Diabetes and Eye Disease
Some of the longer term health issues associated with diabetes are also applicable to non diabetics, glaucoma and cataracts for example, but they are more common and occur earlier in people with diabetes.
The good news is that certain health problems are easily treated for both non diabetics and diabetics alike, such as glaucoma and cataracts.
However, some side effects of diabetes less successful in their treatment.
Retinopathy only appears in a diabetic person, the first signs usually showing after 10 years of the disease.
Some years ago, retinopathy almost always ended in going blind, but fortunately that situation has changed.
In the UK, the General Practitioner Contract states that diabetics must have the back of their eyes checked on initial diagnosis, and then on an annual basis thereafter.
Very often you do not have to go to hospital for this examination as many local clinics have been set up with the equipment they need to do the scan.
Eye drops are put into the patient's eyes which dilate (open) the pupil.
They then take pictures of the retina at the back of the eye.
These pictures are kept, so that an ongoing picture of the eyes is built up over time.
High blood pressure, smoking and drinking all contribute to the causes of retinopathy.
Retinopathy also puts you at increased risk of heart attacks and kidney disease and failure.
There are no drugs available to treat retinopathy, but laser treatment is recommended.
This has been shown to cause some very minor loss of vision and field of vision, together with a very slight loss of night vision, but only 5% of diabetics treated in this way develop serious loss of vision.
The bottom line is that if you wish to preserve your sight and indeed avoid other diabetic health complications, be sure to take the correct medicine at the correct time, and maintain close monitoring of your blood sugar levels.
The good news is that certain health problems are easily treated for both non diabetics and diabetics alike, such as glaucoma and cataracts.
However, some side effects of diabetes less successful in their treatment.
Retinopathy only appears in a diabetic person, the first signs usually showing after 10 years of the disease.
Some years ago, retinopathy almost always ended in going blind, but fortunately that situation has changed.
In the UK, the General Practitioner Contract states that diabetics must have the back of their eyes checked on initial diagnosis, and then on an annual basis thereafter.
Very often you do not have to go to hospital for this examination as many local clinics have been set up with the equipment they need to do the scan.
Eye drops are put into the patient's eyes which dilate (open) the pupil.
They then take pictures of the retina at the back of the eye.
These pictures are kept, so that an ongoing picture of the eyes is built up over time.
High blood pressure, smoking and drinking all contribute to the causes of retinopathy.
Retinopathy also puts you at increased risk of heart attacks and kidney disease and failure.
There are no drugs available to treat retinopathy, but laser treatment is recommended.
This has been shown to cause some very minor loss of vision and field of vision, together with a very slight loss of night vision, but only 5% of diabetics treated in this way develop serious loss of vision.
The bottom line is that if you wish to preserve your sight and indeed avoid other diabetic health complications, be sure to take the correct medicine at the correct time, and maintain close monitoring of your blood sugar levels.
