Blue haze: Does smoking harm age-related macular degeneration?
For smokers, it is part of every visit to the doctor to receive a friendly reminder to please stop smoking. For doctors, this recommendation is a natural part of a holistic therapy approach - stop smoking, change your diet, get more exercise. On the one hand, smoking promotes the development of many diseases and on the other hand, it has a negative effect on the healing process. Many people still find it difficult to stop smoking, and so as a smoker you naturally ask yourself: does it really do that much harm? When it comes to lung diseases, your imagination is often enough, but why should smoke harm your eyes? For example, what is the effect of blue smoke on age-related macular degeneration (AMD)?
Smoking is harmful to the eyes.
Wet AMD: Smoking significantly increases the risk
A possible answer to this question is provided by a study published in 2020 by the University of Sydney. The study examined 490 subjects with neovascular AMD, or so-called wet AMD. The study shows that smokers developed wet AMD on average 5.5 years earlier than non-smokers and still 4.4 years earlier than former smokers. In around ten percent of all AMD cases, the early form of AMD changes into wet AMD. Although this form of the disease can now be treated with injections, if it remains undetected and therefore untreated, there is a risk of loss of central vision within a few months. As early as 2010, a study concluded that the risk of developing AMD in smokers is 83 percent higher than that of non-smokers. In former smokers, the risk is still 42 percent higher. In addition, the risk of other eye diseases also increases in smokers. The probability of suffering from cataracts is increased by a third, and the probability of developing glaucoma is 88 percent higher than average. And smoke doesn't just affect smokers themselves: people who have lived with a smoker for at least five years and have thus passively inhaled smoke also have twice the risk of developing AMD.
E-cigarettes hardly reduce the risk of developing AMD
The hope of many smokers to be able to hold on to their beloved addiction now rests on e-cigarettes, vapers, vaporizers - or whatever else the industry comes up with. But here too, disillusionment is likely to spread in the future, because what common sense suggests is gradually being confirmed by studies. A recent study from 2020 suggests that e-cigarettes also offer little benefit in terms of eye health. This is because the liquids vaporized in them also usually contain nicotine. In addition, the vapor from e-cigarettes also attacks the protective moisture film of the eyes. The result - the eye feels dry and becomes susceptible to injury.
Why is smoking bad for your eyes?
Cigarette smoke is, after all, a pretty toxic cocktail that you fill your lungs with. Nicotine, the most prominent representative of this toxic mixture, protects the tobacco plant from being eaten. In humans, the neurotoxin leads to a constriction of the finest blood vessels and thus to poorer blood circulation. This has devastating consequences for the eye. The retina, with its sensitive photoreceptor cells, can no longer be supplied with enough oxygen and nutrients. In addition, residual substances from metabolic processes are not adequately removed. This promotes the formation of deposits, known as drusen, which are responsible for the development of AMD, among other things. This means that smoking is not only harmful to the lungs, but also and especially to eye health. And doctors' advice to do more exercise, eat healthier and, above all, to stop smoking is usually much more than just well-intentioned advice.
External sources
- Detaram HD. et al.: Smoking and treatment outcomes of neovascular age-related macular degeneration over 12 months. Br. J. Ophthalmol. 104, 893-898 (2020)
- Klein R. et al.: The Prevalence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Associated Risk Factors. Arch. Ophthamol. 128, 750-758 (2010)
- Makrynioti D.et al.: Ocular conditions and dry eye due to traditional and new forms of smoking: A review. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, online February 25, 2020
