July 15, 2024 • 33 mins
In this “eye-opening” episode, join host Evelyn Erives as she sits down with Dr. Brandon Friedman, an Inland Empire-based optometrist. Dr. Friedman sheds light on the crucial role of eye exams in maintaining overall health. Tune in to gain valuable insights and learn why seeing clearly is more than just 20/20 vision!
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP. To reach Dr. Brandon Friedman visit FriedmanOptometry.com
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP. To reach Dr. Brandon Friedman visit FriedmanOptometry.com
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi, and welcome to Covering YourHealth with the Evelyn Erievez. I'm so
excited for you to be here today, IHP, my partners, we have
been working very hard to bring yousome great episodes with very compelling content,
and today I think you're going toreally enjoy this one, especially because well
it really affects just about all ofus. We're talking about your eyes,
(00:23):
your vision. Why it's so importantto visit your eye doctor. Did you
know it's estimated that four and tenadults are at risk for vision loss.
That's real, that's a straight fact. That's a little scary, isn't it.
Today We're about to find out andwelcome doctor Brandon Freedman to the podcast.
(00:44):
Doctor Friedman is an Inland Empire basedoptometrist who will share some tidbits about
why we should always incorporate an eyeexam in our annual checkup to do list.
I can't wait to dive into this. By opening topic, Welcome to
Covering your Health, a wellness podcastdedicated to covering all areas of living a
(01:07):
healthy and happy lifestyle, from healthyhearts to understanding health plans and everything in
between. Each episode will provide youwith a better understanding of managing your health,
preventative care, and staying on theright path for your family's wellness journey.
The Covering Your Health podcast is presentedby I e HP Now your host
Evelina Revez. So welcome, doctorBrandon Freeman. How are you. I'm
(01:36):
doing great. How are you?I'm really good. I'm so excited to
have you here. Let's start atthe very beginning. I want to know
a little bit about yourself. Iwant to know your origin story, why
I health tell me at all well. I am a native of southern California,
born in Redlands, grew up inthe mountains in Lake Arrowhead, Oh
beautiful, And as many times asI threaten to leave California, I just
(02:00):
could never do it. It's toowonderful of a state. I went to
college in Santa Barbara, optometry schoolup in Berkeley, and came back to
my roots here in the Illann Empireto practice optometry. I love what I
do. I'm very grateful for myprofession. My educational path started by studying
(02:23):
psychology. I really loved studying thehuman mind, human behavior. I did
a lot of research in my collegeyears, but came to a moment where
I realized I really wasn't wired tobe a therapist and research was not something
I wanted to spend my life doing. So I took a step back,
looked at a lot of different areasof health care, and really just took
(02:46):
a great interest to helping patients withtheir vision and with the health of their
eyes. And the rest is history. Wow, were you ever fascinated as
a child with eyes or what doyou think was the trigger for you that
when you started to study that alittle bit more. I would not say
that I had a passion as achild. My father is an optometrist,
(03:07):
so I was around the profession inthe industry throughout my entire life. It
was my summer jobs work in theoffice, but never really took an interest
to it as a career path untilI was in my early twenties. And
I think really what drew me toit is the fact that optometrists, we
really do get to spend more faceto face time with our patients than almost
(03:30):
any other healthcare professional, and patientsI think, in general, are excited
to see their apometrists because of theways that we help them, and that
brought me a lot of joy whenI looked at different professions and thought,
I want my patients to actually likeme, and I want them to actually
(03:50):
want to come into the office andnot fear coming into the office. And
I think that's something that really inoptometry we embrace and we thrive with.
I was going to say, Ialways think that way too. I'm never
afraid to go to my optometrists.That's nothing I'm worried about. I'm not
gonna have a cavity, you know. Yeah, I mean there are things
that can happen, but you're nevertruly worried about going to the optometrists.
(04:15):
But you know what's funny about thatis because I'm not worried about it,
sometimes I forget about it, likeso, so you know, it's one
of those things like oh I gotto get to the eye doctor. I
need to remember to go. Sobefore we get into all of those little
intricacies, and I'm sure there's alot of reasons why people maybe avoid the
optometrists. Tell me why you decidedto practice here in the Inland Empire.
(04:40):
Well, I think if you lookat our communities, we have a lot
of underserved communities in the Inland Empire. The communities that don't have as good
access to healthcare as other parts ofour state, and that is in a
large part is what drew me hereto be able to support underserved communit munities
(05:00):
that really we could make a differencein the quality of their lives and in
their families lives by bringing great stateof the art I care to those communities,
and that, more than anything else, really drew me here. My
family's from here, so of courseI love being near my family and my
parents. But when it comes topracticing optometry there, the opportunity to serve
(05:27):
people in this area that really needour help is a big draw. Yeah,
yeah, that's wonderful. I kindof I can feel. I can
understand that because with me, youknow, I grew up here in the
Inland Empire, and getting to doradio here in the Inland Empire is so
special, you know, because Igrew up with all these people. I
get to see them every day,and that's I feel like practicing the same
(05:48):
way with you is the same way. Like, oh, I knew Brandon
growing up. I'm gonna go seehim too. You already have like a
built in base, you know.Yeah, I've got it pretty good.
I'll admit, and when I waspretty green in the profession fifteen years ago
and just trying to get the flowof things. That really helped me get
(06:10):
up and running was kind of theinstant trust, the name recognition, and
just the fact that I knew thecommunities and I could connect with people about
where they're from in a way thatmaybe other doctors couldn't. Yeah, yeah,
absolutely. I love making small talkwith my optometrists too, because it's
always fun stuff. What have youbeen up to? Oh, I remember,
(06:31):
you know, onto the next thing. Nothing too crazy, Okay,
So let's talk about the eyes.What are some common misconceptions people have about
the eyes. I think the onethat I hear the most when I am
working with patients is the concern thatwearing glasses can weaken or hurt their eyes.
(06:54):
And I have a lot of folkswho come in and say, well,
I know that I see better withmy glasses, but I try not
to wear them as much as Ican. I really don't want to get
used to wearing them or get dependenton wearing them. And there's really not
a lot of truth behind the concernthat you will hurt or weaken your eyes
by wearing glasses. Glasses correct vision. They have sharpened vision. In many
(07:15):
cases, they reduce the work theeye has to do to see clearly,
and there are tremendous benefits to that, much the way you might not want
to walk around with a backpack filledwith bricks, and taking the bricks out
of your backpack, you're going tobe more comfortable and be able to walk
a little bit. Further, So, when we provide glasses to our patients,
we want them to see clearly withvery little to no effort so they
(07:40):
can go about their day, whetherit's going to school, sitting on a
computer screen all day, driving abus. There's really no benefit to with
holding better vision by avoiding glasses.Yeah, yeah, I mean I feel
like this goes without saying, butwhy should people stay on top of that
eye health? And that's an importantaspect is that I help. Really,
(08:01):
if you look at an eye exam, I think a misconception about eye exams
is, Hey, I'm coming injust because I can't see and I need
my glasses, I need my contactlenses. That's what I'm here for.
