Most people living with diabetes have heard the warning to see an eye doctor a few hundred times, but exactly why is it that these folks, who already have enough to contend with, should have to find their way to the ophthalmologist on a regular basis? The reasons are numerous and they are definitely worth listening to. After all, ophthalmologists offer far more than LASIK surgery. They’re an important health care provider as well. Did you know, for instance, that diabetes is the number one cause of blindness in people between the ages of twenty and seventy-five? It’s true. Diabetes can wreak havoc on the eyes, and the only way to spot the signs of trouble and get and problems resolved before they progress is to regularly make the trip to the Austin Opthalmologist.
The first important step to understanding why diabetes can be so problematic to our visual preceptors is to grasp what this disease does to the body. Those who have been living with the condition are typically well informed, but for those less so, diabetes affects the body’s ability to absorb excess sugar from the blood into storage cells. As a result, the sugar is able to build up in the blood to dangerous levels. Insulin is the naturally occurring security against this, but in people diagnosed with this disease, this line of defense is cut down. Thus, patients are often forced to deliver insulin via syringe in regular intervals.
One of the areas of the body most affected by excessive blood sugar levels is the eye. There is a high concentration of blood vessels in the rather small and fragile tissue. When sugar enters the eye – via the blood – in high doses, it can cause the lens to swell. This can be corrected by regaining a more appropriate blood-sugar balance. However, other conditions, which can result from diabetes are not so easily rectified. For instance, diabetic retinopathy, which is damage done to the small vessels due to the high sugar levels and can result in irreversible blindness.
Two well-known and leading eye conditions – glaucoma and cataracts – also have a direct correlation with diabetes. People with the latter tend to develop cataracts earlier in life than the average person and, what’s worse, the condition, when combined with diabetes, can get very bad very quickly. So, while some can live after the first signs of cataract for many years without doctor interference, chances are good that the diabetes patient will be faced with cataract surgery very shortly after diagnosis. Similarly, glaucoma becomes a larger nuisance as well.
Glaucoma is even trickier than cataracts, as it can progress to quite a severe state before a person notices changes in vision or has any other symptoms. Those can include blurred vision, watering eyes, halos around lights, headaches, and loss of vision. In diabetes patients who often suffer the aforementioned built-up pressure in the eye, blood does not drain as efficiently and glaucoma becomes a more likely visitor. Though the symptoms may not present right away, a trip to the eye doctor can ensure that everything is intact. If it’s not, then measures can be taken to treat an existing problem before it gets worse.
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