Eye Diseases 157
Glaucoma
The diseases that affl ict the eye are always related to congestion. In
cataracts, particles and free radicals infi ltrate the lens; in macular
degeneration, the macula cells deteriorate and are replaced with alien
molecules; and in glaucoma, the duct in which fl uids fl ow to the outside
of the eye becomes clogged. Wherever wastes in the eyes accumulate,
the ability to see is jeopardized.
STEVE DEVELOPED GLAUCOMA,THE RESULT OF DEBRIS
FROM AN INFECTION
Steve Abenega, age forty-three, a jazz musician living in New York,
was born in Ghana, West Africa. He grew up along the Volta
River where many of the inhabitants had developed glaucoma or
cataracts, two diseases that were unknown until sometime after a
dam on the Volta River was built in 1961.
After that, the joy of life began to ebb. First, the dam held back
the nutrient-rich silt, so crops began to fail. Then the fi sh and
crocodiles died, and the villagers were deprived of two foods they
had relied on to supplement their protein requirements. Eventually
the fl ow of the river stopped altogether. What was left was silt.
Steve and his friends played in their bare feet in the muddy silt.
They paddled and splashed about in every patch of water they
could fi nd. Unbeknownst to them, buried in the silt in which they
burrowed their feet were the larvae of the fl uke and snail. These
parasitic worms bore into the webbed skin between their toes.
Once inside the bodies of these children, the larvae fulfi lled their
destiny. They swam through the blood upstream to the lungs, then
to the liver, attracted by the density of its nutrients. The
shistosomiasis worms (hatched from the larvae) pierce these organs,
sucking the blood from them until they become like bleeding
sponges. Those who are infected lose their strength and become
apathetic. They also develop glaucoma or cataracts, in some cases
both. The infection takes a long time to kill but is ultimately fatal.
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