This was the blog from website for the the OD in spotlight Dr Chan...Does anyone know of any validity to this? Alzheimers from eye movements?
Eye exams can detect a lot of systemic disorders before any signs or symptoms arise. For example, it is quite common that patients find out they have diabetes through an eye exam rather than through their family doctors. However, I'll be totally honest. When it comes to correlations between eyes and systemic pathologies, Alzheimer's is not something that readily pops into mind.
Yet, according to Mark Prigg of Mail ONLINE, recent studies have shown that early stages of Alzheimer's can be revealed through an ocular assessment. Although research is still in its early stages, upon reading the key points of this article, I believe that this is quite possible.
Alzheimer's is a condition in which a person losses neurons and has diminished communications between parts of the nervous system. These communications are vital in signalling skeletal muscle movements. Hence, one can assume that a person with Alzheimer's may have sluggish, or even restricted, eye movement, which can be easily picked up by a clinician like your optometrist.
Having said that, there are many possibilities, such as tumours, mechanical trauma, cranial nerve palsies, etc., that can cause these symptoms. Therefore, at the moment anyways, ocular motility alone will not be the tool of choice to diagnose Alzheimer's. But at least we can now understand the correlation between Alzheimer's and eyes. As mentioned, this concept is just recently introduced so who knows. Maybe with further research, Alzheimer's can indeed join hypertension, diabetes, etc. as disorders that are commonly diagnosed first in an eye exam. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this in then near future.
Eye exams can detect a lot of systemic disorders before any signs or symptoms arise. For example, it is quite common that patients find out they have diabetes through an eye exam rather than through their family doctors. However, I'll be totally honest. When it comes to correlations between eyes and systemic pathologies, Alzheimer's is not something that readily pops into mind.
Yet, according to Mark Prigg of Mail ONLINE, recent studies have shown that early stages of Alzheimer's can be revealed through an ocular assessment. Although research is still in its early stages, upon reading the key points of this article, I believe that this is quite possible.
Alzheimer's is a condition in which a person losses neurons and has diminished communications between parts of the nervous system. These communications are vital in signalling skeletal muscle movements. Hence, one can assume that a person with Alzheimer's may have sluggish, or even restricted, eye movement, which can be easily picked up by a clinician like your optometrist.
Having said that, there are many possibilities, such as tumours, mechanical trauma, cranial nerve palsies, etc., that can cause these symptoms. Therefore, at the moment anyways, ocular motility alone will not be the tool of choice to diagnose Alzheimer's. But at least we can now understand the correlation between Alzheimer's and eyes. As mentioned, this concept is just recently introduced so who knows. Maybe with further research, Alzheimer's can indeed join hypertension, diabetes, etc. as disorders that are commonly diagnosed first in an eye exam. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this in then near future.
