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Age-old advice on how to look after your heart also applies to staving off eye disease and sight loss, a new study claims.

US researchers have linked good cardiovascular health from a healthy diet, regular exercise and not smoking with lower odds for ocular diseases.

This includes diabetic retinopathy, a condition caused by high blood sugar levels damaging the retina that can lead to blindness and cataracts, when the lens develops cloudy patches.

Earlier studies have observed associations between eye diseases and individual lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity or hypertension, said study author Duke Appiah at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in the US.

It is known that these metrics of ideal cardiovascular health do not work alone and may interact additively to result in diseases.

However, prior to our research, no other studies have comprehensively evaluated the association of all of the metrics of ideal cardiovascular health with ocular diseases.

Globally, about 2.2 billion people suffer from ocular diseases leading to vision impairment or blindness, but aroundhalf of these cases could have been prevented.

The leading causes of vision impairment or blindness are diabetic retinopathy, cataract, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.

Most ocular diseases show few symptoms at early stages and many people may not seek medical care despite readily available treatments.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between the American Heart Associations prescription prescription for health metric, known as Lifes Simple Seven (LS7), and the occurrence of ocular diseases

LS7 is based on the status of seven cardiovascular disease risk factors not smoking, regular physical activity, healthy diet, maintaining normal weight and controlling cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

Following healthy lifestyle and behaviour habits can all contribute to good cardiovascular health as assessed by LS7.

Investigators evaluated data from 6,118 adults aged 40 or more years old who took part in the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The average age of participants was 57 years old, 53 percent of whom were women.

Scores were summed for a maximum of 14, which indicated the most ideal level of cardiovascular health.

A one-unit increase in LS7 scores was associated with reduced odds for age-related macular degeneration by 95 per cent, diabetic retinopathy (68 per cent), cataracts (94 per cent) and glaucoma (94 per cent).

Individuals with optimal cardiovascular health had 97 percent lower odds for diabetic retinopathy compared to individuals with inadequate cardiovascular health.

Overall, we believe that primary prevention and early detection approaches of ocular diseases are important, considering that over half of all deaths from ocular diseases and cardiovascular diseases are known to be preventable, said co-investigator Noah De La Cruz at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Since there is a overlap of the risk factors for ocular diseases and cardiovascular disease, the investigators recommended that screening for ocular diseases be incorporated into existing screenings for cardiovascular diseases.

We hope that our study findings will encourage adherence to healthy lifestyles in order to prevent these age-related diseases while also leading to increased collaborations between cardiologists, optometrists, and ophthalmologists in order to better prevent cardiovascular and ocular diseases, said Dr Appiah.

The study has been published in The American Journal of Medicine.

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Healthy heart linked with low risk of eye disease and sight loss - Brinkwire

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