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Well, one of the more common questions that we get when once we have somebody in the family
that's been diagnosed with Glaucoma is, "Well, what can I do to not develop Glaucoma?" And
so, let's talk for a few minutes about, for a short time here about what a patient might
be able to do to reduce the risk for Glaucoma. And so, part of that discussion, I think,
involves looking at what are the risks for Glaucoma? And so, age is a risk for Glaucoma,
race is a risk for Glaucoma, family history is a risk for Glaucoma. So, you know, those
are three variables that we can't control. And there's another variable that's really
important that we can control, and that is Diabetes. So, individuals that develop Diabetes
they, oftentimes, have three times the risk of developing Glaucoma. And so, Glaucoma becomes
much more prevalent in individuals that develop Diabetes. So, I think when we talk about,
when patients ask, "Well, what can I do to not develop Glaucoma? What can I do to reduce
my risk?" I always advise them to try to have a healthy lifestyle so that we can make sure
you don't develop Diabetes, because developing Diabetes, unfortunately, increases the risk
for Glaucoma. And then when we combine that with increasing age, and we combine that with
a person's race, and we combine that with family history, again, variables that we can't
control, we're just adding another variable into the mix. And so, I think that's the,
singularly, most important way to reduce a patient's risk for Glaucoma.