How does Diabetes affect your eyes?
Diabetes is defined as a metabolic condition that determines the body’s glucose usage. As per sources, India has 77 million diabetic patients and stands at the second position worldwide. With that being said, let’s have a brief discussion on how diabetes can have an impact on the human eye.
How Does Diabetes Affect The Eyes?
Diabetes affects the eyes in many ways and several eye ailments are connected to diabetes. We therefore suggest people to be familiar with how diabetes can have a negative impact on human eyes. A few eye ailments associated with diabetes are:
- Diabetic retinopathy:
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye condition that is responsible for vision loss in diabetic patients. It can even cause blindness in some cases as it affects the retinal blood vessels.
- Cataracts:
As per studies, people affected with diabetes are at a higher chance of suffering from cataracts vis a vis their non diabteic counterparts.
- Open-angle glaucoma:
Diabetic patients are more prone to develop open-angle glaucoma which is the most common type of glaucoma.
What are the symptoms of diabetic eye disease?
At the initial level diabetic people might not show any symptoms of this ailment and they might not even experience any sort of discomfort or change in vision. However as the disease progresses, a few symptoms might show up like –
- Blurry or wavy vision
- Frequently changing vision—sometimes from day to day
- Dark areas or vision loss
- Poor colour vision
- Spots or dark strings (also called floaters)
- Flashes of light
Diabetic Eye Disease Treatment
Diabetic Eye Disease Treatment can vary from self-care to surgeries, depending on the severity. A few self-care treatments available for people suffering from eye diseases caused due to diabetes include managing blood glucose through diets, exercise, or medication. Depending on the extent of damage caused by dabetic retinopathy , the ophthalmologist may need to recommend laser therapy or Anti-VEGF injections to prevent or decrease growth of abnormal new vessels.
In advanced cases, surgical treatment by using vitrectomy and laser therapy may be required to prevent irreversible damage.
How To Prevent Diabetic Eye Diseases
People suffering from diabetic eye diseases can preserve vision by following a few handy tips like:
- Dilated eye examination:
A dilated eye examination allows ophthalmologists to examine the retina and optic nerves for any signs of damage even before a vision change occurs.
- Controlling Blood Sugar:
High blood sugar affects the shape of the eye lens and causes blurry vision, which gets back to its normal state once the blood sugar level stabilises. A high blood sugar level can also impact the retinal blood vessels. It is thus advisable to maintain blood sugar levels along with cholesterol levels in the body.
- Regular Exercising:
We all know how beneficial exercising is. It is thus recommended to undertake a regular exercise to prevent any eye ailment, including diabetic eye diseases.
- Maintaining a Healthy Diet:
Opthamologists advice diabteic people to eat homemade food that is prepared using fresh ingredients. They are also advised to avoid excessive consumption of food items like red meat, fried foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugary beverages .
- Quit Smoking, Quit Alcohol:
Smoking and liquor consumption can cause problems with blood vessels, which can cause more eye problems for people already suffering from diabetic eye ailments. Eye specialists thus suggest people to quit smoking and drinking.
Eye Care Tips for Diabetic Eyes
Ophthalmologists recommend going for regular eye checkups for people with diabetic eye ailments at least once a year. Besides this, we recommend patients should use eye drops containing neuroprotective agents, especially those who are suffering from diabetic retinopathy.
If you are a diabetic, you should go for regular checkups to detect any early signs of diabetic retinopathy. At Centre for Sight, we offer the latest eye treatments coupled with high precision and safety because we believe that every eye deserves the best.
Article: How does Diabetes affect your eyes?
Author: CFS Editorial Team | July 20 2020 | UPDATED 2:52 IST
*The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of Centre for Sight.
