#197: Stress in Sight: Why the Eye Is a Window Into the Brain—and Why It Could Transform How We Treat People, UC Berkeley talk.

When we visit the doctor, we routinely measure blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, weight, and heart rate.  For years, we’ve known that early life experiences—especially stress and adversity—leave long-lasting marks on the nervous system. But we rarely stop to ask: How can we see those marks?

That’s where the eye comes in.

 Why the Eye Reveals the Brain

The corneal nerve plexus is a dense network of sensory nerves at the front of the eye.
 It’s part of the peripheral nervous system, which connects directly to the brain.

Emerging research shows that these corneal nerves reflect the state of the broader nervous system, including:

• Stress load
• Inflammatory markers
• Neurodegenerative changes

In other words:
 When we look at the eye, we’re not just seeing vision structures—we’re seeing a living map of how the brain and body have been shaped over time.

 

I had the fortunate opportunity to do study leave at UC Berkeley in the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, a research project with Drs Katie Edwards and Luisa Holguin Colorado  and Kerri Gillepie at QUT and Dr Suzanne Fleiszig  and Dr David Evans at UC Berkeley.

Why Isn’t Nervous System Analysis Routine?

Here’s the bigger question.

When we visit the doctor, we routinely measure blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, weight, and heart rate.
 But the nervous system—the control center of our entire body—is rarely assessed in standard care.

Why?

We know that chronic stress increases risk for mental illness, metabolic disease, cardiovascular conditions, and cognitive decline. We know that early life stress reshapes neural pathways and immune responses.
 Yet we lack accessible, affordable, and scalable tools to routinely check the health of the nervous system.

That’s what makes the eye so exciting. It offers a non-invasive, real-time window into nervous system health—and a chance to shift medicine toward prevention and early detection, rather than just reacting to crisis.

In this episode we discuss:

• How the eye reveals hidden stress
• What we’re learning about the links between early life adversity and neural health
• Why public engagement is critical as we develop these new tools

This is a conversation not just for scientists, but for everyone who cares about mental health, brain health, and the future of healthcare. I’d love to hear what excites or concerns you about this emerging field. When we truly see how early life shapes the brain, we can no longer treat people as just symptoms or diagnoses.

It opens a new kind of care:
 Asking what happened to you? not just what’s wrong?
Making nervous system health part of routine care
Prioritising prevention, resilience, and healing

By measuring the hidden imprints of experience, we can design treatments that help rewire the brain, not just manage symptoms.

This isn’t just science. It’s a transformation in how we care for people.

Let’s build that future, together.

 

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