What Your Eyes Say About Your Health

by Marc Grossman, 2011

The purpose of our company, Natural Eye Care, is to help people learn about the connection between healthy vision and overall health (which includes diet, lifestyle, emotions and genetics), as well as to educate the public as to actions they can take to protect one's precious gift of sight.

To demonstrate the relationship to eye health and overall health, the following are diseases that can be often be observed first through the eyes: diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease which includes aneurisms, HIV, cancer and rare hereditary diseases.

Your eyes can tell you about your health. Here are some visual signs that can be seen by the naked eye:

• Bloody eye (also known as a "subconjunctival hemorrhage") if not caused by trauma, may be a sign of extreme hypertension or a platelet disorder.
• Bulging eyes may be evidence of a Thyroid disease such as "Graves Disease".
• Eyes of different colors, are naturally generally inherited. However, a change in color could also arise because of bleeding, glaucoma, inflammation or other specific conditions such as neurofibromatosis (abnormal growth of nerve tissue) or the Waardenburg syndrome.
• Ptosis, commonly known as droopy eyelid can develop as we age. However, rarely, it is a sign of myasthenia gravis (a neuromuscular condition) or a brain tumor.
• Pupil abnormalities - pupils are usually symmetrical, equally sized, and react equally to changing light conditions. However these differences can point to medical problems if one pupil is smaller than the other, if one reacts more slowly to light. Some conditions include optic nerve or brain tumor, stroke, aneurysm in the brain, , multiple schlerosis and syphilis. Finally, many prescribed drugs and recreational drugs can change pupil size.
• Colored rings on the cornea may be symptoms of Wilson's Disease, a rare condition which can result by accumulated copper in the brain and liver tissue.
• Yellow eyes. Liver diseases such as hepatitis and cirrhosis can make the whites of the eyes look yellow. This coloring is due to accumulated bilirubin, a byproduct of the break-down of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the molecule in red blood cells which carries oxygen. .

Source: WebMD