What does a common man refer diabetes to? Sugar? Glucose? It actually doesn't mean just this. Diabetes is actually a multi-organ disease affecting all the parts of the body at the same time. Eyes are one of the important organs that get affected. The disease has certain side-effects that can be prevented or at least delayed with major course of actions.



When blood vessels at the back of the eyes are affected, the technical term is called diabetic retinopathy. The progression of diabetic retinopathy starts out with normal eyesight, which then becomes blurred, patchy, or distorted. These vision changes cannot be corrected with corrective lenses. Next, one may experience problems with their balance, problems reading, watching television, or recognizing people. Lastly one could become highly sensitive to limelight and experience difficulties with night vision.

It's not possible to predict the retinal disease at the time of diagnosis. People with type 1 diabetes will get retinal disease almost by 35 years they have been diagnosed. Swelling in the central area of vision can be easily seen in one-third of the sufferers. This is termed as macular oedema.

The time period to develop retinal diseases for people suffering diabetes takes minimum period of 30 years who takes insulin or the people who are not able to control their blood sugar level. In US, there are more than 8000 cases of blindness mostly resulting in the age group of 25-74 years which is caused by Diabetic retinopathy which indicates that diabetes itself is responsible for more than 12% for blindness. The second place having higher number of diabetic patients is UAE having 20% of their population suffering from it.

Diabetes related blindness is one of the complicating factors for metabolic disease. Many people in this world don't even come to know that they are suffering form diabetes. For the welfare of the patients some screening programs should be implemented which would take care and give attention towards the sugar level testing.

Mobile clinics would be a great asset in the fight against diabetes. Also a system should be set up for patients to be able to obtain the proper follow up care with the proper medical facilities, to make sure that they are getting proper nutrition, exercise and are monitoring their blood glucose levels properly.

Further, Good control of diabetes is the best way of preventing complications. If the disease is detected before it affects your eyes, vision loss can be prevented with the help of laser treatment. But in the case of already damaged vision, treatment can only prevent from getting worse. The most effective way of detecting any damage to your eyes would be having them checked regularly by a doctor. This should be at least every year if you are taking insulin, and every 2 years if you are not. However, if you are getting symptoms like blurred vision, especially if this comes on suddenly, then see a doctor without delay.