Protect those peepers!

Eyes are delicate and can be effected by so many different factors. Eye health is generally not thought about until there is a problem. Unfortunately, there isn't symptoms until the problem is severe. So in the face of diabetes, regular eye exams is the only way to avoid serious problems.  Interestingly, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults in the United States.
The two main culprits with diabetes is blood sugar and blood pressure. Both can have the largest impact on eye health.

First, lets talk about blood sugar. Blood sugar unlike other tissues in the body, doesn't require insulin to get into the eye. The sugar can flow freely in and out of the eye. We can assume if blood sugar is elevated then its elevated in the eye as well.  Elevated sugar in the eye causes  the eye ball to change shape. It literally changes from the traditional "ball" shape to an egg shape.   Many years ago during my internship I was working in a hospital. I was speaking with gentlemen patient. He told me "My blood sugar is 600 and I don't need my glasses to see".  Wow! How do you respond to that?  My first thought was "if it stays that high you won't be able to see"
Second, is blood pressure. I like to think of blood pressure as water flowing through a garden hose. When you put your thumb on the end of the hose to increase the pressure.  This is much like the blood flowing through the blood vessels. The small delicate blood vessels found in the eye cannot take the extra pressure. It causes them to burst and bleed. The result of the blood vessel bursting is  a worsening of vision leading to blindness.
One elevated blood sugar won't cause blindness. Complications caused my diabetes don't develop over night. It takes years.

The general recommendations for eye exams is different for type1 and type 2 diabetes. 

Type 1 diabetes is associated with a fast onset of disease. A person with type 1 diabetes should have a dilated eye exam at 5 years after diagnosis and every year after that.

Type 2 diabetes generally starts and advances over 6-10 years. Type 2 diabetics should have a dilated eye exam at diagnosis and every year after that.

The best way to protect your eyes are:

1. regular eye exams

2. good blood sugar control

3.Good blood pressure

Some helpful websites are:

http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic/

 http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/complications/eye-complications/