A healthy lifestyle often helps protect people from the risk of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses, and high blood sugar. Scientists have recently linked cardiovascular health to eye health, particularly diabetic retinopathy.
The new paper has been published in Elsevier's American Journal of Medicine. The team suggests that preventing cardiovascular diseases can also help lower the risk of ocular disease.
Around 2.2 billion people around the world suffer from ocular diseases that lead to impaired vision or blindness. Experts believe that up to 50% of these cases could have been prevented with early intervention. Most of the ocular diseases include glaucoma, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration.
As the name suggests, diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that affects eye health. Mild vision problems are the result of damaged blood vessels on the retina. Severe conditions can result in partial or total blindness.
Cardiovascular and Ocular Health
Several studies have linked ocular diseases to lifestyle factors like high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking explained Dr. Duke Appiah from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center' Department of Public Health. 'It is known that these metrics of ideal cardiovascular health do not work alone and may interact additively to result in diseases.'
This year, the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine conducted an online survey with questions about eye health. Around 88% of over 2,000 people answered that impaired vision would be the worst disease to develop. However, about one-quarter of the participants had no knowledge about the risk factors of ocular diseases.
In the study, the researchers analyzed the relevance of a healthy lifestyle and behavioral habits to good or bad cardiovascular health. The team evaluated over 6,000 adults who took part in the 2005 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
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Identifying Risk Factors
Using the American Heart Association's Life's Simple Seven (LS7) assessment, they weighed out the cardiovascular disease risk factors of not smoking, frequency of physical activity, healthy diet, weight maintenance, and controlling blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels. Maintaining all seven factors of the LS7 for a healthy lifestyle reduced the risk of cardiovascular diseases and ocular diseases. Those with good heart health had a 97% lower chance of developing diabetic retinopathy.
Noah De La Cruz and Obadeh Shabaneh, both from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center's Department of Public Health, explained that early detection and primary prevention of ocular diseases can help prevent around 50% deaths resulting from both cardiovascular diseases and conditions such as diabetic retinopathy.
This is also the first study to assess the significant overlap of the risk factors for diseases affecting the heart and eyes. The team suggests that when screening for cardiovascular diseases, doctors should also incorporate screening for ocular diseases as well.
More importantly, Dr. Appiah encourages people to adhere to a healthy lifestyle to prevent such diseases. She also hopes that there will be more collaborations between cardiologists, optometrists, and ophthalmologists for better prevention methods of cardiovascular and ocular diseases.
Read Also: Scientists Link Eye Health to Hypertension and Vice Versa Among Young Children
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