I
remember the old song and dance from when I was a kid.
“The foot bone’s
connected to the shin bone, the shin bone’s
connected to the thigh bone...”
If you had asked me back then what the eye bone was connected to, I would have said “not much, eyes are boring” and then continued to dream about my inevitable future as the best NHL player ever. Now, as my thoughts tend to be slightly more grounded in reality, I have learned that while the tibia is indeed connected to the femur at the knee, there are a lot of other important connections within the body that aren’t as straightforward. The eye is no exception. A large number of diseases can affect the eye, including quite a few common ones that might affect you or somebody you know.
Diabetes currently affects more than one out of every 15 Canadians, and that number
is on the rise. A potential long-term complication of
diabetes is damage to the body’s
smallest blood vessels known as capillaries, and this can cause bleeding inside
the eye. Capillaries in the eye provide nutrients to the retina, the
light-sensing area at the back of the eye. A damaged or starved retina can’t perform
its job properly, leading to blurred
vision, double vision, and loss of peripheral vision. On top of that,
unbalanced sugars can change a person’s
prescription over even just a few weeks. Nobody wants to buy a new pair of
glasses every month!
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own joints, causing pain and the progressive loss of both flexibility and motility. In addition, the lungs, heart, nervous system and eye can also be affected. The most common ocular problem is a severely dry eye, which can cause discomfort, blurred vision and sensitivity to light. Ocular health management plays an important role in the care of people with RA, not only to preserve vision but also to gauge the progression of RA throughout the entire body. It is important to remember that dry eye can be caused by a long list of things, some of which you can read about in our Eye Library.
Lastly, multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the nervous system in which nerves lose the protective barrier that wraps around them; known as a myelin sheath. When nerves going to muscles are affected, the strength of that muscle is gradually reduced. If the optic nerve, which carries information about what we’re seeing from the eye to the brain, is damaged it can lead to double vision or even loss of vision in one eye. In fact, vision problems can be the first symptom of MS and optometrists, in conjunction with a general practitioner and/or a neurologist, are often involved in making the diagnosis.
As you can hopefully see, the eye is a complex
organ that can act as a barometer for your general health. With each of these
diseases, not only are regular eye exams important in maintaining good vision
and assessing the health of the eye, they play a key role in identifying
problems that may be rooted elsewhere in the body before other signs have
appeared. In fact, it is the only place in the body where a doctor can get a
good view of blood vessel and nerve health without having to cut you open. I’ve
only listed a few examples here today,
and if you’re curious for more information, I’m sure your Optometrist would be more than happy
to answer any questions during your next eye exam.
P.S. I have just been notified that there is no
such thing as an “eye bone”. That
explains my anatomy grade.
Cody van Dijk is studying optometry at the University of Waterloo. We had the pleasure of working with him at Village Optical during the past 2 summers.
Cody van Dijk is studying optometry at the University of Waterloo. We had the pleasure of working with him at Village Optical during the past 2 summers.
