that we can use to also slow down the eyes from getting worse. That the children use an eye drop once once a night, or sometimes two times a day, and that will also help. And then there's these uh newer methods is called red light therapy. So children can look at a specific type of a red light three minutes in the morning, three minutes at night, and it's also proven to be very effective in slowing the growth of myopia, the growth of the uh axial length or the size of the eyeball.

Speaker 31:28

Just in in that in the last five minutes, you've given some super advice uh to you know to parents with young children in terms of what they can do uh to help themselves. Would there be anything else you would add to that? Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 31:43

Just because of the fact that, you know, because the axial length, the growth of the eyeball is such an important metric. Um, I do recommend for children to have the axial length measured routinely, regularly, yeah. Just so that we can, just like when you go see a pediatric doctor, you know, you you get the weight, you get the height measured, so we can match.

Speaker 32:07

You say within the norm, yeah.

Speaker 1 32:08

Yeah, look at the progress. Um, the axial length of a child's eye, it's equally important of a metric. So we can see how quickly the eyeball is growing. And if they're undergoing any of the myopia control intervention, we can actually see how much slower the eyeball is growing then. Right. So the more of these measurements we have, the better the the graph that we can plot and the better the uh the prediction of the prognosis. And one thing about why, you know, a lot of parents they will say to me, well, why can't they just where if their eyes get worse, just get stronger glasses, and then they when they're adult, they can get laser vision surgery and they will fix their eyes. So this is a very common thing that I hear from parents. But one thing about that is eye diseases, serious eye diseases, one major cause is because the axial length or the eyeball is too big. The bigger the eyeball, the higher the likelihood of serious eye diseases when they're adults. And these eye diseases could be macular degeneration, they could be glaucoma or retinal detachment. So we want to the reason we want to slow down the myopia increase in children is to limit, is to lower their risk of having diseases later in their lives.

Speaker 33:37

And that's a super, super strong message. So what you're saying is that this, let's say, where where people uh if they're suffering with, let's say, an elongated sort of eye. Yes. I've forgot the technical term use for that.

Speaker 1 33:51

Elongation is a good word for that, too.

Speaker 33:53

Uh if if they're suffering with that, then they need to understand that yeah, it's affecting their sight at that time. But then as they get older, there are so many consequences, serious consequences that come later. So it's not a problem where you can just say, oh yeah, it's they've measured how long my eye is, it's too long. I've got glasses, now everything is okay. Because then, you know, in several years, it may be 20, 30 years, then they can be suffering with those problems that you that you just uh discussed. Yes. Which, I mean, sound quite frightening.

Speaker 1 34:29

Yeah, well, and and also I don't want to be scaremongering, you know, um, but uh but one thing is that even if you had laser vision correction, the laser vision correction gets rid of the prescription. So you don't need to wear glasses or contacts, but your eyeball remains an elongated big eyeball. So laser vision correction does not lower the risk of having these serious eye diseases later in life. Right.

Speaker 34:55

And I think that's a very important message. That's a message for me. Yeah. I I I'm listening very carefully to what you're saying because I mean, through my life, I wore glasses, I wore hard contact lenses, I wore soft contact lenses, I then had LASIK surgery, then I had the surgery where they sort of stick a new um they they stick a new lens in the eye, and and now, crossing my fingers, everything is okay. Yes. But what you're saying is I need to also be aware that uh there could be other things that could arise from that.

Speaker 1 35:30

Yes.

Vision Changes After 35

Speaker 1 35:31

So going forward, when there are adults into adulthoods, usually the eyes will start to change, or eyes will, the vision will start to change, or the likelihood of having eye problems increases after 35 years old. That's the that's typically the age where people will notice, will come to us again, right, and be like, okay, my vision is changing. You know, my contact lenses are not allowing me to see clearly, or my eyes are straining all the time. So that's the age, again, that's we that we see a lot of the people. The age group that we don't see anybody, we don't see that much, is between 18 and like late 20s, because their eyes are not changing, their eyes are fine, you know, they can see clearly. You know, that's the typically the age group that don't really get body medical checkups because everything is young and they're all young and yeah, it's all purring along, yeah.

Speaker 36:32

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 36:33

So so when we're in the in our 30s and late 30s, early 40s, that's when the visions start to change, and that's when people will typically start to be aware of their eye again. And at that time, a lot of people are also noticing that their elderly parents may have developed some sort of some type of eye diseases. And when their parents have eye diseases, some of the eye diseases can be hereditary. And so they will be aware that, okay, so let's just say my mother had um has macular degeneration, I should probably get checked out. Right. Whether I will be at risk of having macular degeneration or not. So that's when I see a lot of the approaching middle age.

