Causes, Risk Factors and Prevention of Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetes may cause formation of cataract, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy of which diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetic eye disease which may cause a complete blindness if not get treated on time. Its cause is the damaged blood vessels in the retina as one of the complications of diabetes. Diabetes has many complications and after a few years it may cause many serious problems throughout your body including kidney, nerves and eyes. The eye diseases that can be a cause of diabetes are diabetic retinopathy, cataract, glaucoma and macular edema.

It leads to the damaged blood vessels which can cause the loss of vision in two ways like:Causes of Diabetic Retinopathy

1. When the blood leaks from the damaged vessels into the center of the eye then it causes a blurred vision. This condition is also known as proliferative retinopathy and it is the most advanced stage of diabetes.
2. If the fluid leak into the center of macula a blurred straight ahead vision occurs and the fluid makes the macula swell. This situation is known as macula edema.

Risks of Diabetic Retinopathy

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients are at risks of diabetic retinopathy and vision loss. Generally the people suffering from diabetes for a long time are more likely to get diabetic retinopathy. In United sates of America more than 40% of people who are diagnosed with diabetes are going through any stage of diabetic retinopathy. A once a year eye exam is recommended by the ophthalmologist for the patients having diabetes, a treatment can also be recommended by the eye care specialist in order to treat the diabetic retinopathy

A pregnant woman with diabetes may find more difficulties and may feel blurry vision much sooner as compared to normal women so a consultation to an eye care specialist is recommended as soon as possible.

How to protect diabetic vision loss

The first and the most important point to remember is to get an eye checkup at least once a year. Some other recommendations are:

1. Be careful of Proliferative retinopathy because it grows without any symptom and the patient may be at a high risk of vision loss at its advance stage. The risk of vision loss as a cause of Proliferative retinopathy can be reduced by 95% with timely care and treatment.
2. Ask your eye care specialist for macular edema or any stage of diabetic retinopathy even you don't feel the symptoms, an early care is the best way to get out of the risk of vision loss.
3. Control your sugar lever and keep it as much close to the normal as you can, closer the sugar level, less the chances to have diabetic eye disease.
4. Controlling the elevated blood pressure and the cholesterol also helps in reducing the risks of vision loss.

Another thing to remember is that diabetic retinopathy does not have any symptoms at its early stages so don't wait for the symptoms and get a regular eye checkup by a qualified eye care specialist and get a comprehensive treatment if required.