Hypoxia and Medicine

What is hypoxia and why did my eye doctor say I might have a slight case? ?

I went to the eye doctor and he made the comment to the contact lense lady that I have a slight case of hypoxia. When I looked it up online, it had to do with lack of oxygen to the body, but how does that affect my eyes? I have no known health problems (relating to breathing) or anything, but he made the comment about me wearing my contacts while asleep and such. What is it and how does it affect my eyes?

Public Comments

1. thats wierd!
2. Sounds like your doctor may not have explained it well enough. Hypoxia is a lack of oxygen, but in your case, the doctor was only talking about your eyes lack of oxygen. Basically the eye breathes air just like we do, getting much of its nutrients and what it needs from the air. ANytime someone has contact lenses over the eyes, there is a barrier between the eyes and air preventing it from getting enough nutrients. You may have heard of the newer lenses having better oxygen transmissability, meaning they let more oxygen through to the eye. Keep in mind, nothing lets more oxygen to the eye than NO contact lenses. When you wear your contacts too much - or your eye is getting hypoxic (not enough air to the eyes) - you develop small blood vessels near the front of the eye. These blood vessels may grow and spread if the hypoxia continues causing irrititation if it gets bad enough. Thats probably what your doctor saw to suggest that you are wearing your contacts too much. Sleeping in contacts is always NOT GOOD. Think about it - you have lenses over your eyes and then eyelids over that - not much oxygen getting to the eyes then! There you have it, try to reduce your contact lens wear (less hours per day, less days a week) and no sleeping in contacts.