High Blood Pressure and Vision Health
Hypertension increases sharply with advancing age; hence older persons are those most affected by its negative consequences.
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels in the retina. The retina is the layer of tissue at the back part of the eye. It changes light and images that enter the eye into nerve signals that are sent to the brain.
Those with high pressure not carefully controlled have a high incidence of heart attacks and strokes, as well as retinal disorders that can result in retinal bleeding, and other eye conditions such as hypertensive retinopathy, Central serous choroidopathy (CSCR), also referred to as central serous retinopathy (CSR) and glaucoma.
Although high blood pressure is not a direct cause of glaucoma, many studies have found it to be related.1 2, as much as a 17% increased risk.3
The link is clear. Arterial hypertension is the most common systemic disease in glaucoma patients. Even though hypertension increases IOP only slightly, it has a significant negative effect on ocular perfusion (the relationship of blood pressure and IOP).4. Klin Monbl Augenheilkd. Feb;231(2):136-43.] In the brain there is a close relationship between nerve activity and essential blood flow at the head of the optic nerve.5