Diabetes is a condition where the blood glucose levels are too high. This is mainly because either your body isn’t producing enough insulin or your body cells aren’t responding to the insulin. Diabetes affects multiple organs of your body, including your eyes. A study by the World Health Organisation says that all patients with Type 1 diabetes develop Diabetic Retinopathy; while 77% of people with Type 2 Diabetes who are living with Diabetes for over 20 years develop this eye condition. The report by WHO further mentions that Diabetic Retinopathy is responsible for 4.8% of the total 37 million cases of blindness all over the world.
Source: http://www.who.int/blindness/Prevention%20of%20Blindness%20from%20Diabetes%20Mellitus-with-cover-small.pdf
Apart from Diabetic Retinopathy, Diabetes also contributes to the development of a number of eye conditions.
Here are a few Frequently Asked Questions on Diabetes
How Diabetes affect the eyes?
Diabetes causes:
1. Blurry Vision
If you have diabetes, you may often find that your vision has become blurry. This is because the high blood glucose levels make your lens swell, thus affecting your vision. For normalising your vision, you need to get your blood sugar levels down. It might take maximum three long months before your get back your normal vision.
2. Glaucoma
If you have diabetes, then you might get a rare form of glaucoma known as Neovascular Glaucoma. This is a condition where new blood vessels grow in your iris, blocking the flow of fluid and raising your eye pressure. Moreover, people having Type 2 diabetes are most likely to have Open-Angle Glaucoma. Medications help in treating Open-Angle Glaucoma. This helps in reducing the eye pressure and facilitates the drainage of fluid. On the other hand, Neovascular Glaucoma is a bit complicated condition and might require surgery. There are many options for glaucoma treatment in Kolkata. If you have diabetes, then it’s a must to get your eyes checked thoroughly in a good eye hospital in Kolkata. It’s because it’s impossible to diagnose glaucoma without thorough eye check-up.
3. Diabetic Retinopathy
The high blood sugar levels can cause severe damage to the blood vessels in your retina causing Diabetic Retinopathy. Controlling your blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and blood pressure is essential for preventing this condition. You may develop Background Retinopathy (your blood vessels are damaged, but it doesn’t affect your vision); Maculopathy (a damaged macula), and Proliferative Retinopathy, a condition where the cells in the back of your eyes do not get enough oxygen and new blood vessels start growing. These blood vessels often bleed, thus scarring the retina.
Source: http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/eye-problems#1
https://medlineplus.gov/diabeticeyeproblems.html
What are Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes is when the body doesn’t produce insulin because the insulin producing pancreatic cells are damaged by the body’s immune system. Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. This is caused when either the pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin or the body couldn’t use the available insulin. This condition is common in people who are obese.
Source: http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/diabetes-faq#1
What is Prediabetes?
Prediabetes is the condition when the blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but it isn’t high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes. People who have prediabetes are likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases. Early screening is essential for avoiding any further risks.
Source: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/pre-diabetes.html
What is Gestational Diabetes?
This is a type of diabetes that women usually develop during pregnancy. This is a temporary type of diabetes. If you develop this type of diabetes in one pregnancy, you are likely to develop this during your other pregnancies. Gestational diabetes increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in future. So, timely screening is important.
Who can develop Type 2 Diabetes?
These factors can increase your risk of developing this condition:
- Family history: The family history of type 2 diabetes increases your risk of getting diabetes increases.
- Age: with age, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases. This may be due to decreased physical activity and loss of muscle mass
- Obesity: Obesity increases your risk factor for type 2 diabetes. With more fatty tissues, your cells become more resistant to insulin.
- Inadequate physical activity: if you are less active then you are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
- Unhealthy diet: a diet rich in saturated fats, sugar, and calories increase your body weight thus increasing your risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
- What are the complications caused by Diabetes?
- High blood glucose levels can damage your kidneys, eyes, nerves, and cause cardiovascular disease. You become susceptible to foot infection (that may lead to gangrene), stroke, heart attack, and sexual dysfunction.
Why it’s important to take special care of the feet?
People with diabetes are prone to foot problems. The blood circulation in your feet becomes poor thus damaging the nerves and reducing sensation. Check for various foot conditions such as cracked skin, swelling, ingrown toenail, blisters, bleeding corns. Proper foot care ensures that no wounds become so severe that the leg needs amputation.
Do Diabetic people need special diet?
Not really. Just ensure that the diet you are following is healthy and contains complex carbohydrates (whole grain cereals), is low in fats, and includes plenty of vegetables. If you plan your diet accordingly, you can still eat all kind of food and stay healthy.
What is Hypoglycaemia?
Hypoglycaemia or low blood sugar level is the most common complication faced by diabetic people. Due to several conditions such as not eating properly or eating too late, doing vigorous physical activity may drop your blood sugar levels below normal range. Patients usually feel weakness, sweating, and giddiness. At that time, the patient must be given fruit juice or some sugary drink. In case the patient is unconscious, he or she must be given intravenous glucose. Adjusting the dosage of antidiabetic medicine can help avoid this condition.
Source: http://www.searo.who.int/entity/world_health_day/2016/faqs-diabetes.pdf?ua=1
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