How Can Diabetes Affect Your Eyes Articles | Remedy

By: Richard Bleuze

How can diabetes affect the eye?

First, diabetes which will cause high blood sugar can affect your eyesight.  Your eye has what is known as a  lens and an aperture (opening) at the front, which brings objects into focus on the retina at the back of the eye.  Your retina is made up of a delicate tissue that is sensitive to light.

At the center of the retina is the macula which is a highly specialized part of the retina.  The macula is vital because it enables us to see fine detail such as reading small print.  The other parts of the retina gives us side vision (peripheral vision).  Finally, the rest of the eye in front of
the retina is a clear jelly-like substance called the vitreous humour.

Diabetes can affect the eye in a several ways.  Usually diabetes involves the fine network of blood vessels in the retina and can cause what is known as  diabetic retinopathy.

If you are diabetic, your vision may become blurred for a few days or weeks while your diabetes is first being controlled.  This is caused because of the swelling of the lens of the eye.

In addition, many young people with diabetes can develop a special type of cataract.  However, this can usually be restored by surgery.  Older people with diabetes are prone to cataracts.  Once again, the cataracts can be successfully removed by surgery.

However, the most serious diabetic eye condition which involves the retina is called diabetic retinopathy.  Diabetic retinopathy is most often found in people who have had diabetes for a long time.  Usually, there is no threat to your sight if you have this serious condition.

Diabetic retinopathy can damage your sight by damaging the fine network of blood vessels in the retina.

The first type of diabetes retinopathy is known as maculopathy.  If you have maculopathy, you may find it difficult to recognize individual faces in the distance or to see details like small print.  The amount of central vision that is lost varies from person to person.  However, everyday sight for getting around the house is usually preserved.  If you have maculopathy, do not worry too much since it is quite rare for someone with maculopathy to lose all their sight.

The second type of diabetes retinopathy is worst.  It is called proliferative diabetic retinopathy.  The blood vessels in the retina become blocked and thus new  blood vessels are formed in the eye so that the retina has a new network of blood supply.  However, these new blood vessels are weak.

In addition, these new blood supply networks are grow on the surface of the retina and into the vitreous jelly.  Thus, these blood vessels can bleed easily and cause scar tissue to form in the eye.  This scarring pulls and distorts the retina.  When this happens, the retina is pulled out of position and thus called retinal detachment.  This condition is more often found in people who have been insulin dependent for many years.  Without treatment, total loss of vision can happen in proliferative retinopathy.

The good news for most patients with diabetes is that with treatment most sight-threatening diabetic problems can be prevented if caught early enough.

Although your vision may be good, I real recommend that for early diagnosis, it is vital to have an eye examination at least once a year and do not wait until your vision has deteriorated to have an eye test.

Just remember that if your vision is getting worse, this does not necessarily mean you have diabetic retinopathy. It may simply be a problem that can be corrected by glasses.

I hope that if you are told that you have diabetes that this brief article will have given you a bit of insight on how important it is to have regular eye exams.  

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