People With Anorexia May Risk Serious Eye Damage WEDNESDAY Oct.
20, 2010 -- People with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa may
be at risk for potentially serious eye damage, says a small new
study from Greece. This damage can occur in the macula, which is
located near the center of the retina at the back of the eye and
is responsible for fine detailed central vision and the
processing of light. In this study, researchers at the
University of Athens compared the thickness of the macula and
its electrical activity in the eyes of 13 women who'd had
anorexia nervosa for an average of 10 years and 20 healthy women
without anorexia who served as controls. The average age of the
women was 28. When compared to the healthy women, those with
anorexia nervosa had no obvious visual problems and their eyes
were working normally. However, the macula and the nerve layers
feeding it (retinal nerve fibers) were much thinner in the eyes
of the women with anorexia nervosa. Their eyes also showed
significantly less firing of t