Iron County Record | 1964-07-02 | Page 9 | Dread Eye Disease Fought by Glaucoma Clinics

Dread Eye Disease Fought by Glaucoma Clinics A Glaucoma clinic sponsored by the Utah Society for the pre-vention pre-vention of Blindness was held June 25th in Richfield. Dr. J. Garth Chatterley and several Provo doctors served as volun-teeers volun-teeers at the Clinic. In the past two years, ten such clinics have been held in southern south-ern Utah. According to Dr. Chatterley, Chat-terley, usually 1 to 2 of the people checked at such a clinic will have glaucoma. Statistics show that one out of every 50 Americans over 40 years of age have glaucoma. Glaucoma Is a leading cause of blindness among adults in the United States. During their first stages, the pressure of the eyeball eye-ball fluid mysteriously increases. In turn, this pressure pushes against the fluid in the rear of the eyeball and against the retina, re-tina, the link between the eye and the brain. This pressure damages da-mages the nerve fibres which enables a person to see. As a result, re-sult, vision is gradually destroyed. destroy-ed. The importance of the Glaucoma Glau-coma clinic is to prevent blindness. blind-ness. If glaucoma is detected, treatment is started early and the .rogress of its course can be checked. However, the sight destroyed de-stroyed by glaucoma cannot be restored. Thus the best defense against glaucoma is an eye examination exa-mination on a regular basis. The Utah society for the prevention pre-vention of blindness Is n affiliate affili-ate of the National .'Society for the Prevention of Blindness, the only national voluntary health agency engaged In the prevention preven-tion of blindness through a total program of research, service and education.