It’s common knowledge that smoking increases your risk of developing lung cancer and having heart disease or a stroke. But did you also know that smoking puts you at higher risk for developing eye diseases and losing vision?

Cigarette smoke is extremely toxic and contains as many as 4,000 active compounds, including tar, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals. In addition to harming the lungs, heart, blood vessels, and tissues of the body, these toxins have also been directly linked to two leading causes of vision loss, cataracts and macular degeneration.

Studies indicate that smoking can increase your risk of vision loss by up to four times. Smoking damages the blood vessels inside your eyes, damages your retina, and reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches your macula. Smoking also increases your risk of dry eye syndrome. In fact, smoking contributes to numerous eye diseases, such as: (more…)

Ophthalmology specialist Dr. Andrew Anzeljc will be joining Baptist Eye Surgeons in August, 2018. Dr. Anzeljc specializes in oculoplastic, tear duct, and orbital surgery, essentially meaning anything around but not in the eyeball.

Dr. Anzeljc obtained his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2012, completed his internship at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in 2013 and his residency in Ophthalmology at Emory University in Atlanta in 2016. He then completed a fellowship in oculoplastic and orbital surgery at Emory University in Atlanta in 2018 before joining Baptist Eye Surgeons.

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