Does Lack Of B12 Degrade Your Eyesight?
I asked this question of Google AI and received this answer.
Yes, a lack of vitamin B12 can degrade your eyesight, typically by causing a condition known as nutritional optic neuropathy. This occurs because B12 is essential for maintaining a healthy nervous system, and a deficiency can damage the optic nerve, which transmits visual information from the eye to the brain.
Here is how a B12 deficiency can impact your eyes and vision:
Optic Neuropathy: A, often painless, progressive, bilateral, and symmetrical reduction in visual acuity.
It often results in blurred or disturbed vision, central or cecocentral scotomas (blind spots), and reduced color vision.
Vision Loss: Severe, long-term B12 deficiency can lead to permanent vision loss if not treated promptly.
Retinal Damage: B12 deficiency can cause retinal hemorrhages (bleeding in the retina), known as Roth’s spots.
Eye Movements: In rare cases, it can cause involuntary eye movements (nystagmus) or uncontrollable eye twitching.
Dry Eye Disease: Some evidence suggests B12 deficiency can cause severe dry eye issues and pain.
Reversibility
Vision problems caused by B12 deficiency are often reversible with prompt treatment.
However, if the damage is allowed to become chronic, the vision impairment can be permanent.
Risk Groups
Those at higher risk of B12 deficiency leading to vision issues include:
- Strict vegetarians and vegans.
- Older adults (60+).
- Individuals with pernicious anemia.
- People with gastrointestinal conditions (Crohn’s disease, celiac disease) or who have had weight-loss surgery.
I am in two of these groups, as I’m 78 and coeliac.
My First Eye Test
This was performed in about 1993, by a friend’s father, who was a retired Senior Eye Surgeon from Heath Road Hospital in Ipswich.
At the time, I wasn’t coeliac.
He said, that I’d got the driest eyes he’d ever seen. I actually told my last GP, so it may be in my notes.
Misearable Weather And My Eye Sight
In January, I wrote this post called Does Miserable Weather Deplete Your B12?
Is this why my eyes and especially my left eye, have been bad ladely?
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The Anonymous Widower 
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