6 Scary Reasons Your Eyes Are Acting Weird

6 Scary Reasons Your Eyes Are Acting Weird



The eyes have it—the clues to your health, that is. Sure, you need to be on the lookout for common eye conditions like glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration. But your eyes may also tell you when things are seriously off elsewhere. "Nothing in your body is in a box," says Deborah Herrmann, MD, assistant professor of clinical ophthalmology and attending physician at Scheie Eye Institute at University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "Your eyes are connected to your central nervous system and everything else. Something that's affecting your body can be affecting your eyes as well."

Whether you're feeling weird eye symptoms or seeing them when you look in the mirror, pay attention. Your peepers could be sounding the alarm about one of these 6 serious conditions.

High cholesterol

"Someone with high cholesterol can have transient vision loss that comes and goes, like a curtain or shade coming and going over their eye," says Herrmann. This is a sign your carotid artery is plugged with plaque and struggling to get blood to your eye. You may also have eye pain, notice a grey ring around your cornea (called an arcus senilis), or have trouble adjusting to bright light. In some cases, yellowish cholesterol deposits called xanthelasma can show up on your eyelids or in the corners of your eye socket.

Thyroid problems

Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped organ in your neck, and it controls certain hormones that help regulate your growth and metabolism. If your thyroid isn't functioning properly it can lead to a host of problems, which sometimes includes swollen eye muscles and congested eye sockets that cause your eyes to bulge out and look bigger than usual, says Herrmann. You might also have double vision. Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects your thyroid, can make your eyelids retract, which can also make your eyes look bigger than usual. If your eyelids retract enough that you can't close your eye, you may develop dry eye, since your lids can't keep moisture in.