Eye health alerts

Eyes can give doctors valuable insights into a range of potentially dangerous health conditions.

Health Agenda magazine
June 2016

An eye examination is a simple, non-invasive way to check the health of your vascular system because signs of problems in other parts of the body can appear in the blood vessels in the eyes.

But, cardiovascular conditions aren’t the only health problems that can be identified through our eyes.

Diabetes

To look for evidence of diabetes, a doctor will check for retinal vascular changes and blood vessel haemorrhages in your eyes.

Multiple sclerosis

An eye tic could indicate multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease and anomalies in your retina and optic nerve could enable an early diagnosis.

High blood pressure

In optical test can reveal crossings in the blood vessels of the eye, where the artery has hardened and nipped the vein underneath. Very high pressure can cause blood vessels to burst and haemorrhages to form.

An aneurysm

Early symptoms of an aneurysm (when a weakened blood vessel balloons up) include blurry vision, eye pain, headaches or loss of vision. Drooping eyelids can also indicate that a blood vessel has ruptured, and a doctor can then check for other optical signs.

Your mental health

People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder usually have abnormal eye tracking patterns and doctors can now map those movements to help diagnose these conditions. Technology previously used to diagnose glaucoma is now used to map visual inconsistencies that help to identify mental illness.