Know-How to Beat the Diabetic Retinopathy Blindness
Blood vessels in the back of the eye provide support for the nerves of the retina. These blood vessels can destroyed by continuous high glucose levels and high blood pressure (hypertension). Destroying the tiny blood vessels prevents the retina from receiving nutrients to maintain vision. This called diabetic retinopathy medical condition.
In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, called non-proliferative retinopathy, these blood vessels will leak fluid, distorting your sight.
In later stages, called proliferative retinopathy, new blood vessels grow around the retina and vitreous humor (a clear substance that fills the eye). These blood vessels are fragile and may bleed, clouding your vision or creating a retina scar.
Diabetic retinopathy can cause macular edema or swelling of the inner part of the retina (the macula). The macula is a part that allows you to see detail with your eye. As blood vessels leak fluid into the macula, swelling occurs. The swelling blurs your vision.
In addition, the contraction of the new blood vessels can cause scar tissue to form on the back of the retina. This scarring can cause the retina to pull away from the back of the eye. if it is not treated, This is causes permanent blindness and Glaucoma, and it is known as retinal detachment
What are the treatments for retinopathy?
Laser surgery prevents the loss of significant vision in most cases of diabetic retinopathy.
Laser photocoagulation a fairly pain-free surgical procedure used to seal or destroy the retina’s leaking or growing blood vessels. Unfortunately, it can also reduce your ability to see color and lower your night vision.
Where fragile blood vessels in the retina are leaking into the vitreous humor and clouding your vision, a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy, performed under anesthesia, can remove the blood by suction.
Risks of getting retinopathy
Anyone with diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2, develops retinopathy.
However, this risk will vary according to your type of diabetes, how widely your blood glucose fluctuates, how well you control your diabetes, and how long you have had the disease.
The only way to lower your risk of developing diabetic neuropathy is to rigorously control your blood glucose levels. As well as lowering your blood pressure, if you are hypertensive, you need to lower it as well.
Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness in the working population of the United States and the European Union.
Indeed, the National Eye Institute in the USA estimates that nearly 45% of Americans who have diabetes are affected by diabetic retinopathy and that 24,000 of them go blind each year.
Your likelihood of developing retinopathy resulting from diabetes is about 50:50.
However, if you diagnosed and have late-state diabetic retinopathy, you have a 90% chance of being saved from blindness.
Symptoms and diagnosis
There are no early signs of diabetic retinopathy. Indeed your sight may not affected until your condition has become severe.
However, if you experience a loss of central vision when driving or reading, lose the ability to see color, or find things blurry, you should suspect retinopathy.
Small blackish specks that float across your eye may indicate leaking blood vessels, even if they clear up in a few days or weeks.
You should contact your doctor for a complete eye examination promptly if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- Have black spots in your vision
- See flashes of light
- Have ‘holes’ in your vision
- Experience blurred vision
- How to prevent diabetic retinopathy
Retinopathy not have any symptoms when it starts. So the condition may fairly well advanced when you experience the symptoms mentioned above.
Thus it is essential to have your eyes checked regularly… at least once a year.
A doctor uses an ophthalmoscope to examine the eye, and an optometrist uses a regular sight test to determine eyesight. However, changes caused by retinopathy cannot detected with a regular sight test or an ordinary eye examination.
Suppose you have problems with your eyes. An Eye Hospital should see you. Who can observe the retina at the back of the eye to look for changes? In vascular abnormalities, new blood vessels form, swelling of the retina, and retinal detachment. This is the only way to catch the disease early enough to save you from significant vision loss.
The only way to prevent diabetic retinopathy from developing is to be rigorous in keeping your diabetes under control by maintaining your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
