Episode 285: Dr. Radka Toms | Can Your Eye Doctor Spot Sugar Damage Before Your Blood Work?

Episode 285: Dr. Radka Toms | Can Your Eye Doctor Spot Sugar Damage Before Your Blood Work?

June 11, 2026 · 51 min

About this episode

Dr. Vera Tarman interviews Dr. Radka Toms about the connection between eye health and metabolic disease related to sugar consumption.

Your eyes might be revealing metabolic disease long before your doctor catches it in bloodwork — and most people have no idea. In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with Dr. Radka Toms, ophthalmologist, functional medicine practitioner, and founder of My Sugar Stop, to explore the fascinating and largely unknown connection between sugar, gut health, and your vision. Dr. Toms shares her own story — from a "hardcore conventional doctor" eating chocolate bars for lunch to developing rosacea and insulin resistance and eventually pioneering the field of nutritional ophthalmology. What You'll Learn: 👁️ The Eye-Metabolic Health Connection — How your ophthalmologist may spot insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and inflammation before your blood work does 💧 Dry Eye & Sugar — Why so many dry eye patients have a metabolic root cause, and how improving diet can reduce or eliminate symptoms 🔬 The Gut-Eye Axis — How bacteria in your gut produce metabolites that travel through the bloodstream and directly affect eye tissue — including the link to macular degeneration, glaucoma, and Sjögren's syndrome 🌿 The 7 Types of Eye Conditions Linked to Metabolic Health: Dry eye & ocular rosacea…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Vera Tarman

Guest: Dr. Radka Toms

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: My Sugar Stop

More episodes of Food Junkies Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Food Junkies Podcast podcast page.