Even with perfect vision, it’s a good idea to get your eyes checked regularly.
Annual eye exams are an important part of maintaining your overall health. For one thing, even if your vision is great, a regular exam sets a helpful baseline that will make it easier for your care provider to notice future changes. But eye exams can also accomplish something else: they can be a key early warning for whole-body health conditions.
Your eyes are delicate structures, filled with tiny blood vessels and sensitive nerves. When a disease affects blood flow or causes inflammation, for example, your eyes can be one of the first places that symptoms appear. And in the case of most health conditions, the earlier you identify it, the better you can manage it.
There are a number of diseases with eye-related symptoms that can turn up at your regular exam. If your provider sees signs of one of them, they can refer you to your primary care doctor for more investigation. Here are a few of the conditions they’ll be on the lookout for.
1. Diabetes
Because diabetes can affect blood flow, especially in small vessels, it’s especially closely related to eye health. One of the leading causes of vision loss worldwide is diabetic retinopathy: the condition that occurs when blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive membrane at the back of the eye, leak or burst.
During a routine eye exam, your care provider will inspect your retina, either with a slit lamp or with imaging technology. In some cases, damage to the blood vessels can appear before you’re diagnosed with diabetes. Even if your vision hasn’t been affected, it’s possible to detect early signs of diabetic retinopathy—and it’s a good indicator that it’s time for a visit with your physician.
2. High blood pressure
The retina’s many blood vessels can also show signs of high blood pressure. When blood pressure increases in a small space, like the eye, vessels can pinch each other closed, cutting off blood flow to areas of tissue. Vessels can also burst or leak, leaving small flame-shaped hemorrhages, or bleeds. These details would be visible to an eye care provider when they check your retina.
3. High cholesterol
You might associate cholesterol more with diet and heart health than with your eyes, but because it travels in the bloodstream, it can impact your vision. This waxy substance can build up in blood vessels, causing blockages and damaging the vessels themselves. As we age, cholesterol can also build up in a ring around our corneas, the clear, outermost layer of the eye.
For people who are 50 or older, this ring—the arcus senilis—isn’t necessarily a sign of health problems. But if it appears in a younger person, it could be an indicator of high cholesterol levels. High cholesterol can also leave deposits in the retina, eventually leading to damage and vision loss.
4. Thyroid disease (Graves’ disease)
Graves’ disease is a condition that causes the thyroid—a gland in your throat which helps regulate the metabolism—to produce too much thyroid hormone. Some of the same processes that cause Graves’ disease can also cause swelling in the tissues in and around the eyes, leading to Graves’ ophthalmopathy, also called thyroid eye disease. In this condition, swelling makes the eyelids pull back and the eyes visibly bulge out.
Mild cases might not be obvious right away, but a vision care provider can detect signs in the position and behavior of the eyelids and muscles around the eyes. Often, once the thyroid is regulated, the eyes return to normal.
5. Multiple sclerosis
This disease affects the brain and nervous system, causing the protective covering over the nerves to inflame and scar. The eye’s optic nerve, which sends images to the brain, can be seen relatively clearly at the back of the eye, and inflammation there is often one of the very first detectable symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). As the disease progresses and affects the optic nerve more and more, it might cause blurred or double vision, pain, and even nystagmus: uncontrolled, back-and-forth eye movements.
6. Brain tumor
Our eyes are incredibly close to our brains, both physically and in terms of how they function. They sit directly in front of the brain, and are controlled by a broad set of involuntary, automatic processes. When something disrupts the brain, it can easily affect this delicate balance and cause changes in the eye’s condition and behavior.
Tumors can increase pressure in the brain, making the area at the back of the eye, including the optic nerve, swell—something a care provider can see during a routine exam. This swelling can cause some of the same symptoms as it can in other diseases, including blurred or double vision. A brain tumor can also impact the processes that control the pupil, the central opening in the eye that, under normal conditions, opens and closes to control how much light enters. Nonresponsive pupils, or pupils of different sizes, can also be a sign of an issue in the brain.
Vision care is essential health care. Heritage connects you with the best.
At Heritage, we’ve seen firsthand how much good comes from basic vision care—whether it’s a pair of glasses that help a child see the chalkboard in school, or a routine exam that identifies a serious health condition. With more information about your eye health, you can make better decisions sooner for yourself and your family.
Our mission is to connect you with the best care available so that you can get the information you need. The Heritage provider network spans all fifty states, and our providers are handpicked—we don’t buy our list from another company. To join the Heritage family and get connected with world-class vision care, consider our individual and family plans, or find a provider today with our Provider Search tool.