Eat right. Stay fit. Don't smoke or drink. For many of today's most common diseases, there are simple prevention tips we've heard again and again. However, when it comes to glaucoma, which is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide and the leading cause of irreversible blindness in African Americans, there are no precautionary habits to practice. "It's important for patients to know that this is not on them," says Tanvi Shah, MD, a board-certified GBMC ophthalmologist. "Unlike diabetes or high blood pressure, there is no diet, exercise, or anything you can do to change whether or not you'll develop glaucoma."