Diabetic Retinopathy
Posted May 14, 2012 by Mandy Smith in Blind and Low Vision
Diabetes is a complicated condition that is able to affect many aspects of your health, including your eye sight…
Diabetes is when your body does not produce or use insulin and you end up with high levels of blood glucose. This condition causes complications in the rest of the body which can result in heart disease, stroke, nerve disease, and vision loss.
There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 also known as juvenile diabetes and Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes. A person with Type 1 will be depended on insulin and there is no cure. Type 2 is more common and some people are able to regulate it with diet and exercise, others may need insulin or another medication.
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease that is caused by diabetes. All people with diabetes are at risk of diabetic retinopathy but the risk increases with age. Diabetic retinopathy damages the small blood vessels that are on the retina which can affect your central and peripheral vision along with depth perception, color perception and contrast sensitivity. If left untreated the broken blood vessels may leak into the eye, causing the person to seek “spots, flecks or floaters” and can cause total blindness.
Once a person is diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy it is very important for them to see his/her eye doctor on a regular basis to try to regulate the diabetic retinopathy and to watch for other conditions that may arise such as cataracts and/or glaucoma.
Diabetic retinopathy has no warning signs; which is why it is so important to have annual eye doctor appointments with dilated eye evaluations.
If you have questions about diabetic retinopathy or another eye disease, please email me at mandy.smith@rcilinc.org.
