Diabetics are more at risk from eye diseases such as cataracts and glaucoma than those who do not have the disease.
Whilst both cataracts and glaucoma can be remedied with ease in the case of both diabetics and non diabetics, diabetics are susceptible to other forms of eye disease that can be much harder to treat because of their condition.
Possibly the main threat to the diabetic’s eyesight, and a disease that can only be caught by diabetics, is retinopathy which is usally contracted, if at all, after 10 years of having diabetes.
Not very long ago, a diagnosis of retinopathy meant almost certain blindness, but thankfully this is no longer the case, and in the UK all diabetics have their eyes examined for this disease every year.
Very often you do not have to go to hospital for this examination as many local clinics have been set up with the equipment they need to do the scan.
The examination consists of dilating the patients retinas so that a picture of the back of the eye can be taken. The picture is then examined by eye specialists who check for any damage to the optic nerve. Over time these pictures can be examined as a group to see if there has been any degradation.
High blood pressure, smoking and drinking all contribute to the causes of retinopathy. Retinopathy also puts you at increased risk of heart attacks and kidney disease and failure.
There are no drugs available to treat retinopathy, but laser treatment is recommended. This has been shown to cause some very minor loss of vision and field of vision, together with a very slight loss of night vision, but only 5% of diabetics treated in this way develop serious loss of vision.
At the end of the day, avoiding the long term health complications of diabetes is perfectly possible if one simply maintains control of one’s blood glucose levels, and takes the prescribed medicine.
Toby has had diabetes for a number of years now. He also gets hypertension caused by the diabetes. To ease this condition, he relaxes by making round table cloths. This helps him relax when he is tense. Making round table cloths is a good way to combat stress.
