Regular eye checkup can help detect potential health problems early and get treated before they worsen. Read on to find out what your eyes are trying to tell you about your health.

Written by Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : December 29, 2021 11:09 AM IST

Doctors usually check our eyes during a medical checkup. Have you ever thought why they do so? This is because our eyes can tell a lot about our overall health. Not just vision problems, but doctors can spot early sign of many diseases and medical conditions just by observing the changes in the eyes. Here are a few health complications that your eyes can indicate:

An eye twitch can be a sign that you're too stressed and that you need some rest. Eye twitching or myokymia occurs when the muscles and nerves around the eye are stimulated. Having too much caffeine, being tired, or stress can cause this condition. Rarely, eye twitching may indicate Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, bell palsy, brain damage from inflammation or a stroke, or Meige syndrome, a nervous system movement disorder.

Itchy eyes, also known as ocular pruritis, are often caused by allergies that can be triggered by pollen, pet dander, irritants like dust and smoke, or products such as lotions, makeup or contact lens solutions. Itchy eyes can be caused by infection, strain or a condition called dry eye syndrome.

Blood-red eyes or bloodshot eyes may result from of sun exposure, dust, allergies or a hangover. But fatigue, stress or insomnia can also cause swelling of the blood vessels present in the surface of the sclera (white portion of the eye) and appear as bloodshot eyes. In addition, a subconjunctival haemorrhage can also cause build-up of blood on conjunctiva due to bursting of blood vessel. However, such cases are rare.

Ageing causes droopy eyes (ptosis), but in rare cases, drooping of eyelids could be a sign of more severe conditions like strokes, brain tumours or myasthenia gravis (an autoimmune disorder that causes weakness in the skeletal muscles).

Cataracts, which is characterized by clouding of the eye lens, are among the earliest complications of diabetes mellitus and one of the major causes of visual impairment in diabetic patients. High blood sugar makes cataracts more likely to form in people with diabetes. However, age is the greatest risk factor for cataracts and occur frequently in older people.

Early-onset cataracts are also associated with increased risk of cancer. Clouding of the lens of the eye is also a possible side effect of cancer treatments, including radiation, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy.

Yellow eyes could be a sign of liver diseases such as hepatitis, cirrhosis or jaundice. An increase in the levels of bilirubin, a bile salt produced in the liver, in the body can cause your eyes to turn yellow in colour. If you have yellow eyes along with other symptoms like fever, loss of appetite, darker urine, itching, abdominal pain, see a General Physician right away.

Do you have swollen or puffy eyes? Our eyes get puffy after crying, excessive alcohol consumption and due to viral conjunctivitis, but styes, allergies, eye injury or hormonal problems can also cause swollen eyelids.

Over time, untreated high blood pressure can cause damage to the retina and cause vision problems. Reduced vision, eye swelling, bursting of a blood vessel, double vision accompanied by headaches are possible signs and symptoms of hypertensive retinopathy.

Gray rings around the cornea, medically termed are arcus senilis, may indicate high blood cholesterol and triglycerides in the body. High cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Eating fatty food, lack of exercise, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcohol can lead to high cholesterol.

Eye movement abnormalities are common in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve which connects the eye to the brain, is often the first sign that someone has the disease. About half of people with MS will experience optic neuritis at least once, and when it happens, they may develop symptoms like blurred vision, graying of vision, blindness in one eye for a short time, and pain with eye movement.

Believe it or not, your eyes can also tell if you had faced any traumatic experiences in the past. According to a UK-based pupillometry study published in the journal Biological Psychology in 2020, the pupils of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did not constrict quickly in response to changes in light level. Based on their findings, the researchers suggested that PTSD may affect both branches of the autonomic nervous system.

Bug eyes, clinically known as exophthalmos, are one of the common symptoms observed in Graves' disease, an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism). Too much thyroid hormones in the body cause the eye tissues to swell leading to bulging eyes.

If you notice a yellowish patch on the white parts of your eyes, it may be because you're spending a lot of time in the sun. Called a pinguecula, these patches are usually harmless, but a small percentage are pre-cancerous, say experts. So, it is advisable to see an ophthalmologist if you start seeing yellow patches on your eyes.

There is a long list of eye problems and health issues that could cause teary eyes. Too much screen time, pinkeye (conjunctivitis), allergies, blepharitis (infection of the eyelid margins) could cause your eyes to tear up more often. But watery eyes also be a symptom of other medical conditions like Bell's palsy, Sjogren's syndrome, chronic sinus infections, thyroid problems, and rheumatoid arthritis. See a doctor if your eyes tear up often for unknown reasons.

Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. Red blood cells move through small blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts of the body. Normal red blood cells are round, but in people with sickle cell disease they form a distorted shape (sickle-shape). This interferes with oxygen delivery to the tissues, as well as causes blocked vessels in the eyes, which further leads to eye pain, redness, loss of peripheral vision, blurry vision, floaters, jaundice, etc.

It is an inflammatory form of arthritis, and people suffering from this condition have a higher risk of developing iritis, inflammation of the iris (the coloured ring around your eye's pupil). Iritis, also called anterior uveitis, can cause eye pain, redness, and sensitivity to light.

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