That really is a big draw forwhy patients come into see their optometrists.
But a huge part of the examis focused on the health of the eye
(08:22):
and making sure that we find earlyrisks for eye diseases. One of the
biggest concerns about eye disease is thatthe vast majority of eye diseases don't have
symptoms early on. So it's notreliable to ask a person, hey,
when you have a problem with thehealth of your eye, please come in.
At that point we might be toolate. So having annual check ups
(08:45):
with your eye doctor is really afantastic way to get on top of that,
to detect early risk for eye diseasewell before it starts to affect the
vision, like, well before youeven notice any kind of issue. Right,
So let's say I put things aside, I haven't been in there in
a little while, and now I'mstarting to notice some things. What are
some signs and maybe there are issueswith your eyes. Well, it's really
(09:09):
tricky because if we rely on onthe symptoms that a person experiences, we're
going to catch a lot of conditionstoo late, which when it comes to
for example, a condition like glacoma, which is the third leading cause of
blindness in adults in our country,glaucoma starts to affect the vision on the
far edges of the far sides ofour vision, and you won't notice that.
(09:33):
We really can't appreciate that loss ofvision. So we wouldn't want to
wait till we notice, Hey,I have a blind spot on the side
of my vision. Maybe I haveglaucoma. Would that would be an unfortunate
time to catch glaucoma. Other conditionslike dry eye, for example, which
is very very common in the inlandumpire, redness of the eyes, burning
(09:56):
of the eyes, excess peering orwatering of the eyes. These are common
symptoms of an eye that may bedry, and we manage a lot of
dry eye in the practice because theair quality. Yeah, I was going
to say the dry air that wehave in the wind, of course,
mm hmm. Always the wind.Oh my goodness. I feel like people
in Fontana and devor get it theworst. I sure do. I have
(10:18):
massive respect for those folks in thewind corridor. I grew up in Fontana,
so I remember wind days and we'relike, oh dogs, okay,
So how can someone prevent vision lossfrom does the end? Does that begin
at a very young age? Absolutely? When we talk about children, and
(10:43):
you know, there's oftentimes an assumptionthat kids are healthy, and that's generally
true. But one big thing thatwe want to be mindful of for our
youthful individuals is protection from the sunand reducing ultraviolet exposure to the eye by
wearing sun glasses, by wearing ahat with a brim. We know that
(11:03):
about fifty percent of our lifetime exposureto ultraviolet occurs before we turn eighteen.
Wow, and my god's getting alot of UV. Granted, it's good
for kids to go outside and play. There's so many benefits to being outdoors
and playing and being active. Butwe need to protect our eyes because many
many eye diseases that occur later inlife are accelerated by exposure to ultraviolet.
(11:28):
So you may not feel it whenyou're young, but it adds up throughout
our life. So I mean,is that a good reason to wear I
don't know, sunglasses when you're young. Absolutely, we should be getting sunglasses
on our kids before they can talk. And that Wow used to wear and
shade. That it's just part oftheir routine when they go outside. And
granted, I had sunglasses on mychildren when they were one day old,
(11:50):
and it's still a struggle even now. When they're nine and seven years old.
But getting in that habit, inthat routine is a really healthy habit
for children. That is something Inever knew. Okay that for sure,
I never knew that. So becausefor me, I would say in my
later teens, you know, itwas cool to wear sunglasses, you know
(12:11):
what I mean. I was like, I wanted to wear sunglasses, but
then I grew to just like,only want to wear sunglasses sometimes, you
know what I mean. I gooutside and I'm like, oh, it's
white, too bright out here.I'm constantly wearing sunglasses. So I wondered,
Oh, my gosh, do Ihave a sensitivity you know to the
sun that I'm always like it bothersme, right, But I would never
(12:31):
have thought that. I you know, I've got young kids too. They
should all be wearing sunglasses. Absolutely, absolutely. And also the sunglasses protect
the skin right around the eye,and that that very thin, very delicate
skin is vulnerable to things that wealways think about, like wrinkles and shagging
eyes, aging, also to skincancer. It is a vulnerable part of
(12:54):
the part of the skin for cancer. And sometimes when we apply sunscreen to
our face, we may not coatthat skin because we don't want to get
sunscreen in our eye, so sunglasseshelp assure that we protect the skin around
the eye as well. Oh mygoodness, okay, all right, so
very important sunglasses. Going to buymy whole family a family pack of sunglasses?
(13:15):
All right, make sure I'm onthat bandwagon. What about the importance
of wearing just like other types ofglasses? Is it okay to start your
kids young if they with readers andthings like that, because I remember wearing
them when I was maybe three,no, like third grade, third or
fourth grade, and then not needingthem again. Is that a Is that
(13:35):
normal? It can be. Itdepends on what we're correcting when we talk
about a pair of glasses for achild. Ultimately, with children, we
know that the eye and the brainare rapidly developing their connections during the first
ten years of life. So ifthere's something going on with the eyes and
the vision that might delay the developmentof the eye, we need to catch
(13:58):
that as early as possible, andin glasses can help improve that development.
We will put glasses on a babyand keep them in those glasses as long
as we need to to ensure thatthe development of the eye proceeds on schedule,
and of course to make sure thatthey can see clearly so that their
education is not impacted by their visionas well. But some children, maybe
(14:22):
they are a little bit more farsided than the average child, which means
they have to work harder to seeclearly. That extra work is not harmful
to the eye itself, but itcould lead to headaches or blurry vision.
Maybe a child who can't read forvery long and they get tired. Glasses
would be very helpful. And somekids can outgrow that far sided and its
it can be creased. So itreally depends on the type of correction in
(14:45):
the glasses. But at the endof the day, if we're using glasses
in a child to help the developmentof the eye in the brain, that
is something that they're going to needto be in glasses all day, every
day. So we really feel thatwe're out of the woods or something changes
for the better in the eyes.I see. Okay, So let's talk
about some of the other maybe diseasesthat you don't necessarily think affect the eyes.
(15:09):
Like let's talk about diabetes. Sowhat is the impact that diabetes plays
on the eyes. Well, diabetesas a whole, I mean, it's
a really scary condition. In general, thirty eight percent of Americans have diabetes.
Twenty five percent of those people,almost ten million people don't even know
(15:31):
they have diabetes. That's scary.It is the leading cause of blindness in
adults in our country. And alot of people don't realize that they think
about diabetes. They think about controllingtheir weight, controlling their sugar, and
that's very, very important, butboosing vision from diabetes is absolutely devastating.
