Heavy smoking may damage vision: Study

Washington: Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day may damage your vision by affecting blood vessels and neurons in the retina, a study warns.

The study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, included 71 healthy people who smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes in their lives and 63 who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day, were diagnosed with tobacco addiction and reported no attempts to stop. The participants were between the ages of 25 and 45 and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision as measured by standard visual acuity charts, said researchers from the Rutgers University in the US.

"Cigarette smoke consists of numerous compounds that are harmful to health," said Steven



Silverstein, director of research at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. "it has been linked to a reduction in the thickness of layers in the brain, and to brain lesions, involving areas such as the frontal lobe, which plays a role in voluntary movement and control of thinking, and a decrease in activity in the area of the brain that processes vision," said Silverstein. Previous studies have pointed that long-term smoking doubles the risk for age-related macular degeneration and causes lens yellowing and inflammation.