Contents:
- Medical Video: Danny’s Story – The Importance of Diabetic Eye Screening
- Types of eye complications
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Cataract
- Glaucoma
Medical Video: Danny’s Story – The Importance of Diabetic Eye Screening
When someone has diabetes, the threat of various complications follows. Starting from heart complications, possible loss of limbs, eye complications, kidney, dental complications and other complications. These various threats which usually make the diabetics become worse. Not infrequently the slump contributes to other health problems.
Diabetes is indeed a disease that must be watched out for due to various "creepy" complications that follow it, one of which is eye complications. Complications in the eye do not cause real signs, such as pain. Diabetics usually only realize when the quality of vision deteriorates. Often, damage to the eyes due to diabetes is only known when complications have occurred.
Decreased vision is the initial signs of eye complications in diabetic patients. However, because these symptoms appear gradually, such as beginning with minor damage, most diabetic patients ignore them and consider them as a normal eye disorder.
Types of eye complications
In general, there are three eye complications that most often occur are the effects of diabetes, namely:
Diabetic retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy is the most common eye complication affecting diabetics. This disease can only affect those who have diabetes (both detected and undetectable) chronic or chronic. This risk increases with age and poor blood sugar control.
Diabetic retinopathy occurs when blood vessels in the retina are damaged. In some cases, sugar levels tall one in the blood can make blood vessels in the retina swell (macular edema). When there is swelling of the retina, there is a possibility of blood vessel leakage, so that the back of the eye will be blocked due to blood coming out. That will then affect your outlook.
Most people realize that they have diabetic retinopathy when the symptoms are getting worse. This is because this disease does not cause pain. Only vision conditions continue to decline. Most people will misinterpret this symptom by thinking that their decreased vision is due to their getting older.
Sometimes, this disease only causes symptoms when it is in a severe stage. However, you still need to know some of the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy, namely:
- Sudden visual disturbance
- Blurred vision
- There is a dark spot when viewing
- Difficulty seeing at night
- Vision loss
People with diabetes must be aware of changes in blood sugar levels which can worsen the state of retinopathy. In this case, the blood sugar level in question is when the HbA1C level drops to 30 mmol / mol or 3%.
Even if you get complications, it doesn't mean you can't treat it. Laser surgery is often used to treat diabetic patients with diabetic retinopathy. However, keep in mind that each stage of diabetic retinopathy can be treated in different ways.
Cataract
Cataracts are usually a disease that afflicts people with advanced age, on average aged over 60 years. However, people with diabetes are likely to be exposed to even at an age not included in the elderly category. Many people who are less than 50 years old, who have diabetes, develop cataracts.
Cataracts are turbidity that occurs in the lens of the eye and causes the vision of the sufferer to be covered with fog. These symptoms will only appear when cataracts have reached a higher stage. In the early stages, cataracts may not have any effect on your vision, so that when successfully detected at an early age, this will surprise you.
Some of the symptoms of cataracts are:
- Misty or blurred vision
- There are dots when you see
- Feel glare by bright lights
- See halos when looking at the lights
- Vision becomes yellow
- Often times you have to blink so you can see more clearly
- The pupil appears whiter or gray
Although the cause is not yet clear, people with diabetes have a 60% greater risk of developing cataracts than those who are normal. This can be avoided by good blood sugar control.
For additional information, research shows that people with type two diabetes who reduce their HbA1C levels to 1%, can reduce the risk of cataracts by 19%.
The healing method that can be done to treat cataracts is to perform surgical removal lens that is experiencing cataract. Later, lenses that experience cataracts are replaced with clear artificial lenses. The procedure for undergoing cataract surgery tends to be safe and only takes one day.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma can occur in people with diabetes. Diabetics, aka diabetics have a 40 percent greater risk of glaucoma compared with those who do not have diabetes. The risk of getting glaucoma will also increase if a person has diabetic retinopathy.
Glaucoma is a disease caused by too much fluid in the eyeball so that it compresses the nerves that are on the back of the eyeball. The eye nerve is a group of nerve fibers that connect the retina to the brain. When the nerves of the eye are damaged, signals that convey the things you see to the brain are disrupted. Slowly, this causes loss of vision or blindness.
Open-angle glaucoma is the most common type of glaucoma. This disease is rarely accompanied by symptoms at the onset of its appearance. That is why this disease is usually only detected when the situation has become more severe. However, sudden pain can be a signal of glaucoma.
Some other signs that can appear as signs of glaucoma are you may see blind spot in the form of a small area on the edge or center of your vision. Complaints that appear can be in the form of a conical vision to the front like a tunnel or see the black spots that float following the movements of the eyeball.
The three diseases above are eye complications that most often occur in diabetics. All three can be treated before a person experiences overall vision loss. Because the symptoms are not prominent and appear gradually, complications in the eye that occur sometimes cannot be detected immediately. Someone usually just realizes when things are getting worse.
Preventive measures that can be taken to avoid eye complications are to carry out routine checks. Visit your eye doctor, at least once a year to ensure that your eyes are healthy.
