The eye is a delicate mechanism that requires a perfect level of moisture, pressure, and oxygenation in order to stay healthy. If any of these factors is thrown out of balance, the eye can suffer serious health problems, ranging from discomfort to full-on blindness. One of the most important of the three is eye pressure. Excessive eye pressure can lead to problems like glaucoma, so recognizing the early warning symptoms of excessive eye pressure is important. Read on to learn the four major warning signs of this problem.

Halos

As pressure in the eye builds, vision can become distorted, changing how the world appears. One of the ways your vision can be affected is that halos may appear around bright objects. Most commonly, halos will appear around lights, similar to the way a light moving through a prism looks. The halo may be a complete or partial circle, or even just a straight line, generally consisting of the same colors as the rainbow.

Pain

Eyes are very sensitive to disturbances in their health, so if your eye pressure is going up, you'll probably experience some pain as a result. The pain may be limited to the eyeball itself, or it could extend outward into the eye socket. In any case, pain in the eyes should never be ignored, as it could signal a whole variety of problems that could put your vision at risk.

Blurred Vision

As with halos, blurred vision is one potential vision-based side effect of high ocular pressure. Your eyes use a complex system of accepting in light and projecting that as an image onto the retina, deep inside your eye. When the pressure of your eye is too high, the cornea and retina can become warped, resulting in a blurred image.

Headaches

By themselves, headaches aren't necessarily linked to eye problems, so you shouldn't assume that you have eye pressure if this is your only symptom. However, when paired with any of the above symptoms, headaches can indicate that there's a serious problem at work. Since the nerves of the eyes are connected throughout the cranium, it's very common to develop a headache from high ocular pressure. In addition, if you're straining to see due to blurred vision or halos, you may develop a headache as a result.

If you suspect that you're experiencing high ocular pressure or another problem, you should consult with an eye doctor, such as Jeffrey C. Fogt, OD, immediately. Time is of the essence in order to protect your vision. Your eye doctor will be able to determine if your pressure is too high, and if so, they can bring it down with medication to prevent severe damage to your sight.