What can you do to prevent diabetic retinopathy?

Currently, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, not only in India but all over the world.  Loss of vision is the greatest tragedy a human being can have. Diabetes can affect the eyes in different ways. Due to diabetes, the front portion of the eyes gets affected causing conjunctivitis, iritis, lens changes, etc. But more serious is when it affects the back portion of our eyes, including the retina. The retina is full of blood vessels. It has very small arteries and veins.

Diabetes affects the blood vessels, especially the small blood vessels of the eyes. When it affects blood vessels, several things can happen. There will be small dots caused by the oozing of blood through the blood vessels. Sometimes there will be ballooning of the arteries here and there, commonly termed micro-aneurysms. Sometimes the exudations from the vessels may affect the seeing area of the retina, i.e., the macula. Then suddenly, vision will come down.

Since diabetes (insulin resistance) causes a narrowing of blood vessels, the eyes may not get enough oxygen through the partially blocked blood vessels.  In order to improve the functioning of the eyes, as a restorative action, our body will start making new microvessels inside the eyes to increase circulation. But again, these microvessels will also start leaking and may burst. The retina becomes filled with blood. We call it vitreous haemorrhage, retinal hemorrhage, or pre-retinal haemorrhage, according to the location. What happens is that, when the bleeding occurs within the eyes, suddenly the vision comes down. If you fail to diagnose it even at this stage, the clots inside may start retracting the retina, leading to retinal detachment that may result in loss of vision.

There are very expensive and complicated solutions like laser treatment and microsurgeries to correct these conditions, but the rate of success will be only 50/50.

Isn’t it better to prevent this condition before it destroys your vision? When you notice the slightest change in your vision, you should go to a diabetes reversal centre and do all the screening tests advised to save your vision.

Things to do

1. Diagnose your diabetes early.

2. Start diabetes reversal at home before it is too late. Join a reversal program even if you are on tons of medications. The  systematic and multidimensional approach in the Reversal Centers will reduce the chances of getting complications like diabetic retinopathy, cardiopathy, nephropathy, liver failure, diabetic foot,  early dementia, Parkinsons, etc.

3. Do screening tests like retinal photographs, eye photographs, etc. at least once a year. Using a simple ophthalmoscope, the back of the eye can be viewed to assess the condition. The extra advantage is that based on the observation of the retinal condition, we can predict whether the patient will develop renal disease, heart disease, or even dementia.

4. Keep HBA1c below 7. Every 1 unit increase in HBA1c level will increase your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy by 25%–35%.

5. Enjoy seeing this beautiful world around you until your last breath.

Dr Arun Vasudevan, BHMS, MBS, D Acu

Ph: 9447554207

www.drarunvasudevan.com