What Is Diabetic Retinopathy?

When you have diabetes it's really important to make sure that you take good care of yourself. That means that you need to watch your diet and check your blood sugar. Doing those things can help keep your diabetes under control and can keep you from dealing with problems like diabetic retinopathy. 

Diabetic Retinopathy

The retina is a bit of light-sensitive tissue that sits at the back of your eye. When light hits the retina, it adjusts as to how much light is necessary and it will trigger the nerve endings that go into the optic center of your brain. That's what allows you to see what you are looking at. Diabetic retinopathy happens when the teeny tiny blood cells in your eye are attacked and damaged, which will cause your retina to not work as well anymore. 

Symptoms

There are several things that you should look for it you are worried about having diabetic retinopathy. One of them is that your vision is starting to be blurry. If you already wear glasses, you may already have blurry vision, at least until you put your glasses on. If you notice that you are having problems with your vision being blurry while you are wearing your glasses, then you may have problems. You may also experience some double vision. Other signs and symptoms can include feeling a lot of pressure behind your eyes or in one eye. 

Prevention

The best way to prevent diabetic retinopathy is to make sure that you are keeping your diabetes under control. That means doing everything your doctor tells you to do so that your diabetes stays under control. Watching your diet, taking your medication, and exercising are all things that will keep your diabetes under control. You should also make sure that you are seeing your eye doctor regularly so that they can make sure that you aren't starting to have problems with your retina. They will check your eyes doing things like shining a bright light into your eye and then using a special magnifying glass to look at your eye so that they can see the tiny veins in the back of your eye and see if there is damage. 

If you have problems with your vision and you have diabetes, it's important to make sure that you are getting your eyes checked regularly to make sure that you aren't getting damage from diabetic retinopathy. Discover more here.