BODY SIGNAL ALERT VISION, DOUBLE: DESCRIPTION AND POSSIBLE MEDICAL PROBLEMS
If you cross your eyes, you’ll see two of whatever you’re looking at. But if you begin to see double without purposely crossing your eyes, you should see your doctor, since this condition can be a symptom of diabetes, hypertension, or arteriosclerosis.
Double vision, also known as diplopia, occurs when one of your eyes crosses by itself or when the picture one of your eyes receives is not being processed properly by the brain. Ordinarily, the muscles of the eyes work together to coordinate two images into one picture. However, when one of the body’s major operating systems goes awry—such as with diabetes or hypertension—it can affect how the ocular muscles operate. Sometimes a trauma to one of the nerves in the brain that controls the eye muscles—such as an aneurysm—can affect your eyesight.
When double vision is caused by an aneurysm, a condition in which the wall of an artery swells, the aneurysm can press on some of the nerves that affect sight. Arteriosclerosis can reduce or completely stop the flow of blood to the optic nerve, and diabetes frequently affects circulation to the retina.
Double vision tends to occur in diabetics who have had their disease for ten years or more. The altered metabolic processes that are a symptom of diabetes can sometimes deprive the retina of oxygen, with one result being double vision.
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