Speaker 37:23

Yeah, so that I mean, and and that's a strong message. I mean, we're on the podcast, it's uh it's called the Over 40s podcast, and of course, people over 40 have got children, so that makes that relevant. Yeah, but then the other side of that is that people over 40, it could be their parents or even themselves when they get to you know uh higher ages, they need to, you know. So this getting checked and making sure that you're going to your optometrist and making sure everything is okay should be a regular thing. Is is that a fair comment?

Speaker 1 37:57

Yes, it it definitely should be a regular thing. Um, we do recommend an annual examination because one of the the main change that people will notice is their vision, because near vision, the ability to focus close up will slowly decline, whether you wear glasses or whether you wear contacts or whether you don't wear anything. That's just the natural change to the focusing system of the eye. The eyes are not are no longer capable of focusing so clearly as they used to when the eyeballs are younger. So that's one of the main reasons why people will experience eye strain, or when they will say, okay, I'm getting headaches when I'm looking at screens or when I'm doing a lot of work. So so when we look at the vision, when we look at the near vision, we look at the um that visual, that focusing system. That's one of the things that we measure regularly. Again, we measure it regularly so that we can plot on the graph of how that changes. And I can make predictions of how quickly that will change, and I can that that prediction will help me in deciding what kind of prescription in glasses or context I should be prescribing this person so that they will experience minimal disruption to their daily activities for the next one to two years.

Speaker 39:29

Yeah. So this is it's a regular thing that it's okay, it goes right across all the age ranges. Then within the age ranges, it should be done regularly. Yes. Because it's when you're doing it regularly, you can see you can see the movement. Yes. If you're tracking a particular metric and you can see that metric going out of, you know, going out of the norm, let's say, yes, then you can take the decisive action against that. And I mean that's a super, super key message for the listener, is make it regular. And I think what you're saying is this should be every one to two years.

Speaker 1 40:06

Yeah, and we normally uh we normally recommend once a year type of eye examination.

Imaging For Early Disease Detection

Speaker 1 40:11

Once a year, okay. Just because that, you know, we don't just like I said earlier, we don't only look at the uh the vision or how the vision changes. We look for eye diseases or eye condition. Because when we look at the health of the eyes, um, especially for for people who who has uh family history of eye diseases in their family, um it's important to look for, to examine those particular structures. And again, when we look at eye health, we look at the the entire eye, we look at the retina, we look at the optic nerve, uh, we look at the macular issue areas, and we take pictures of them every time. So when we have pictures, when we have a series of pictures, we can detect when the changes occur. And going forward, we can also detect how quickly that change is happening. And nowadays in in modern optometry practices, we have a lot of new and advanced um equipment that allow us not just to take a photo, but we can actually scan the deeper tissues behind the eye. We can even we can detect eye diseases at an even earlier stage than previously we could.

Speaker 41:31

Yeah, so I I'm gonna come back to it again because it's such a key message. So, what I'm hearing from you is there's a recommendation to go and see your optometrist uh once a year. Yes. I mean, this could be a once year and this okay, everything is okay, you know, come back next year. Yes. Or if if um what you're tracking is how variables are moving, it's it's you know, so you're looking at a progression, and if you see something progressing at a rate that is out of the normal, let's say, then it's the time for you to take action. Yes. Super, absolutely super. So in terms of, and I and I thank you so much for that, because I think from a listener's point of view, what you've shared with the listeners on the podcast uh is so valuable. Maybe I'll just ask you one question. I mean, could you maybe give, and you've shared your own story with your eyes, but maybe give a client's story, how they came to you, what they presented with, what you did for them, and what was the outcome?

When The Retina Flags High BP

Speaker 1 42:33

Well, there is an interesting stor uh interesting case. He was in his mid-30s, I remember. He was a big guy, so he came in looking, you know, he's he felt that his vision was not as clear as before. So we did the vision testing. Um, okay, his prescription has changed a little bit, you know. Um, yeah, we could have given him glasses, new glasses, and that would have made him see a little bit better. But we also, because we look at the eye health, um, we dilated the pupils, we looked inside the eye, and when we looked inside the eye, what we found was that, yes, there was a slight prescription change, but inside the eye, in the retina, there was a lot of retinal hemorrhage, there was a lot of bleeding in the retina. And at that time, you know, because he was in his mid-30s, he wasn't very up to date on his overall health. And he had a job where he was sitting at the office all day long. So he wasn't aware that he was actually having systemic vascular issues like high blood pressure and diabetes, this type of thing. So as soon as we saw that, okay, we referred him out to specialist, and the specialist did all these blood tests on him and found that he was um he was definitely hypertensive, meaning he had high blood pressure, he he was beginning to be diabetic. So he started on this medication, and that helped to. Normalize everything, the vascular issues. And when the vascular issues starts to be normalized, the blood in the retina began to be absorbed away, and he came back three months, four months later. And when we saw him again, without even giving him the new prescription for his classes, his vision has improved. So, yes, ultimately we still gave him a new prescription, but that wasn't the main thing. The main thing was that because he was not aware of his own health issues. And because we did the eye examinations where we looked at the retina and found these this hemorrhage. And also the fact that you know we had his he had help from the specialist to get the uh to get his health in order, that made a big difference in uh improving his vision. And that also actually, you know, maybe helped him along the way, you know, because if we just gave him a pair of glasses, he wouldn't have known.

