Cut From Steel

He lost his sight at 43. Then he wrote his masterpiece.

John Milton was one of the best-known writers in England. He also lost his eyesight slowly, over several years. By 1652 he was completely blind, at forty-three years old. Nobody in his day could stop it.

Milton could have called his working life finished. He wrote a short poem about the fear instead. In it he asked how a blind man could still be of any use, and he answered himself in the last line. 'They also serve who only stand and wait.'

Milton did not wait long. He composed his greatest work in his head, line after line, in the dark. The work took him years. Friends and helpers sat with him and wrote the verses down as he spoke them.

Paradise Lost came out in 1667, fifteen years after he went blind. The first edition ran to ten books and more than ten thousand lines of verse. Many readers rank it among the greatest poems in the English language. You probably know the title even if you never read a page of it.

You still have your sight, and you have something Milton never had. He had no way to protect his eyes. You have a simple one. One exam this year may show you more than your vision.

Forgot a Name Again? Look in Your Kitchen First.

You can’t find your keys. A name you have known for years is right there, and it won’t come out.

Most men file that under getting older. Memory researchers at the University of New Mexico point somewhere else: one everyday kitchen habit they say to stop right away.

It is one small change. According to the researchers, it can strengthen your memory and sharpen your focus, starting today.

More than 47,000 people have already made this simple change.

Helen K. from Denver put it plainly: “I thought memory loss was just aging. Turns out I was wrong — and so was my doctor.”

==> See the kitchen habit memory researchers say to stop

The exam you stopped booking

You bought reading glasses at the drugstore a few years ago. They worked well enough, so you never went back to an eye doctor. You figured your eyes were the one part of you that only needed a stronger lens. An eye exam never once struck you as a heart check.

I want to give you a better reason to book that appointment. The back of your eye holds something no ordinary check-up can show you. A doctor can look straight at your living blood vessels. In other words, your eye doctor gets a direct look at plumbing your family doctor can only guess at.

You read that right. University of Utah Health calls the retina the only place in the body where a doctor can see living vessels and nerves without X-rays or surgery. Those tiny vessels can carry early clues about your heart and brain.

What the doctor sees back there

You sit in the chair, the drops widen your pupils, and the doctor shines a light in. Your vision is only part of what gets checked. Ophthalmologists can spot early signs of three common problems that most men find out about much later.

01 / Blood pressure

You can carry high blood pressure for years without a single symptom. Over time it can damage the small vessels at the back of your eye. Utah Health says a dilated exam can reveal unusually shaped vessels or bleeding back there.

02 / Blood sugar

You may have diabetes and not know it yet. Tiny vessels in the retina can start leaking yellow fluid in the early stages. Utah Health notes those signs may appear before a diagnosis, which buys you time to act. Catching it early gives you more choices.

03 / Cholesterol

You might have high cholesterol sitting in your blood right now. A doctor may see a pale ring around the cornea, or deposits inside the retinal vessels. Neither one hurts, so most men never hear about it until somebody looks.

Book the dilated exam

You want a comprehensive exam with dilating drops, not a quick screen at the glasses counter. Utah Health advises a full dilated exam by age 40, then every year or two from 65. Your doctor may want you in more often if you have diabetes or high blood pressure.

You may find close work blurry for a while afterward. Bring sunglasses, and bring a driver if bright light bothers you.

You should also mention any changes you have noticed, even small ones. Tell the doctor about blurry patches, new floaters, or trouble seeing at night. Those details help the doctor know where to look.

I also want you to ask one question before you leave. Ask the doctor what your blood vessels looked like. Write the answer down and take it to your next physical, because your family doctor may want to act on it. Keep a copy of the report in the same folder as your blood work.

One last thing. Milton had no warning he could act on. You can get yours from a chair and a light.

— Travis

Insider Member's Corner

6 free habits that keep the small vessels open: