How to Protect Your Eyes if you have Diabetes
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Vision Loss Can Be an Early Warning Sign of Diabetes
Did you know that diabetes is the leading cause of blindness?
If you are experiencing vision loss, you should be checked for diabetes. If you already have diabetes, regular eye exams can help prevent severe vision loss, even blindness.
Since this disease is now reaching epidemic proportions, diabetes awareness is more important than ever.
Having a husband with diabetes, I am particularly concerned about this issue. This page will show you how diabetes affects vision and what you can do to prevent vision loss.
Please heed the warning signs. Early detection can keep you from going blind.
What You Need to Know
* Every 17 seconds, someone is diagnosed with diabetes.
* Diabetes kills more people each year than breast cancer and AIDS combined.
* As many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes in 2050 unless we take steps to Stop Diabetes.
How does diabetes affect eyesight?
Diabetes is a disease that affects blood vessels, which is why heart disease and stroke are often associated with it. But the sensitive blood vessels in our eyes can also be affected. We live in a world where our eyes take in the majority of sense data, so loss of vision has a dramatic effect on a person's life.
Here are the ways that diabetes can affect your eyesight.
* DIABETIC RETINOPATHY
Diabetics need a yearly retinal exam.
Photo: National Institutes of Health
Having a dilated eye exam every year is essential for diabetics.
The first signs of diabetic retinopathy appear as structural changes in the capillaries which block the flow of nutrients to the retina. Lack of nutrients and oxygen to these tissues cause damage to the retina. Individuals are not usually aware of these changes in the beginning which is why it is so important to have the exam.
* CATARACTS AND DIABETES
Cataracts 2 to 4 times more prevalent in diabetics.
Diabetes can also affect the clear tissue that covers your eye. A cataract is a clouding of this normally clear lens. Cataracts are two to four times more prevalent in diabetics.
Many people undergo cataract surgery every year and the results are quite good, especially if you show no signs of retinopathy. However, cataract surgery holds a higher risk of macular edema (swelling of the retinal tissue) in diabetics.
Photo: National Institutes of Health.
* GLAUCOMA AND DIABETES
Diabetics twice as likely to have glaucoma.
Glaucoma is an increase in fluid pressure inside the eye that leads to optic nerve damage. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma as are non-diabetics.
Conventional surgery to treat glaucoma makes a new opening in the meshwork. This new opening helps fluid to leave the eye and lowers intraocular pressure.
Photo: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health
What You Can Do
Get a Yearly Retinal Exam
Sometimes changes are happening to your eyes and you don't even know it. Or you detect something small, and you decide to put if off. Please don't be tempted to do this.
Early detection is key to preventing loss of vision.
Watch the video below from doctorsTV which explains the dilated retinal exam and what it can detect.
Take Our Poll
on eyesight protection habits
Control Your Blood Sugar
with Diet and Exercise
Don't rely on medication alone to control your blood sugar. Diet and exercise are key to controlling blood sugar and may even help you to get off medication eventually. Check out the video and books below for some great resources.
Best Exercise for Diabetics
Aerobics and Weight Training
How about a diabetic cookbook?
November is Diabetes Awareness Month
What are they saying on Twitter?
about diabetes and vision loss
Diabetes and Your Eyesight
The Eyes are a Window to your Overall Health
Links to Resources
related to diabetes and eyesight
- St. Luke's Eyecare Network
- Protecting Your Vision From Diabetes
- Health and Medic
- Diabetes: Two Steps You Must Take to Avoid Vision Loss
- Glaucoma Research Foundation
- The relationship between diabetes and glaucoma.
- American Diabetes Association
- The American Diabetes Association is leading the fight against the deadly consequences of diabetes and fighting for those affected by diabetes.
Learn more about Diabetes and Eyesight
Lighthouse International’s Guide to Diabetes, Vision Loss, and Aging
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 06/03/2012)
List Price:
What are bloggers saying?
about diabetes and vision loss
- Annual Eye Exams Important
- By Sponsored Content ? Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people over age 60, affecting 2 million individuals. This number will increase to 3 million by 2020. ? Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness in US ...
- Eye on the eyes: Some nutrients can stave off vision loss and eye disease that ...
- Some nutrients can stave off the burdensome vision loss and eye disease that occur as we age, mounting research suggests. But claims by supplement manufacturers about the powers of eye-friendly antioxidants are frequently overblown.
- Diabetics must keep their sights on vision health: NetWellness
- In fact, most people do not realize that their vision is slowly getting worse. Finding and treating diabetes-related eye diseases early can prevent vision loss 95 percent of the time. This NetWellness column was reviewed by Dr. Robert D. Newcomb, ...
Featured Page on Eye Care
Help cure Diabetes
Donate to the Diabetes Research Institute
The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide the Diabetes Research Institute with the funding necessary to cure diabetes now.
Thanks for Visiting this Page on Diabetes and Vision Loss.
Has diabetes affected your eyesight?
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Justin
Jan 31, 2012 @ 9:54 am | delete
- Is it really true that diabetes can lead to eyesight loss?
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kimmanleyort
Jan 31, 2012 @ 10:01 am | delete
- Ummmm, yes, did you read the lens?
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Wbisbill Nov 17, 2011 @ 4:16 pm | delete
- Thanks for the info. I featured your lens on my lens, "Insulin Side Effects? "..Thumbs up!
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DeepandRadi
Feb 7, 2011 @ 9:23 pm | delete
- Thank you - this is a very informative and well written lens on a topic that needed to be discussed!
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nDee
Oct 20, 2010 @ 8:59 pm | delete
- Thank you for this important information . . . blessed!
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About the Author
by kimmanleyort
Mother, wife and photographer who never stops learning. My husband has diabetes so I have a particular interest in this subject.
My Photography Website:...
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Diabetes Eye Care Sourcebook
The Diabetes Eye Care Sourcebook (Lowell House)
Amazon Price: $50.61 (as of 06/03/2012)
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