Heart Health and Eye Health Intimately Interconnected

When we think of getting and staying healthy, most of us are focused on, and concerned mostly with, the condition of our heart and lungs and other internal organs. But few people realize the connection the entire body has, and that monitoring a very visible bodily organ like the eyes can be quite revealing when considering overall health. A number of cardiac problems can be diagnosed simply by checking the eyes, even before modern medicine rolls out advanced sensors and complicated machines to confirm what looking at the eyes can reveal.

The eyes are revealing because it’s an area of the body where blood vessels can be directly observed with ease. Conditions such as problems with blood pressure, blocked blood vessels, or degeneration in the eye due to blood flow issues can be revealed via a doctor’s observation of a patient’s eyes. Hypertension, for example, is a cardiac disease that has affects on a patient’s vision. When the patient’s blood pressure increases and stays high, that can manifest in changes in the eye that impact vision. Not only can it cause vision problems, it can also be seen by a doctor when the eye is examined. Regularly visiting an optometrist, even if you have normal vision, could be a chance to detect serious health problems before they become deadly.