Family Health with
Jenna Evans THIS MONTH we're taking a look (excuse the pun!) at our extraordinary eyes. There's quite a lot to cover, so I think this month we'll have a quick refresher of the anatomy and physiology and next month I'll delve deeper with treatments of common eye problems. So what makes up an eye? Looking at our eyes we can see our pupils, surrounded by the pigmented irises and out from there, the whites (or sclera). This is the only visible portion of the eye and makes up around 1/6th of it's mass. The eyes basically take light in and feed this information to the brain, which then forms the images we see. Our pupils are the openings in the eyes through which the light passes. Our irises help regulate the amount of light entering the eye. The lens is a transparent structure behind the pupil which helps to focus the light. The lens itself is stretched and contracted by the ciliary muscle, drawing it flat and therefore thinner to focus on things at a distance and conversely contracting and thickening for close up vision. On top of the lens is the cornea, a transparent section on the front of the eyeball. Interestingly, the cornea contains no blood vessels and is reliant upon receiving oxygen and nutrients by other means, for example in the lachrymal fluid from the tear
Do you support someone who has a long-term physical or mental illness or problems with alcohol or drugs?
This person could be your partner, your child, a parent, brother or sister, grandparent, or a neighbour. If so, do you • Help the person get up, washed and dressed, and with medication? • Do lots of things around the house like cooking, cleaning, laundry, fetching and carrying? • Give them lots of emotional support, like calming them down when they’re upset & agitated or low? • Struggle to concentrate on 28 THE VISITOR June 2022
ducts that keep our eyes bathed and lubricated. Between the sclera and the retina lies the choroid body. This area contains a pigment to absorb excess light helping prevent blurring of vision. Light makes its way to the light sensitive retina that lines the rear interior of the eyeball. It is made from photoreceptive cells, primarily of two types – rods and cones. There are around 125 million rods and 7 million cones, hard to even process the notion that there are that many cells just processing light in the back of our eyeballs! Rods are best at dealing with lower light conditions, whereas cones are best in bright light and are essential for creating sharp and colourful images. There is an area in the retina called the macula (or macula lutea, literally yellow spot) which has a high concentration of photoreceptive cells and is responsible for our central vision. Inside the macula is an indentation which contains the greatest concentration of cone cells and this is called the fovea. When we are focussing on an object, the part of the image that is focussed on the fovea will have the most clarity and detail. The information from our photoreceptive cells leaves the eye via the optic disc and travels along the optic nerve. The brain receives this information – albeit upside down and back to front, thanks to the curvature in the eyeball! - processes it all and creates the images we see. The eye is an extremely complex and active organ. It has a whole host of structures to help
support and protect it, including the bones of the eye orbit and also tissues such as the sclera. The sclera runs concurrently with the cornea – which lies over the lens and therefore needs to be transparent to let in the light. The sclera is a tough covering on the eyeball which forms a protective coat. On top of the sclera (but not the cornea), we find the conjuctiva. This thin, transparent, epithelium actually folds into the inner surfaces of the eyelids and is another layer of protection for the eyeball. There are also two fluids with fill and bathe the eyes. The vitreous humour a transparent gel like fluid that fills the space between the lens and retina which provides a level of structural support, nourishment and shock absorption. The aqueous humour is a thin watery fluid, that bathes structures such as the cornea, iris and lens. The
aqueous humour is also involved in intraocular pressure, which if it goes awry causes glaucoma – which we'll be covering along with other eye disorders and treatments next month. So give your eyes a hearty thank you for all the hard work they do and I hope you all have a beautiful sunny June! © Jenna Evans 2022
day-to-day things and feel overwhelmed? • Find it difficult to have a social life, see friends or join community activities? • Worry a lot about them? • Often feel anxious and frightened? If the answer is yes to any or most of these questions, you could be a Carer and you are not alone - there is support for you! You might not have thought of yourself as a carer before, because it’s a family member and it’s normal life for you – it’s just what you do! You may have had to give up work to care for them. If you live in Somerset and want to talk to someone, please
get in touch with your GP surgery and ask for the Carers Champion for advice and information. For information about a range of things that could be helpful to you and to find out where your local Carers Support Group is, you can go to the Somerset Carers website www.somersetcarers.org or call their helpline 0800 3168 600. If you have a disabled child, call the Somerset Parent Carer Forum contact 01458-259384 or visit https://somersetparentcarer forum.org.uk. For support and information for Young Carers aged under 18, please call Somerset County Council on 0300 123 2224 or the
Somerset Carers service on 0800 3168 600 or go to https:// somersetcarers.org/who-can-helpyou/somerset-young-carers. If you live in Dorset, you can contact Carer Support Dorset on 0800 368 8349 and talk to them about your situation and find out about local groups – the number is the same for the Dorset Young Carers service. www.carersupport dorset.co.uk. If you live in Wiltshire, you can contact Carer Support Wiltshire on 0800 181 4118 – the number is the same for the Young Carers service (age 5-16) and the Young Adult Carers service (aged 1725). https://carersupportwiltshire .co.uk.
• Jenna is a Holistic Health
Coach and creator of bespoke beauty products. She can be found on Facebook at ‘Alchemical Beauty UK’. Jenna is also a multi-award winning Product Advisor at Ceres Natural Foods, Yeovil. To make an appointment, please pop in or call 01935 428791 for details. Always check with a health professional before making any dramatic changes to your diet and lifestyle or starting a new supplement, especially with any existing health conditions.
