Keeping Your Eyes Healthy Can Improve Your Quality of Life

DR. RODGERS: Losing sight through eye disease can be life-altering.

Hi, I’m Dr. Griffin Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at NIH.

National Eye Institute Director, Dr. Michael Chiang, explains.

DR. CHIANG: Each of our senses helps to form our unique understanding and our interaction with the world, and vision can be a critical part of that interaction. So facing vision loss is very hard—it can affect your ability to perform daily tasks like driving, socializing, or using computers or mobile devices.

So to protect your vision, it’s important to know your family health history and share it with your doctor. Some eye conditions run in families, like macular degeneration or glaucoma. And as we get older, almost all of us become susceptible to eye conditions like cataracts.

So talk to your doctor about the steps you can take to lower your risk for eye disease and to improve your overall health.

DR. RODGERS: Follow us @NIDDKgov. This is Dr. Griffin Rodgers.