Dr Sameera Irfan

28/10/2024

"Protect Your Eyes Against SMOG"

The level of smog had risen in Lahore's atmosphere to dangerously high levels.

Smog contains chemical particles that are toxic to the eyes as well as the nose, throat and the lungs as well as bacteria and viruses.

One must take the following precautions to Protect Your Eyes:

1: Smog is of the highest level in the morning. Therefore wear glasses ( plain or sunglasses) when going outdoors.

2: Wash your eyes once you reach home, office, or the school.

3: Tap water is not safe for washing eyes as this also contains high levels of chemicals. Therefore, use lubricant eyedrops that are readily available at the pharmacy.

4: People who have seasonal eye allergies, must start mast-cell stabilizer eye drops once daily for the next 4-5 months. Otherwise the ocular allergy will get worse and will need much stronger medicines. Your ophthalmologist should prescribe you these eyedrops.

5: Please do not use Rose water for washing/cleaning eyes as this contains steroids. Smog is going to continue for 3-4 months. You cannot use Rose water for that long. Steroids cause Glaucoma.

6: Using Icepacks in case of irritated red eyes are soothing to the eyes and relieve eye or lid swelling and redness.

Please share this post with your friends and colleagues.

Regards
Dr. Sameera Irfan

18/10/2024

Checking your child 's Vision EARLY prevents:
1: Squinting of the eyes
2: Lazy eye
3: Further increased in the number of eye-glasses.

Children never notice an early problem with their vision, especially if it's in one eye. As a result, the above three problems worsen.

Please have their eyesight tested as early as possible, and then annually.

Our changed lifestyle of staying indoors and being involved in digital screens makes every child prone to visual problems.
This also affects their physical as well as mental development and performance in studies.

Please spread this message far and wide to help as many children as possible.
Regards
Dr. Sameera Irfan

18/10/2024

Parents must have their Child's VISION checked ASAP!
Children only complain when the Visual Loss is Severe!

26/09/2024

A Few Tips to Maintain Good Health:

1: Start your day early, no matter how lazy you have been all your life.

Our bodies work according to our Circadian Rhythm: our natural body clock with which we were born.

All our body machinery works in response to HORMONES released in our body following the Circadian Rhythm.

When we break or ignore that natural rhythm, our body retaliates in the form of disease. This is the basis of poor mental health and autoimmune disease.

So please, make an effort to go back to the original body clock with which you were sent in this world: " Waking up Early
Sleeping Early".

2: An uninterrupted 8 hours sleep at night is mandatory for your whole body to function optimally.

3: Daily exercise at least 45 minutes ensures :
-Proper functioning of all body systems ( lungs, heart, kidneys, and most importantly, the gut and the brain).
-Happy hormones are released by exercise that keeps our minds trouble free. It's our mind (brain and the gut:our primitive mind) that controls our body. So keep them both happy.

4: Eating healthy: please remember food is the fuel that we are feeding our bodies with. If you are adding wrong, faulty fuel, how long can our body machinery work trouble free. It will soon give way!

I'm sure we all know at this stage of our lives what healthy eating is?

5: Drinking at least 10-12 glasses of water daily and NO carbonated or sugary drinks.
Water is essential to:
- eliminate all impurities from our body which we are adding by eating "bad diets".
- Hydrates Skin keeping it young and wrinkle-free
- Prevents DRY EYES which all of us are prone to as a part of aging.

6: Do an activity daily in the evening that relaxes your mind, keeps it happy, so you can enjoy a good night's sleep ( watching a nice show on TV, listening to music, going out for a stroll, talking to a friend).

7: Before going to sleep, Counting ALL your blessings no matter how small they seem to you and Thanking the Almighty Allah for them as well as making our day trouble -free!

8: Having annual health check ups: -BP almost once a month or weekly if possible:
-HbA1C annually
-CBC and LFTs annually
-Lipid profile annually
-Breast examination (self) at least every month.
-Ophthalmology/eye check up annually.
-

That's what I've been practicing all my life. I hope they are helpful.
Sameera

26/09/2024

I was surprised to see a friend today during my morning walk who never believed in exercising or healthy eating. She hadn't been well for sometime and now starting a morning walk on the doctor's instructions.

It's amusing how we take health for granted.
In fact, our health is never our priority.

