High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Associated With Eye Disease

An Irish study found that high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels not only are bad for your heart, they may also harm your eyesight.

According to background information in the report published in the May issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, the two conditions appear to increase one’s risk for retinal vein occlusion, a condition that leads to vision loss. It results from one or more veins carrying blood from the eye to the heart becoming blocked and causing bleeding or fluid build-up.

This recent report suggests that that people with high blood pressure had more than 3.5 times the risk of developing retinal vein occlusion than those without it. People with high cholesterol levels had an approximately 2.5-fold higher risk of retinal vein occlusion.