Have you had diabetes for more than 10 years? Make sure you’re taking care of your eyes.
The eyes are a fundamental part of the human body. With them, we capture life’s precious moments — from seeing the kids grow up to watching our favorite shows on TV. Keeping the eyes healthy is a requisite for maintaining these incredible sights. However, if you’ve had diabetes, whether juvenile or adult onset, for a prolonged period of time — especially after 10 years or more — the eyes may find it difficult to remain in a state of clean health, losing vital visual abilities.
The frequent eye complaint
Due to the body’s inability to effectively utilize insulin to control blood sugar levels during diabetes, fluctuations in sugar levels can cause incessant, transient blurry vision — a frequent complaint among diabetes patients. Fortunately, the blurry vision resolves when sugar levels are brought back to within normal range. This can occur no matter how long you’ve had diabetes. In contrast, the eye changes which result from long-standing diabetes are permanent, more severe and debilitating.
Why duration of diabetes is critical
If you’ve had diabetes for at least 10 years, it’s time to start paying close attention to the health of your eyes. This is because the duration of diabetes is the most important risk factor for developing diabetic retinopathy — disease of the retina resulting from diabetes. The retina is the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eyeball, which receives visual images and sends them to the brain for interpretation. If the retina suffers damage, transmission of visual images to the brain become impaired. When this happens, depending upon severity, recognition of people and objects will become difficult because little or no visual information is being sent to the brain for interpretation.
Diabetic retinopathy can cause:
- Reduction of blood supply to the retina: The retina needs a steady supply of blood, which contains oxygen and nutrients to function optimally. In prolonged diabetes, tiny blood vessels — which are the transporters of blood in the retina — can become occluded, cutting short the blood supply to vital parts of the retina. This may lead to a sudden, sharp reduction in vision.
- Destruction of the center of acutest vision: The macular is the center of acutest vision in the eyes, located at the center of the retina. It is needed for seeing faces, driving and reading. Diabetes causes this part of the retina to swell — a condition called diabetic macular edema. With time, the sharp vision in this part of the retina deteriorates, which may eventually lead to partial or complete loss of vision.
- Leakage of blood into the retina: Blood vessels in the retina tend to develop micro aneurysms — localized swelling on the wall of an artery, during diabetes. This causes a buildup of pressure inside these artery walls, which can lead to a rupture and subsequent leakage of blood and fluids into the retina. All lead to distortion of vision.
How to keep the eyes healthy in spite of diabetes
Effective visual functioning should be of paramount concern to long-standing diabetic patients. Optometrists and ophthalmologists are trained eye care specialists whose job it is keep the eyes in good health. Regular visits to these professionals will help to unearth any abnormal signs in the eyes, which may be resulting from diabetes. They will carry out a funduscopic examination, among other tests, to determine the presence and extent of diabetic changes in the eyes and ensure appropriate management.
