A 12-year-old boy from Massachusetts reportedly lost his sight as a result of a junk food-filled diet that is said to have caused his optic nerves to deteriorate beyond hope of reversal.
According to reports, a recently published New England Journal of Medicine documented the rare case of the boy who is also said to be autistic.
It’s understood that the boy’s autistic condition caused him to develop an extreme phobia of certain food textures, which made incorporating certain key foods in their normal form a challenge for his parents.
Thus, they reportedly opted for more convenient and less taxing meals, inclusive of “burgers, fries, doughnuts boxes of sugary juice,” ultimately resulting in a more devastating long-term consequence.
The unnamed boy’s vision initially became an issue during the early morning and evening; however, it remained normal during the day for the first part of the year until rapidly degrading to the point of needing assistance to navigate around obstacles.
After being taken for medical evaluation, it was deemed that his nerves had begun to atrophy for a while and had wasted away completely due to the lack of vital nutrients to support optic health.
“Unfortunately, the patient’s optic atrophy was severe,” researchers wrote. “This severe degree of vision loss cannot be reversed when it is found at such an advanced stage. If it is found earlier in the disease course, reversing the nutritional deficit can lead to some improvements in vision.”