Clean makeup refers to cosmetics free from harsh chemicals.

Using clean makeup has great benefits for the eyes. These include having less toxins around the eyes and less chemicals to irritate your eyes.  Clean makeup causes less damage to the meibomian glands in lids and less chance of reducing skin cell death.  Wearers of clean makeup will have reduced eye and eyelid redness, irritation, inflammation, allergic reactions.  They are less likely to have watery eyes, and contact dermatitis (scaley/flakey skin)

And perhaps the best benefit of clean makeup is that it slows signs of ageing… that right…LESS WRINKLES
 
Many countries are banning toxic cosmetic chemicals.  The European Union has banned 1300 chemicals in cosmetics which includes makeup, hair dyes, nail polish, shaving cream, lotions, deodorants and more. The USA has only banned 168 chemicals.  
 
The top 10 toxins to avoid in your personal care products
1.  Alcohol
2.  Acetyl hexapeptide-3 (Lipotec, Botox in a jar)
3.  Benzalkonium chloride (BAK or BAC)
4.  BHA and BHT
5.  Butylene glycol and Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)
6.  Formaldehyde 
7.  Isopropyl cloprostenate
8.  Parabens (methyl-, isobutyl-, propyl-, and others)
9.  Phenoxyethanol
10. Retinol and Retinyl Palmitate
 
Best makeup use for good eye health

• Always remove makeup nightly
• No waterproof makeup
• No makeup on the waterline
• No glitter in. makeup
• Avoid powered eye shadow
• Add primer to lids before shadow or liner
• Pencil eye liners better if you tend to not dispose liquid eyeliner frequent enough
• Toss out makeup on time
• Never share eye makeup
• Never moisten makeup or brushes/sponges with saliva
• Never heat up your makeup
• Don’t apply makeup on the go
• Never use products not intended for eyes near your eyes

 
Removing eye makeup can be quite a challenge but it is important to use oil free eye makeup remover.  While it may dry skin, oil free makeup remover has lots of benefits like 

• Removes makeup without irritating the eyes or leaving a residue as contains no oils, dyes, parabens or fragrances
• Gently on skin
• Doesn’t require heavy rubbing
• Water based
• Great for contact lens users

 
If your eyes are irritated from makeup, you may not only need to avoid products but also benefit from seeing your optometrist to treat any eye redness and irritation and calm the eyes down.

If you have any questions, please call 01635 528844 to book in to see one of our optometrists. 

Snoring can be annoying for your bed partner or others in next door rooms but it can also be a sign of a very serious medical condition.

Snoring is associated with a condition called sleep apnea.  

There are 2 types of sleep apnea - central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).  

OSA happens when the soft tissue of the throat collapses and causes the airway to become blocked.  This happens on and off during sleep and causes a decrease of oxygen in our blood flow.  There is a pause in the person's breath and then the brain tells them to breathe again and the person gasps.  Despite all this happening, the person doesn't wake up.  

As you can imagine, the lack of oxygen in the blood flow can have an impact on the way our body's organs work and keep healthy.  Heart disease, stroke and even cancers have been associated with people with sleep apnea.  But also the eyes are one of those structures affected. Some conditions such as retinal vein occlusion and non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy can be associated with OSA.  These conditions can cause significant sight loss which can be permanent.  Other conditions of the eye related to OSA are glaucoma, keratoconus and floppy eyelid syndrome.

Wondering if you may have sleep apnea?  Here are some of the risk factors
🌜Age
🌜Male
🌜Snoring
🌜Neck circumference of over 19 inches
🌜Obesity
🌜Smoking
🌜Daytime sleepiness
🌜Morning headaches
🌜Others seeing you stop breathing when sleeping

Treatments for OSA include devices to wear in your mouth and/or using a breathing machine called a CPAP when sleeping. Even playing the didgeridoo can strengthen the throat muscles and help make them less likely to collapse when sleeping.  

If you are worried about your snoring and having sleep apnea, contact your GP and make sure to let you optometrist know of your condition when you visit for your eye exam. 

We have all heard the eyes are the window to the soul.  But you should know they are also a window into our body.  How healthy our body is doing or how UNHEALTHY our body is doing can show in our eyes. Conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, brain tumour, cancers, high cholesterol are just a few things that can be picked up at a routine eye examination.

So if you are one of the lucky ones who sees great. without the need for glasses or contact lenses, you may not feel the need for having an eye examination - with an optometrist not Dr Google.  

​Just remember even those with great vision can go on to develop health problems with the eyes.  And for many eye related diseases and disorders, vision loss happens.

Want to keep your eye healthy and keep good vision?  A routine eye exam at least every 2 years is something you should do.  

Some other things you can do to keep healthy eyes...
👁 Eat a diet that is rich in colourful vegetables
👁 Don't smoke
👁 Protect your eyes from the UV from the sun - even on cloudy days
👁 Maintain a healthy weight 
👁 Exercise routinely
👁 Take breaks when working on the computer or reading
👁 Protect your eyes and play it safe at work, home and doing sports

If you have great vision,  you still can book in - it's ok - go on.  Click BOOK ONLINE or give us a call on 01635 528844.

Want to check your vision before coming in for your eye exam?  Complete your online vision screening at ​https://visionscreening.zeiss.com/en-GB

Not all varifocals or progressives are made the same.  It's not a one size fits all sort of lens for most people.  And golfers are one of those who need special attention to their glasses. For many, every day varifocals or work glasses just don't work on the golf course.

Sports like golf require that you switch your gaze between close up and distance.  To keep you vision as comfortable as possible with golf when you wear varifocals, the spectacle lens design needs to be tailored to your particular sport needs.  Extra large and balanced distance vision combined with great near vision is needed to help your golf game.  From hitting the ball to tracking the ball to keeping the score - all need to be in focus to keep you performing your best.

Once you have your best prescription and tailored spectacle lenses, choosing the right frame is important.  Light weight and good fitting is key for any sportsman or sportswoman.  In addition, particular care must be made to get the correct tint and anti reflective coating to improve the contrast in all weather.  Great UV protection is needed as well to protect your eyes from the sun's harmful UV which can increase the risk of macular degeneration.

For more information, give us a ring on 01635 528844.  

​

Such an honour to be recognised tonight for the Newbury Town Business Civic Award for my work running a volunteer homeless eye care program in conjunction with Newbury Soup Kitchen at their Tuesday Health Clinic at the Salvation Army. 

The 25th Annual Newbury Town Civic Awards presentation saw the presentations  of

• NEWBURY TOWN CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN YOUNG PERSON'S CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN BUSINESS CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD

I had the pleasure of meeting lots of others in the local community trying to make a difference to our Newbury.  The awards are done every year in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Town of Newbury.  ​Recognising unsung heroes going above and beyond, these awards highly all the volunteers in our area making exceptional contributions.  

To check out the full list of winners visit https://newbury.gov.uk/the-council/civic-office/civic-awards.

Special thanks to the Newbury Town Council for hosting the awards in the beautiful town hall.  

Special congratulations to all the well deserving winners!

International Women’s Day 2022 was a very memorable one for our optometrist, Dr. Valarie Jerome.

In recognition of her strong contribution to entrepreneurship, Valarie was among 100 impressive, multi-achieving female business owners, championed by Small Business Britain’s ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign  invited to attend a special International Women’s Day reception at the House of Lords earlier this month.  
 
“Meeting so many inspirational businesswomen who have set up and are running small businesses all over the UK in such a historic place was delightful.  After 2 years of so much uncertainty and sacrifice for small business owners, it was refreshing to celebrate coming out the other side of the pandemic with fellow entrepreneurs” explained Valarie.
 
The women enjoyed afternoon tea and networking in Westminster, meeting their peers from ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso from both 2021 and 2022, as well as special guest speaker Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who paid tribute to the power of female entrepreneurship.

Dr. Jerome was named an ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso100 in 2021, in recognition of her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, which has involved opening up her own independent opticians, Valarie Jerome Optometrists, in late 2019 and representing fellow optometrists from the South East of England on The Association of Optometrist Council.
 
Delivered by Small Business Britain – the leading champion of small businesses in the UK – f:Entrepreneur campaign was launched in 2017 to highlight the stories of amazing female business owners and to help provide inspiration and role models across the wider small business community.

Now in its fifth year, the campaign offers a host of events, training, and networking opportunities to boost skills, capability, and confidence.  Recent research carried out by the campaign this month found that, following the pandemic, nearly a fifth (17%) of women are considering entrepreneurship, with 44% of them citing pursuing a passion as a key motivator, alongside 46% wanting greater flexibility.

“To hear the incredible things that these women do, and the impact they are making, not just in their businesses but in their wider communities, is truly inspiring, and underlines that we must do everything we can to support them,” comments Michelle Ovens CBE, founder of Small Business Britain and the ƒ:Entrepreneur campaign.
​
To see the full line-up of the 100 women featured in this year’s f:entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign visit https://f-entrepreneur.com/fentrepreneur-100/.
 

If you are on a computer many hours of the day, you may be wondering if your computer is damaging your eyes.  There is lots of talk about blue lights and blue light glasses for sale are all over social media feeds lately.  Some people swear by blue light glasses or blue light anti-glare.  Some don't really notice any improvement with it.