(15:54):
And so we spend a significant amountof our days as obtometrists in general,
not just me but my colleagues aswell, really examining the eye for early
signs of damage and educating our patients. And again back to the theme of
hey, we talk to our patientsmore than most doctors may. Sometimes it's
the optometrist that has that breakthrough momentwith our patients, getting them to realize
(16:15):
the importance of really taking responsibility fortheir health and taking the lead on getting
the diabetes under control, not onlyto protect their vision but also their health
in general. Wow. Yeah,And it is something you don't think about
when you hear like your pre diabetic, or you hear the words that you
(16:36):
have diabetes. I don't think anyonethinks directly about their eyes in that moment.
So there and you can you seethat. I mean, as let's
say you're having a regular appointment withyour optometrist, can you see signs of
diabetes before maybe the person even knowsit does happen. In fact, just
(16:57):
last week, I thought, that'sbeen my patient for many years, and
we were doing a routine exam.We took a few photographs of the retina,
which is the inner back wall ofthe eye. There's a lot of
blood vessels that you can see inthe back of the eye, and he
had spots of bleeding in both eyesand this was the first time in many
(17:22):
years of exams that we've seen this, And so we started talking about diabetes
and other cardiovascular conditions like high bloodpressure and high cholesterol. And it had
turned out that this individual hadn't hada physical exam with his primary care physician
in many years. So the firstthing we did was got him scheduled for
physical with blood work. Fortunately,since a lot of people do get regular
(17:47):
care with their primary care doctors,I don't find diabetes in the eye before
they know about it very often,right, But it does happen, and
especially in an underserved community, you'regoing to see that happening more often.
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah,I mean, here's the thing. We
went through a pandemic, right,people put off going to the doctor again,
(18:10):
and I feel like that's one ofthose things that we're still kind of
getting back on track. I willsay, I'm getting back on track with
like all the things that we missedright, getting back onto our our dentist
appointments and things like that as well. So it could it is possible,
Like I feel, people miss thoseannual visits, especially if some if your
maybe your insurance doesn't incentivize those things. Sometimes they say, hey, you
(18:34):
have to have one if you wantto have your lower rate, right,
you don't, you just might notgo. Nah, nothing's wrong, I
feel fun. Well, make yourappointments. So how can you help e
stress associated with vision checkups? Well, I think in general, many folks
(18:55):
are nervous to go to a doctor'soffice that fear of I'm going to find
out thing that's wrong with me andI'm scared of that. And that's a
natural human emotional response to adversity.And I think really when it comes to
easing stress and anxiety. I reallyapproach it through trying to display kindness and
(19:19):
clear communication. If you talk toyour patient and you educate them about what
we're doing, what we see inthe eye, what we can do about
that, I think that really takesa lot of the fear out of those
visits. If a patient has hadan experience where maybe they went to see
a doctor and the doctor walked in, had their back to them during the
(19:42):
whole exam, writing in their charts, and then writes a prescription for a
medication, hands it to them andwalks out the door, they don't receive
the kind of comfort and guidance thatthey maybe really deserve and need in those
moments. And so I think weas optometrists have an opportunity to provide education.
(20:02):
And when you understand what's wrong andwhy it's happening, and especially what
you can do about it, alot of that fear starts to drain away.
In the anxiety, you know,it doesn't take control of your emotions
and you can actually step up andtake action for yourself. Okay, but
how about the dreaded thing that getsblown into your eyeball? Just the also
(20:26):
wonderful eye pressure test well. Ican tell you that in our practice we
retired the airpuff about three years ago, really for a technology that is more
reliable and more accurate. But thefear is there, and even three years
later in my practice, I stillhave patients who's been our patients for years
(20:48):
coming in, all right, whenam I getting that air puff? Let's
get it over with. And itis unfortunately a deep, profound fear that
has infiltrated society. But the reasonthat we test the pressure of the eye
is that if the pressure is high, then that's a risk for wlahoma,
which we talked about earlier as acondition that can cause blindness without even realizing
(21:11):
it. Yeah, so it's importantthat we check the pressure. But fortunately,
with some of the newer technologies comingout, we may start to see
less and less offices using the airpuff. Nice, okay, I'm all
team, get rid of the airpuff. I'm with you. I'm with
you. It's so funny. That'sthe only thing I think when I like,
Oh, that's the one thing Idread. I was so proud to
(21:32):
tell my patience when we were retiredof saying, hey, don't worry,
no air puffs today, and nice, I don't know if they fully believed
me when I said it, becauseit's just such a core experience of an
eye exam. I know, Iknow, I feel, and my kids
too. They're like, oh,the one thing. Everything else, we
don't care. You'll take the onething. Okay. So what is the
(21:53):
earliest you can get an eye exam? I mean, how like months old?
Are you talking? In my firstgrade? Where are we at?
Young? Young? Months? Sothe American Optometric Association recommends the first eye
exam between six months and a yearof age. Okay. These exams are
really intended to detect concerns that couldimpact the child's vision and their eyehealth and
(22:21):
their development. And of course you'renot going to give a one year old
the same type of exam that you'regoing to give an eight year old.
They are not going to be ableto respond or really cooperate with exams.
But we are trained to be ableto take measurements of the eye without requiring
responses from our patients. We dooften need to use eye drops to dilate
(22:45):
the eyes in a young child becauseit helps get more accurate readings. But
we can learn a lot about theeye at a young age and learn if
there are developmental risks that we canintervene on. And there are a few
very gary health conditions that are extremelyrare but very serious in babies, and
(23:06):
we want to catch those if theyare present in the eye. And at
what point do you start seeing youroptometrist. Is it's an annual visit,
right or is it? Do somepeople go in twice a year or three
times a year. Yes, absolutely, it depends on your health and what
concerns there are for the eye.For an average person who has healthy eyes,
(23:32):
who doesn't have any underlying health conditionslike diabetes, we would generally plan
a visit every one to two years, and these are your routine checkups.
I like to think of those checkupslike the annual physical for your eye.
We are not coming in there becausethere's a problem. We are coming in
there to cover the health from frontto back to make sure the vision is
(23:53):
corrected and accurate. But we're notpanicking. We're getting ahead of things with
visits. However, if you havea condition like glaucoma, macula or degeneration,
maybe there are some complications from diabetesthat we detect in the eye,
then we may plan visits more frequentlyso that we can watch more closely and
(24:15):
make sure that we catch changes asearly as possible. Okay for someone now,
I wear glasses at work when I'mlooking at a screen all day.
My kids look at screens, especiallyin the summertime, more than I would
like them to. What is yourtake on the blue light glasses is that
(24:40):
are they really needed? There aresome benefits. I think that between some
of the marketing that's gone on inthe last few years and some of the
fear that came out of the remotelearning and remote work waves that happened during
the early parts of the COVID shutdown, there was a lot of fear about
all the added screen time that wewere encountering, and obviously a lot of
(25:06):
folks stayed in remote work environments,and some kids even remained in remote learning
environments, So we need to beaware of some of the risks with screen
time. Blue light itself is nothingnew. The sun transmits forty times more
blue light than any screen that youmight look at, so it's not as
if we magically are encountering blue lightlike we never did before. But it
(25:29):
can increase fatigue and eye strain,and so wearing glasses that red blue light
can help reduce some of those symptomsthat may occur for longer hours. But
what's really great is a lot ofthe software and computer companies Microsoft, Apple,
Android, they have all integrated bluelight filters into their software, so
(25:56):
you can go into the settings onyour displays and actually use the amount of
blue light that's coming out of thescreen. And a study a few years
back found that that was a veryvery effective way to reduce blue light.
And so in general, I don'tknow that for a person who doesn't need
glasses that I would wear glasses exclusivelyto block blue light. But if you're
(26:18):
already wearing glasses, then adding acoding that reduces blue light is not a
bad idea. And if you doa lot of computer time, maybe it
can get you through those hours alittle bit more comfortably. But I always
always recommend get the blue light filtersettings adjusted on your computer screen so that
you're not having to filter as muchout because you're not looking at as much
(26:40):
in the first place. That's agreat idea. I never even thought of
looking at settings to see if thatwas even a thing. I would never
know. Okay, one more thingbefore I wrap up, with you.
I want to ask you for someonewho's never worn glasses. They're healthy,
they've never had problems. They're intheir late twenty now and they're starting to
see like, okay, maybe Ineed door glass. IM getting a little
(27:04):
bit of headaches, and I'm goingto go to my doctor. And let's
say you say, okay, we'regoing to put you in a set of
glasses that you're going to wear.What is the process? I know the
process, but walk us through whatsomebody getting a new pair of glasses or
contacts. I guess is for thatpatient who may be scared about it.
(27:26):
Sure, absolutely, unknowns are alwaysscary. Well, it all starts with
the eye exam. And so whenwe come into an annual exam frequently referred
to as a comprehensive eye exam,it begins by getting a good understanding of
someone's history of their health. Whatbackground do they have? Are there any
health concerns we should be aware of, any eye concerns that we should be
(27:48):
aware of. Of course, we'retalking about the invincible twenty five year old
here. Oh yeah right, youdon't need nothing. Yeah, you can't
do anything to knock down a healthytwenty five until they're not twenty five anymore.
But you know, once we getthrough an understanding about their health,
we want to learn about their demands. What do you use your eyes for?
(28:11):
Are you staring at a computer eighthours a day and then switching to
your phone for the last four hours. Are you spending your time outdoors?
Maybe you have a job that involvesoutdoor time? Are you students? As
we learn about the way that weuse our eyes in the demands on our
eyes, it can really help theoptometrists understand how we can help that person
(28:33):
with their vision. And through thediscussions we sometimes learn of some areas that
maybe they didn't realize they were havingtrouble with. A good example is,
hey, when you drive at night, can you see individual headlights or do
you see a big starburst in yourvision? Oh? Yeah, I just
thought that's how it was. Well, maybe we can help with that.
So we want to really work throughand learn where there are areas of struggle.
(28:56):
The exam itself, we do somemeasurements of the vision. We try
to get the eye focused as clearlyas possible, and of course check the
health of the front in the backof the eye thoroughly, and then if
we determine that glasses are needed,the next step would be to meet with
an optician. Opticians are trained individualsto assist in selecting a frame for glasses
(29:19):
that fits the face well, it'scomfortable. Of course, style and fashion
is always a factor with this partof the process and making sure that any
options on the lenses are chosen inblue light filter would be one example.
Transition lenses that darken or lighten dependingon whether you go outdoors, and that
(29:40):
way, these glasses function the waythat would benefit that patient the most.
So in general, we would likea patient to be guided and hands on
through the entire process from the momentthey walk into the moment they leave,
and that way, even if you'venever been through it before, it isn't
scary. It's a smooth and comfortableprocess all the way through. Yeah,
(30:03):
and it really isn't It really isn'tscary. It's not too bad. Okay,
So we're gonna wrap up here.I want from this, all this
whole conversation. I'm I know,I'm going to go make my appointment with
my e doctor now because I'm dueexcellent. What are the three key takeaways
(30:23):
that anyone who is listening today,should should come away with what should people
know a little bit more about theeye or about visiting I would say that
right off the bat, healthy livingand healthy lifestyles lead to healthier eyes and
(30:44):
better visions, and getting out andtaking that morning walk and doing your daily
exercise routine and maybe skipping that secondcheeseburger and picking a glass of water and
instead of a glass of soda.These are things that we can do to
improve our health. And the eyeis part of the body, and the
(31:08):
things that can harm our body canharm our eyes. So living healthy life
is really important. Your community eyecare provider can play a really important role
in helping not only to correct yourvision, but also to detect early risks
for eye diseases through annual eye exams, and especially for folks who have diabetes.
(31:32):
I think that's really a very bigtakeaway there, and really at the
end of the day, understanding thatyou shouldn't wait for there to be a
problem before you try to fix aproblem with your health. And whether you're
talking about your eyes or your heartsor any other part of the body,
we want to take the approach ofpreventative health care. You know you don't
(31:56):
wait to do an oil change onyour car when you're engine smoking. You
want to make regular oil chain isto protect your car. So we want
to treat our bodies in the samefashion, and so making sure we keep
up on regular eye care is avery very important way to keep your eyes
healthy in to see well. Ilove that those are three. They're very
clear, healthy living, don't skipyour exams, and of course don't wait
(32:20):
if something is going on with yourbody or your health. Thank you so
much, doctor, this is wonderful. I appreciate your time today. I
do. And how can people learna little bit more about you or if
they want to go and see youin your practice? Oh well, I
appreciate the plug. We have twolocations in ranch Cucamonga, which actually we're
(32:42):
in the process of building a biggerand nicer location in Rancho, so we'll
be relocating hopefully in the early fall. And we have an office in Samarandino
as well. Probably the best wayto find us is through our website,
which is Friedmanoptometry dot com. ButI will say that there are many fantacic
pick optometrists throughout the Inland Empire,and I know that the folks who live
(33:05):
in our communities can find a goodoptometrist nearby their home, even if it's
not Freedran Optometry. Nice. Thankyou, oh so, it's a pleasure
to have you here. Hopefully wecan have you back if there's another topic
you could think of. I knowthere's always something going on. There's always
something Evelyn and I would I'd loveto come back. But thank you so
much for having me. Wonderful.Have a great day, all right,
(33:27):
take care now.