Speaker 44:56

Yeah, exactly. I mean, absolute super story. So somebody comes to you, you by looking at the eye can see a lot of other things as well. I mean, you could see that potentially the the problem he was having with uh with the back of his eye could have been linked to diabetes, it could have been linked to high blood pressure, could have been linked to many other things. But you actually were the catalyst for him then to go off and get everything checked. And what was what was really nice about that story was that once he brought the other variables in in under control, then that also improved his eye health as well.

Speaker 1 45:34

Yes. And and one one thing about that is that uh the eyes are the only place in the entire body that we can observe blood vessels without cutting into the body. Right. So looking at the pattern of the blood vessels, that's the and that's another important thing about the images that we take. We we look at patterns of the blood vessels and we look for changes in the patterns of the blood vessels. Sometimes these changes could indicate not an eye disease, but a vascular or systemic issue.

Speaker 46:06

Yeah. Super, super. So it's not just you know going to the optometrist for one uh consultation and then forgetting everything's okay, I can go away now. It's something that needs to be done regularly because when you do it regularly, you see the changes that are taking place. And you know, with a good intervention, those changes can be uh dealt with in a timely manner.

Speaker 1 46:31

Yeah, exactly. So that's really important. That's why we always, always recommend annual examinations, annual examinations.

Speaker 46:38

Yeah. So we say it again, annual examinations. So really

Key Advice And How To Connect

Speaker 46:43

great. So we're coming towards the the end of the podcast now, and I I think we could go on chatting for quite a long time. But what uh what I invite you to do, if you had to give a key message now for the listeners, what would be your key message? What would be the message and you say, hmm, listen to this?

Speaker 1 47:03

I think that you know, because most of your listeners are about 35 or 40, if they have children, get the children in to get a comprehensive eye examination. Not just to test the prescription, but to test get the the the axial length measured, get the metrics, do it regularly, do it routinely, um, so that we can monitor or they can track how the eyes will change in the future. And for themselves, go in for routine examinations. Eye diseases happen very slowly. When they do detect that they have eye issues, is usually at a very advanced stage. When we detect eye diseases early, the prognosis is much better visually because we can treat these eye diseases at an earlier stage.

Speaker 47:54

Yeah, absolutely super message. So this you know, it's relevant for uh parents, for their children, it's relevant for the parents themselves. And the message is it's quite a simple message, really, is be regular and get your checkup on a yearly basis. Would that be a fair summary? Yes, that would be ideal. Yeah. So my last question for you now on the podcast how do people get in touch with you?

Speaker 1 48:22

Well, my clinic is in Central, it's called Central Eye Care. Um, you can go on the website, so just type in Central Eye Care in the Google search, and uh and you can find it.

Speaker 48:34

Absolutely great. So I thank you so much, Andy. Uh really, really super podcast, really, really happy. And yeah, thanks a lot. Thank you, Vincent, for having me. Great podcast with Andy with lots and lots of takeaways. And here are my takeaways. Number one, visit your optimetrist regularly, once a year, and on an ongoing basis. It's true for children, for parents and for the over 40s. Number two, one of the focuses of Andy's work is children, especially short-sightedness or myopia. Number three, at 12 years of age, 60% of children in Hong Kong have myopia. The axial length of their eye is too long. Number four, regular outdoor activity for children will slow down the myopia, and he recommends children to play outside for at least one hour a day. Number five, ortho keratology will slow down the rate that the eyes die may deteriorate. Your optometrist will look for IDT to more total rent in the family. Number 7. For adults, generally ITs develop after their mid-13 and into their 14. Eye drops, red light therapy, and soft contact entities are some of the tools used to correct any details. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Please share with your family and friends. You're welcome to email me with feedback, comments and questions at vincent.hiscox at outlook.com. Would you enjoy getting a short weekly email from me where I share simple tips that you can put into practice to improve your health? Subscribe to Vincent's Wellness Newsletter at vincent1cd.substack.com If you are looking to get into the best shape of your life, to look and feel your best, visit my coaching website procoach.app forward slash vincent. All of the references to the websites will be in the show notes. And don't forget to share the episode with a friend.