Preventive Care for Healthy Eyes by: Rocio I. Diaz, MD
As a retinal specialist, I often diagnose and treat vision threatening conditions. Some of the questions I often hear from my patients are “why did this happen to me?” and “what can I do to prevent it from happening in the other eye?”.
In medicine, we talk about modifiable risk factors and non-modifiable risk factors. Non-modifiable risk factors include our age, gender, ethnicity and genetic composition. However, there are multiple modifiable risk factors that contribute to a great portion of many devastating eye diseases. In this article, I’ll review the most important strategies that eye doctors recommend in order to protect your vision.
Have a primary care doctor (PCP) and have your annual physical: our eyes are intimately connected with the rest of the body. Patients with heart disease and arrhythmias, like atrial fibrillation, are at high risk of having retinal artery occlusions (RAO) or an “eye stroke”.
Have an annual eye exam: it is a good idea to have an annual eye exam to update your prescription glasses, but also to screen for any abnormality that if caught early, could be treated and potentially save your sight.
Eat a healthy diet, stay in your ideal weight: our eyes need multiple vitamins to remain healthy. Having a healthy diet will also protect our bodies from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity.
Stop smoking. Smoking is associated with different eye diseases, including retinal vein and artery occlusions, more aggressive macular degeneration, optic neuropathy, and ocular malignancies.
Control your blood pressure: hypertensive retinopathy stiffens the retinal arteries and is associated with optic neuropathy, retinal hemorrhages, vein occlusions and RAO.
Check your blood sugar: diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in the working population. We recommend having a hemoglobin A1C lower than 7.0 and to take your medicines as prescribed by your PCP. If left uncontrolled, abnormal blood vessels grow, which can cause vitreous hemorrhage and tractional retinal detachment leading to blindness. Your retinal specialist can help mitigate some of these consequences by giving eye injections or laser. Every diabetic needs a dilated exam at least once a year for the rest of their lives.
Check your cholesterol levels: high cholesterol can cause atherosclerosis or plaques in large arteries in your neck or inside the walls of the heart, which can then break in emboli and cause an RAO or a brain stroke.
Wear sunglasses: sunglasses will protect you from harmful ultraviolet light that can cause eyelid cancers, pterygium, dry eyes, progression of cataracts and challenge the retina in patients with macular degeneration.
If you have a history of macular degeneration: screenings should start at the age of 50: have at least an annual eye exam and if recommended, take your eye vitamins (we recommend the AREDS2 formula), and look at straight lines, like the frames of a door or window, one eye at a time, to see if the lines are distorted. If the distortion is new, contact your eye doctor immediately.
The earlier we adopt these preventive strategies, the better. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “retina transplant”. The retina is composed of a ten-layer neuronal tissue which is so complex, that science has not been able to transplant successfully. Having good vision is essential to maintain our independence. Let’s take care of this invaluable gift.