Diabetes Care: Eye Health (Part Two)

Successful Diabetes Management Is Completely Tangible — Find Information About Diabetic Eye Conditions And How To Better Manage Your Eye Health When Living With Diabetes.

In part one, we examined what diabetes is and how it affects our eye health. We began a discussion on diabetic retinopathy, which we’ll continue, and we’ll address later diabetic macular edema.   

Diabetic eye care is an eye care service we address at Long Island Ophthalmic Concepts. Together, we’ll help you manage your eye health and how it pertains to diabetes. Continue the conversation, and join us in this second part on eye conditions today!

Additional Information On Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy occurs when your retina is damaged from consistently elevated blood sugar level that negatively impacts your vision and can eventually cause blindness. Understand the implications below.

What can affect the risks of diabetic retinopathy?

People living with diabetes, whether it’s type 1 or type 2, are at an increased risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. The risk factors include:

• The amount of time one has diabetes — the longer you have the disease the more susceptible you are to it.
• Poor blood sugar management
• Race/ethnicity  – African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders are all at a greater risk of developing diabetic retinopathy.
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Women with diabetes before becoming pregnant
• Kidney disease

Preventing Diabetic Retinopathy

The best prevention for avoiding diabetic retinopathy is to control your blood sugar levels with a prediabetes diagnosis and steering clear of getting type 2 diabetes. If you are living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, you can better prevent or delay it in the following ways:

• Maintaining optimal health — having stable blood sugar levels and optimal blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
• Being persistent in your yearly eye exams and ensuring that retinal photographs are taken.
• Sustaining a healthy lifestyle.

Diabetic Retinopathy Diagnosis

The sooner diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed, the more chances there are in preserving and saving your eyesight. We’ve mentioned this a couple times, but truly, getting a yearly eye examination is imperative for anyone, but especially if you’re living with diabetes. A dilated eye exam complete with retinal photographs is essential. Both of these eye care services will assist the eye care specialist in creating the best treatment option and how to best monitor the progression.

An eye examination will cover the following when looking for diabetic retinopathy:

• Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
• Fluorescein angiography
• Traditional eye exam services

Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

DME is related to a fluid buildup in the macula — the area at the center of the retina. We know the retina is the part of the eye responsible for constructing images, and the macula is the part of the retina responsible for straight-ahead and sharp vision.

As an excess of fluid compounds in the macula, it distorts our vision. As the macula swells, it blurs vision.

Symptoms Of DME

People living with diabetes are at risk of developing DME over time. Vision changes and symptoms related to DME include:

• Double vision
• Blurred vision
• An increased occurrence of eye floaters

What Can Affect The Risks Of DME?

DME can be developed and affected by the following risk factors including:

• Elevated blood sugar levels over time
• A longer span of time living with diabetes
• Fluid retention
• Elevated blood pressure
• Hyperlipidemia (high-fat levels)
• Gestational diabetes

Preventing DME

It is known that the longer one has diabetes, the more susceptible they are to DME. Over time, nearly all those with type 1 diabetes and 60 percent of those with type 2 diabetes will be affected by either diabetic retinopathy, DME, or both. Below are ways in which to better help prevent DME.

• Cultivate a healthy lifestyle by healthy eating habits and getting regular exercise
• Correctly manage and control your blood sugar levels
• Keep healthy cholesterol levels
• Schedule yearly comprehensive eye exams with your eye doctor, or more often as recommended
• Women with gestational diabetes should schedule an eye exam directly following a diagnosis

DME Diagnosis

In addition to a routine eye exam, diagnosing DME may include the following:

• Dilation
• Visual acuity
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
• Fluorescein angiography

Both diabetic retinopathy and DME are eye conditions attributed to diabetes. When you partner with your ophthalmologist and get your yearly eye exams, prevention and early detection can lead to a better outcome and saved eyesight!

Schedule Your Appointment Today And Get The Best Vision Support At Our Eye Care Clinic!