November is National Diabetes Month: Keeping Your Vision Healthy Hope Gillette - saludify
go to original November 9, 2013

National Eye Institute doctor explains diabetic eye disease, and how to treat the condition. (NIHOD)

November is National Diabetes Month, and along with awareness regarding proper blood sugar levels and the causes of diabetes, it is a time to reflect on secondary issues associated with the disease. Keeping your vision healthy is something people don’t often think about when they hear a diabetes diagnosis, but it is a very real concern.

More than 25 million people in the United States have diabetes, and because of that, diabetic eye disease is the leading cause of vision loss among working-age adults.

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 7 million people are affected by diabetic eye disease annually, a number expected to hit more than 11 million by the year 2030.
What is diabetic vision disease?

Diabetic vision disease is the collective term used to describe conditions affecting the eyes as a result of diabetes. According to the National Eye Institute, diabetic eye disease usually describes:

• Diabetic retinopathy: Damage to the blood vessels in the retina, characterized by balloon-like blockages in the vessels which eventually cut off blood flow.
• Cataract: A clouding of the eye’s lens. Cataracts develop at an earlier age in people with diabetes.
• Glaucoma: An increase in fluid pressure inside the eye that leads to optic nerve damage and loss of vision. A person with diabetes is nearly twice as likely to get glaucoma as other adults.

Generally speaking, however, diabetic retinopathy is the condition most commonly associated with diabetes, and it affects an individual’s vision in two different ways.

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