Picture this: Your eye doctor photographs your retina and lets you know something not about your vision, but about how fast you’re aging, your level of body-wide inflammation, and if you are at risk for heart disease or premature mortality.

That's the conclusion of a study in the journal Science Advances.

Researchers reviewed data on the small blood vessels in the retina of more than 74,000 people and found that when those vessels are less branched, it indicates advanced aging and the risk of heart disease.

To top it off, the researchers identified two proteins that are linked to inflammation and blood vessel aging. That, they say, may help in the identification of drug targets for slowing vascular aging, reducing cardiovascular diseases, and increasing lifespan.

This makes me think about how all your senses play a role in alerting you to potentially life-altering conditions so you can take action to reverse, prevent, or slow premature aging.

For instance, attending to hearing loss helps protect you from dementia and addressing loss of taste may let you figure out if you have long COVID-19 or Parkinson's disease. Loss of the ability to smell, which is often related to loss of taste, can also alert you to undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

Embrace the 30-plus ways to keep your senses sharp that I set out in my book "The Great Age Reboot," and consider therapeutic plasma exchange to get rid of those undesired proteins.