What do diabetes, Graves’ eye disease, thyroid problems, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia and several other medical conditions have in common?

They can all be detected during a careful eye examination.

Obviously, during an eye exam, your eyes are being checked for vision (farsightedness, nearsightedness, etc.), glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration. But other diseases that are located elsewhere in your body can be detected in your eyes, too. That’s because your eye is the only place where a doctor can have an unobstructed view of your blood vessels, nerves and connecting tissue, without any need for surgery.

The eye has the same microscopic tissue as your other major organs and is an important part of your larger nervous system. Abnormalities spotted in the eye may signal the same changes in other parts of your body.

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