Diabetes
has many complications, some leading to other serious health
conditions. Eye problems are of particular concern to diabetics.
Diabetes can play havoc with your eyes, and sometimes there are no
early sumptoms. So you may have no idea anything is wrong until your
eyesight is in danger.
Here are the main eye problems that can be caused, or made worse, by diabetes.
Cataracts
These are often described as a clouding of the lens of the eye. They are treatable by surgery in most cases.
Glaucoma
Our eyes are largely made up of fluid, and when the pressure of that
fluid builds up too much inside the eye, you have glaucoma. Left
untreated, it can damage the optic nerves, and even lead to blindness.
Diabetic retinopathy
Lining the back of our eyes is light-sensitive tissue known as the
retina. The retina contains very small blood vessels that can be
damaged by diabetic retinopathy. Sometimes there are symptoms such as
blurred vision, but often you won't even know anything is wrong until
the condition is well advanced. In the worse case, it leads to
blindness.
Early detection is the key to battling all of these conditions, and the
best diagnostic tool available is the dilated eye examination. This is
a test in which special eye drops temporarily enlarge your pupils,
allowing the doctor to see the back of your eyes. This test (which is
painless) can detect cataracts, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy in
their early, treatable stages.
Eyesight is precious, so if you have diabetes do yourself a favor and
make an appointment for your dilated eye examination. And then do it
again every year from now on.
