How does smoking affect eye health?
Smoking causes major health problems, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer, but many people don’t realize that smoking also affects their vision.
At any age, smoking increases the risk of blurred vision from cataracts and central vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and the more you smoke, the higher your risk.
Smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to develop uveitis, a serious condition of the uvea (middle layer of the eye). Smokers are also at higher risk of diabetic retinopathy, a disease that causes vision loss and affects the retina.
Tobacco smoke can worsen dry eyes, a common eye condition that affects women after menopause.
Smoking also increases the risk of vision loss in people with other conditions. Premature births are more common in pregnant women who smoke, and their babies are at higher risk of a congenital blindness called retinopathy of prematurity, among other conditions.
The good news is that after you quit smoking, your risk of developing some eye diseases becomes about the same as that of nonsmokers.
Avoiding smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke — or quitting if you smoke — is one of the best investments you can make in your long-term eye health.