Critical Information About Smoking and Your Eye Health

You’ve heard all the studies showing that quitting smoking is one of the best decisions you can make to preserve your health.  From cutting down your risks of heart and lung cancers to improving your complexion and mood, quitting smoking can have a profound impact on your quality of life.

But if you still need another reason why you should put down the cigarette pack, consider this: smoking is seriously damaging your eye health, and could even lead to  permanent blindness.

At NewView Eye Center in Reston, VA – also serving the greater Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC areas – we want our patients to be as happy and healthy as possible.  That’s why we encourage all of our patients to stop smoking as soon as possible in order to preserve their eyesight.

Discover the critical information about smoking and your eye health, and discover yet another powerful reason why you should stop smoking.

• Smoking can increase the chances that you’ll develop cataracts.  Cataracts are formed when the lens of the eye clouds, which prevents light from properly travelling through to the retina.  When this happens, vision is significantly impaired and – if left unchecked – can lead to reversible blindness.

• Smoking can also increase the chances that you develop accelerated age-related macular degeneration (AMD).  This occurs when the eye’s macula – the small area in the retina that is responsible for helping you see fine details clearly – cannot properly receive oxygen from the tiny blood vessels located in and around the retina.  When this happens, vision will start to become significantly blurry, and vision loss is highly likely if left untreated. This vision loss is irreversible.

• Smoking can cause a rapid development of dry eye.  This might not sound particularly dangerous, but this is an extremely uncomfortable condition that develops when second-hand smoke irritates and dries out the eyes.  Dry eyes can affect the crispness and clarity of vision.

• Smoking also increases the chances of experiencing severe vision loss in people with other eye conditions and vision problems.  In addition to this, women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to babies with retinopathy of prematurity, which potentially leads to irreversible blindness.

At NewView Eye Center in Reston, VA, we’re committed to helping our patients live healthy and happy lifestyles with their vision fully intact.  That’s why we encourage everyone to quit smoking by giving them this critical information.  The best news is this – as soon as you quit smoking, your chances for developing these conditions is nearly the same as a non-smoker.  No excuses – quit today.