You may look so young, but your eyes never lie, say researchers. It turns out that eyes say a lot more than we might have thought, especially about our health. New research shows that your eyes show how healthy you actually are and how great the chance of (early) death is.
You may have noticed that a doctor often looks into the eyes during a general examination. That’s not for nothing. Various diseases can be read from the eyes and our viewers say a lot about health. But it can be even more accurate, according to Australian research that in the British Journal of Ophthalmology popped up. The researchers even claim to be the first to make this discovery.
Eyes indicate your age
Because what turns out? Through the eyes one can read an age. Our retina can ‘tell’ researchers what our biological age is. But, and here comes the surprise, that could be older than you actually are. And that means that your health is not in perfect order.
Because your biological age says nothing about your date of birth. Principal Investigator Dr. Minguang He docks CNN explains that the retina provides a lot of information about underlying diseases and our overall health. The researchers compared 130,000 retinal images of participants between the ages of 40 and 69.
Accurate research
An older biological age, or eye age, is linked to a higher risk of death. The greater the difference between your actual age and your eye age, the greater the chance of (premature) death. The study found that large differences between these ages, such as three, five or ten years, increased the risk of death by 67 percent.
The researchers themselves were unable to read these precise details from the eyes. A computer had to be used for that. “We can tell if someone is a child versus an older adult, but not if someone is 70 or 80 years old,” said Dr. Sunir Garg, who is a professor and expert in the field of ophthalmology.
Predicting mortality
So the bottom line is that our retina is a predictor. “A higher age recorded from the retina is an increased risk of mortality,” the researchers emphasize. “The results show that retinal age is a good indicator of ageing.” By the way, do you know why your skin sags as you get older? Metro wrote an article about it earlier.
In the longer term, this research can have a beneficial effect on society. Because by performing a detailed eye test, a lot becomes clear about someone’s health. “This allows patients to make timely changes to improve their overall health,” said Garg.
13 facts and myths about sleep: which myths should you (no longer) believe?
Did you see a mistake? Mail us. We are grateful.
Respond to article:
This body part says a lot about your health and even how likely it is to die