14 Main Causes of Elevated Eye Pressure

Elevated eye pressure is a problem that affects lots of people, and your risk for it only goes up as you age. Elevated eye pressure is also known as ocular hypertension. What it means is that your intraocular pressure is outside of the normal range. If this goes untreated, it can have serious results down the road. It could even result in complete vision loss. But this doesn’t happen with everyone.

Some people can have ocular hypertension without any damage occurring. Between approximately 5% and 10% of Americans age 40 or older have ocular hypertension and that increases their risk of glaucoma. Glaucoma and IOP have a tenuous relationship. Some people believe that having glaucoma first is what causes elevated eye pressure, but others believe that elevated eye pressure is just a symptom of glaucoma.

Let’s take a look at eight of the main causes of elevated eye pressure so that you can recognize the symptoms.

1. Excessive Fluid Production

Excessive fluid production, also known as excessive aqueous production, is a condition where the eye produces more of the clear fluid created by the ciliary body which is located right behind the iris; the aqueous flows through the pupil and then fills the anterior chamber with fluid; that’s the space within the iris and the cornea.

The aqueous also drains from the eye through what is called the trabecular meshwork. It is located at the very edge of the anterior chamber where the cornea in the iris meat. If the ciliary body produces too much of this clear liquid, then the pressure inside the eye can increase and this is exactly what causes ocular hypertension.

Your doctor may prescribe you medication or offer other solutions in order to drain the clear liquid better or to get your body to stop producing so much of it.