How It Affects The Eyes & Vision
Diabetes has been known to increase the risks of developing cataracts can cause your eyes to dry easily. It also comes with other eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, and more.
What diabetes retinopathy does is that over time, the blood vessels that are within the eyes start to get damaged. This leads to the eyes getting poor oxygen circulation, leakage, and even scarring in the retina. This makes having other dangerous eye problems and vision loss symptoms occur rapidly, especially among individuals who have a known history of diabetes in their family.
Diabetic Retinopathy
To give a more extended explanation of what diabetic retinopathy does to the eyes it causes damage to the blood vessels that go into the retina.
The purpose of the retina is to convert the light that is passing through our eyes and transmit them to the optic nerve so that it can perceive the image that we are seeing in front of us. Because of how important the retina is in terms of vision, if it gets affected thanks to diabetic retinopathy, this means that high levels of blood sugar will cause the vessels within the retina to leak, causing bleeding in the eyes or even distorting one’s vision. If this continued to cause harm to the eyes, then there is the possibility of you going blind if not treated properly.
Signs & Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy
In its early stages, there are no symptoms seen, which is why it is important to check and consult with your local eye doctor. As it progresses and develops, you should start to see some symptoms arising such as blurred vision, floaters, blind spots, or even losing vision in color.
What’s more is that a person doesn’t really feel the pain when getting these symptoms in the eyes, and if it’s not treated properly, then you may start to have major symptoms such as retinal detachment or even macular edema, which in both cases, can cause severe vision loss. And again, what makes this harder to treat is the lack of signs or possible symptoms in its earliest stages shown.
The best way to combat these symptoms is by ensuring the patient who does have diabetes has their diseases balanced and controlled with their medication plan prescribed from their doctor. This and a good balanced diet and exercise can help ensure slow but effective prevention of diabetic retinopathy.
Dr. Joseph Cohen O.D.
Woodland Hills Optometrist
Receive an Excellent Service and Comprehensive Eye Care
(818) 345-3937
Providing service in English and Farsi
19737 Ventura Blvd., Suite 201, Woodland Hills, CA 91364