About it:
Retinopathy is a disease of the retina camera.gif. The retina is the nerve layer that lines the back of your eye. It is the part of your eye that “takes pictures” and sends the images to your brain. Many people with diabetes get retinopathy. This kind of retinopathy is called diabetic retinopathy (retinal disease caused by diabetes).
Diabetic retinopathy can lead to poor vision and even blindness. Most of the time, it gets worse over many years. At first, the blood vessels in the eye get weak. This can lead to blood and other liquid leaking into the retina from the blood vessels. This is called nonproliferative retinopathy. And this is the most common retinopathy. If the fluid leaks into the center of your eye, you may have blurry vision. Most people with nonproliferative retinopathy have no symptoms.
If blood sugar levels stay high, diabetic retinopathy will keep getting worse. New blood vessels grow on the retina. This may sound good, but these new blood vessels are weak. They can break open very easily, even while you are sleeping. If they break open, blood can leak into the middle part of your eye in front of the retina and change your vision. This bleeding can also cause scar tissue to form, which can pull on the retina and cause the retina to move away from the wall of the eye (retinal detachment). This is called proliferative retinopathy. Sometimes people don’t have symptoms until it is too late to treat them. This is why having eye exams regularly is so important.
Retinopathy can also cause swelling of the macula of the eye. This is called macular edema. The macula is the middle of the retina, which lets you see details. When it swells, it can make your vision much worse. It can even cause legal blindness.
If you are not able to keep your blood sugar levels in a target range, it can cause damage to your blood vessels. Diabetic retinopathy happens when high blood sugar damages the tiny blood vessels of the retina.
When you have diabetic retinopathy, high blood pressure can make it worse. High blood pressure can cause more damage to the weakened vessels in your eye, leading to more leaking of fluid or blood and clouding more of your vision.
Diabetic Retinopathy – Symptoms
You may have diabetic retinopathy for a long time without noticing any symptoms. Typically, retinopathy does not cause noticeable symptoms until significant damage has occurred and complications have developed.
Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy and its complications may include:
We now get Kamagra oral jelly also for them those are not accustomed to take the viagra price http://davidfraymusic.com/events/nfm-wroclaw-philharmonic-orchestra-florida-2/ oral pills. A strong interconnection has been observed by doctor’s scientists cialis 20mg no prescription together between type 2 diabetes and ED. In other words, it is known as davidfraymusic.com get viagra cheap and recommended to men with erection problems. Apart from insomnia, another baffling sleep viagra in italy disorder is sexsomnia.
Blurred, double, or distorted vision or difficulty reading.
Floaters or spots in your vision.
Partial or total loss of vision or a shadow or veil across your field of vision.
Pain, pressure, or constant redness of the eye.
Diabetic Retinopathy – Prevention
There are steps you can take to reduce your chance of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy and its complications:
Control your blood sugar levels. Keep blood sugar levels in a target range by eating a healthful diet, frequently monitoring your blood sugar levels, getting regular physical exercise, and taking insulin or medicines for type 2 diabetes if prescribed.
Control your blood pressure. Retinopathy is more likely to progress to the severe form and macular edema is more likely to occur in people who have high blood pressure. It is not clear whether treating high blood pressure can directly affect long-term vision. But in general, keeping blood pressure levels in a target range can reduce the risk of many different complications of diabetes. For more information about how to control your blood pressure, see the topic High Blood Pressure.
Have your eyes examined by an eye specialist (ophthalmologist or optometrist) every year. Screening for diabetic retinopathy and other eye problems will not prevent diabetic eye disease. But it can help you avoid vision loss by allowing for early detection and treatment.
See an ophthalmologist if you have changes in your vision. Changes in vision-such as floaters, pain or pressure in the eye, blurry or double vision, or new vision loss-may be symptoms of serious damage to your retina. In most cases, the sooner the problem can be treated, the more effective the treatment will be.
The risk for severe retinopathy and vision loss may be even less if you:
Don’t smoke. Although smoking has not been proved to increase the risk of retinopathy, smoking may aggravate many of the other health problems faced by people with diabetes, including disease of the small blood vessels.
Avoid hazardous activities. Certain physical activities, like weight lifting or some contact sports, may trigger bleeding in the eye through impact or increased pressure. Avoiding these activities when you have diabetic retinopathy can help reduce the risk of damage to your vision.
Get adequate exercise. Exercise helps keep blood sugar levels in a target range, which can reduce the risk of vision damage from diabetic retinopathy. Talk to your doctor about what kinds of exercise are safe for you.