Hi, and welcome to Covering YourHealth with the Evelyn Erievez. I'm so
excited for you to be here today, IHP, my partners, we have
been working very hard to bring yousome great episodes with very compelling content,
and today I think you're going toreally enjoy this one, especially because well
it really affects just about all ofus. We're talking about your eyes,
(00:23):
your vision. Why it's so importantto visit your eye doctor. Did you
know it's estimated that four and tenadults are at risk for vision loss.
That's real, that's a straight fact. That's a little scary, isn't it.
Today We're about to find out andwelcome doctor Brandon Freedman to the podcast.
(00:44):
Doctor Friedman is an Inland Empire basedoptometrist who will share some tidbits about
why we should always incorporate an eyeexam in our annual checkup to do list.
I can't wait to dive into this. By opening topic, Welcome to
Covering your Health, a wellness podcastdedicated to covering all areas of living a
(01:07):
healthy and happy lifestyle, from healthyhearts to understanding health plans and everything in
between. Each episode will provide youwith a better understanding of managing your health,
preventative care, and staying on theright path for your family's wellness journey.
The Covering Your Health podcast is presentedby I e HP Now your host
Evelina Revez. So welcome, doctorBrandon Freeman. How are you. I'm
(01:36):
doing great. How are you?I'm really good. I'm so excited to
have you here. Let's start atthe very beginning. I want to know
a little bit about yourself. Iwant to know your origin story, why
I health tell me at all well. I am a native of southern California,
born in Redlands, grew up inthe mountains in Lake Arrowhead, Oh
beautiful, And as many times asI threaten to leave California, I just
(02:00):
could never do it. It's toowonderful of a state. I went to
college in Santa Barbara, optometry schoolup in Berkeley, and came back to
my roots here in the Illann Empireto practice optometry. I love what I
do. I'm very grateful for myprofession. My educational path started by studying
(02:23):
psychology. I really loved studying thehuman mind, human behavior. I did
a lot of research in my collegeyears, but came to a moment where
I realized I really wasn't wired tobe a therapist and research was not something
I wanted to spend my life doing. So I took a step back,
looked at a lot of different areasof health care, and really just took
(02:46):
a great interest to helping patients withtheir vision and with the health of their
eyes. And the rest is history. Wow, were you ever fascinated as
a child with eyes or what doyou think was the trigger for you that
when you started to study that alittle bit more. I would not say
that I had a passion as achild. My father is an optometrist,
(03:07):
so I was around the profession inthe industry throughout my entire life. It
was my summer jobs work in theoffice, but never really took an interest
to it as a career path untilI was in my early twenties. And
I think really what drew me toit is the fact that optometrists, we
really do get to spend more faceto face time with our patients than almost
(03:30):
any other healthcare professional, and patientsI think, in general, are excited
to see their apometrists because of theways that we help them, and that
brought me a lot of joy whenI looked at different professions and thought,
I want my patients to actually likeme, and I want them to actually
(03:50):
want to come into the office andnot fear coming into the office. And
I think that's something that really inoptometry we embrace and we thrive with.
I was going to say, Ialways think that way too. I'm never
afraid to go to my optometrists.That's nothing I'm worried about. I'm not
gonna have a cavity, you know. Yeah, I mean there are things
that can happen, but you're nevertruly worried about going to the optometrists.
(04:15):
But you know what's funny about thatis because I'm not worried about it,
sometimes I forget about it, likeso, so you know, it's one
of those things like oh I gotto get to the eye doctor. I
need to remember to go. Sobefore we get into all of those little
intricacies, and I'm sure there's alot of reasons why people maybe avoid the
optometrists. Tell me why you decidedto practice here in the Inland Empire.
(04:40):
Well, I think if you lookat our communities, we have a lot
of underserved communities in the Inland Empire. The communities that don't have as good
access to healthcare as other parts ofour state, and that is in a
large part is what drew me hereto be able to support underserved communit munities
(05:00):
that really we could make a differencein the quality of their lives and in
their families lives by bringing great stateof the art I care to those communities,
and that, more than anything else, really drew me here. My
family's from here, so of courseI love being near my family and my
parents. But when it comes topracticing optometry there, the opportunity to serve
(05:27):
people in this area that really needour help is a big draw. Yeah,
yeah, that's wonderful. I kindof I can feel. I can
understand that because with me, youknow, I grew up here in the
Inland Empire, and getting to doradio here in the Inland Empire is so
special, you know, because Igrew up with all these people. I
get to see them every day,and that's I feel like practicing the same
(05:48):
way with you is the same way. Like, oh, I knew Brandon
growing up. I'm gonna go seehim too. You already have like a
built in base, you know.Yeah, I've got it pretty good.
I'll admit, and when I waspretty green in the profession fifteen years ago
and just trying to get the flowof things. That really helped me get
(06:10):
up and running was kind of theinstant trust, the name recognition, and
just the fact that I knew thecommunities and I could connect with people about
where they're from in a way thatmaybe other doctors couldn't. Yeah, yeah,
absolutely. I love making small talkwith my optometrists too, because it's
always fun stuff. What have youbeen up to? Oh, I remember,
(06:31):
you know, onto the next thing. Nothing too crazy, Okay,
So let's talk about the eyes.What are some common misconceptions people have about
the eyes. I think the onethat I hear the most when I am
working with patients is the concern thatwearing glasses can weaken or hurt their eyes.
(06:54):
And I have a lot of folkswho come in and say, well,
I know that I see better withmy glasses, but I try not
to wear them as much as Ican. I really don't want to get
used to wearing them or get dependenton wearing them. And there's really not
a lot of truth behind the concernthat you will hurt or weaken your eyes
by wearing glasses. Glasses correct vision. They have sharpened vision. In many
(07:15):
cases, they reduce the work theeye has to do to see clearly,
and there are tremendous benefits to that, much the way you might not want
to walk around with a backpack filledwith bricks, and taking the bricks out
of your backpack, you're going tobe more comfortable and be able to walk
a little bit. Further, So, when we provide glasses to our patients,
we want them to see clearly withvery little to no effort so they
(07:40):
can go about their day, whetherit's going to school, sitting on a
computer screen all day, driving abus. There's really no benefit to with
holding better vision by avoiding glasses.Yeah, yeah, I mean I feel
like this goes without saying, butwhy should people stay on top of that
eye health? And that's an importantaspect is that I help. Really,
(08:01):
if you look at an eye exam, I think a misconception about eye exams
is, Hey, I'm coming injust because I can't see and I need
my glasses, I need my contactlenses. That's what I'm here for.
