Along with causing damage to your heart, arteries and kidneys, hypertension can also affect your eye health and lead to serious eye disease. If left untreated, it can damage the delicate blood vessels that supply blood to your eyes and cause other persistent issues.
In this post, dry eye treatments specialists at Opti-Care explain how high blood pressure can affect your eye health.
- Retinopathy — This disease refers to retinal vascular damage caused by hypertension. The retina contains light-sensitive cells that receive and organize visual information, and any damage to it can lead to eye swelling, blurred vision, bleeding in the eye, or complete loss of vision. Unfortunately, signs of this disease usually develop late. However, it can slowly heal when necessary steps to lower your blood pressure are taken.
- Choroidopathy — This pertains to a disease that causes fluid buildup in the retina. It is less commonly seen than hypertensive retinopathy and can manifest as Elschnig spots, dark-colored spots surrounded by either bright yellow or red halos. Common symptoms of this eye disease include distortion of straight lines and objects appearing smaller or farther away from the affected eye. If you believe you have these symptoms, you need to see an eye doctor immediately.
- Optic Neuropathy — This is a catch-all term that refers to damage to the optic nerve, the nerve in the back of the eyeball that sends visual signals from your eye to the brain. When not treated, this condition only gets worse over time. Pain, visual loss in one eye, and loss of color vision are common symptoms of optic neuropathy.
Opti-Care has been providing quality eye care since 1982. We offer prescription eyeglasses, dry eye treatments, LASIK eye surgery pre & post OP care, and more. Call us at (410) 835-4356 or fill out our convenient online form to request an appointment. We serve patients in Westminster, MD and nearby communities.