Article Directory :: Health & Fitness Articles

How Can Diabetes Affect Your Vision?

By Beth Collins

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 16Mar2012 Word count: 629 Viewed: 80 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

If you suffer from diabetes, you may wonder how it could affect your vision. This can be a large concern, as uncontrolled blood sugar levels can cause damage to your eyesight over time. For this reason, becoming knowledgeable about this condition, and possible signs that you need further treatment, is critical. So, to help you learn more about how diabetes and your vision are related, let's look at this subject in greater detail below.

Prevention is the key to keeping your eyes healthy, if you suffer from diabetes. Therefore, you need to be aware of the early signs that a problem is present, so you can take the appropriate steps right away. This will ensure that bigger issues don't have the chance to develop, and that you have a good prognosis overall. For this reason, experts recommend that all people with diabetes have an eye exam annually, to check out the condition of their vision regularly.

What kinds of issues are the most common? Experiencing cloudy vision, which some people describe as being blurry, is a typical complaint for people with diabetes. Why is this the case? If your body has high amounts of sugar within it, then this will draw fluid away from your eye's tissues. In fact, even your retina or lens could be affected, which may make it difficult to see clearly!

Further, if you suffer from diabetes, the chance that you'll be diagnosed with cataracts increases too. These can cause blurry vision as well, as they are essentially a cloudy spot upon your eye's lens. The good news is, your doctor will be able to catch this early in its progression, if you faithfully go to your scheduled checkups. Surgery can correct the problem, and this procedure is fairly straightforward today.

What other types of eyesight problems could arise? Sometimes you may begin to see lines or spots in your vision, and even have episodes where your eyesight dims completely! Why does this occur? Again, the high sugar content within your blood, places stress upon the tiny blood vessels which flow to your retina. They can weaken over time, and this may cause them to begin leaking or to become blocked. You won't feel any pain or other symptoms at first, and it is only until you begin to have vision issues, that you'll be aware that something is wrong. If it progresses, scar tissue may begin to form, as the blood vessels attempt to repair the damage. This scar tissue can pull the retina away from the rest of your eye, which is known as a detached retina. If this happens, you may see flashing light, moving spots or other unusual visual disturbances. Without the proper treatment, this could lead to total blindness.

Finally, glaucoma is another condition which you should be aware of. It is common in diabetics, and it will increase the pressure placed upon your optic nerve. This can decrease or eliminate your peripheral vision, so screening for this on a regular basis is highly recommended. How is this done? The pupil dilation test is sufficient to check for this condition, and it can be completed right in the doctor's office.

All of these conditions can be serious, and they can cause permanent damage. However, through regular checkups carried out in a timely fashion, you should be able to prevent most of these from occurring. Further, controlling your blood sugar will significantly lower your risk of these developing too. So, working in concert with your primary care physician and your optometrist is vital, as this will give you the best results overall!

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here

More articles by Beth Collins

Free Report!
Ten Essential Secrets Of Article Marketing ... Grab Your Free
Copy Now:

Need Content?
Regular Top Quality Content for your Blog, Ezine or Website ...
Delivered Direct,
For Free!
Click For Details