How Does Smoking Affect Your Eyes?

The effects of smoking on your eyes and vision may be significant. You know that smoking tobacco or being exposed to tobacco smoke can cause damage to your health, but it can also increase your risk of developing a number of eye disorders and diseases, including the following.

Irritated eyes

Much like alcohol affects the eyes, smoking can cause chronic redness of your eyes. Tobacco smoke, even passive smoke inhaled by children, can alter the tear film of eyes, exacerbating dry eye syndrome and allergic eye conditions.

Macular Degeneration

People who smoke have four times the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. People who have smoked in the past have three times the risk of having a more severe form of macular degeneration. Interestingly, drinking wine in moderate amounts seems to lower a person's risk of developing the disease.

Cataracts

Smoking may increase your risk for developing cataracts, or clouding of the lenses, much earlier and possibly much worse than people who do not smoke. Smoking reduces the supply of antioxidants in our eyes, which may lead to cataracts.

Vascular Disease

Smoking contributes to the development of arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, that can contribute to or worsen vascular disease of the eyes. Artery and vein occlusion and optic nerve damage could cause significant vision loss or blindness.

Thyroid Eye Disease

People with thyroid disease are at a much higher risk of developing thyroid eye disease if they smoke tobacco. Graves' disease, the most common form of hyperthyroidism, sometimes causes inflammation and swelling in the soft tissues and muscles that surround the eyes, often causing the eyeballs to bulge or protrude from their sockets. If you are diagnosed with thyroid disease, your physician will most likely recommend that you stop smoking immediately.

Optic Neuropathy

Smoking decreases blood flow throughout the body, which could result in damage to the optic nerve. Toxic optic neuropathy, caused by methyl alcohol consumption, results in rapid deterioration in vision and irreversible blindness if not treated within 24 to 48 hours.