Eye Health: Floaters in Your Vision—When Should You Be Concerned? While anyone can develop this eye condition, floaters are more common in people with diabetes who have developed diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema.
You may see them more clearly when looking at a plain background, such as a blank wall. Floaters are actually tiny clumps of gel or cells inside the vitreous, the clear jelly-like fluid that fills the inside of your eye. Floaters can have different shapes, such as little dots, circles, lines, clouds or cobwebs.
The abnormal blood vessels associated with diabetic retinopathy stimulate the growth of scar tissue, which can pull the retina away from the back of the eye. This can cause spots floating in your vision, flashes of light or severe vision loss. Glaucoma.
Eye surgery
The ophthalmologist can replace the gel-like vitreous fluid with saline or another sterile substance, which helps treat eye floaters and other diabetes-related symptoms. When managing diabetic eye disease, it's important to take control before the symptoms begin to control your vision.
One effect of high sugar intake or diabetes on the eyes is diabetic retinopathy. This is caused by poorly controlled blood sugar, leading to damaged blood vessels in the tissue of the back of the eye. Early symptoms of this include floaters in the eye, blurred vision, and difficulty distinguishing colors.
However, if the vitreous separates from the retina more suddenly, you may experience a sudden increase in eye floaters. A “shower” of floaters can also occur when there is bleeding or inflammation at the back of the eye from trauma, infection, or a disease such as diabetes.
However, if you suddenly have more floaters than normal, reach out to your healthcare provider right away. This could be a sign of a retinal tear or detachment. These conditions need immediate treatment. In most cases, you don't need to worry about eye floaters or occasional flashes of light.
Introduce healthy foods in your diet such as leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, and fatty fish. These have essential nutrients to improve eye health and reduce floaters. Improving your lifestyle can significantly reduce eye floaters.
While it won't undo any damage to your vision, treatment can stop your vision from getting worse. It's also important to take steps to control your diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Injections. Medicines called anti-VEGF drugs can slow down or reverse diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy can develop in anyone with type 1 or 2 diabetes, as well as in those with prediabetes. It can cause excessive floaters, blurred vision, fluctuating vision, dark or empty areas of vision, and vision loss.
It usually takes between 5 to 10 years to develop a diabetic eye disease. However, that doesn't mean that you're in the clear before then. Uncontrolled blood sugar can result in eye damage long before symptoms appear, and diabetic eye disease can result in severe sight loss or even blindness at any stage.
Floaters can be harmless and a normal sign of aging. However, if they increase or appear with light flashes or any vision loss, call your healthcare provider since it could indicate something more serious.
The answer is yes, they can. During your appointment, your eye doctor can observe the floaters in your eye and check the health of your retina. Floaters are usually not a cause for concern. They can appear in varying sizes, shapes, and colors and can drift across your line of sight in different ways.
The bottom line
Eye floaters are common, and they might be a nuisance, but they're usually not anything to worry about. If you have a lot of floaters that appear suddenly, or other eye symptoms along with eye floaters, seek medical care right away. To find an ophthalmologist, visit bannerhealth.com.
Your eye doctor can identify diabetes by looking at the retina's blood vessels. These tiny vessels can leak fluid or blood when you have diabetic retinopathy, which only develops when you have diabetes. Some patients may develop this condition before they're officially diagnosed with diabetes.
Early stage (nonproliferative): Blood vessel walls in the retina weaken and bulge, forming tiny pouches (you won't be able to detect them, but your eye doctor can). These pouches can leak blood and other fluid, which can cause a part of the retina called the macula to swell (macular edema) and distort your vision.
It might sound strange, but floaters are a natural part of the aging of your eyes. They aren't anything to worry about unless they become excessive and/or interfere with your vision. It might be reassuring to know that floaters are always there; you just usually don't notice them in your day-to-day life.
For many, floaters may begin showing up between 50 and 70 years old. "Vitreous degeneration is accelerated by nearsightedness (myopia), inflammation, trauma and rare inherited abnormalities," adds Dr. Worrall. "Highly nearsighted patients tend to have more floaters than average."
High blood pressure can cause floaters in your vision due to retinal haemorrhages or substances leaking out of the blood vessels. Increased pressure on the blood vessels can block blood flow through a vein or artery, leading to sudden, painless vision loss.