Diabetes and Vision: Preventing and Managing Diabetic Eye Disease
Diabetic eye diseases are a group of eye problems that are common in people with diabetes. There are four most common types of diabetic eye diseases;
● Diabetic retinopathy
● Diabetic macular edema
● Cataracts
● Glaucoma.
Diabetes is a condition in which your blood glucose level is too high. These elevated levels of blood sugar can cause damage to the eyes, leading to complications such as poor vision and even blindness. However, there are many preventative measures for people with diabetes who can keep these eye problems from getting worse every day.
How Can You Prevent Diabetic Eye Disease?
If a person has diabetes, they are at a higher risk of developing eye diseases. These eye diseases include glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts.
However, there is good news. You can prevent diabetic retinopathy and other diabetic eye diseases and preserve your vision by managing your health and blood sugar. The best ways to prevent diabetic eye diseases are;
● By managing your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol. They are collectively known as the diabetes ABCs.
● By having a dilated eye exam every year.
● By quitting smoking or other uses of nicotine or tobacco.
Diabetic eye diseases come with no warning. They have no symptoms until it’s too late. This is why having comprehensive eye exams, like the dilated eye exam, and other examinations can help you detect diabetic eye diseases early before diabetes leads to vision loss. Let’s discuss all the ways to prevent eye damage from diabetes.
Have a Dilated Eye Examination
A comprehensive dilated eye exam is one of the most important ways to prevent diabetic eye diseases. Your ophthalmologist will examine your eye, including the retina and optic nerve, for signs of damage. Getting a dilated eye examination as a diabetic patient every year will help you monitor your eye health and allow the ophthalmologist to begin treatment if any signs of disease appear.
Control Blood Sugar
Blood sugar levels play the most crucial part in diabetes and vision loss. Controlling blood sugar will help you prevent diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases. When the blood sugar level is too high, it affects the shape of your eye lens. A short-term effect of this change is blurry vision, but if it goes untreated for a long time, it will cause damage to blood vessels in your eye.
Healthy Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
High blood pressure and cholesterol levels put you at risk for eye diseases as much as diabetic retinopathy. Keeping both of them under control will help your eyes and overall health.
Exercise
Exercise is good for your diabetes and your eyes. Regular exercise keeps your blood sugar levels under control and keeps your eyes as healthy as possible. If you have diabetes and want to preserve good vision, stay healthy and active, no matter how sedentary your lifestyle is.
Quit Smoking
By smoking, you increase your risk for diabetic retinopathy, as well as other diabetes-related eye diseases. Give up tobacco, and you will reduce the risk of diabetes and vision loss.
How Does Diabetes Affect Vision?
Diabetes affects your vision when your blood glucose levels are too high.
The short-term effects of diabetes on your eyes are blurry vision that remains for a few days and weeks, especially when a patient changes their medicines or diabetes care plan. The high glucose level in the blood causes swelling in the eye tissues, which interferes with focus, thus causing blurred vision. However, this is a temporary effect and goes away as soon as your blood sugar level returns to normal.
Diabetic eye diseases cause the long-term effects of diabetes on your eyes. If the blood sugar level stays high for a long period, it damages the tiny blood vessels in the back of the eye. This type of damage happens during prediabetes, when diabetes is not diagnosed because the blood sugar level is high but not high enough to be detected. These damaged blood vessels leak fluid because of swelling and then grow new and weak blood vessels. The result is scarring or dangerously high blood pressure inside the eye since the blood vessels leak into the middle part of the eye.
What Are The Different Types Of Diabetic Eye Diseases?
The three diabetic eye diseases that are most serious and threaten your vision are;
Diabetic Retinopathy
Retina, the inner lining at the back of the eye, senses light and turns it into signals for your brain. When diabetes is untreated or not treated properly, it damages the blood vessels. The damaged blood vessels harm the retina, causing diabetic retinopathy.
In its earlier stages, diabetic retinopathy causes weakened, bulging, or leaking blood vessels. This stage is also known as nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy.
If this disease gets worse, the damaged blood vessels close off, causing new and weakened vessels to grow and proliferate on the retina’s surface. This stage is also known as proliferative diabetic retinopathy, which leads to serious vision problems.
Diabetic Macular Edema
The macula is the part of the retina responsible for reading, seeing faces, and driving. Diabetes leads to swelling of the macula, a condition known as diabetic macular edema. Over time, diabetic macular edema destroys the sharp vision in the macula, leading to either partial vision loss or complete blindness. Macular edema mostly develops in people who already have signs of diabetic retinopathy.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve, a bundle of nerves connecting the eye to the brain. Diabetes is the most important factor behind glaucoma, as it doubles the chance of glaucoma, in which fluid builds up in the front part of the eye, increasing pressure inside the eye. The end stage of glaucoma is vision loss and blindness.
Never take your eye health for granted, especially with a chronic disease like diabetes. Maintain your eye health to prevent diabetic eye diseases before they affect your vision, and if you need more information on how to care for your eyes, visit the Healthy Vision Association for expert guidance and other resources.