Cholesterol & Your Eyes
Cholesterol Month Awareness
October is the National Cholesterol Month and because of that we wanted to bring some awareness of how High Cholesterol can affect your eyes. High cholesterol happens when you have too much fat substance in your bloodstream, this being caused mainly by a poor diet and sedentary life (eating fried & fast food regularly, smoking, drinking alcohol, not exercising and being overweight). When there is a high level of cholesterol present in your body, it starts to block your blood vessels leading to heart problems, strokes or even eye problems.
Eye Symptoms of High Cholesterol
The high presence of bad cholesterol in your blood can cause problems when it starts to gather in your eyes. It is hard to diagnose underlying problems, but some of the warning signs are:
- White, grey and yellow deposits forming around the cornea;
- Blurry Vision;
- Yellow bumps around the eyes.
These symptoms usually lead to three very serious conditions: AMD
, Retinal Vein Occlusion
& Corneal Arcus
.
AMD:
Age Related Macular Degeneration is a common eye condition where cells in the middle of the retina die or are damaged, causing loss of central vision as a result of damage in the macula, making it difficult to see fine details clearly. That damage can be caused by drusen - which are small yellow deposits of fatty lipids that accumulate on the retina. Drusen can be a harmless sign of age, but when in great quantities and larger ones, it may indicate a early stage of AMD. Note that most damage that occurs in the macula cannot be reversed and AMD affects overs 600,000 people across the UK.
Retinal Vein Occlusion:
Happens when these lipids break blood vessel walls, causing cloth/s in the retina, leading to either blurred vision or vision loss. Although some occlusions can be removed only causing temporary vision problems, sometimes the patient can have suffer permanent damage in the eye.
Corneal Arcus:
When cholesterol forms around the rim of the cornea, indicating a very high level of cholesterol that might lead to other health problems.
How to protect your eyes?
Cholesterol can be prevented with a good diet, good hydration & exercise. A healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables will provide you with antioxidants, lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin C and E, reducing the fat in your bloodstream, the pressure in your veins and the likelihood of developing a cloth. Try to avoid red meats, drink at least 1.5lt of water daily and having a exercise routine, would also help to lower your cholesterol numbers and improve your health.
If you have any symptoms like the ones described above, or if you are just looking to have a full eye health examination, don't hesitate to email or phone us to book that appointment. We will be more than happy to see you.
At Care Optics - Eye Care, We Care
