September 22, 2022
Josh Ehrlich discussed the connection between vision impairment and cognitive health
In an article for the AARP, researchers discussed the connection between vision impairment and cognitive health.
Researchers aren’t sure exactly how or why vision and cognitive health are related, but they believe it’s likely the same mechanism that links hearing loss to dementia.
One possibility is that the disease process degrading your eyesight is also harming your cognition, says Josh Ehrlich, M.D., an ophthalmologist and population health researcher at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center.
“The eye is an extension of the brain. It’s neural tissue,” he explains. “If you have neural degeneration happening, then it stands to reason the eye might be affected as well as the brain.”