ruth901
One in five blindness due to tipping?Doctors warn: Smoking will ruin your eyes forever!
Cigarettes are not good for your health.
picture alliance/dpa / Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez
Smoking is a curse to the body in many ways. The eyes can also be affected by the consumption of tobacco products. Diseases of the human visual organs can accelerate massively.
Smoking not only damages the heart and lungs, but also the eyes. Up to 20 percent of all new cases of blindness after the age of 50 are due to smoking, explained the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG) in Munich. Studies have shown that smoking increases the risk of serious eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and vascular occlusions, sometimes by two to four times.
Many eye diseases therefore develop gradually. Smoking accelerates these processes massively. The large number of toxic substances in tobacco smoke attack almost all structures of the eye, impair blood circulation in the fine vessels, promote inflammation and damage nerve cells, explained the specialist society.
“But while the risks for the heart and lungs are known, the influence of smoking on vision is clearly underestimated in public perception,” warned DOG expert Teresa Barth. Even a few cigarettes a day could cause measurable damage, the scientist continued.
The effects are particularly clear in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Smoking doubles or triples the risk of illness, and the first signs of illness appear up to ten years earlier. The risk of developing into a particularly aggressive form of AMD is therefore more than fourfold. According to the expert, the good news is that quitting smoking reduces the risk immediately and sustainably – at any age.
Sources used: lme/AFP
