Diabetes and Eyesight- Know Everything About it

Diabetes occurs when blood sugar levels are high. But it can cause several other problems. One of them can be related to vision. Diabetes can directly affect your vision and worse, can lead to permanent damage to your vision The good news is that we can manage our blood sugar and vision by getting regular checkups and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

How will Diabetes have an effect on your eyes?

Diabetes will result in fuzzy vision in many ways. In many cases, you can resolve the minor problems by stabilizing your glucose levels or taking eye drops. And sometimes it can lead to a bigger problem that’s worth discussing with your Eye Specialist. In fact, blurred sight is commonly one of the primary warning signs of Diabetes.

Blurry vision

Blurry vision means that it’s tougher to form out fine details in what you’re seeing. Many causes will stem from Diabetes because it is also proof that your glucose levels are either too high or too low. Your vision can be blurry because there’s fluid leaking into the lens of your eye and that makes the lens swell and change its shape. These changes affect your eyes and that’s why it becomes hard to focus. You can also get blurry vision after you start the insulin treatments. This can happen because of shifting fluids, but it should resolve within a few days. For many people, as their blood sugar levels come in control, so does their vision.

Diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy can happen if the blurry vision sustains for a longer period of time. The stages of Diabetic Retinopathy includes:

• Stage 1: delicate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy
• Stage 2: moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy
• Stage 3: severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy
• Stage 4: proliferative diabetic retinopathy

Most people don’t show symptoms of diabetic retinopathy till it’s progressed to stage four.

Symptoms at this stage include:

• blurry vision
• eye floaters
• difficulty seeing in the night
• loss of vision
• distorted vision
• color changes in vision

While diabetic retinopathy can’t be reversed, it can get stable with treatment.

Cataracts

You might even have a fuzzy vision if you’re developing cataracts. Folks with Diabetes tend to develop cataracts at a younger age than different adults. Cataracts can cause the lens of your eyes to become cloudy.

Other symptoms include:

• faded colors
• clouded or fuzzy vision
• double vision, sometimes in only one eye
• sensitivity to light
• glare or halos around lights
• The vision that doesn’t improve with new eyeglasses

Hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia results from building up the glucose in the blood when the body doesn’t have enough insulin to process it.

Besides blurred vision, different symptoms of symptom include:

• headache
• fatigue
• Increase in urination and thirst

To avoid Hyperglycemia, one needs to manage their glucose level because, over a period of time, this can lead to more issues with vision and also increase the risk of permanent blindness.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is another disease that can happen due to blurred vision. The National Eye Institute states, if a person has diabetes, then the chances of Glaucoma doubles than in average adults.

Other symptoms of Glaucoma include:

• loss of peripheral or tunnel vision
• halos around lights
• reddening of the eyes
• ocular (eye) pain
• nausea
• vomiting

Macular edema

The macula is the center of the retina and part of the eye responsible for sharp vision. Macular edema happens when the macula swells because of leaky fluid. Other symptoms include wavy vision and color changes. Diabetic Macular puffiness(DME) results from Diabetic retinopathy. It usually affects both eyes. The National Eye Institute estimated 7.7 million Americans have diabetic retinopathy. And nearly 1 in 10 has DME.

Eyecare

If you have diabetes, you are at increased risk of developing several eye and health problems. So it becomes important to manage your blood sugar levels, follow all medications for testing and have regular eye checkups. Your eye exam should include a complete eye exam with dilation every year. Make sure to tell your doctor all your symptoms and take the medications wisely.

Takeaway

Blurred vision is a minor problem, and can be corrected with eye drops or a new prescription for your eyeglasses.

However, it may also indicate a serious disease or associate degree underlying condition apart from polygenic disease. That’s why you must report fuzzy vision and different vision changes to your doctor. However, it can also lead to some serious diseases other than diabetes. So it is necessary to report all the symptoms to your doctor at the earliest. Because prevention is always better than cure.