Subject: Alcohol and Eyesight
I've never considered myself a heavy drinker, but I guess the habit of a glass or two a night may have started to take their toll on my body. With the stresses of Covid, the consumption became a daily thing, never getting drunk, as I can take an hour to appreciate just one glass, but a well loved ritual in a time where so many rituals were inaccessible.

We are also quite active, being avid pickleball players, focused on improving our game. This past year, however, my eyesight was getting worse and I accepted that my age may be catching up with me. I have always struggled with constantly changing eyesight, which can swing to the better or worse at any time. I have tried several times to get glasses, just to have the prescription change from the time I left the optometrist to the time I picked up my glasses, which were then useless. Sis has the same issue with her eyes.

Knowing that alcohol is also inflammatory, I eliminated the daily ritual to see if it improved the increasing joint pain I was experiencing. A bit later I went to get my eyes checked out, and one of the questions they asked was about alcohol consumption. I didn't think much about it until a few weeks later, when I realized that my eyesight was improving significantly, requiring my reading glasses less and less. So being a researcher, I set off Googling.

While the effects of alcohol intake on organs such as the liver and brain are well-known, the ocular impact of imbibing is less commonly understood by patients. But excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to a variety of adverse effects on the eye, ranging from minor and reversible to debilitating and permanent.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines excessive drinking as 4 or more drinks on a single occasion for women and 5 or more drinks on a single occasion for men, or a weekly total of 8 or more drinks for women and 15 or more drinks for men.2 https://www.ophthalmologyadvis...

My eyes are not horrendous at 20/30 20/40, but I sure intend to keep them from getting worse, and will try eye exercises to see if I can continue to improve them. My optometrist is also an ophthalmologist, and saw no need for further testing. As a woman I am now clear that 2 glasses of wine, DAILY, is too much, and have switched to herbal tea for my relaxation ritual, though my French genes are protesting. Will keep occasional alcohol consumption for out of the house.

It may surprise you that this surprised me, but if I can give anyone else out there a heads up of this potential issue, I figured it was worth posting.

FWIW,

IP