It’s not too late to fix that lazy eye

In 1968 the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare published a booklet of “Peanuts” cartoons to teach people about lazy eye. In it, an ophthalmologist confirms that Sally has a lazy eye and needs to wear an eye patch. Sally has trouble adjusting to the patch and is teased at school, but as her time wearing it comes to an end, she proclaims: “My ophthalmologist and I regard this as a major triumph!”

For decades eye doctors have seen “lazy eye” as a childhood problem. They thought the part of the brain responsible for processing visual information, the visual cortex, stopped developing around age 5 or 6, so visual improvements couldn’t be made after that. But a new study published in Journal of Neuroscience suggests that it might be possible to treat lazy eye into middle age. Scientists looked at the brain tissue of people ages 20 to 80 and found that the visual cortex doesn’t stop maturing until around 36!

This is exciting news for anyone with a developmental vision problem. If you have amblyopia, in which one eye focuses better than the other, or even strabismus, the misalignment of the eyes, it might not be too late to correct your vision problems.

Don’t gain vacation weight

The food scenes in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” are mouth-watering. Julia Roberts munches her way through Italy. And Julia didn’t leave the eating to stunt doubles; she gained 10 pounds, sometimes eating between eight and 10 slices of pizza a day!

Julia was in Italy for longer than most of us are on vacation, but even a shorter trip can cause you to pack on the pounds. One recent study followed over 100 adults before and after they went on a one- to threeweek vacation, finding that people gained an average of 2.2 pounds. Interestingly, they also exercised more on vacation, leading researchers to conclude the weight gain came from eating more.

When you travel, you’re outside your normal routine and food options are everywhere. So here are a few tips to keep the travel weight off:

■ Pack healthy snacks like low-fat yogurt, fruits and veggies or nuts for time spent in the car, on the train or at the beach.

■ Stay away from alcohol drinks loaded with sugar. A 16-ounce pina colada has 450 calories from sugar alone!

■ Plan family excursions which require physical activity.

■ Get enough sleep. Being sleep deprived is linked to overeating.

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.