Your Eye Doctor Might Save Your Life

Heart disease continues to be the leading killer among both men and women. It claims more than half a million lives every year.

With any chronic disease, whether its heart disease or cancer, the earlier you realize there is a problem, the better off you're going to be. Early detection gives you and your doctor a chance to make lifestyle changes that can make a big difference in how long and how well you live.

With heart disease, it may be your eye doctor who finds the first clue that there's a problem. A certain eye condition called retinopathy may actually point to the very early stages of heart disease.

In retinopathy, the tiny blood vessels within your eye become damaged. It may just be a matter of time before other vessels and your arteries are under attack. In fact, early research suggests that people with retinopathy are twice as likely to die from heart disease over the course of 12 years than people without the condition.

This sounds daunting, but it's actually good news. Knowing what retinopathy means gives you a very early warning about your heart health… and it gives you plenty of time to make important changes that can reverse heart disease before it starts affecting your health.

To take advantage of the early detection that retinopathy can give you, you should visit your eye doctor for an exam each year. You should be doing this anyway—plenty of eye diseases can silently steal your sight. You can protect your vision by catching these diseases early. And now it turns out, you can protect your heart, too.

Of course, you should continue seeing your regular doctor, as well. Between the two of them, you're better equipped than ever to catch and respond to early signs of heart trouble.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace