Diabetes or high level of sugar in the blood system can cause a lot of problem to your body system and which your eyes are not spared. The diabetic condition that presents in the body will gradually damage the eyes pace by pace which including lens, retina, optic nerve, vitreous and etc. The scariest part about this is most patients would not notice any of symptoms until it is too late. Most damages might have happened long before the patient detects any change or deterioration in the vision. That’s why diabetic eye damage is often refer to as ‘silent eye disease’ (apart from glaucoma).
Some of the vision problem that caused by diabetes include frequent vision fluctuations, reduced vision due to the damage of optic nerve, impermanent paralysis of eye muscles, diabetic retinopathy and double vision. Moreover, people with diabetes are more prone to developing eye cataract even at a very young age. Cataract is an eye disorder that develops due to natural aging process but for a diabetic patient it becomes a symptom of the diabetes itself.
Glaucoma has been identified as the main cause of blindness worldwide after cataract. Glaucoma, unlike any other eye disorders, is actually a group of eye diseases that work together and silently. A person that has glaucoma will not aware or notice about it until a certain stage, when the symptoms start to show up. Glaucoma is known to be caused by a fluid that happens to build up inside the eyes, which causes the increase of intraocular pressure or ‘IOP’. When this happens, the optic nerves will get damaged and which then leading to vision loss.
There are two main types of glaucoma (which quite common to happen); the primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and angle closure glaucoma. The difference of these two is their onset and these are marked by the increase of intraocular pressure. The former type is much more chronic compares to the latter one.
Diabetic retinopathy is a disease or complication that origins from diabetes; this happens when the tiny blood vessels in the retina are damaged. When they are severely damaged, blood and fluid might leak out into the eye and form scar tissues which will impede the patient’s eyesight. As the disease progresses, new abnormal blood vessels will grow on the retinal and thus, affecting the vision even further.
All diabetic patients are advised to have comprehensive eye exams every year to detect if they are any changes with the structure and all parts of their eyes. This is crucial so that prevention or early precautious steps could be taken to hinder the disease to becoming even worse.
