diabetes 2

Diabetes can play havoc with your eyes
and sometimes there are no early sumptoms. So you may have no idea anything is wrong until your eyesight is in danger.

Here are the main eye problems that can be caused
or made worse
by diabetes.

Cataracts

These are often described as a clouding of the lens of the eye. They are treatable by surgery in most cases.

Glaucoma

Our eyes are largely made up of fluid
and when the pressure of that fluid builds up too much inside the eye
you have glaucoma. Left untreated
it can damage the optic nerves
and even lead to blindness.

Diabetic retinopathy

Lining the back of our eyes is light-sensitive tissue known as the retina. The retina contains very small blood vessels that can be damaged by diabetic retinopathy. Sometimes there are symptoms such as blurred vision
but often you won't even know anything is wrong until the condition is well advanced. In the worse case
it leads to blindness.

Early detection is the key to battling all of these conditions
and the best diagnostic tool available is the dilated eye examination. This is a test in which special eye drops temporarily enlarge your pupils
allowing the doctor to see the back of your eyes. This test (which is painless) can detect cataracts
glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy in their early
treatable stages.

Eyesight is precious
so if you have diabetes do yourself a favor and make an appointment for your dilated eye examination. And then do it again every year from now on.