Your Family History Helps Us Protect Your Eyes

You may have inherited a knack for cooking from your parents, but it’s also possible you inherited certain eye disease risks.

Many Eye Conditions Have Genetic Links

Does someone in your family—a parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt—have AMD (Age-related macular degeneration)? If so, your risk of developing AMD goes up significantly!

Has someone in your family been diagnosed with glaucoma? According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, you’re 4–9 times more likely to have it too. In fact, 10% of people who have a sibling with glaucoma will have glaucoma too.

Catching Early Signs Allows Us To Preserve Your Sight

We don’t want these statistics to stress you out! Instead, we want you to be vigilant so that you can protect your eyesight. Few patients notice the early warning signs of vision problems. The longer you wait to have it diagnosed and treated, the more of your vision you lose.

However, when we catch early signs through regular comprehensive dilated eye exams, we can take measures to protect your sight. This can slow and sometimes halt the progression of eye disease.

Learn Your Family’s Vision History

1. Talk to your family. Learn about any vision challenges that your immediate family has experienced, and about conditions farther back in your family history.
2. Let us know what you learn so that we can more closely monitor specific things.
3. Educate yourself on the signs of developing eye disease.

We’re Your Vision Health Partner For Life

If you have a history of eye problems in your family, know that you have a support system at one of our Vision Source practices. We can help you learn what to be aware of, monitor your risk, and preserve your sight. We’re passionate about helping you see the very best you can! Even without eye problems in your family, you’ll still need to carefully monitor your risk for eye diseases. Be smart, and be healthy.

Find a Vision Source practice near you. 

Top image by Flickr user Split the Kipper used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.