Everyone knows that the eyes are the window to the soul, but not everyone understands that they can also be a reliable window into the overall health of your body. At we offer comprehensive eye exams that include testing to detect not only diseases that can threaten your vision and eye health, but your whole-body health as well.
Our eye doctor, Dr. Todd Cohen, often talks to our patients about the connection between the eyes and the rest of the body. Here’s what Dr. Cohen had to say about a patient who illustrates this point perfectly:
“We recently had a patient come into our practice at who had been suffering for the past few weeks from pain while chewing and overall muscle weakness. When she came into our office, she complained that she also couldn’t see anything out of her right eye. After a comprehensive eye exam, we discovered a number of areas of concern, including that the pupil in her right eye wasn’t responding at all to light.
These symptoms were extremely worrisome, so I gave a call to a neuro-ophthalmologist that I often work with, and we were able to get the patient an appointment the very same day. She was able to go right from our eye care clinic to their office, and as it turned out, she needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately for emergency care.
The diagnosis was a condition known as giant cell arteritis, which causes the lining of the arteries to become inflamed. This often results in severe headaches that come and go throughout your life, jaw pain, vision loss, and intense fatigue. In extreme cases, it can also cause an aneurysm or stroke.
I’ve checked in with the patient several times, and although the likelihood of her vision coming back in her right eye is very slim, the diagnosis, first made in our eye clinic, has allowed her to find a cardiovascular specialist, neuro-ophthalmologist and rheumatologist who can help her get to the root cause of this, feel better and prevent complications down the road.
It just goes to show why providing full, comprehensive eye care is so important.”
At , we pride ourselves on our ability to correctly diagnose diseases that can affect your entire body, and help treat and manage these diseases as part of a team of healthcare professionals.
To learn more about how we can help you see and feel your best every day, contact our eye care team at today!