That really is a big draw forwhy patients come into see their optometrists.
But a huge part of the examis focused on the health of the eye
(08:22):
and making sure that we find earlyrisks for eye diseases. One of the
biggest concerns about eye disease is thatthe vast majority of eye diseases don't have
symptoms early on. So it's notreliable to ask a person, hey,
when you have a problem with thehealth of your eye, please come in.
At that point we might be toolate. So having annual check ups
(08:45):
with your eye doctor is really afantastic way to get on top of that,
to detect early risk for eye diseasewell before it starts to affect the
vision, like, well before youeven notice any kind of issue. Right,
So let's say I put things aside, I haven't been in there in
a little while, and now I'mstarting to notice some things. What are
some signs and maybe there are issueswith your eyes. Well, it's really
(09:09):
tricky because if we rely on onthe symptoms that a person experiences, we're
going to catch a lot of conditionstoo late, which when it comes to
for example, a condition like glacoma, which is the third leading cause of
blindness in adults in our country,glaucoma starts to affect the vision on the
far edges of the far sides ofour vision, and you won't notice that.
(09:33):
We really can't appreciate that loss ofvision. So we wouldn't want to
wait till we notice, Hey,I have a blind spot on the side
of my vision. Maybe I haveglaucoma. Would that would be an unfortunate
time to catch glaucoma. Other conditionslike dry eye, for example, which
is very very common in the inlandumpire, redness of the eyes, burning
(09:56):
of the eyes, excess peering orwatering of the eyes. These are common
symptoms of an eye that may bedry, and we manage a lot of
dry eye in the practice because theair quality. Yeah, I was going
to say the dry air that wehave in the wind, of course,
mm hmm. Always the wind.Oh my goodness. I feel like people
in Fontana and devor get it theworst. I sure do. I have
(10:18):
massive respect for those folks in thewind corridor. I grew up in Fontana,
so I remember wind days and we'relike, oh dogs, okay,
So how can someone prevent vision lossfrom does the end? Does that begin
at a very young age? Absolutely? When we talk about children, and
(10:43):
you know, there's oftentimes an assumptionthat kids are healthy, and that's generally
true. But one big thing thatwe want to be mindful of for our
youthful individuals is protection from the sunand reducing ultraviolet exposure to the eye by
wearing sun glasses, by wearing ahat with a brim. We know that
(11:03):
about fifty percent of our lifetime exposureto ultraviolet occurs before we turn eighteen.
Wow, and my god's getting alot of UV. Granted, it's good
for kids to go outside and play. There's so many benefits to being outdoors
and playing and being active. Butwe need to protect our eyes because many
many eye diseases that occur later inlife are accelerated by exposure to ultraviolet.
(11:28):
So you may not feel it whenyou're young, but it adds up throughout
our life. So I mean,is that a good reason to wear I
don't know, sunglasses when you're young. Absolutely, we should be getting sunglasses
on our kids before they can talk. And that Wow used to wear and
shade. That it's just part oftheir routine when they go outside. And
granted, I had sunglasses on mychildren when they were one day old,
(11:50):
and it's still a struggle even now. When they're nine and seven years old.
But getting in that habit, inthat routine is a really healthy habit
for children. That is something Inever knew. Okay that for sure,
I never knew that. So becausefor me, I would say in my
later teens, you know, itwas cool to wear sunglasses, you know
(12:11):
what I mean. I was like, I wanted to wear sunglasses, but
then I grew to just like,only want to wear sunglasses sometimes, you
know what I mean. I gooutside and I'm like, oh, it's
white, too bright out here.I'm constantly wearing sunglasses. So I wondered,
Oh, my gosh, do Ihave a sensitivity you know to the
sun that I'm always like it bothersme, right, But I would never
(12:31):
have thought that. I you know, I've got young kids too. They
should all be wearing sunglasses. Absolutely, absolutely. And also the sunglasses protect
the skin right around the eye,and that that very thin, very delicate
skin is vulnerable to things that wealways think about, like wrinkles and shagging
eyes, aging, also to skincancer. It is a vulnerable part of
(12:54):
the part of the skin for cancer. And sometimes when we apply sunscreen to
our face, we may not coatthat skin because we don't want to get
sunscreen in our eye, so sunglasseshelp assure that we protect the skin around
the eye as well. Oh mygoodness, okay, all right, so
very important sunglasses. Going to buymy whole family a family pack of sunglasses?
(13:15):
All right, make sure I'm onthat bandwagon. What about the importance
of wearing just like other types ofglasses? Is it okay to start your
kids young if they with readers andthings like that, because I remember wearing
them when I was maybe three,no, like third grade, third or
fourth grade, and then not needingthem again. Is that a Is that
(13:35):
normal? It can be. Itdepends on what we're correcting when we talk
about a pair of glasses for achild. Ultimately, with children, we
know that the eye and the brainare rapidly developing their connections during the first
ten years of life. So ifthere's something going on with the eyes and
the vision that might delay the developmentof the eye, we need to catch
(13:58):
that as early as possible, andin glasses can help improve that development.
We will put glasses on a babyand keep them in those glasses as long
as we need to to ensure thatthe development of the eye proceeds on schedule,
and of course to make sure thatthey can see clearly so that their
education is not impacted by their visionas well. But some children, maybe
(14:22):
they are a little bit more farsided than the average child, which means
they have to work harder to seeclearly. That extra work is not harmful
to the eye itself, but itcould lead to headaches or blurry vision.
Maybe a child who can't read forvery long and they get tired. Glasses
would be very helpful. And somekids can outgrow that far sided and its
it can be creased. So itreally depends on the type of correction in
(14:45):
the glasses. But at the endof the day, if we're using glasses
in a child to help the developmentof the eye in the brain, that
is something that they're going to needto be in glasses all day, every
day. So we really feel thatwe're out of the woods or something changes
for the better in the eyes.I see. Okay, So let's talk
about some of the other maybe diseasesthat you don't necessarily think affect the eyes.
(15:09):
Like let's talk about diabetes. Sowhat is the impact that diabetes plays
on the eyes. Well, diabetesas a whole, I mean, it's
a really scary condition. In general, thirty eight percent of Americans have diabetes.
Twenty five percent of those people,almost ten million people don't even know
(15:31):
they have diabetes. That's scary.It is the leading cause of blindness in
adults in our country. And alot of people don't realize that they think
about diabetes. They think about controllingtheir weight, controlling their sugar, and
that's very, very important, butboosing vision from diabetes is absolutely devastating.
