Stop smoking cigarettes before they make you blind

New Delhi: Do you smoke cigarettes? Think twice before taking another drag as it may not only damage your heart or lungs but can also make you blind, experts say.
Smoking harms the retina — the light-sensing tissue in the back of the eyes, responsible for transmitting images to the brain.
“It’s like a film of a camera which converts light rays into impulses which help us see,” Raja Narayanan, Head of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad told IANS.
“Smoking increases the chemical compounds in the bloodstream thereby reducing blood and oxygen flow to the retina. This makes smokers two times more susceptible to Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD),” Narayanan added.
A recent study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, indicated significant changes in the smokers’ red-green and blue-yellow colour vision, which suggested that consuming substances with neurotoxic chemicals, such as those in cigarettes, may cause overall colour vision loss.
Smoking is one of the largest preventable causes of various diseases and premature deaths worldwide.