Ryan Galiotto

Diabetic retinopathy is a serious complication that should be of concern to anyone suffering from diabetes. What happens is that your vision is effected in a number of different ways. That’s because diabetes can damage the eye’s retina. So first let’s look at what the retina is if we want to understand how to prevent retinopathy.

Without getting into too much detail, you can think of the retina as a group of nerves in the back of your eyeball. They are like your eye’s camera, giving your brain a look at what you are seeing. What retinopahty does is cause problems with this simple process.

The blood vessels that are in the retina are very sensitive. When they split, the fluid that was in the vessels starts to drip into the eye’s compound. And when this happens the problems begin.

Most people will start to observe what appears to be an obstruction in their sight. Then scar tissue starts to occur around you eyeball and in it. Finally, the retina detaches or breaks away from where it should be sitting.

So how does this relate to diabetes? Well high levels of sugar in the blood can cause the damage we just talked about to occur. But the bigger problem is that all too often the noticeable symptoms happen only after the problem damage has become extremely severe. The result is that frequently you may not even realize the problem exists until it is too late to correct. This means that regular eye checkups from a doctor are essential. In the case of diabetics, you’ll need to visit your eye doctor a minimum of every year. Discovering a problem in the early stages makes it much easier to correct.

And between visits, always be on the lookout for symptoms or any changes in your vision. Things like black or white spots, called floaters, that appear without reason. Weak and blurry vision can also be a sign of diabetic retinopathy. Double vision too can be a sign. Even if these problems seem mild, they need to be taken seriously. And that means getting in touch with your eye doctor immediately.

Often times treatment is not necessary, but if it is, there are several treatments available. These treatments can reduce the amount of vision being lost. They include surgery, prescriptions medication and also laser treatments. Your doctor will discuss all your treatment options with you.

Remember the key to a successful treatment is to catch any problems early. Schedule yearly (or more frequent) visits to your eye doctor. This will help you discover if you have a problem soon enough to keep your diabetic retinopathy from becoming too severe.