Tobacco and Your Vision: Who Turned Off the Lights?
It’s time to step up to the plate and look at the real effects of tobacco and nicotine on your vision. Like it or not, the nicotine in your cigarettes and smokeless tobacco is stealing your ability to see at night and slowly speeding up the degeneration of your eyes. In fact, using any form of tobacco puts you at great risk for vision problems—studies have shown a 20 to 50 percent reduction in night vision for smokers.1
Let’s Play Ball
Strike one: Nicotine slows and can eventually stop the production of rhodopsin in the human eye. Rhodopsin is crucial to night vision because it is the chemical pigment responsible for your ability to adapt to the dark and process the color purple.
Strike two: Rhodopsin, also known as visual purple, is the pigment in your retina responsible for the formation of the photocreceptor cells. In the absence of light, your eyes search for the color purple.
Strike three: You can’t see at night without rhodopsin.
You’re out: If you can’t see it coming, you’re a sitting duck.
If you smoke or chew, you are putting yourself at risk by reducing your night vision. Whether you’re driving alone at night or your unit is on patrol downrange, your night vision can make all the difference in critical situations.
To make matters worse, the nicotine in tobacco has a rapid effect on veins and arteries, which in turn reduces blood circulation throughout the body. Healthy circulation is important for healthy eyes and healthy vision. Smoking is also a risk factor for the loss of vision, and, subsequently, personal freedom, because of its role in the development of age-related macular degeneration.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel- when you stop using nicotine products your vision can improve, as can your circulation. So remember, when you’re creating your list of reasons to quit, don’t forget to add this one near the top!
References
1 http://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/downloads/tobacco/jun2005.pdf (PDF, 551 KB)