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Out of the 20 million blind in India, about two million have diabetic retinopathy. These figures are likely to go up by 2025, when it has been predicted that India will have 75 million people with diabetes.
Diabetes is a disorder in which your body cannot use sugar (or glucose) properly. Pancreas, a gland in our body, releases the hormone insulin, which is essential for utilization of sugar in the body. Inadequate secretion of insulin in the body leads to increased sugar in the blood. This sugar cannot be taken up properly by the body cells and its levels in the blood go on increasing. This eventually results in diabetes.
There are many adverse effects of increased blood sugar levels. All organs of the body are affected since the sugar does not reach the cells and they do not get sufficient energy. One of the most affected organs is your eye.
Diabetic retinopathy
The retina is a light sensitive nerve tissue at the back of your eye. Diabetic retinopathy occurs when chronically high levels of sugar in the bloodstream damage the tiny blood vessels that supply nourishment to the retina. Often this does not produce symptoms, but may cause blurred vision, and if untreated, may lead to blindness.
There are two types of diabetic retinopathy usually classified as early or advanced. In the early type, there is swelling of the blood vessels of eye. In the advanced type, the nerve that carries images from eye to brain gets affected and vision is severely affected.
Recognizing diabetic retinopathy
The effect of diabetes on vision differs widely depending on the stage of the retinopathy.
Once retinopathy sets in, you may experience blurred vision. If the blood sugar is high, the vision gets even more blurred. The vision gets comparatively clear if blood sugar level drops. Sometimes spots and flashes may appear in the line of vision. Also you might experience sudden loss of vision.
Diabetic retinopathy causes loss of vision in two ways:
- Blood vessels develop and leak blood in the center of the eye thereby leading to blurred vision. This is called proliferative retinopathy.
- Fluid leaks in the portion of the eye called as macula. This is where the sharp and straight image is formed. It causes swelling of the macula and is called macular edema. This usually occurs as the disease progresses.
Managing flu during diabetes
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