How Does Diabetes Impact Eye Health?

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic medical condition that impacts the way your body converts your food intake into energy. When your pancreas fails to produce enough insulin, a hormone responsible for converting your blood glucose into energy, you’re at the risk of having high blood sugar levels. As a result of this failure, you might develop diabetes.

Studies have discovered that over 34.2 million Americans are affected by this disease, and 88 million American adults have prediabetes. This is undoubtedly a cause for concern, especially since additional research has shown that diabetes plays a vital role in impacting your eye health.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways diabetes can affect your eye health:

It can cause blurry vision and blindness.

The high blood sugar levels caused by diabetes cause the lens inside your eyes to swell, resulting in difficulty seeing clearly. The pressure that builds up in your eyes due to this condition might cause extreme damage to your nerves and blood vessels. This results in glaucoma, a condition that commonly results in blindness for people over sixty.

It can cause cataracts.

Cataracts occur when the lens of your eyes gets cloudy, and you’re unable to see properly. People with diabetes are often the most at risk of getting cataracts at an earlier stage. These cataracts worsen progressively faster than they do for people without diabetes.

It can cause diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is a result of the damage caused to the blood vessels in the retina for people who have high blood sugar levels. The retina is a tissue within your eyes that helps you perceive images and transfers the visual information to your brain, permitting you to see. If you have diabetes, you might experience scarring or clotting within the retina, resulting in loss of vision over time.

How can you prevent diabetic eye diseases?

With all that being said, the situation might seem pretty bleak to you if you’re someone affected by diabetes. However, the good news is that you can lower your chances of getting these eye diseases and preserve your vision! Here are some of the steps that you should start implementing into your life from today:

1. Get regular eye checkups from your eye doctor, even if you feel your vision is in good condition.
2. Keep a check on your blood sugar levels.
3. Maintain a healthy level of cholesterol and blood pressure.
4. Start moving around. Lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of diabetes, so you need to start exercising regularly to avoid this disease.
5. Quit smoking immediately.

Conclusion

If you feel prolonged symptoms of any eye diseases if you already have diabetes, we highly recommend that you reach out to your optometrist and get a proper eye examination. If you’re on the lookout for a good eye doctor in your local area, allow us to introduce you to Superior Eye Care! We have clinics in Houston, The Woodlands, and Spring in Texas. So make sure you drop by for a visit.