Diabetes And Your Eyesight

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During your last checkup, your doctor told you that your glucose level was high. They want to start monitoring you for diabetes. They also recommended several diet and exercise changes to bring your glucose level back down. If you need motivation to prevent diabetes from becoming a part of your life, consider how it can affect your vision. Here is what you need to know about diabetes and your eyesight.

Increased Pressure in the Eye

Diabetes increases your risk of developing glaucoma. The drainage of fluid from inside of the eyeball is blocked, allowing the fluid to build up. The pressure increases in the eye, which can eventually restrict the blood supply to your retina. The retina will become slow to respond to light and your vision becomes blurry. You'll see rings of light (halos) around objects and be unable to focus clearly. If this becomes severe, permanent damage to the retina can occur with partial loss of sight.

An optometrist can monitor the pressure and offer eye drops and surgery to relieve the stress on the retina. Controlling diabetes is a better way to prevent glaucoma from developing.

Cloudy Lens

Cataracts occur more frequently in people who have diabetes. This is a buildup of protein strands in the lens of the eye. As this protein accumulates, it makes the lens foggy. Your vision becomes blurry and objects appear darker as more light is blocked. It's harder to focus clearly on objects. Glasses will help with blurry vision, but the cataracts will continue to grow until you can't focus your eyes at all.

The optometrist will recommend a procedure to remove the cloudy lenses and replace them with an artificial lens. Your vision will improve, but you may need to wear contacts or glasses for near and distance vision.

Retinal Damage

Diabetes affects the integrity of blood vessels, which can be the cause of two eye related illnesses.

Diabetes affects many aspects of your health. The threat of diabetes to your vision should be motivation to take your doctor's suggestions and reverse the signs of this disease during your next checkup.

For more information, contact a Surrey optometrist.


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