Headaches occur pretty often. In fact, the National Headache Foundation notes that 45 million Americans suffer from headaches which are chronic and recurring. Migraine headaches affect 28 million of the 45 million who suffer from headaches. Since headaches are common, they can be misdiagnosed or associated with many ailments.
READ: You Could Have Glaucoma & Not Know It: 3 Reasons To Get Your Eyes Checked
Sometimes, pain associated with headaches may be diagnosed as a regular headache. However, if you consistently experience headaches, there is a possibility that your headaches could be associated with your vision. In order to determine if this is the case, you should obtain an eye exam.
As you head to your eye doctor for an annual eye exam, here are some of the connections you should know which exist between vision and headaches. One common cause of headaches is eyestrain. Eyestrain occurs when the small muscles in your eye are overworked. Some signs of this include blurred vision, aching eyes and recurrent headaches.
Eyestrain can be tied to several things according to the vision site MyEyes.com which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Presbyopia – This is when the eye lens become hardened. Some of this naturally occurs with the aging process. Other effects include difficulty in focusing on objects, sore eyes and headaches.
Astigmatism – Astigmatism happens when your cornea is an abnormal shape. A sign that you may have astigmatism may be that you have to squint in order to focus on a particular object. Doing this over a period of time leads to people having repeated headaches.
Hyperopia – This condition is also referred to as farsightedness. If you suffer from farsightedness, you are unable to clearly see things which are fairly close to your eyes. This happens because your eyes focus on images that are behind your retina instead of directly on it. When this happens, you may experience blurred vision, additional eyestrain and headaches.
Glaucoma – Glaucoma takes place when there is a buildup of fluid in the eye. This causes internal eye pressure. The pressure that occurs because of this internal pressure associated with glaucoma can also lead to severe headaches.
Cataracts – As you age, cataracts can develop and the eye becomes clouded. This causes a person’s vision to become more limited as your eye works harder to make up for this deficit. It becomes harder for your eyes to see and focus which leads to eyestrain and headaches.
While it can be scary to have any of these conditions, there are various treatment options available to you. Some of these corrective treatments include prescription glasses or contact lenses. If you are already wearing glasses and/or contacts, you may simply need to have your prescription modified. There are also surgical procedures available which can correct cataracts and glaucoma.
If you are having persistent headaches which continue to worsen, head to your eye doctor for an exam. Your headaches may be connected to a vision problem. In doing so, you may be able to remedy this issue quickly and relieve those headaches.
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