Diabetes can cause damage to your eyes. There are several types of eye problems such as- glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and cataracts. These will harm the small blood vessels in your retina (black part in the eyes). To maintain diabetes and eye health, manage a healthy lifestyle.
Tips to Maintain Diabetes and Eye Health
Manage Your Blood Sugar Levels:
When your blood sugar is high, it will affect your eyes. Manage your blood sugar so that it will slowZZZZ any small damage to the blood vessels in your eyes. You should take blood tests several times to be sure, and normally it should be around 7% or less than that.
Control Your Blood Pressure:
If you have both diabetes and blood pressure, it will lead to several health problems and mainly eye disease. You should keep your blood sugar level on point to maintain a healthy life. For people with diabetes, it should be less than 130/80. Check your blood sugar level every time you visit a doctor.
Eye Exam:
Take dilated eye exams whenever your eye-care adviser recommends. But once a year you should definitely take up this eye exam for a better and a powerful way to protect the health of your eyes or from going blind.
Quit Smoking:
Smoking will cause trouble in your blood vessels. Especially for people with diabetes, this will harm your eyes and can make you go blind. Quitting is not that simple, but ask for help from your doctor or else visit support groups to quit smoking and to manage your diabetes and eye health.
Control Cholesterol Level:
High cholesterol can put you at a greater risk for eye disease. Keeping it under control will not only help with your vision but with your overall health. If you don’t manage your cholesterol level when you are diabetic, there are chances that you may go blind.
Symptoms of Diabetic Eye Disease:
For diabetic eye disease, symptoms won’t be visible in the early stages of diabetes. At the start, you may not feel pain or any change in your vision, but the damage grows stronger from the inside. So early check-up and eye exam once a year is mandatory.
- Poor color vision
- Vision loss
- Blurry or dull vision
- Rays of light
- Spots of dark strings
Visit your doctor once you have these symptoms. Follow these instructions to manage diabetes and eye health.
