How To Protect Your Vision When You Have Diabetes

About 29.2% of Americans aged 65 and older are living with diabetes. While many understand that diabetes means you need to keep track of your insulin and blood sugar levels, they don’t know that this disease affects other aspects of your health. Whether you are a caregiver to someone with diabetes and want to know more, or you are a diabetic yourself, knowing the impact of this diagnosis on vision is important to managing overall health.      

From understanding if you need a diabetes glasses prescription to taking care of your dry eyes, today we are talking about how to promote healthy eyes and good eyesight while living with diabetes.

What is Diabetes?

Let’s start off with the basics.

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that influences how your body takes food and turns it into energy. When you eat, your blood sugar increases, which sends signals to your pancreas to produce insulin. When you have diabetes, your pancreas produces little to no insulin, or the insulin that you produce does not help lower your blood sugar.

There are 4 types of diabetes:

• Type 1: This is an autoimmune reaction that means your pancreas does not produce insulin. The condition is generally detected during childhood, although adults can develop type 1 diabetes as well. The condition requires that people take insulin every day to manage their glucose levels.
• Type 2: This develops based on diet and lifestyle choices, although genetics can play a role too. Your body becomes resistant to the insulin you create. Approximately 90% of people with diabetes have type 2.
• Gestational Diabetes: This develops in pregnant women who have never had diabetes. This diabetes type generally goes away after birth, but it does have the risk of developing into type 2.
• Prediabetes: Here, your blood sugar levels are higher than is considered normal and healthy, but below the criteria for type 2 diabetes. More than 88 million Americans have prediabetes. When undetected, not only are you likely to develop type 2 diabetes, but you are at greater risk of heart disease and strokes.

There are many symptoms you may experience just before a diagnosis.

Those with a type 1 or 2 diagnosis tend to exhibit frequent urination, extreme hunger, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, and slow-healing sores. Taking note of any and all of the symptoms you have when visiting your doctor can help determine your course of treatment and how to create a healthy lifestyle while living with diabetes.

Can Diabetes Cause Vision Problems?

The short answer is yes. Diabetes affects every part of the eye.

You may have already experienced vision problems before your diagnosis. Blurry vision occurs when your high blood sugar causes damage to the blood vessels of the eye. Even after diagnosis and having a treatment plan, that blurry vision can linger and worsen.

Dry eyes are also a symptom for diabetics. While dry eyes may seem like a minor irritation, when left untreated can cause damage to the cornea. Patients are at risk for many eye conditions. Cataracts, glaucoma, macular edema, and diabetic retinopathy are just a few examples of what diabetics can suffer from when it comes to their eyes and their vision.

Are Any of These Vision Problems Curable?

Unfortunately, the majority of these vision problems that we associate with diabetes can only be managed once discovered to keep your eyesight as functional as long as possible.

With a proper treatment plan, which can include a diabetes glasses prescription, symptoms and discomfort can be reduced.

The main vision conditions you may experience as a diabetic are as follows:

• Cataracts: These are cloudy areas in the lens of the cornea that blur your vision. Those with diabetes are twice as likely to develop cataracts due to the damage to the blood vessels of the eye from high blood sugar. Major symptoms of cataracts are sensitivity to lights, seeing spots, and reduced intensity of colors. While a course of treatment for cataracts is surgical removal and artificial lens replacement, patients may experience cloudiness that can last months or years after surgery. To ensure the best outcome for your vision, seeking a consultation with a local cataract surgeon who specializes in modern surgical techniques can provide personalized care and advice tailored to your specific needs.
• Glaucoma: As January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, it is important to understand the severity of this eye condition. This disease occurs when fluid builds up inside the eye, leading to increased pressure and damage to the optic nerve. This damage isn’t reversible and glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in people 60 years of age and older.
• Diabetic Retinopathy: This is common with Type 1 and 2 patients and is in conjunction with diabetic kidney damage known as diabetic nephropathy. It affects the blood vessels and nerves of the retina and when left untreated can lead to blindness. Unfortunately, this rarely manifests with symptoms in the early stages, and once there is damage, it is not reversible. Because of its link to diabetic nephropathy, it is important to schedule eye exams to monitor your eye health and any progression of eye disease.
• Diabetic Macular Edema (DME): This is a condition in which fluid builds up in the macula of the eye, causing it to swell and distort vision. Those suffering from DME say their vision is blurry or wavy near the center of their field of vision. They also notice that colors appear lackluster or washed out. It rarely causes permanent vision loss and treatment is possible, but it is not curable. The recovery is a slow process, but is effective if the diagnosis is early.

Having a proper course of treatment for any of your diagnoses is important to your overall health. Managing your symptoms and logging any changes will help your physicians understand how your health is trending.

How To Manage Your Vision As A Diabetic

A vital component to your eye health in general, but especially as a diabetic, is having an eye doctor. This seems simple enough, but it’s overwhelmingly important to ensure your eye health is being monitored, diagnosed, and treated appropriately.

You must go to all scheduled exams and book appointments when you experience any changes to your vision to address issues as soon as possible. Having a relationship with your eye doctor and your diabetes doctor is crucial to ensuring the longevity of your eye health.

How Does Diabetes Affect Your Glasses?

If you already wear glasses for conditions like near-sightedness or farsightedness, you may experience changes to your prescription as vision-related diabetes symptoms arise.

Updating your lenses and buying prescription glasses online that will arrive right to your door can add ease to shopping for your new diabetes glasses prescription (Abbe Glasses is another good choice when you’re shopping online). Alternatively, the conventional approach of visiting your local eye doctor regularly can work well too.

Staying up to date with your lenses will help track the progression of your vision changes. You are your greatest advocate for your eye health and noticing when your eyes worsen or if you experience new symptoms will only help create the right treatment plan for you.  

Other Uses Of Eye Doctors

If you don’t need prescription lenses, there are still areas in which your eye doctor can help you. They may prescribe eye drops to help with dry eye relief or recommend lifestyle changes to help with other symptoms you experience. An optometrist isn’t only there to give you glasses, they are there to help diagnose and treat your eye ailments.

Final Thoughts

Understanding the totality of your diabetic experience will only help you create and maintain healthy relationships with yourself, your physicians, and the world around you. Being able to advocate for you and your health is an important part of setting your sights on a bright and healthy future.