(15:54):
And so we spend a significant amountof our days as obtometrists in general,
not just me but my colleagues aswell, really examining the eye for early
signs of damage and educating our patients. And again back to the theme of
hey, we talk to our patientsmore than most doctors may. Sometimes it's
the optometrist that has that breakthrough momentwith our patients, getting them to realize
(16:15):
the importance of really taking responsibility fortheir health and taking the lead on getting
the diabetes under control, not onlyto protect their vision but also their health
in general. Wow. Yeah,And it is something you don't think about
when you hear like your pre diabetic, or you hear the words that you
(16:36):
have diabetes. I don't think anyonethinks directly about their eyes in that moment.
So there and you can you seethat. I mean, as let's
say you're having a regular appointment withyour optometrist, can you see signs of
diabetes before maybe the person even knowsit does happen. In fact, just
(16:57):
last week, I thought, that'sbeen my patient for many years, and
we were doing a routine exam.We took a few photographs of the retina,
which is the inner back wall ofthe eye. There's a lot of
blood vessels that you can see inthe back of the eye, and he
had spots of bleeding in both eyesand this was the first time in many
(17:22):
years of exams that we've seen this, And so we started talking about diabetes
and other cardiovascular conditions like high bloodpressure and high cholesterol. And it had
turned out that this individual hadn't hada physical exam with his primary care physician
in many years. So the firstthing we did was got him scheduled for
physical with blood work. Fortunately,since a lot of people do get regular
(17:47):
care with their primary care doctors,I don't find diabetes in the eye before
they know about it very often,right, But it does happen, and
especially in an underserved community, you'regoing to see that happening more often.
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah,I mean, here's the thing. We
went through a pandemic, right,people put off going to the doctor again,
(18:10):
and I feel like that's one ofthose things that we're still kind of
getting back on track. I willsay, I'm getting back on track with
like all the things that we missedright, getting back onto our our dentist
appointments and things like that as well. So it could it is possible,
Like I feel, people miss thoseannual visits, especially if some if your
maybe your insurance doesn't incentivize those things. Sometimes they say, hey, you
(18:34):
have to have one if you wantto have your lower rate, right,
you don't, you just might notgo. Nah, nothing's wrong, I
feel fun. Well, make yourappointments. So how can you help e
stress associated with vision checkups? Well, I think in general, many folks
(18:55):
are nervous to go to a doctor'soffice that fear of I'm going to find
out thing that's wrong with me andI'm scared of that. And that's a
natural human emotional response to adversity.And I think really when it comes to
easing stress and anxiety. I reallyapproach it through trying to display kindness and
(19:19):
clear communication. If you talk toyour patient and you educate them about what
we're doing, what we see inthe eye, what we can do about
that, I think that really takesa lot of the fear out of those
visits. If a patient has hadan experience where maybe they went to see
a doctor and the doctor walked in, had their back to them during the
(19:42):
whole exam, writing in their charts, and then writes a prescription for a
medication, hands it to them andwalks out the door, they don't receive
the kind of comfort and guidance thatthey maybe really deserve and need in those
moments. And so I think weas optometrists have an opportunity to provide education.
(20:02):
And when you understand what's wrong andwhy it's happening, and especially what
you can do about it, alot of that fear starts to drain away.
In the anxiety, you know,it doesn't take control of your emotions
and you can actually step up andtake action for yourself. Okay, but
how about the dreaded thing that getsblown into your eyeball? Just the also
(20:26):
wonderful eye pressure test well. Ican tell you that in our practice we
retired the airpuff about three years ago, really for a technology that is more
reliable and more accurate. But thefear is there, and even three years
later in my practice, I stillhave patients who's been our patients for years
(20:48):
coming in, all right, whenam I getting that air puff? Let's
get it over with. And itis unfortunately a deep, profound fear that
has infiltrated society. But the reasonthat we test the pressure of the eye
is that if the pressure is high, then that's a risk for wlahoma,
which we talked about earlier as acondition that can cause blindness without even realizing
(21:11):
it. Yeah, so it's importantthat we check the pressure. But fortunately,
with some of the newer technologies comingout, we may start to see
less and less offices using the airpuff. Nice, okay, I'm all
team, get rid of the airpuff. I'm with you. I'm with
you. It's so funny. That'sthe only thing I think when I like,
Oh, that's the one thing Idread. I was so proud to
(21:32):
tell my patience when we were retiredof saying, hey, don't worry,
no air puffs today, and nice, I don't know if they fully believed
me when I said it, becauseit's just such a core experience of an
eye exam. I know, Iknow, I feel, and my kids
too. They're like, oh,the one thing. Everything else, we
don't care. You'll take the onething. Okay. So what is the
(21:53):
earliest you can get an eye exam? I mean, how like months old?
Are you talking? In my firstgrade? Where are we at?
Young? Young? Months? Sothe American Optometric Association recommends the first eye
exam between six months and a yearof age. Okay. These exams are
really intended to detect concerns that couldimpact the child's vision and their eyehealth and
(22:21):
their development. And of course you'renot going to give a one year old
the same type of exam that you'regoing to give an eight year old.
They are not going to be ableto respond or really cooperate with exams.
But we are trained to be ableto take measurements of the eye without requiring
responses from our patients. We dooften need to use eye drops to dilate
(22:45):
the eyes in a young child becauseit helps get more accurate readings. But
we can learn a lot about theeye at a young age and learn if
there are developmental risks that we canintervene on. And there are a few
very gary health conditions that are extremelyrare but very serious in babies, and
(23:06):
we want to catch those if theyare present in the eye. And at
what point do you start seeing youroptometrist. Is it's an annual visit,
right or is it? Do somepeople go in twice a year or three
times a year. Yes, absolutely, it depends on your health and what
concerns there are for the eye.For an average person who has healthy eyes,
(23:32):
who doesn't have any underlying health conditionslike diabetes, we would generally plan
a visit every one to two years, and these are your routine checkups.
I like to think of those checkupslike the annual physical for your eye.
We are not coming in there becausethere's a problem. We are coming in
there to cover the health from frontto back to make sure the vision is
(23:53):
corrected and accurate. But we're notpanicking. We're getting ahead of things with
visits. However, if you havea condition like glaucoma, macula or degeneration,
maybe there are some complications from diabetesthat we detect in the eye,
then we may plan visits more frequentlyso that we can watch more closely and
(24:15):
make sure that we catch changes asearly as possible. Okay for someone now,
I wear glasses at work when I'mlooking at a screen all day.
