Diabetes is a chronic condition that can make many negative impacts on the body in the long term and eye problems are one of the disadvantages of being diabetic. Eye problems that pop up due to diabetes can be chronic or can resolve within a few days, they can be mild, moderate, and severe depending on individual patients. Blurriness in the eye is the most common symptom of diabetic-related eye problems. This blurriness can be negligible or can be troublesome. Now we will have a look at how diabetes can cause blurry vision.
There are a lot of small blood vessels in the eye’s retina that carries blood to the eye. Chronic high blood sugar puts pressure on the blood vessels in the retina, causing damage to it. This causes long-term blurred vision. With proper medical intervention, the damages caused by long-term eye blurriness can be slowed down. But this condition cannot be cured completely.
Can Diabetes Cause Blurred Vision?
Short-term blurriness is often due to the fluids building up inside the retina due to high blood sugar, which causes the lenses to swell, resulting in short-term blurriness of the eye. Short-term blurriness in the eye due to diabetes usually resolves when the blood sugar level returns to normal.
It is always important to talk with your doctor immediately when the problem arises. A delay in the treatment can have permanent impacts that cannot be reversed. Eye being the most precious asset of any living being, one cannot afford to neglect his eye blurriness, even if it’s because of diabetes or due to some other reasons.
After the initial diagnosis, your family physician may refer you to an eye specialist and further treatment strategies are carried out from there. Only an ophthalmologist can carry out a complete eye check-up. The ophthalmologist may carry out dilated eye examination with the help of a drug. The retina becomes enlarged and the specialist will carry out a complete examination. Diabetic Retinopathy is usually diagnosed during this procedure.
There are no complete cures for diabetic-related eye problems. They are chronic and will progress over time. But with proper medical intervention, the progression can be slowed down and the quality of life can be brought back to normal. That is why it is very important to seek treatment at the time. When it comes to the eye, you cannot take a chance.
Eye problems that pop up due to diabetes.
Diabetic Retinopathy
There are quite a few eye conditions that result from high blood sugar levels and Diabetic Retinopathy is the most prominent among them. There are two stages in Diabetic Retinopathy. The initial stage and the advanced stage. During the initial stage blood vessels start to shrink and damage due to the high blood pressure inside the eyes resulting from diabetes. If treatment is initiated without much delay, then the further progression can be slowed down. The treatment of diabetic retinopathy aims at reducing its progression and returning the patient’s life to as normal as possible. In the advanced stage, the blood vessels start to rupture and the blood flow is disturbed. To compensate for this, the body will start growing new blood vessels which not only won’t improve blood flow but also scar the eye. This often results in the detachment of the retina from the blood vessels. The advanced stage typically takes many years to manifest its symptoms, so with proper medical intervention during the initial stage, the progression of Diabetic Retinopathy can be slowed down.
Glaucoma and Cataract.
When extreme pressure inside the eye damages the nerve going from eye to brain, Glaucoma develops. A cataract is a condition where a white thin layer develops on the frontal side of the eye. Cataracts can be cured by a minor surgical procedure, Cataract Surgery.
Treatment
Treatment options include medical and surgical interventions. But always keep in mind that the effectiveness of the treatment completely depends on when it starts. So it is very important to seek treatment on time.
Diabetic-related eye diseases are secondary problems, with the root cause being diabetes. So it’s important to keep your blood sugar levels controlled. With proper dieting and slight lifestyle changes, it is a relatively easy task. Lifestyle changes include scheduling a proper diet plan, doing light to moderate exercises one hour a day, etc. proper medical supervision along with all these can keep your blood sugar levels at bay, and your life usually returns to normal.