With over 37 million Americans living with diabetes, Diabetic Eye Disease Awareness Month is a chance to highlight the importance of early intervention for diabetic eye disease, one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in the U.S. While diabetic eye disease is a major public health challenge, it can be prevented with proper diabetes management and regular appointments with your eye doctor in Tampa Bay.
What is Diabetic Eye Disease?
Diabetic eye disease refers to eye conditions that impact people with diabetes, including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma, and cataracts. High blood sugar levels from diabetes can alter fluid levels and trigger swelling in the eye tissues, causing blurry vision. The blurriness will likely go away once your blood sugar level stabilizes.
However, elevated blood sugar in the long term can damage the blood vessels at the back of the eyes, causing fluid leakage, swelling, and weakened blood vessel growth. These problems can damage the retina (causing diabetic retinopathy), macula (causing diabetic macular edema), the optic nerve (causing glaucoma, or the lenses (causing cataracts). All of these conditions present the risk of permanent vision loss.
How to Prevent Diabetic Eye Disease
Preventing diabetes, if you haven’t already been diagnosed, is the best way to prevent diabetic eye disease. You can do so by maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, and exercising regularly.
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you can work to prevent diabetic eye disease by:
- Following all of your physician’s diabetes management recommendations, including monitoring your A1c, blood pressure, and cholesterol
- Taking all prescribed medications to manage your diabetes
- Quitting smoking, which is known to increase the risk of serious eye conditions
- Visit your eye doctor in Tampa at least once yearly for a dilated eye exam, which helps catch diabetic eye disease in its early stages
The Eye Clinic of Florida is a trusted eye clinic in the Tampa Bay area providing advanced eye care for patients looking to prevent or treat diabetic eye disease. Contact us today to schedule an appointment!