We often hear that our eyes are the windows to our souls, but now scientists say they could also be windows to our heart health.
A new study from St. George’s, University of London and other research groups has found that the tiny blood vessels in the back of our eyes might tell us important things about our risk for high blood pressure and heart disease.
The back part of the eye, called the retina, contains many small blood vessels. These can be clearly seen with digital images, making it easier for doctors and scientists to study them. Because these vessels are part of the body’s larger system of blood circulation, their shape and size can reveal a lot about a person’s health.
Doctors already know that changes in these blood vessels can be linked to health problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. But until now, it wasn’t clear how much our genes affect the way these vessels are formed.
To answer that question, researchers studied eye images from nearly 53,000 people who were part of the UK Biobank study. They used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to quickly and accurately measure the size, shape, and twist of the blood vessels in the images.
They then performed a large-scale genetic study, known as a genome-wide association study (GWAS), to find out if certain genes were linked to the patterns they saw in the eye vessels. What they found was groundbreaking.
The team discovered 119 specific areas in the human genome that were linked to the way the eye’s blood vessels are shaped. This was the most genetic links ever found in a study like this. Most interestingly, 89 of these areas were tied to how twisted the arteries in the retina were.
This twisting of arteries turned out to be strongly influenced by genetics, more than any other feature studied. It also had a clear connection to high diastolic blood pressure—the pressure in your arteries when your heart is resting between beats.
People with more twisted retinal arteries were more likely to have high diastolic blood pressure and also had a higher risk of heart disease.
These findings are important because they give scientists a new way to look at heart health. By studying the blood vessels in our eyes, we might be able to catch signs of heart disease earlier and take steps to prevent it. This could lead to new treatments and better ways to predict who is at risk.
The study shows that our eyes can do more than help us see. They might also help doctors see what’s going on inside our bodies in ways we never imagined. This kind of research opens the door to more personalized and preventive healthcare, where a simple eye scan could reveal early signs of serious heart problems.
Led by Professor Christopher Owen, the study was published in the journal PLOS Genetics and could mark the beginning of a whole new approach to heart health.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