Well, first let's talk more about that infamous BLUE LIGHT.  

• First the good...Natually occurring blue light like that from the sun that we get daily can help suppress the body's melatonin (the body's natural hormone that makes us sleepy).  This can help boost your alterness, awareness and some would say concentration during the day.
• Now the bad...blue light has been shown to disrupt your melatonin - your body's natural hormone that makes us sleepy.  Excessive nighttime exposure to blue light from man-made sources, such as artificial lighting or digital screens, can disrupt the body's circadian rhythm and keep you awake. At night when the body naturally produces melatonin to encourage sleep, bright light stimulation of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells can disrupt sleep by as much as 14 minutes, per a 2014 study in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology. 
• It is important to remember there is no new evidence to suggest that device-derived blue light exposure increases the risk of actual ocular damage. If anything, the evidence emphasizes the importance of wearing UV-A and UV-B blocking sunglasses when outdoors.
• It's long been my professional opinion it is a personal choice - if you like it and it helps you, then keep with it.  
  

Now let's talk about your prescription or need of one and computer use

• Using a computer when your eyes naturally have a hard time focussing - trouble with vision or focusing - can cause excessive fatigue and in some people...headaches. You may need a special prescription for close work even if you are young.
• If your eyes are imbalanced - that is they don't work together well as a team - well as you can imagine, that is really going to cause some eye ache after doing prolonged near work.  Solutions are glasses, eye exercises and prism in glasses.
• Most people work work many hours a day on the computer suffer from dry eyes.  This is going to blur your vision and guess what...cause you trouble at the end of the day. Solutions should be personalised but generally involve eye drops, hot compresses and better lid cleaning care.

Best way to tell if your eyes and your computer are working against each other?  
Get a routine eye exam!  Book one today on www.drvalariejerome.com.

Vision loss due to macular degeneration can be devastating.  It can be very frustrating adapting to your vision loss from macular degeneration, a condition that causes you to lose your central vision.  That means  when you look directly at something - the lady on tv, the print in the newspaper, your tablet, a photo, or your loved one's face - you can't see it.

When you get diagnosed with diseases that cause vision loss like macular degeneration, you may feel lonely and like no one is really there to help.  The ophthalmologist or eye consultant is only there to help with injections and surgical intervention.  The opticians you always visited may not fully be adapted to help you as normal glasses don't make any improvements.  You may feel like you are in limbo.  Not helped with the eye consultant and no being helped with the optometrists at your opticians.

As someone who worked previously in the USA in a low vision clinic assisting patient with vision loss from various diseases and disorders, I understand your frustration.  While I have not experienced vision loss myself, I have seen it's impact on my patients over the years.  I have worked in a specialty clinic where we helped those whose normal glasses were not the answer.  Sometimes it was special magnifiers, better lighting or other devices.  But most importantly, I always recall my grandmother losing her vision due to wet macular degeneration - how her overall health declined after that, and how she did not want to live any longer after she lost her vision.  That happened when I was in university and at a time when there were no injections to help the bleeding from macular degeneration.  That gave me more purpose - to help those like my grandmother though my work as an optometrist.

Using my personal family experience and my experience with low vision patient in the past, at my independent opticians I work with my macular degeneration patients at my practice to get them a bespoke plan. I may only be able to offer advise on directing you to the proper services like Berkshire Vision for support.  I may be able to help with special glasses or recommended a device or light that can help.  But for everyone I offer a good listening ears and allow my patients to chat about how they feel.  I have been known to give a hug to those that needed one.

Can I make your vision better even though you have macular degeneration?  Maybe, maybe not. But I will try my absolute best to find you  the solutions to help you adapt to the vision you DO have left and teach how to use that to the best of our ability. 

Got more questions about your macular degeneration or worried about your loved one with macular degeneration?  
Give us a call on 01635 528844 or book in for an eye exam on www.drvalariejerome.com

Corneal diseases like keratoconus can greatly impact your vision.
 
Normal glasses may not be working.  And standard contacts may still not give you the best vision.  

Don’t worry- there may be a better solution for you. 

Meet specialist contact lens optician, Ms Chris Wensley.  Chris has worked in hospitals and in private practice for many years working to give clearer vision to those who have corneal diseases or misshapen corneas.  

Have you or someone you know been told contacts won’t work because you have
👁 Astigmatism?
👁 Keratoconus?
👁 Scarred corneas?
👁 Corneal disease?
​
Book in or phone us on 01635 528844 to speak to Chris and find out what your options for better vision are.