My kids look at screens, especiallyin the summertime, more than I would
like them to. What is yourtake on the blue light glasses is that
(24:40):
are they really needed? There aresome benefits. I think that between some
of the marketing that's gone on inthe last few years and some of the
fear that came out of the remotelearning and remote work waves that happened during
the early parts of the COVID shutdown, there was a lot of fear about
all the added screen time that wewere encountering, and obviously a lot of
(25:06):
folks stayed in remote work environments,and some kids even remained in remote learning
environments, So we need to beaware of some of the risks with screen
time. Blue light itself is nothingnew. The sun transmits forty times more
blue light than any screen that youmight look at, so it's not as
if we magically are encountering blue lightlike we never did before. But it
(25:29):
can increase fatigue and eye strain,and so wearing glasses that red blue light
can help reduce some of those symptomsthat may occur for longer hours. But
what's really great is a lot ofthe software and computer companies Microsoft, Apple,
Android, they have all integrated bluelight filters into their software, so
(25:56):
you can go into the settings onyour displays and actually use the amount of
blue light that's coming out of thescreen. And a study a few years
back found that that was a veryvery effective way to reduce blue light.
And so in general, I don'tknow that for a person who doesn't need
glasses that I would wear glasses exclusivelyto block blue light. But if you're
(26:18):
already wearing glasses, then adding acoding that reduces blue light is not a
bad idea. And if you doa lot of computer time, maybe it
can get you through those hours alittle bit more comfortably. But I always
always recommend get the blue light filtersettings adjusted on your computer screen so that
you're not having to filter as muchout because you're not looking at as much
(26:40):
in the first place. That's agreat idea. I never even thought of
looking at settings to see if thatwas even a thing. I would never
know. Okay, one more thingbefore I wrap up, with you.
I want to ask you for someonewho's never worn glasses. They're healthy,
they've never had problems. They're intheir late twenty now and they're starting to
see like, okay, maybe Ineed door glass. IM getting a little
(27:04):
bit of headaches, and I'm goingto go to my doctor. And let's
say you say, okay, we'regoing to put you in a set of
glasses that you're going to wear.What is the process? I know the
process, but walk us through whatsomebody getting a new pair of glasses or
contacts. I guess is for thatpatient who may be scared about it.
(27:26):
Sure, absolutely, unknowns are alwaysscary. Well, it all starts with
the eye exam. And so whenwe come into an annual exam frequently referred
to as a comprehensive eye exam,it begins by getting a good understanding of
someone's history of their health. Whatbackground do they have? Are there any
health concerns we should be aware of, any eye concerns that we should be
(27:48):
aware of. Of course, we'retalking about the invincible twenty five year old
here. Oh yeah right, youdon't need nothing. Yeah, you can't
do anything to knock down a healthytwenty five until they're not twenty five anymore.
But you know, once we getthrough an understanding about their health,
we want to learn about their demands. What do you use your eyes for?
(28:11):
Are you staring at a computer eighthours a day and then switching to
your phone for the last four hours. Are you spending your time outdoors?
Maybe you have a job that involvesoutdoor time? Are you students? As
we learn about the way that weuse our eyes in the demands on our
eyes, it can really help theoptometrists understand how we can help that person
(28:33):
with their vision. And through thediscussions we sometimes learn of some areas that
maybe they didn't realize they were havingtrouble with. A good example is,
hey, when you drive at night, can you see individual headlights or do
you see a big starburst in yourvision? Oh? Yeah, I just
thought that's how it was. Well, maybe we can help with that.
So we want to really work throughand learn where there are areas of struggle.
(28:56):
The exam itself, we do somemeasurements of the vision. We try
to get the eye focused as clearlyas possible, and of course check the
health of the front in the backof the eye thoroughly, and then if
we determine that glasses are needed,the next step would be to meet with
an optician. Opticians are trained individualsto assist in selecting a frame for glasses
(29:19):
that fits the face well, it'scomfortable. Of course, style and fashion
is always a factor with this partof the process and making sure that any
options on the lenses are chosen inblue light filter would be one example.
Transition lenses that darken or lighten dependingon whether you go outdoors, and that
(29:40):
way, these glasses function the waythat would benefit that patient the most.
So in general, we would likea patient to be guided and hands on
through the entire process from the momentthey walk into the moment they leave,
and that way, even if you'venever been through it before, it isn't
scary. It's a smooth and comfortableprocess all the way through. Yeah,
(30:03):
and it really isn't It really isn'tscary. It's not too bad. Okay,
So we're gonna wrap up here.I want from this, all this
whole conversation. I'm I know,I'm going to go make my appointment with
my e doctor now because I'm dueexcellent. What are the three key takeaways
(30:23):
that anyone who is listening today,should should come away with what should people
know a little bit more about theeye or about visiting I would say that
right off the bat, healthy livingand healthy lifestyles lead to healthier eyes and
(30:44):
better visions, and getting out andtaking that morning walk and doing your daily
exercise routine and maybe skipping that secondcheeseburger and picking a glass of water and
instead of a glass of soda.These are things that we can do to
improve our health. And the eyeis part of the body, and the
(31:08):
things that can harm our body canharm our eyes. So living healthy life
is really important. Your community eyecare provider can play a really important role
in helping not only to correct yourvision, but also to detect early risks
for eye diseases through annual eye exams, and especially for folks who have diabetes.
(31:32):
I think that's really a very bigtakeaway there, and really at the
end of the day, understanding thatyou shouldn't wait for there to be a
problem before you try to fix aproblem with your health. And whether you're
talking about your eyes or your heartsor any other part of the body,
we want to take the approach ofpreventative health care. You know you don't
(31:56):
wait to do an oil change onyour car when you're engine smoking. You
want to make regular oil chain isto protect your car. So we want
to treat our bodies in the samefashion, and so making sure we keep
up on regular eye care is avery very important way to keep your eyes
healthy in to see well. Ilove that those are three. They're very
clear, healthy living, don't skipyour exams, and of course don't wait
(32:20):
if something is going on with yourbody or your health. Thank you so
much, doctor, this is wonderful. I appreciate your time today. I
do. And how can people learna little bit more about you or if
they want to go and see youin your practice? Oh well, I
appreciate the plug. We have twolocations in ranch Cucamonga, which actually we're
(32:42):
in the process of building a biggerand nicer location in Rancho, so we'll
be relocating hopefully in the early fall. And we have an office in Samarandino
as well. Probably the best wayto find us is through our website,
which is Friedmanoptometry dot com. ButI will say that there are many fantacic
pick optometrists throughout the Inland Empire,and I know that the folks who live
(33:05):
in our communities can find a goodoptometrist nearby their home, even if it's
not Freedran Optometry. Nice. Thankyou, oh so, it's a pleasure
to have you here. Hopefully wecan have you back if there's another topic
you could think of. I knowthere's always something going on. There's always
something Evelyn and I would I'd loveto come back. But thank you so
much for having me. Wonderful.Have a great day, all right,
(33:27):
take care now.
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