Pretty soon, your local Optometrist could offer you health services that go far beyond the eye itself and give us the means to detect early warning symptoms for such diseases as dementia and Alzheimers. Scientists have already discovered the many ways the eye can indicate diseases such as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and high cholesterol, but recently two teams in the UK and Canada have found two indicators in the eye that speak to early detection for brain diseases like dementia and Alzheimers.
A team from Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London and Oxford University used eye scans to measure the thickness of a layer of neurons on the retina at the back of the eye.
Scientists measured this layer among 33,000 patients aged 40 to 69 – while carrying out a series of tests on memory, reaction time and reasoning.
Those with a thinner layer of neurons were more likely to perform poorly on cognitive tests – which could indicate the early stages of dementia. The machinery - which uses light waves to draw a detailed picture of the back of the eye - is already used by many ophthalmologists, so could be introduced into standard eye exams.
Canadian scientists, found deposits of a protein called amyloid – which is commonly found in the brain of those with the disease - on patients’ retinas. Researchers said the findings could help pave the way for comfortable and widely available tests.
You can read more here.
At Positive Eye Ons, we already screen patients for a variety of eye-related diseases as well as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and high cholesterol as indicated above. In addition we are Orthokeratology certified and can prescribe the contact lenses you wear at night to reshape your cornea for better vision during the day. We are excited about these developments in health, and hope that these new procedures and detection methods can be integrated into your regular eye exam every year.
Please visit us at our Melrose Avenue office in West Hollywood and let us use our cutting edge equipment and expertise to help you see better, and feel better.
