Researchers have found that certain changes can reveal more than you would think possible.
Your eyes aren’t just for seeing. According to new research done at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Australia, they could actually foretell your future.
Researchers studied the social and mental well-being of adolescents and how it related to their health. Not surprisingly, it was found that teens living with a poor health-related quality of life showed lower scores when it came to evaluating both their social happiness and mental health.
But interestingly, another link was discovered. Youth with these lower scores also showed differences in their eye balls. They had structural changes in the blood vessels of their retinas.
“We found that adolescents- particularly males- with poorer health-related quality of life had wider arteriolar and narrower venular blood vessels in the retina. These particular changes are possible indicators for future cardiovascular disease risk,” said lead researcher associate professor Bamini Gopinath.
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He added that the findings could be used in the future to improve the ways in which health professionals evaluate cardiovascular health in teens.
Sound bizarre? It may, but it’s not entirely in left field. The research falls in line with similar work done, that uses eye scans to detect the presence of Alzheimer’s ears before it surfaces. Apparently, there may be more than beauty in the eye of the beholder. And really, only your optometrist can tell you.
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