Silent killers describe a cluster of medical conditions with no obvious symptoms that can progress to an advanced stage before they are detected. Diabetes symptoms are often reluctant to rear their ugly heads, landing the condition in this category.
What’s worse, uncontrolled blood sugar levels posed by diabetes can spell a serious health risk, ranging from heart disease to nerve damage. This puts symptom awareness front and centre, with one red flag appearing in your eyes.
Fortunately, Roshni Patel, optometrist and head of professional services at Lenstore, shared with Express.co.uk how to spot the signs of diabetes in your eyes.
Patel said: “High blood sugar can damage the blood vessels in your retina, which causes it to swell and leak and may result in the inability to see with a clear focus and detect details in objects. This can occur in just one or both eyes.”
The expert shared that the blood sugar condition can cause blurred vision in your eyes both in the short and long-term.
Patel said: “In the short-term, it is often a result of fluid moving in and out of the eye as a result of high blood glucose and tissue swelling in and around the eyes, which can cause the vision to fluctuate.
“Once the glucose levels are under control, fluctuations in vision generally tend to get better.”
While your vision may improve when your blood sugar dips, the expert warned it’s important to remember that once damage is done to certain retinal structures, it may not be reversible.
In the long-term, uncontrolled blood sugar levels can damage small blood vessels in the back of your eyes. “As a result, the retina is affected causing you to experience reduced vision,” she said.
Apart from blurred vision, diabetes can cause the following warning signs in your eyes:
- Wavy vision – high blood sugar levels can cause the macula in the eye to swell, which distorts your vision
- Floaters – white or translucent visual blockers that come and go and move around within your vision
- Colour loss – colour vision loss or alteration effects
- Vision loss – diabetes increases your chance of developing serious eye conditions such as diabetic retinopathy which over time can lead to a permanent loss of vision if left untreated.
Fortunately, damage to your retinal blood vessels caused by diabetes can be identified by an optician. Patel said: “This only develops if you have diabetes and can sometimes be detected before a patient is officially diagnosed with diabetes, thereby spotting diabetes early in general.
“It is important to visit an optician if you have noticed any of the potentially symptoms related to diabetes in the eyes or if you are struggling with your eyes in general.”
The good news is that managing your blood sugar levels can help slow down and reduce the severity of these problems.
