Strange people whose eyes 'sparkle like stars'

Some people have strange eyes that look "sparkling like stars". Why has this situation? Can a normal person want to have eyes like that?

Image of eyes "sparkling with starlight" - (Photo: New England Journal of Medicine).

According to ScienceAlert on May 23, eyes "sparkling like stars" appear in people with a disease called asteroid hyalosis (AH). This disease is related to age, but the condition and its correlation with other health problems have not been well studied. 

According to estimates from various studies, 1-2 out of every 100 people are affected by AH. The disease also occurs in dogs.

In Vietnam, AH is called asteroid anemia (according to Vinmec) , or stellate vitreous cloudiness (according to Saigon Hanoi Eye Hospital).

AH itself rarely causes vision problems, but can affect your ability to diagnose other eye diseases. 

The disease happens gradually and many people don't even know they have it, until someone else sees bright spots in their eyes.

An example of asteroid hyalosis when examining the eye with an eye examination lamp - (Source: YouTube).

Scientists say these "starlights" are caused by a buildup of material, usually calcium, in the lens of the eyeball. With age, the vitreous can accumulate an assortment of material fragments due to infection, inflammation, and hemorrhage, causing fragments to float in what appear to be dark spots in a person's field of vision.

It also creates other types of material fragments that may be invisible to the eye of the person containing them, but to the other person, they appear as "sparkling blurs". Under direct light, the shimmers are creamy white. However, when using an ophthalmoscope, doctors can see these pieces of material glitter like gold.

It is unclear whether AH is related to other health problems. But studies show that AH does not appear to cause infection. Some experts believe that AH is related to blood vessel problems or cell regeneration.

Therefore, more large-scale, randomized clinical trials are needed to better understand this disease.

Eyes reveal many things

The eyes are the only external part of the nervous system so they can reveal what is going on inside. In 2022, a machine learning model found a way to predict a person's lifespan just by looking at their retinas.

In recent years, scientists have looked more closely at the eyes for signs of accelerated aging, pre-Alzheimer's mental decline or premature death.