November was Diabetic Eye Disease Month and we discussed extensively on it on all our social media handles.
So for those who missed some of them, we have come up with a comprehensive article on this eye disease in this blog post.
Are you ready? Then let us take you through another round of diabetic eye disease.
Once an individual is diagnosed with diabetes, what should be his/her next priority in terms of body care?
Of course, it has to be the eye! Having diabetes means that you need to schedule regular visits with your eye doctor.
With diabetic eye disease resulting from high blood sugar, other eye challenges like glaucoma, cataracts, blurry vision, and diabetic retinopathy can emerge.
Adults between the ages of 20-74 have blindness resulting from diabetes.
So let’s take a quick look at some of the diabetic eye-related eye challenges
Blurry Vision
You may want to change your glasses when you observe that vision appears blurry.
On the contrary, it could be a problem resulting from high blood sugar.
This could make your lens swell and ultimately lead to an inability to see.
For this to be corrected your blood sugar needs to back to the range of 70 to 130 mg/dl before meals and less than 180/dl after meals.
When this is observed, it may take the patient up to 3 months to restore the vision.
Cataracts
Just like the way a camera works, the lens in the eyes focuses on the image you see. However, when the lens becomes cloudy, it’s an indication that it has formed cataracts.
It can affect anyone, however, people having diabetes can easily get cataracts.
The best bet for getting rid of cataracts is through surgery
Glaucoma
Having diabetes increases one’s chances of developing glaucoma.
The eye is supposed to drain out fluid but when it doesn’t, the pressure is built up in the eye, causing severe damages to nerves and blood vessels around the eye.
Medications can take care of open-angle glaucoma, which is usually the most common form of glaucoma.
This form of glaucoma may not show symptoms until the individual has a major vision loss.
However, an eye doctor can detect this very early through a regular eye exam.
Diabetic Retinopathy
This usually affects the retina. The retina absorbs light that turns to the image the optic nerve sends to the brain for interpretation.
Damages to the retina often cause this and if not treated earlier one could run blind.
With diabetes, one can easily develop diabetic retinopathy, however maintaining your blood sugar, lowers the chances of having it.
For people with diabetes type 1, if they keep control of their blood sugar level with a recommended dose of insulin injections, the chances of having retinopathy become low.
For those with type 2 diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol need to be greatly controlled. Activity such as smoking needs to be stopped.