Doctors Say Teenage Boy's ‘Picky Eating’ Caused His Blindness
Chips and other junk foods are all a teenager ate that caused his permanent blindness.
In September last year, a teenager, who, for years, had been eating nothing else but junk food gradually went blind because of his poor diet. This was according to a report on the said incident.
The case emphasized, probably, little-known information about poor diets, on top of its association with other conditions such as cancer, obesity and heart ailment, an individual can permanently impair the nervous system too, specifically, "vision."
According to the report, the teen's problems started when he was 14 years old when he went to his doctor's clinic to complain of fatigue.
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The Verge of Turning 'Legally Blind'
Based on the said report, the teen was said to be "a fussy eater." Additionally, blood tests indicated, he had anemia and low vitamin B12 levels.
To address the said results, the teenager underwent injection of the vitamin he was lacking, along with advice on improving his diet.
Nevertheless, when the teen turned 15, he experienced "hearing loss and vision problems." However, his doctors could not apparently find the cause of such conditions, especially that his MRI and eye test results were both normal.
Over a couple of weeks, the patient's vision progressively worsened. At age 17, his eye examination presented that he had 20/200 vision in both eyes. This, medical experts proclaimed, is the threshold in the United States, of turning "legally blind."
Further tests presented, the youngster had developed impairment to his optic nerve, which, according to medical explanation, "connects the back of the eye to the brain."
Additionally, the teenager remained to have low vitamin B12 levels, along with selenium, copper, and vitamin D, which he also had low levels in.
Fires and Chips as the Culprits
The said deficiencies urged the doctors to ask the teenage boy what foods he was eating. For his part, the patient confessed to having not eaten "certain texture of food" since grade school.
He told the doctors, fries, chips, white bread, ham slices and sausages are the only foods he ate. After other causes had been ruled out, the patient was reportedly diagnosed to have "nutritional optic neuropathy."
This condition is also known as "damage to the optic nerve," resulting from diet and nutrition deficiencies.
Nutritional optic neuropathy can be caused by various factors such as poor diet, alcohol abuse, and drugs, to name some. The authors elaborated that "purely dietary causes" are atypically developed in many nations.
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Potentially Mutable
Vision loss, as a result of optic neuropathy, according to research, is potentially mutable as long as it is determined early. In the case of this teenage boy, by the time he was diagnosed, he had permanently lost his vision.
According to Dr. Denize Atan, the study lead author, only wearing eyeglasses, would not be helpful to the teen's vision as an impairment to the optic nerve is non-correctable with lenses.
The teen, in his case, was reportedly "prescribed nutritional supplements," which hindered his vision loss from worsening further.
Additionally, the said teenager was also endorsed to mental health services specializing in an eating disorder.
Relatively, the researchers noted that the patient's diet was not just picky or selective eating. Instead, the diet was too restrictive as well, and it led to multiple nutritional deficiencies.
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Jul 17, 2020 09:00 AM EDT
