Why regular eye exams are important

Here's a plug for making sure you go to the opticians on a regular basis.  Also that's a picture of the back of my eye from a recent examination (they kindly saved it onto a memory stick for me).  This brings me around to remind myself why it's important to get an eyesight examination.  Why?  I'll tell you....

Do you need glasses?
As much as I might be in denial about middle aged physical decline, I have made a concession with eyesight and begrudgingly wear glasses for reading, sitting in front of my computer etc.  We all know this and gradually have to accept our eyesight does change as we get older.  For most people in their 40s, eyesight becomes gradually more longer-sighted.  Hyperopia is the medical term and it goes along with having problems with reading and other close-up work.  An optician can diagnose this, various eye diseases and other vision related difficulties quite easily.

Other health issues?
An eye exam is like a Doctor taking a look inside your body where quite a long list of things can be diagnosed, or at least to spot some tell-tale symptoms suggesting other tests or investigations are worthwhile.  These can include the early signs of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and so on.  "Don't wait until your toes fall off" before you get treated for diabetes is the kind of message some people need to hear!

And me?
Yes that's a photograph of the back of one of my eyes, taken about a month ago at a new opticians.  They said "ah Doug, it looks like you suffer from.....".  They were quite correct.

Anyone care to take a guess what they spotted?