Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in adults and affects nearly 16 million Americans and in the United Kingdom 7.37% of the population are already registered as being diabetic, and that figure is rising constantly. High glucose levels resulting from un-managed diabetes set in motion a cascade of problems which ultimately cause the oxygen-deprived retina to grow more blood vessels. Ironically, the leaky surplus of vessels can ultimately destroy vision.

To explain diabetic retinopathy a bit more, you must understand how our bodies use food. Our bodies use food as a source of energy, and the main source of energy in food is glucose, a form of sugar. As food is digested, it is broken down into glucose molecules which enter the bloodstream to be distributed to the cells located throughout your body. For glucose to enter cells insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, must be present.

The normal body produces enough insulin to move glucose into cells. In people with diabetes, however, there is either not enough insulin or cells do not respond properly to the insulin. As a result, the glucose remains in the blood and cells are not provided with energy.

High blood sugar levels affect many tissues located in your body – it can affect the skin, eyes, heart, kidneys, nervous system, gums, feet, teeth and gums. Diabetic retinopathy refers specifically to the damage of the blood vessels of the retina caused by the glucose levels in untreated diabetes. Because blood vessels bring oxygen and nutrients to the retina, when the blood vessels become damaged they weaken and break, which causes fluid to leak in to the retina and sometimes swell. Because the body tries to repair itself, new blood vessels grow on the retina, which can make blurred vision or temporary blindness happen. Even scar tissue can form and cause permanent blindness where the old blood vessels was attached to the retina
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Depending on the stage of the disease and the problem that needs attention; diabetic retinopathy can be treated in many ways. The retinal surgeon relies on tests to monitor and track the progression of the disease and to make decisions on treatment; the tests include: fluorescein angiography, retinal photography, and ultrasound imaging of the eye.

The abnormal growth of blood vessels and the associated complication of bleeding is one of the most common problems of diabetic retinopathy. This is usually treated with laser surgery called pan retinal photocoagulation (PRP). With PRP, the surgeon uses a laser to destroy the oxygen-deprived retinal tissue outside of the patient’s central vision. While this creates blind spots in the peripheral vision, PRP prevents continued growth of the fragile vessels and seals the leaking one. It usually stops the progression of the disease.

As you can see, without proper treatment diabetes can be a very dangerous disease. It can take many forms, many of which can cause permanent injury and disability to a person. However, when diabetic retinopathy is treated correctly by a surgeon, you have a great risk of not only surviving the disease, but also surviving and correcting the complications of the untreated disease.

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You may wonder what an article on Diabetic Retinopathy, and some of the other Diabetic related ailments we have covered, has to do with a weight loss and fitness site, and the simple answer is age and diet. As this site is for the middle and older age groups who are overweight, type 2 diabetes is an ever growing problem, therefore the more information we can give you about the symptoms, and what to look out for, plus the consequences if you ignore them, then at least it should make things better in the long term. The positive news these days is, that with the right diet and some exercise the effects of diabetes in many cases can be reversed, and we are not talking about bland unpleasant diets, just cutting out bad fats, cutting down on red and fatty meats, and using some common sense, which we all have but sometimes chose to ignore.