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| Opon entering the inviting waiting room and being greeted by the friendly office staff, I surmised that this eye doctor cares about people. Dr. John Rabins, optometrist and owner of OPTOM-EYES, is indeed passionate about the health and long-term care of his patients, who range in age from 6 months to 106 years. As he explains, even babies can have problems with the development of their vision. The American Optometric Association recommends regular eye exams beginning at 6 months of age. According to Dr. Rabins, kids are not born with good vision, but their eyes develop over their first eight to 10 years of life. If the brain is receiving good imagery during that time, they normally develop good vision. “The biggest tragedy I see,” explains Dr. Rabins, ‘is someone who is age 15 to 25 (beyond the developmental years) who has one eye that can’t see 20/20 even with correction.” Dr. Rabins has to tell them that they will never see perfectly in that eye. The problem is called amblyopia (commonly called “lazy eye”), and it is caused by one of four issues: (a) high astigmatism; (b) cataracts; (c) a turned eye; and (d) a large difference in prescription between the two eyes. “My biggest joy is to discover one of these issues early on and be able to positively impact someone’s vision development,” he says. Dr. Rabins provides vision therapy for young people with focusing, binocular, or tracking issues, which often manifest in problems with life in general. As Dr. Rabins relates, “Parents will bring a child to me and say he doesn’t do well in school, he doesn’t like to read, he gets headaches when he reads, or he has a behavior problem. I find that frequently, behavior problems are really vision problems that are screaming for attention.” Vision therapy is a regimen of exercises that are specifically designed for that child’s vision problems. Much of the therapy is done at home with parents. The whole idea is to train the brain to use the eyes more effectively and efficiently. In training people about using vision therapy, Dr. Rabins has seen tremendous improvement in children’s reading skills and even grade level jumps, he says. Dr. Rabins’ recent interest and passion is a further understanding and treatment of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). ARMD is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in Americans over the age of 60. Dr. Rabins’ personal interest in this eye disease occurred last year when his 85-year-old father lost all of his vision in one eye and most of the vision in his other eye due to this dreadful disease. The risk factors for ARMD include heredity, environment, smoking, and having a light-colored complexion and light-colored eyes. “Since we live at 6,000 feet on average here in Colorado, it should come as no surprise to learn that we have the unfortunate distinction of having the highest incidence of ARMD per capita of any state in the country,” he states. At a conference last May, Dr. Rabins discovered a device (named QuantifEye) that excites him about the future diagnosis and treatment of ARMD. He believes that he may be the only optometrist currently in the city who has the ability to accurately measure a quantity called macular pigment optical density. Dr. Rabins also is a proponent of a revolutionary new supplement for macular health, another risk factor for ARMD called EyePromise by ZeaVision. “Patients who are on this particular supplement are improving their macular pigment scores by over 50% in six months,” he reports. According to Dr. Rabins, the reason that ZeaVision’s supplement is so successful is that the ratio of Zeaxanthin and Lutein correctly matches exactly what is found in healthy macular tissue, unlike any other supplement available. Zeaxanthin is scarce in the average daily diet. It is found in corn, for example, but a person would have to eat 20 ears of corn a day to receive any benefits. Dr. Rabins once believed that supplements would not reverse damage that had been caused by ARMD; however, recent research on EyePromise seems to show encouraging results in this area. The literature shows that many patients on this supplement are reporting that they are seeing better quantitatively, he says. An optometrist has a unique view of people’s health through the window of their eyes. The eye is the only place in the body where one can see blood vessels without cutting into the body. One of Dr. Rabins’ patients actually credits him with saving her life. He detected that she had a loss of vision in one quadrant in both eyes. That, combined with high blood pressure, led him to suggest that she had suffered a stroke. He arranged for her to go to the emergency room, where she was hospitalized and a right-sided stroke occurrence was confirmed. “As optometrists we are in a privileged position to not only provide our patients with excellent eyecare,” states Dr. Rabins, “but to also determine other bodily health issues of patients in that over 100 systemic diseases can manifest in the eye.” Dr. Rabins’ love for optometry began when he was a boy. He had focusing and binocular issues himself, and was fortunate to receive treatment from a wonderful optometrist who was a pioneer in the field of vision therapy, he says. That doctor planted the seed for Dr. Rabins, but it took him over 25 years to realize that dream. After a successful Air Force career and Ph.D. in lasers and optical physics, he attended the oldest optometry school in the country in Boston. His second career as an optometrist is now in its 13th year. He readily shares a scrapbook full of photos, drawings, and letters lovingly presented to him by patients over the years. He also has dozens of stuffed animals lining his shelves—gifts from his young patients. Dr. Rabins also cares about the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people. Annually, he goes on mission trips to provide eye care for people in countries such as El Salvador and Armenia. One of his patients named Linda O., who suffers from eye infections and potential blindness, describes Dr. Rabins as knowledgeable, caring, ethical, an educator, a great communicator, and very dedicated to his patients. Dr. Rabins shares that he considers caring for his patients’ eye health a privilege and a pleasure. OPTOM-EYES is located at 3585 Van Teylingen Drive, Suite B, in Colorado Springs. Call 719-550-EYES (3937), or visit the Web site at www.optom-eyes.com. |
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