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It was back in 1959
when the group the Platters sang their number one hit
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". Smoking was socially
acceptable then and most of us didn't have a clue that
it would produce more preventable deaths than most other
causes in modern history.
Fast forward to the 21st Century - We
are hammered daily by warnings on the health related
risks of smoking. Stories and adverts abound about the
risk of lung cancer, stroke and heart disease. One smoking
related health issue however is frequently overlooked:
its serious affects on vision and eye health.
Tobacco smoke is composed of around
4,000 compounds, most of which are toxic. When these
toxins waft around in the air many of them irritate
the conjunctiva, the delicate film covering the white
of the eye. These toxic chemicals irritate the nerve
endings in the conjunctiva, drying it out and making
your eyes feel like they are stinging and burning. Even
confirmed non-smokers have had to deal with the irritation
of second hand smoke at a party or club at one time
or another. Your eyes quickly become red and dry. Who
can forget the gritty irritable eyes and the dry nose
and throat from just a few minutes exposure?
It's even worse if you wear contact
lenses. The delicate environment at the front of the
eye is very sensitive. As smoking quickly dries the
eyes, contact lens wear becomes more irritating and
dangerous. A dry, rough contact lens can compromise
the surface of the cornea, the clear window at the front
of the eye, increasing the risk of an eye infection.
A bacterial infection, contact lens related microbial
keratitis, can be a particularly nasty risk to your
eyesight.
Chronic irritation of the outside of
the eye from smoking can easily cause long term damage.
Expert studies show that smokers are 82 per cent more
likely to suffer from dry eye. Quitting helps but even
former smokers have a 22 percent higher incidence of
dry eye than non-smokers. Many smokers might think they
can cope with a bit of eye irritation, but they don't
realize that the real danger to their vision lurks inside.
Other than your brain, the eye is one
of the most oxygen hungry organs in the body. To work
properly, it needs a continuous flow of oxygen and nutrients.
Smoking gradually reduces the blood supply the eye needs
by narrowing the blood vessels and thickening the blood.
As the eye becomes starved of vital oxygen and nutrients,
the risk to vision quickly increases.
Two of the worlds leading causes of
severe visual impairment and blindness are cataract
and age related macular degeneration (AMD). Although
advancing age is the main factor in both diseases, smokers
develop both cataract and AMD earlier and more severely
than non-smokers.
Starving the eye of oxygen also creates
other hazards. Smoking can impair your night vision,
risking your own and other people's safety on the road
at night. Glaucoma, another degenerative disease of
the eye, is typically affected by poor blood supply
to the optic nerve. This disease can cost you most of
your vision without you noticing a thing wrong.
Even if a smoker doesn't care about
their own vision, they need to spare a thought for their
children's vision. The dangerous affects of smoking
can be transmitted through the placenta to an unborn
child. Children of smoking mothers are prone to developing
strabismus. This shows up as an eye that turns inward
shortly after birth. In many cases prompt surgery is
the only solution to avoid a permanent turned eye and
impaired vision.
The link between smoking and a number
of serious eye conditions is now well known and can
no longer be ignored. The old Platter's hit of 1959
is now very true - Smoke literally does get "In
Your Eyes".
1howto.com
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