Hunger Damages Vision

Author: Leticia Celentano Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

The unpleasant side effect of impaired vision in patients with anorexia, a serious eating disorder in which those affected are doomed to starvation, is well known.

The unpleasant side effect of impaired vision in patients with anorexia, a serious eating disorder in which those affected are doomed to starvation, is well known.

Anorexia nervosa affects the density of the macula, which is located behind the retina on the inside of the eye. Thanks to the macula, the human eye receives a more detailed and subtle picture of the images against itself. In women with anorexia, the macula and the optic nerve, which nourish the eye, are thinner than in healthy women. However, the macula and the optic nerve are weakest in women with bulimia. Unlike anorexics, these women allow themselves to swallow food, but later induce vomiting and excrete it undigested.

In women with eating disorders, the transmission of neurotransmitters is less frequent, which worsens the flow of signals between the eye and the brain, say scientists from the Medical School of the University of Athens.

According to the authors of the study, it is not clear whether the thinning of the macula and the impaired activity of neurotransmitters are a stage of progressive deterioration of vision or the process is reversible after the introduction of a normal diet. The researchers made their discovery after examining 13 women suffering from anorexia for 10 years on average and another 20 healthy women, writes the British Journal of Opthalmology.

Hunger Damages Vision

Related Articles