Drs Kerry Gelb and Jason Fung in Toronto, Canada

A new documentary places optometrists at the forefront of preventative care by revealing how current optometric technology provides early detection of deadly diseases such as obesity, diabetes, myopia and Alzheimer’s disease.

In the Open your eyes documentary, optometrist and producer Dr Kerry Gelb teams up with podcast host Chris Maraboli to expose how optometric testing can thwart the rise of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes, myopia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Travelling across North America, Europe and Costa Rica they interview physicians and leading experts in neuroscience, optometry, cardiology, nephrology and more to highlight lifestyle changes and innovative medical treatments to prevent and treat these diseases.

“The public doesn’t realise that almost 300 diseases can actually manifest in the eye, and the blood vessels of the eye can show us warning signs about many systemic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes, before anywhere else in the body,” said Dr Gelb. “The optometrist is the new general practitioner, giving people insights into their health and the right referrals, while equipping them with strategies to properly manage and reverse chronic, preventable diseases.”

Discussing the new documentary with Vision Monday, Dr Gelb described how he interviewed Costa Rican centenarians to ascertain how they’d maintained their eye health for a century and shares research showing 40% of Costa Rican children in urban areas have myopia, compared with just 10% in rural areas. He also discusses the rise of obesity with a range of clinicians, including Toronto-based nephrologist Dr Jason Fung.

Commenting on the documentary, Dr Fung said, “Optometrists can non-invasively screen thousands of people, not just for their eye health, but for their whole-body health, putting optometrists at the very tip of preventative medicine.”

Open Your Eyes premiered on 29 April: openyoureyes2020.com/