Diagnosing Diabetes Using a high-powered microscope, your optometrist can examine the structures of your eye, including blood vessels and optic nerves. Your optometrist can look for irregularities in your eye that can point to conditions like diabetes.
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.
Blurry vision and floaters are among the symptoms of diabetic eye disease. About 30.3 million adults in the U.S. have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and 90% of them have Type 2 diabetes – their bodies don't handle insulin well and can't maintain normal blood sugar levels.
There is no cure for diabetic retinopathy. But treatment works very well to prevent, delay, or reduce vision loss. The sooner the condition is found, the easier it is to treat.
Diabetic retinopathy is caused when high blood sugar damages blood vessels in the retina (a light-sensitive layer of cells in the back of the eye). Damaged blood vessels can swell and leak, causing blurry vision or stopping blood flow.
The early stages of diabetic retinopathy usually don't have any symptoms. Some people notice changes in their vision, like trouble reading or seeing faraway objects. These changes may come and go.
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.
Spots, floaters or halos. Difficulty with night vision. Seeing double.
Diabetic retinopathy is a main cause of decreased vision or blindness in Americans ages 20 to 74 years. People with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at risk for this condition. Some people who have type 2 diabetes that develops slowly already have eye damage when they are first diagnosed.
This condition isn't fully reversible, but some treatments may help bring some of your vision back. While treatments aren't likely to return your vision, your eye doctor can help prevent your vision from worsening.
Many people with diabetes will describe themselves as feeling tired, lethargic or fatigued at times. It could be a result of stress, hard work or a lack of a decent night's sleep but it could also be related to having too high or too low blood glucose levels.
While anyone can develop this eye condition, floaters are more common in people with diabetes who have developed diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema.
Weight gain is common among people with diabetes, whether type 1 or 2. While this isn't something you should panic about, it is an issue you must address if you want to maintain your health and live longer.
Many people with diabetes have peripheral artery disease (PAD), which reduces blood flow to the feet. Also, many people with diabetes have neuropathy, causing you to not feel your feet. Together, these problems make it easy to get ulcers and infections that may lead to amputation.
Floaters usually happen because of normal changes in your eyes. As you age, tiny strands of your vitreous (the gel-like fluid that fills your eye) stick together and cast shadows on your retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye). Those shadows appear as floaters.
Blurred Vision
Before meals, this range is between 70-130 mg/dL. After meals, the target range is 180 mg/dL. Eyesight should return to normal within three months of regulated blood sugar levels.
If your blood sugar levels fall too low, usually below 70 mg/dL, you may experience blurry vision or other visual disturbances.
Although retinopathy usually does not appear for approximately five years after a type 1 diabetes diagnosis, it may already be present when type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. After 15 years of having diabetes, 98 percent of those with type 1 diabetes and 78 percent of those with type 2 have some degree of retinal damage.
Of the 85 deceased diabetics in this series, the average lifespan after the onset of severe blindness due to diabetic retinopathy was 5.8 years. This suggests that the life expectancy of a diabetic is very poor after the onset of blindness due to severe retinopathy. 1.