We often ignore the fact that we were blessed with a perfect body. We continually "abuse" it by eating junk food, sweets, sugary drinks, late night eating, and NO EXERCISES or
NO HEALTH CHECKS!

After 40-50 years of this daily abuse, our body machinery starts giving us problems in the form of disease !

And then we are alarmed that what have we done to ourselves?

It's never too late to start making your health (mental and physical) your priority.

Whatever life we are blessed with, and how many years we have left, we must try to reach the finish line walking, standing tall, if not running 😊.

I am sharing a few tips that I follow religiously.
I hope you can pick up at least a few.

Stay healthy
Stay blessed.

Sameera Irfan

26/09/2024

You are Rich
If you are Healthy
Rest is, but, a Luxury!
Take care of yourself, starting today!

09/09/2024

A Public Service Message:

Using Pilocarpine eyedrops for getting rid of the reading glasses is a big hoax!

One can easily AVOID using or prescribing glasses and delay them till the age of 58-60 years ! That is the age when the lens really hardens and all accommodation is lost!

Prior to this age, it is actually the WEAKNESS of the NEAR REFLEX which comprises of:
Accommodation
Convergence
Pupil miosis.

All three components start getting weakened as early as the late teens due to too much near work.

Young adults start having blurred vision during reading and near work. The cause is outward deviation of one eye (due to convergence insufficiency) while the focussing eye stops accommodating due to continued near work for hours with one eye.

Ophthalmologists and opticians universally prescribe plus correction at this point, considering it as Early Presbyopia.
What the reading glasses do is:
1: Magnify the image of the focussing eye and improve reading / near work,
but at the same time,
2: Kills the remaining accommodation
3: Relaxes the convergence further,
3: The outward deviation/Exotropia increases
And the symptoms of reduced near vision return.

The plus correction is further increased wrongfully at this point and a vicious cycle continues!

All that is needed is properly performed Convergence Exercises or Pencil Push-ups at least twice a day.

Pencil Push-ups:
1: strengthen the convergence which straightens both eyes thus helping near work.
2: Improves Accommodation thus further increasing focussing power of eyes for near work.
3: Avoids the need for reading glasses for a very long time.

Please share this important message far and wide to help as many people as possible.

The video on Proper Pencil Push-ups:
https://youtu.be/rTZxHVTpkME?si=rDjT9ZPNMPyX812S

05/08/2024

Dear friends,
I am sharing a wonderful message from a person living in Algeria who was able to get his vision restored in one eye by following the technique posted in my research paper on Amblyopia.

"I suffered my entire life from "l'oeil paresseux." The medical term "amblyopia" is a functional condition that affects the way the brain processes images from the affected eye because I didn't wear my corrective glasses at a younger age. So, my Brian relayed on the eye that has a smaller refractive error and ignored the other eye that required a stronger prescription, which leads to difficulties when it comes to perceiving depth perception clearly. The thing that affected my academic achievement in an unimaginable way. I discovered the problem very late when the chances of curing this condition are guaranteed before the critical period, that is, before the age of 12 years. However, with the deep investigation conducted in this domain, ophthalmologists discovered recently that this condition is curable even in adults, no matter how old the patient is. I took the responsibility of reading every research paper related to this disease, and I found this research paper before 2 years ago. I started full patching therapy for 3 months on my own, and when I went to the doctor, he was fully surprised that my eyesight in the affected eye returned to its full capacity, i.e., 10/10. However, stereo acuity, which is the ability of the brain to fuse the two images from both eyes, is still limited because Brain needs a lot of time to adapt and learn to use both eyes together. This matter can be easily solved through applying specific exercises like VR technology to restore stereopsis to its normal state. Unfortunately, here in Algeria, doctors are still unaware of these techniques. The point behind this post is to let you know that you should never lose hope and don't rely just on others. Learn to read and be self-dependent. I have decided to share with you this research paper, which belongs to a Pakistani ophthalmologist who conducted this investigation and by whom the hope shined for millions of patients around the world.
As a last advise, you shouldn't let your child take of his/her glasses because the consequences can be catastrophic, if your child needs corrective glasses you must make sure he wears them constantly."

