Diabetes Can Affect Your Vision

Uncontrolled diabetes poses a severe threat to people's vision and eyesight. When you have longstanding blood sugar control issues, here are some of the most common eye problems you might encounter.

Eye Lens Swelling - One of the symptoms of uncontrolled diabetes is blurred vision. If your blood sugar stays elevated for an extended time, water gets pulled away from the eye lens, resulting in swelling. This inflammation gets controlled by stabilizing blood sugar levels over a few weeks. Generally, this is not a time when you want to get an eye exam, as the prescription won't fit your eyes correctly when not swollen.

Weak Blood Vessels - Having high blood sugar for an extended period also contributes to weakened blood vessels in the retina. Over the years, it results in the blood vessel walls becoming thin and vulnerable to micro-aneurysms, caused when these areas bulge out.

As you can imagine, the longer you allow your diabetes to go untreated, the more severe the threats to your vision and eyesight become. In severe cases, it can cause long-term and irreversible damages.

Retina Disease - When diabetes remains untreated for an extended time, it can result in Retinopathy, a retina disease. The retina will generate new blood vessels. However, these new weakened vessels are don't provide support to the retina. Proliferative diabetic Retinopathy occurs when this happens.

There are two potential risks with Retinopathy. The first is that weakened vessels could potentially leak blood into the eye.

The other risk would be these blood vessels firmly attach to the soft tissue that forms the shape of the eyeball. If or when this happens, these vessels can potentially detach the retina, resulting in blindness.

During your eye exam, your eye doctor should check for early signs of this eye ailment. To do so, they'll use special eye drops to cause eye dilation. Once fully dilated, the eye doctor can get a better look into your eye and inspect your retina. Seeing sharp, flashing lights or objects that resemble cobwebs could indicate a detached retina. Treat these signs as an emergency and contact your physician immediately.

Preventing Vision Problems When You Have Diabetes

The two most effective ways to prevent and treat vision problems when you have diabetes is by gaining control of your blood sugar and getting regular eye exams.

If diabetic Retinopathy has advanced to the point that threatens your vision, your doctor may recommend laser treatment. This type of therapy uses a high-power laser to repair the eye and damages caused by diabetes.

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