Heart Problems and Connection to Vision Impairment

can heart problems affect your eyes

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All the 5 senses have immeasurable value, and it is nearly impossible to say one is more important than the other. Sight could certainly make a case for itself though, don’t you think? Imagine all the choices you make every day based on what you’re seeing in front of you. It’s natural that our vision starts to degenerate as we get older, and many people eventually do need to get glasses or wear contacts. If you have vision problems come on suddenly it may not be because you’re getting old. Some people ask can heart problems affect your eyes, and the truth is that they can.

The fact that most people start to have the risk of heart disease around the same time vision starts to become less than 20/20 for people may make them dismiss these changes. They might think it is just a small part of the big picture of how the human body ages, but that may not be a good thing because if heart problems are affecting eyesight then you want to address those problems right away. Often times when damage is done to components of the eye it is difficult or impossible to reverse it. People who have better vision in one eye than the other may have balance issues in some situations.

There are all sorts of reason why you should protect your vision as much as possible, and it’s fair to say you should do the same for all your senses. Fortunately, your olfactory nerves and the ones in the ends of your fingertips and elsewhere aren’t at risk the same way eyes are. Can heart problems affect your eyes? They certainly can and that’s what we’ll look at here in more detail, along with potential heart attack symptoms with eyes.

Retina Relations

Most people have a functional understanding of human physiology, and they’ll know what a retina is and does inside the eye. But they probably have not heard of the retina vasculature. It’s a network of blood vessels and the significance with can heart problems affect your eyes is that this blood vessel network is closely connected to the health of your heart. How that is exactly is related to high blood pressure, or hypertension as the condition is more properly referred to. People with hypertension will have that pressure building up in the eyes too and through the vasculature.

When that pressure is allowed to build up unchecked over a long period of time that’s when damage is done, and vision begins to be impaired. This is called retinopathy and it can result in bleeding in the eye, swelling, or blood clots. But most often it shows itself with blurred vision, and so what happens is many times a person will go in to see a doctor because of blurred vision and they find out they have high blood pressure that’s affecting the heart of their health. They wouldn’t have known they had high blood pressure otherwise or be asking can heart problems affect your eyes.

Artery Blockages

Next up with can heart problems affect your eyes is the way emboli in the eye can be a sign that the person has blocked arteries. Now even if you’re one of the people who has the most basic understanding of human physiology, you’ll still know that when an artery becomes completely blocked that’s when a heart attack becomes nearly certain. We don’t need to tell you what that can result in, and lowering cholesterol is the primary way to keep arteries clear as you get older. You don’t want to see heart attack symptoms in eyes.

Even people with mild heart disease and no detectable irregularities may still be part of can heart problems affect your eyes. This is very true for slow-developing macular degeneration where the person’s eyesight begins to worsen over time, but it may not be so pronounced if the person is in better cardiovascular health. What can a person do to improve their heart health then? That’s something that’s worth doing for everyone and one of the ways to create a healthy heart is to exercise regularly and maintain a healthy body weight.

Eating more healthily helps too, and when you have your answer to can heart problems affect your eyes you are certainly going to want to care better for your heart considering your vision is as important to you as it is. There’s a whole lot you want and need to see in the world around you!


IMPORTANT NOTE: The above information is intended to increase awareness of health information and does not suggest treatment or diagnosis. This information is not a substitute for individual medical attention and should not be construed to indicate that use of the drug is safe, appropriate, or effective for you. See your health care professional for medical advice and treatment.


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