How can your weight affect your eyesight?

Live Debate

1.30pm Monday 9th November 2009

It is common knowledge that expanding waistlines are linked to life-threatening conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But many of us are unaware that obesity is also linked to blindness and other serious eye health issues.

Excess body weight can cause damage to blood vessels in the eye - linked to the onset of glaucoma and diabetes. Studies have also shown people with a high body mass index (BMI) tend to have low macula pigment density and are therefore at greater risk of suffering diseases such as AMD (age-related macular degeneration). Likewise, too much alcohol, too much smoking, and even too much time at the computer screen contributes heavily to losing your eyesight.

According to official figures almost one in four UK adults are obese (23% in 2006), expected by the government to hit one in three adults next year. However many Brits are unaware that they even class as ‘obese’ and are therefore putting their eyes at risk.

National Eye Week (9th to 15th November), organised by the Eyecare Trust, seeks to promote the importance of looking after your eyes and making regular visits to the optician. If you are worried about how your weight can affect your eyesight, make sure you log onto our live and interactive Web TV show at 1.30pm on Monday 9th November. Rosie Gavzey, a Director of the Eyecare Trust, joins us live to discuss sight loss and obesity.

To submit a question before the chat, please use the form below.

Find out more

See all our information on obesity, BMI, diabetic eye disease and glaucoma.

Have your say

Join in further discussion on this subject in the Patient UK interactive forum.

Related News Items on 'Obesity'

Click on a link below to view the article in our newspaper

• Obese Britons live on breadline (The Scotsman 02/11/2009)
• Fattism (BBC 29/10/2009)
• NHS obesity admissions 'rocket' (BBC 28/10/2009)
• Weight loss pills vs anti-fat jab (NHS Choices 23/10/2009)
• Diabetes drug 'trumps fat pill' (BBC 23/10/2009)
• Obese couple get baby back despite 6 children still in care (The Scotsman 23/10/2009)
• Airlift on the cards for 70-stone patient (The Scotsman 20/10/2009)
• Overweight 'should be protected' (BBC 19/10/2009)
• 'I was too fat to walk up the stairs' (Mirror 09/10/2009)
• Shock treatment (BBC 07/10/2009)
• Middle age fat and life-span (NHS Choices 30/09/2009)
• Surgeon asks if it is time to get tough on obesity (BBC 30/09/2009)
• Over a third of Scottish boys are overweight (The Scotsman 30/09/2009)
• Most children 'not active enough' (NHS Choices 28/09/2009)
• 'Surgery' to fight the flab is all in the mind (The Scotsman 27/09/2009)
• Obesity on verge of becoming top cancer cause (World health - EU Monitor 24/09/2009)
• Fat? Me? (BBC 23/09/2009)
• Appeal as 'obese' children go to care (The Scotsman 21/09/2009)
• Husband sheds half bodyweight to care for ill wife (The Scotsman 12/09/2009)
• Low self-esteem leads to obesity (BBC 11/09/2009)
• Why eating late at night is bad news for your body (BBC 04/09/2009)
• More children taking obesity drugs (NHS Choices 03/09/2009)
• Child obesity drug use 'soaring' (BBC 03/09/2009)
• GPs 'struggle with child obesity' (BBC 01/09/2009)
• Obese children as young as 12 show signs of heart disease (The Scotsman 01/09/2009)