Saturday, Aug 29, 2009 at 20:48
Strobing lights of a certain frequency - such as those found at dico's etc have been known to trigger epilepsy (epileptic fits) in people susceptible to the problem.
There are a lot of people who are not diagnosed as sufferers of epilepsy in our community - including those who are only mildly affected.
You could
well be one of those people who is only slightly susceptible and who has never had a fit event - requiring medical intervention leading to a diagnosis.
It's possible the strobe frequency of the light dark patches was enough to cause pupal dilation / contraction, at a rate that just happened to highlight your susceptibility to epilepsy triggers maybe.
If you were concerned you could get testing for epilepsy, from a referral from your doctor.
Now...a related "aside".
There are I believe 2 undiagnsed causesof a greatdeal of our road trauma.
We see the recent campaign against "don't drive tired" and extolling the benefits of stimulants like coffee for drivers etc.
This is happening because we as a community mistakenly believed we could eliminate the road toll, by getting hard on Alcohol consumption - random booze buses and don't drink and drive campaigns etc.
Facts are it only cut the toll by about 50%, and has been no where near as successful as was expected.
What is a great shame is that the two next most responsible causes:-
A) Miopia short Sightedness.
&
B) Type 2 Diabetes, low blood sugar levels
Are responsible for the great proportion of road fatalities that HAVEN'T been helped by the crack down on alcohol campaigns.
A) When you are undiagnosed miopic (short sighted), you WILL fall asleepo at the wheel, at some point 100% guaranteed!
The eye strain associated with rapid focusing on moving objects at speed - will fatigue your eyes to the point they close involuntarily - whether you like it or not. Eyelids get so heavy you couldn't keep them open even with matchsticks!
B) Type 2 Diabetes when undiagnosed & untreated will result in elevated and then crashed blood sugar levels. Sleep at night is triggered by th4e conversion of carbohydrates to sugar in our blodstream after eating the evening meal.
When you are a undiagnosed diabetic type 2, and your eating, results in elevated then crashed blood sugar levels (excessive highs and lows) which is what happens when sugar can't be processed by your pancreas, it will trigger the urge to sleep - behind the wheel.
A) & B) combined - your an accident looking for somewhere to hapopen.
Do we ever see a policeman/woman - with a blood sugar analysis machine at roadside stops?
Do we ever get given en eye test by a policeman / woman at a rtoadside traffic stop?
When we do - you will see the other half of the road fatalities death toll start to reduce as all the "people unfit to drive" start to get "diagnosed at random stops"!
No more of the bull dust "drink coffee" adverts - but actually start to address the damn problem thats killing the remaining 50% of people on our roads just as much as Alcohol does!
As a type 2 diabetic who's also short sighted, I class myself as one of those potentially deadly group of drivers - the only difference being my eyesight is treated with visual aids and my type 2 diabetes is also medically treated!
In that condition I'm as safe on the roads as I ever was.
Until we random road test for these 2 conditions - like we do now for alcohol with booze buses, - we can;'t hope to address the remaining obstacle of road toll.
A tip for anyone who suspects they are an undiagnosed type 2 diabetic, and who has difficulty staying awake at the wheel after 2 or 3 hours or immediately after stopping for a roadhouse feed.
Keep a bag or two of barley sugars lollies in your vehicle, ONLY for the driver and when you get the nods - pop a barley sugar into your mouth and suck slowly - by doing this (and keeping one in there as the first dissapears you can maintain a staedy blood sugar level sufficient to keep you awake for hours after the first signs of drowsiness.
We have all been in a situation where this happens and your the only one who can drive - and have to get somewhere at a certain time.
Rather than risk sleep at the wheel making another statistic - just keep the barley sugars at hand.
The latest fad drinks Guyrana / Mother etc with excessive caffein won;t fix diabetes - so forget them - they SEEM to keep you awake but thats a sugar high in the making and the resultant sugar crash will still put you to sleep 20 mins to half an hour later.
Diet Cokes might have the caffein but no sugar - zero effect - you'll sleep.
Barley sugar lollies is the ONLY thing I know that will work.
If you have 20 / 20 vision and are slim with no diabetes you won't understand a single word I've written.
Stay awake and live - see your optometrist and doctor and get treated before you kill someone or yourself on our roads !
Cheers
AnswerID:
381001