Eye Disease Linked to Memory Decline

March 14, 2012 -- To update the old pronouncing, the eyes may be the home windows to the mind.

a brand new study indicates that people with even minimum eye damage involving the blood vessels of the retina, because of vascular disease, have a higher threat for memory and thinking declines.

Researchers say troubles with the blood vessels within the eyes can be an vital clue that the blood vessels in the brain aren't functioning well.

If this proves to be the case, eye screening to test for damage to the blood vessels of the retina, or retinopathy, ought to probably assist pick out humans at risk for dementia.

Eye fitness, brain fitness

Retinopathy is a commonplace complication of diabetes and uncontrolled high blood strain, and it's miles a main reason of blindness among adults in the u.s..

Diabetes and excessive blood stress have additionally been linked to a better chance for memory and questioning declines.

To discover whether or not retinopathy may serve as an early caution sign of vascular-related mental issues, researchers tested information from a massive examine called the women’s health Initiative.

The evaluation blanketed simply over 500 older girls who underwent intellectual checking out annually for up to ten years to assess reminiscence and thinking skills.

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The women also had a single eye examination around 4 years after getting into the examine and mind scans about eight years after they had been enrolled.

standard, 39 women (7.6%) had been discovered to have retinopathy, however their imaginative and prescient turned into no longer measurably worse than ladies without the sickness.

in comparison to women who did not show evidence of vessel harm to the eyes, those girls had decrease common rankings on the memory and wondering tests. mind scanning revealed that additionally they had extra evidence of blood vessel harm within the brain.

Retinopathy and memory Loss

The findings advise that even very early retinopathy may be an indicator for small vessel disorder and a hazard aspect for vessel-related memory and questioning declines, says researcher Mary Haan, DrPH, MPH, of the university of California, San Francisco.

She tells WebMD that large research with longer follow-up times may be needed to affirm the findings.


Stroke neurologist Rebecca F. Gottesman, MD, PhD, says it also stays to be seen if retinopathy screening gives clinically significant information approximately brain fitness.

Gottesman is an companion professor of neurology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins college faculty of medicine in Baltimore.

“Retinopathy [testing] may additionally show to be a useful device for identifying people at danger for [mental] declines, however we aren’t there but,” she tells WebMD.

The observe seems inside the March 14 on-line problem of the journal Neurology.

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