Diabetes and eye complications: How to keep your focus on clear vision

Our eyes are our windows to the world, and there's no doubt that vision is one of our most highly valued senses.

Accordingly, for many people, the fact that diabetes and eye complications are often related can be frightening. If you have diabetes, you may have imagined a scenario where your vision is limited in the future — and you want to do everything you can to protect your sight.

Thankfully, you can take a number of measures to ensure any vision loss is confined to your imagination. Healthy vision can be a part of your future as well as your past! Here's more information about diabetic retinopathy and how to properly address symptoms.

People with diabetes have a higher risk of vision loss

People with diabetes are at risk of a type of vision loss known as diabetic retinopathy. The word "retinopathy" means disease of the retina, which is a layer of tissue at the back of the eye that receives light. When diabetes is not well-managed, damage can occur in blood vessels all over the body, including in the smallest blood vessels known as capillaries.

Over time, diabetic retinopathy causes the destruction of capillaries in the eyes, which results in the loss of blood supply. In order to compensate for the lost blood supply, the body may grow new blood vessels around the damaged areas. When new blood vessels are built inside the eye, the shape of the eye can change — and that can cause a loss of vision.

Glucose management is key to avoiding diabetes and eye complications

Above all, the most important and effective way to prevent diabetic retinopathy is to keep your blood sugars in check. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends maintaining a hemoglobin A1C target of less than 7% to minimize the risk of diabetic retinopathy and other complications. Current ADA recommendations are to keep fasting or pre-meal blood sugars between 80 and 130 mg/dL and to keep post-meal blood sugars less than 180 mg/dL.

In addition to seeing your primary care physician or endocrinologist for regular checkups, it's important that you get regular eye exams as well. An eye exam is recommended at least once per year, even for people with diabetes who don't have any noticeable vision problems! An eye doctor can see diabetic eye disease in its early stages — before you even notice changes in your vision. Your doctor will look for swelling, abnormal blood vessels and other changes inside your eye. It's much easier (and less expensive) to treat diabetic eye complications in their early stages than it is to wait until you have a loss of vision.

Treatments for eye complications linked to diabetes

If you develop diabetic retinopathy, your eye doctor will help you choose the treatments that are right for you. There are three main treatment options available, including injection, vitrectomy and photocoagulation:

• Injection of special inhibitors may be recommended. These medicines help stop new blood vessels from forming inside your eyes.
• Vitrectomy is the removal of blood or scar tissue from the jelly-like middle section of the eye. This procedure is done by making a small incision in your eye.
• Photocoagulation is a laser treatment that helps seal off leaky blood vessels inside the eye. Photocoagulation may not restore your vision, but it will likely prevent further damage from occurring.

Protecting your vision

If you have diabetes, eye complications are not a foregone conclusion! You can prevent issues from forming by keeping your blood glucose in control and by getting regular eye exams. And if you are experiencing symptoms, working with a medical professional can help you get any issues under control.

Now that you understand the connections between diabetes and eye complications, know that you don't have to let diabetes manage you — you can clearly see your way to successfully preventing and managing eye disease. Diabetes doesn't have to define you, it's just something you live with.

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