Eyes: A Window to the World for Your Brain (2024)

What are the common conditions and disorders that affect your eyes?

The types of conditions that can affect your eyes vary depending on the specific part(s) involved. That’s because your eyes include a variety of tissue types. It has muscle, connective tissue, nerves, blood vessels and more.

Some of the different types of eye conditions include — but aren’t limited to — the following:

• Refractive errors. These are problems with how you see because light isn’t coming into focus on your retinas correctly. Refractive errors can take many forms, such as focusing too soon (nearsightedness) or too late (farsightedness). They can also involve distortions in your sight, like with astigmatism.
• Corneal disorders. These are conditions that affect the cornea itself. They can happen for many reasons, ranging from congenital conditions (which you have at birth) to conditions that don’t develop until later in life.
• Retinal disorders. These conditions can happen because of problems that affect the retina directly. They can also be secondary effects of another disease, like how lattice degeneration can lead to a retinal detachment.
• Optic nerve-related conditions. These affect the nerve that links the eyes and brain. Examples include optic neuritis and optic atrophy.
• Age-related eye disorders. These conditions are more likely to happen as you get older, especially after age 65. They range from minor concerns like age-related loss of near vision (presbyopia) to serious concerns like cataracts. Some age-related eye diseases, like macular degeneration or glaucoma, are severe enough to cause permanent vision loss.

Your eyes are also susceptible to more general conditions and issues. Examples of these include:

• Infections.
• Injuries and trauma.
• Cancer.
• Congenital malformations.

What are some common signs or symptoms of eye conditions?

Signs and symptoms of an eye condition can vary greatly. One reason for that is the many different parts that affect or contribute to your vision. A common example of this is how a metabolic and circulatory condition like Type 2 diabetes can lead to vision loss over time.

Some symptoms affect the surface of your eye only. Others affect the inside of your eye. Some key types of eye symptoms include:

• Eye surface issues.
• Eye appearance/alignment.
• Eye function and sight.

Eye surface issues

These symptoms affect your eyes’ surface or the area immediately surrounding them. They include:

• Irritation.
• Red eye.
• Watery eyes.
• Discharge, ooze or “goop” coming from your eyes.

Eye appearance/alignment

• Changes in the color of the sclera (such as blue or yellow sclera) or noticeable bleeding into the conjunctiva.
• Reflex or appearance changes affecting the iris or pupil (like leukocoria, coloboma, etc.).
• Eye misalignment (strabismus), including inward (esotropia), outward (exotropia), upward (hypertropia) or downward (hypotropia).

Eye function and sight

Symptoms from eye-related conditions can also affect your sight itself. The eyes are often a sense you rely on heavily, so sight- or vision-related symptoms are often easier to notice.

Some of them involve changes or disruptions in how or what you see. Examples include — but aren’t limited to — the following:

• Trouble seeing clearly or properly: Blurred vision from refractive errors, or specific vision issues like night blindness or color blindness.
• Decrease or loss of vision: Sudden vision loss or low vision and blindness.
• Disrupted vision: Double vision or visible auras (bright haze or splotches in your field of view) like from ocular migraines.
• Light sensitivity (photosensitivity or photophobia): This is when bright light causes you pain or discomfort severe enough that you try to avoid brighter surroundings and prefer dimmer areas or light levels.

How the link between your eyes and brain influences symptoms

It’s also important to remember that many causes of eye symptoms — especially sight/vision changes or eye movement control symptoms — may not be due to an eye condition. Some might happen due to a condition elsewhere in your body. An example of this is yellowing of the sclera when you have jaundice.

The familiar saying is that “the eyes are a window to the soul.” But from the medical perspective, they’re also like a window to your brain. Eye-related symptoms are a key way for healthcare providers to find brain conditions and issues. That’s why vision changes can be telltale indicators of brain-related issues like concussions or strokes.

What are some common tests to check eye health?

Many tests can detect conditions that affect your eyes directly or that cause eye symptoms. The most important of them is an eye exam. Regular eye exams can detect many eye conditions or concerns before you ever have symptoms. And eye exams can help prevent long-term vision damage or issues when you have other conditions like Type 2 diabetes.

Other common tests include:

• Color blindness test.
• General imaging tests, like ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Glaucoma tests.
• Intraocular pressure test.
• Retinal imaging tests.
• Slit lamp exam.
• Visual acuity test.
• Visual field tests.

There are many tests your eye care specialist or other healthcare provider may recommend depending on your symptoms and the suspected cause(s). They may also recommend tests for other body systems that might influence or cause eye symptoms. Your specialist or provider is the best source of information about test options, what they recommend and why.

What are some common treatments for eye conditions?

There are many possible treatments for eye conditions, and the treatments can vary widely. Some conditions or concerns that are common or not severe may have simpler treatments. Other conditions or concerns need more advanced care options.

Some examples of types of eye care include:

• Vision correction. This is the main approach to treating eyesight issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness or age-related near vision loss. Eyeglasses and contact lenses are the most common options. Some people need prescription glasses or contacts, while others may only need reading glasses (sometimes known as “cheaters”). Others may choose to undergo vision correction surgery.
• Medications. Medications can treat many conditions that — either directly or indirectly — affect your eyes. The type of medication depends on the specific condition(s) involved and other factors. These include medicated drops or ointments you apply to your eyes or medications you take other ways (by mouth, via injection or infusion, etc.).
• Surgery. Many eye conditions are treatable with surgery. These can include a variety of methods, including phacoemulsification (which uses ultrasound to break up cataracts), cryotherapy (which uses intense cold), radiofrequency ablation (which uses intense heat) and laser surgery.

Many other possible treatments can play a role in treating eye conditions or symptoms. Because there are many influencing factors, your eye care specialist or healthcare provider is the best person to tell you more about treatment options. They can explain the options and help you choose one that’s most likely to help you.