Nearly Half Of Americans Have High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Or Diabetes.

Can you believe that?! I just read that statistic in an article this morning. The truth can sometimes be scary and this is definitely one of those times! The Los Angeles Times reports that "1 in 8 Americans has at least two of the conditions and 1 in 33 has all three."

The article on WebMD summarized a new study published by the CDC. Here are some highlights from the study: "It is well know that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes all increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, a condition that affects more than 81 million Americans and accounts for one out of every three deaths in the US. What is less known is the co-existence of these three conditions based on race/ethnicity, as well as the prevalence of diagnosed vs. undiagnosed high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes among these groups. The study shows that about 8% of adults have undiagnosed high blood pressure, 8% have undiagnosed high cholesterol, and 3% have undiagnosed diabetes."

So now you may ask ok, so Dr. Fraser is an optometrist; why so much information on systemic diseases? Well all three of the diseases mentioned above if uncontrolled or untreated can show up in the eye and can in the most severe cases lead to blindness. Yes...blindness!

Some of you may know that my undergraduate degree is in Health Science (public health degree from the greatest university in the country...CLEMSON of course)! Because of this background, my passion is educating friends, family members and patients on the importance of healthy living and how that impacts eye health.

Let's start with Diabetes. According to an article I read on WebMD an estimated 18 million Americans have diagnosed Diabetes and another 5.7 million Americans are walking around with undiagnosed diabetes. Pretty astounding numbers isn't it? I thought so; although I can't say that I am surprised with the way Americans live today! Diabetes is a disease that interferes with the body's ability to use and store sugar, which can cause many health problems. Too much sugar in the blood can cause damage throughout the body, including eyes. Over time, diabetes affects the circulatory system of the retina. The tiny blood vessels that line the back of the eye can become leaky and new blood vessels can grow where they should not be growing. Trust me, you don't want this happening to your eyes!

Let's move on to high cholesterol. The same article reported more than 102 million US adults have elevated cholesterol levels--meaning a total blood cholesterol measurement of 200mg/dL or higher--and 35.7 million among this group have cholesterol levels 240 mg/dL or high and considered high risk. Tiny plaques can be observed in the blood vessels that line the back of the eyes in patients with hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol).

Finally let's address hypertension (high blood pressure). High blood pressure accounted for more than 56,000 deaths in the US in 2006; and about 74.5 million people age 20 and older have high blood pressure. So again, we see here that a large number of Americans are living with this disease as well. Hypertension is dangerous because it makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body and it contributes to hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and the development of heart failure. As an optometrist, I have the ability to detect uncontrolled or undiagnosed hypertension if it is affecting the eyes. Most often we will see changes to the blood vessels that line the back of the eyes.

So as you can see keeping your body healthy is good for so many reasons, one being eye health! I hope this entry has been helpful Please don't hesitate to ask questions. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!

Keeping an Eye on You,

Betsy W. Fraser, O.D.