Glaucoma: Beware of Yoga and certain Sports

People with Glaucoma should beware of certain Yoga  positions and Sports that can make their disease worse. Glaucoma is a disease that can seriously impair vision, leading to blindness damaging the Optic Nerve irreversibly.

High intraocular pressure is the worse prognostic  factor in Glaucoma, therefore patients with Glaucoma should avoid everything that raises the intraocular pressure.

Sports where the head is lower than the rest of the body are associated with a raise in the venous pressure of the head resulting in an intraocular pressure raise.

A recent study from NYEE (New York Eye and Ear Infirmary) researchers pubblished on the American Journal PLOS One shows that four Yoga positions, called also “asana”, are associated with an intraocular pressure

These are the worse positions where the head is lower than the rest of the body: the downward dog, the torso flexion, the plow position and the legs against the wall posture. Glaucoma patients should avoid these positions.

Intraocular pressure increases during these yoga positions, especially during the downward dog. The intraocular pressure was found to be elevated even ten minutes after the exercise.

People with glaucoma should avoid physical exercises in which the head is lower than the body for a long time, because it can seriously harm their health.

Nevertheless  a regular physical activity has an important positive effect on all human body vitals in both people with and without Glaucoma.