Our eyes are especially vulnerable to the effects of high blood pressure.
Hypertension, better known as high blood pressure, is a very common health concern. It can be the result of lifestyle factors like diet and exercise, or can happen as a symptom of other whole-body health conditions. But regardless of what causes it, having elevated blood pressure for a long time can raise your risk for a range of health problems.
The best-known issues related to high blood pressure are heart disease and stroke, but consistently high blood pressure can also cause problems in your eyes—and, if not controlled, could lead to damage or vision loss. Here’s what to look out for.
By itself, high blood pressure can be harmful to your eyes.
Compared to the rest of our bodies, our eyes are fairly delicate. They’re full of fluid and their membranes are crisscrossed with lots of small blood vessels—which means that even little changes in pressure can have big effects. It’s a perfect example of how our eyes reflect the health of our whole bodies.
Like many eye conditions, symptoms often don’t show up right away when high blood pressure starts causing eye damage. But over the long term, increased pressure can harm several of the sensitive structures inside your eyes, and can eventually result in vision loss. Blood-pressure-related damage can show up as several different eye conditions, detailed below.
Hypertensive retinopathy
The most common blood-pressure-related condition is hypertensive retinopathy: “hypertensive” meaning “high blood pressure,” and “retinopathy” meaning “damage to the retina.” The retina is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye that sends signals through the optic nerve to your brain. When it becomes damaged or scarred, vision gets worse.
When your blood pressure is high, the tiny vessels in the retina can pinch each other closed, spring leaks, or press on the surrounding tissue, causing cells to die. Care providers can see signs of these problems when they look at your retina during a routine eye exam. As the condition progresses, you might notice double vision, dim vision, or headaches.
Choroidopathy
The choroid is the tissue between the retina and the outside wall of your eye. When high blood pressure causes fluid leaks, sometimes those leaks can occur in the choroid, creating a kind of blister behind the retina. You might notice blurred vision or “floaters,” little specks that move across your vision. Left untreated, choroidopathy can cause scars on your retina that result in vision loss.
Optic neuropathy
The optic nerve connects the retina to the brain through the back of the eye. When the pressure inside your eye is higher, that pressure can squeeze and eventually damage the optic nerve, limiting its ability to carry visual information to the brain—and potentially causing a permanent loss of vision. Sudden, painless shadows in your vision can be a sign of optic neuropathy, and you should get them checked out right away.
High blood pressure can also make other conditions worse.
There are a range of whole-body health issues that can intersect with high blood pressure, making it worse or being made worse by it. One key example that has serious implications for eye health is diabetes, which can affect blood flow and cause damage to tiny blood vessels throughout the body—including in the retina. High blood pressure can worsen the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy and cause it to progress faster.
Other related conditions include:
- Eye stroke. In a stroke, sensitive tissues like the ones inside the brain or the eye don’t get enough blood and begin to die, due to blood vessels either being blocked off or bursting. Eye stroke is characterized by sudden, painless loss of vision, usually in just one eye, and often overnight.
- Glaucoma. This condition results from damage to the optic nerve, much like optic neuropathy, and high blood pressure is associated with a higher risk of glaucoma. Symptoms include “tunnel vision,” or dimming vision around the edges of your field of view.
- Macular degeneration. The macula is the very center of your retina, responsible for sharp, straight-ahead vision. When blood vessels in the retina grow abnormally and start to leak, it can disrupt the macula’s ability to do its job, causing blurriness or vision loss in the center of your field of view. High blood pressure increases the risk of abnormal or leaking vessels in your retina, raising the risk of macular degeneration and potentially causing it to worsen faster.
Controlling blood pressure helps protect your vision—and so do regular eye exams.
Caring for your overall health and wellness is one of the best ways to keep your vision healthy too. Beyond just preventing harm, many of the steps you can take to control your blood pressure also have potential benefits for your long-term eye health. Steps like:
- Cutting out smoking. Stopping smoking is good for you in a huge range of ways, including your heart and circulatory health. It also reduces the smoke and debris that your eyes are exposed to, and can help lower your risk of cataracts.
- Exercising regularly. With guidance from your doctor, exercise helps keep blood pressure down and keeps your heart strong, improving circulation in your eyes.
- Choosing an eye- and heart-healthy diet. Smart food choices contribute to lower blood pressure, and certain foods also provide important nutrients to keep your eyes at their best.
Maybe the most important step, though, is taking advantage of your regular eye exams. Like we said above, many eye conditions don’t show symptoms in their earliest stages—and by the time they do, those symptoms can be permanent. A trusted care provider can spot the effects of high blood pressure in your eyes before you do, and together, you can develop a plan to manage the condition and protect your vision for as long as possible.
Get connected with top-quality vision care through Heritage.
We’ve been pursuing our mission of making vision care more accessible for decades, and in that time, we’ve seen the difference that quality care can make in a person’s life. Our eyes are often the first to tell us when something is wrong, either inside our bodies or outside of it—which is why it’s essential to find a provider you can trust to keep them healthy.
At Heritage, we handpick our provider network, instead of buying it from another company, so you know we stand behind our choices. To get connected with one of our providers anywhere in the country, use our Provider Search tool. Or, if you’re not already part of the Heritage family, look into our individual and family vision insurance plans today—and take another step toward healthy vision for the future.