{"id":155,"date":"2018-08-25T22:52:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T22:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/?p=155"},"modified":"2021-05-11T19:49:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T19:49:40","slug":"diabetes-and-the-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/diabetes-and-the-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"Diabetes and the eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diabetes, whether insulin dependent or not, can affect the eyes in a number of ways. A fluctuation in vision is sometimes the first symptom that patients experience before they discover that they have diabetes. Often, the distance vision blurs and the symptoms can vary from day to day. Other symptoms such as excessive thirst, excessive drinking and excessive urination can also occur.<\/p>\n

There are three distinct diseases inside the eye that can be caused by diabetes: cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Diabetes can cause cataracts, which occurs when the natural lenses inside the eye become cloudy. Not only does everything appear blurry but patients will often have glare and halos around lights which become quite bothersome. This glare makes it very difficult to drive at night due to the oncoming headlights, or even during the day when the sun is bright.<\/p>\n

Diabetes can also cause glaucoma, which is nerve damage caused by an elevated intraocular pressure. Poor circulation within the eye caused by diabetes can result in the production of small abnormal blood vessels inside the eye. The eye makes these vessels to try to increase circulation. However, these blood vessels are abnormal, can break easily and can block the drainage system of the eye. If the drainage canal is blocked by the vessels produced by the diabetes, then the eye pressure will rise significantly since the fluid has nowhere to go. As a result, the high pressure \u201cchokes off\u201d circulation to the eye causing nerve damage which left untreated will lead to permanent blindness.<\/p>\n

The most common eye disease caused by diabetes is called diabetic retinopathy. The poor circulation results in various types of damage to the retina, which is the thin light sensitive layer in the back of the eye. When light enters the eye, the nerve cells within the retina turn the images into electrical impulses that get transported to the brain via the optic nerve. If the retina is not functioning properly, the eye will not see.<\/p>\n

Diabetic retinopathy is described as having four distinct stages according to the National Eye Institute. These stages are:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mild non-proliferative retinopathy where small areas of swelling occur along the retina\u2019s blood vessels<\/li>\n
  2. Moderate non-proliferative retinopathy where the blood vessels begin to become blocked<\/li>\n
  3. Severe non-proliferative retinopathy where many more blood vessels become blocked resulting in significantly decreased blood supply to the retina<\/li>\n
  4. Proliferative retinopathy where the retina produces abnormal new blood vessels to try to increase the blood supply. These small, fine vessels however break very easily and cause hemorrhages within the retina. The hemorrhages can sometime spread into the vitreous gel that fills the eye. If untreated the disease then progresses to the development of scar tissue which in turn can cause further bleeding and sometimes result in a retinal detachment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that all diabetic patients undergo a dilated retinal examination each year. In cases where there is evidence of retinopathy, the patients will need to be monitored more closely, sometimes every 1-3 months. Treatment to prevent vision loss or permanent blindness includes the use of laser treatment and injections of various medications to destroy the abnormal blood vessels and thereby prevent further complications.<\/p>\n

    Diabetic retinopathy will often not cause symptoms until the disease is very advanced. Therefore, please be sure to have everyone you know with diabetes undergo a complete dilated eye examination to check for cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diabetes, whether insulin dependent or not, can affect the eyes in a number of ways. A fluctuation in vision is sometimes the first symptom that patients experience before they discover that they have diabetes. Often, the distance vision blurs and the symptoms can vary from day to day. Other symptoms such as excessive thirst, excessive…","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyedoctorsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}