PDF | Primary Objectives: 1: To find out the level of visual improvement and the time it takes in amblyopia of any severity. 2: To find out whether the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

01/07/2024

Pleased to share that my research on Successful Amblyopia Therapy in ALL age groups is being read globally by the Grace of the Almighty Allah.

It was published in April and has been read by 3000 ophthalmologists in just 3 months, Alhamdulillah.

The research paper on successful treatment of 1701 patients, most of them being adults, has revolutionised Amblyopia Therapy as no one in the world has treated adults more than 18 years old.
All these young people are refused therapy because of their age even though they have a normal eye structure!

My research has proven that unilateral blindness due to Amblyopia is both preventable and FULLY TREATABLE.
This gives hope to millions of such patients.

Best regards
Dr. Sameera Irfan

04/06/2024

Food for Thought:

It's a very wrong trend amongst ophthalmologists to prescribe Moxifloxacin Eye drops ( alone or in combination with steroids) for even minor eye problems ( any red eye!).

Moxifloxacin is a fluoroquinolone introduced a few years ago to treat severe infections by pneumococci, gonococci, resistant TB.

Unfortunately, when the patient uses it for minor infections (mostly caused by commensal Bacteria of low virulence), drug resistance develops.

And when the patient really needs it, as in a pneumococcal ulcer, the drug will not be effective!

A Plea to Ophthalmologists:
Please do not prescribe Moxifloxacin or its combination with steroids for conjunctivitis, watery eyes, in children with CNLDO etc.
Please reserve it for severe Corneal Infections.

A Plea to the Patients suffering from Red Eyes:
Please DO NOT USE MOXIFLOXACIN eye drops (available as Moxigan, Eyemox, Ocumox, Xemox, Oxcin-D, Moxiopt).

Please share this message with other groups so that this bad practice is changed to some extent.

PS: In the developed world, chloramphenicol is still the drug of choice for mild bacterial Ocular surface infections.

But in our part of the world, we want to prescribe the strongest possible antibiotic that's available in the market so that the patient is better the very next day because of the prescribing doctor 's "Magical Eye drops".

No wonder we have so many resistant Corneal ulcers!

Best wishes
Dr. Sameera Irfan

08/04/2024

It's a great honour to receive Birthday wishes from the All India Ophthalmic Society.

Thanks very much dear Dr Samar Basak, Prof Namrata, and other members.

You certainly made my day.
Warmest regards
Sameera Irfan

28/03/2024

Dear Friends, I am sharing the link to my book, "Understanding Strabismus".

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345915586_Understanding_Strabismus

This was written with the aim to develop a basic understanding, an insight into this complex problem amongst general Ophthalmologists, trainees, opticians and optometrists.
It was intended to develop a stepwise approach in managing such patients.

I hope it will prove helpful in clearing up concepts.
Regards
Dr Sameera Irfan

20/03/2024

A spectacular view of tonight's sky!
A large halo surrounding the moon.

Cirrus clouds in the atmosphere contain tiny ice crystals that originate from the freezing of water droplets. These ice crystals refract, or bend light just like a camera lens. It is the shape of the ice crystals that focuses the light into a halo around the Moon.
A white Rainbow around the moon.

14/03/2024

PDF | Primary Objectives: 1: To find out the level of visual improvement and the time it takes in amblyopia of any severity. 2: To find out whether the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

14/03/2024

Dear Friends,
I am sharing my latest research paper on successful therapy of moderate -severe amblyopia.

More than 50% out of the total 1701 cases included were adults.

81% had previously failed part-time patching carried on for 2-4 years and still no improvement. But with our management protocol, they all achieved full visual recovery in 98% cases.

This magnitude of success especially in adult patients has not been achieved so far globally.

I am sure Ophthalmologists can benefit from this research worldwide and help the adult amblyopic patients who are refused therapy.

Regards
Dr. Sameera Irfan

The Link to access the paper:

PDF | Primary Objectives: 1: To find out the level of visual improvement and the time it takes in amblyopia of any severity. 2: To find out whether the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

07/03/2024

Sharing with my friends an amazing ghazal of the late Amjad Islam Amjad Sahib.
If you like it, please share it with your friends.
Regards

This beautiful ghazal of Amjad Islam Amjad Sahib (Late) is recited by Dr. sameera Irfan. If you like it, please share it with your friends.