By Dr. Sanjay Teotia
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You can prevent Diabetic retinopathy if you change your lifestyle
Prevent Diabetic retinopathy
People with diabetes are more prone to develop glaucoma but most dreaded, and vision-threatening complication of diabetes in the eye is diabetic retinopathy in long-standing cases of diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a lifestyle-related problem. Sedentary lifestyle, lack of exercise, bad food habits, stressful conditions are more or less responsible for diabetes. Increasing life expectancy is responsible for more number of diabetics in the society. Diabetes is the most common of the endocrine disorder. Diabetes more or less affects many organs of the body. In the eye, diabetes cause early development and maturation of cataract.
Duration of diabetes is the most critical factor in the development of diabetic retinopathy.
The severity of diabetic retinopathy not related to blood sugar level.
About half of people with diabetes develop diabetic retinopathy after ten years, after twenty years almost all diabetics may develop diabetic retinopathy. At present, India has the maximum number of people who have diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy is more common in females as compared to males. Family history is essential in case of diabetic retinopathy. The risk of blindness is about twenty-five times greater in people with diabetes than nondiabetics.
The dimension of Vision, blurring of vision, frequently change in the number of refractive glasses, difficulty in reading and driving, distorted vision is the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy. Increased blood sugar level sometimes causes edema (swelling) crystalline lens of eyes, this edema often causes temporary myopia (nearsightedness) leading to a blurring of distant Vision, while near vision remains adequate. Sometimes new blood vessels formed at the retina in diabetic retinopathy becomes fibrosed and stiff. These vessels pull the retina and cause retinal detachment. In retinal detachment, sudden painless loss of vision occurs. During pregnancy, diabetic retinopathy may also be a problem for women with diabetes. Hence all pregnant women with diabetes must get their vision and retina checked by an eye specialist in each trimester of pregnancy to protect their vision.
Diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is simple. An eye specialist with the help of ophthalmoscope examine the fundus (retina) and thus makes the diagnosis in the majority of cases. Other diagnostic modalities are fundus fluorescein angiography (F.F.A.). With the help of F.F.A., we take photographs of the fundus (retina) and find the stage of diabetic retinopathy, new vessels formed at the retina, leakage in diabetic retinopathy from vessels and retinal hemorrhage. Recently optical coherence tomography (O.C.T.) is very helpful in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy.
Full article in Ayurved Sutra Vol. 06 Issue 04
