SAN ANTONIO — Most diabetics know that the disease can cause you to lose control of your blood sugar, lose limbs. But in tonight's Wear The Gown with University Health, we see how the disease, over time, could make you go blind if unchecked.
Retinopathy, or a loss of clear vision, can happen without diabetes. But diabetes greatly increases your risk of developing retinopathy, and is the leading cause of blindness.
"It's very important to to get adequate control for those individuals with with diabetes because retinopathy is one of the major microvascular complications and fortunately can be prevented," said Dr. Alberto Chavez Velazquez, an endocrinologist with the Texas Diabetes Institute within University Health. He says pre-diabetics should also be concerned. Dr. Velazquez added, "People with pre-diabetes, 8 to 10% of people with prediabetes already show signs of retinopathy."
he American Diabetes Association says early signs of diabetic retinopathy include cloudy vision, trouble seeing at night or seeing double, blurry vision in only one eye, redness and pain in the eye, loss of peripheral vision, and seeing floaters or spots.
Dr. Velazquez says those with pre-diabetes and type-2 need to have their vision screened on a regular basis. Dr. Velazquez said, "People at high risk of getting diabetes should be screened at diagnosis and then every year, but also patients with high blood pressure, they are also at increased risk of retinopathy."
Diabetes can damage tiny blood vessels that nourish the retina, causing the blood vessels to become leaky. Fluid leaks out of those vessels and into the retinal tissue which thickens the retina. The result often begins as blurred vision.
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