Diabetes
The key to understanding the Diabetic Eye Exams is knowing what Diabetes will do to your eyes, and what your eyes tell you about Diabetes throughout your body. That's why your PCP and Optometrist together recommend an annual medical eye exam.
Diabetic Retinopathy
When there's too much sugar in your blood, it starts to damage the blood vessels themselves, and starts to burn holes through them. If it's not kept in check, this can lead to permanent vision loss.
Who's at Risk?
Anyone with diabetes is at risk for diabetic retinopathy, but the 2 most important risk factors are how long you've had diabetes, and your A1c level. The longer you've had diabetes, the more likely you are to have diabetic retinopathy, that's why it's crucial to keep your A1c as low as possible, to minimize your risk as much as you can.
Detection
The inside of your eye, the retina, is the only place in the body where we can see the blood vessels leaking. If we see that there are holes and blood is leaking out, or there are dead spots of the retina or other signs of retinopathy, we need to treat both the eye and the overall body's sugar levels.
Treatment Options
If the retinopathy is mild enough, lowering your A1c can reverse the damage, but if it's moderate or severe, you may need immediate treatment in the form of medication injections into your eye, or laser surgical procedures. In advanced cases that aren't treated early enough, vision loss can be permanent.
Prevention
The key to prevention is minimizing your risk factors. Some risk factors like family history obviously can't be controlled, but any controllable risk factors like smoking, diet, or exercise should be maximized. In some cases, patients can even restore insulin function and discontinue medication treatment, maintaining sugar levels with only diet and exercise!