Most people only ever think about getting an eye exam when they start to have trouble seeing things that they didn’t struggle with in the past.
But that may be a major mistake!
We know a lot more about how interconnected all of the major bodily systems are today than we ever knew in the past, and it’s now become quite obvious – through scientific research and medical examination – that our eyes are closely linked to our health in ways we would never have imagined in the past.
That’s why you’re going to want to make sure that you have a regular eye exam as part of your routine checkup/physical. You want to be sure that your eyes are in picture perfect working order, but you also want to take advantage of this eye examination opportunity to look for signs and symptoms of underlying major medical conditions that may have gone undiagnosed previously.
Here are a couple of the big time medical issues that an eye examination can help you spot pretty early!
Cancer
Retinal bleeding may be associated with leukemia, a group of blood cancers. That’s just one of the signs or symptoms that an eye examination may uncover that some form of cancer may be lurking inside your body.
Optometrists may be able to diagnose potential brain tumours based on changes that occur to your field of vision, which is just one reason why you’ll want to get to regular examinations.
Diabetes
Optometrists and other eye doctors routinely diagnosed individuals with type II diabetes, and that’s because a small amount of bleeding in the retina can signal this medical condition.
Dramatic fluctuations in vision are usually caused by high glucose levels in the bloodstream, and they are also easy to pick up on by trained eye doctors and eye examiners.
Heart Inflammation and Heart Disease
Heart problems can regularly be diagnosed by those that perform eye examinations, especially if they are caused by bacterial issues or viral infections that negatively impact your quality of vision or your eye health in general.
You can schedule an examination to get checked up every year or two.
It’s almost always a good idea to have your regular eye examination set up around the same time as your regular physical or health checkup, if only to make sure that you aren’t dealing with any serious or significant issues that need to be addressed before they get any worse. Be sure to schedule an eye examination with your eye doctor as soon as possible.