Preventing blindness caused by diabetes

HOUSTON - Diabetes is often preventable, yet it's one of the most common diseases in the world. It's important to know that diabetes can affect your eyes, even cause blindness.

Dr. Mirwat Sami of Houston Oculofacial Plastic Surgery helps us sound the alarm and offers ways to save a diabetic's eyesight. 

"Sometimes they say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and that's because they truly are. There's a whole world of diagnoses we can make, just by looking inside the eyes. Since it is Diabetic Retinopathy Awareness Month, it's important to shine a spotlight that we can sometimes diagnose someone with diabetic retinopathy, diabetes in their body, affecting so many different organs in their system," states Dr. Sami.

It requires dilating the eyes during an exam for a complete picture of what's happening in the back of the eye. 

"We look at the retina. When someone has diabetes, there's some abnormal new vessels that develop. Swelling occurs, and it's all because of poor glycemic control, elevated glucose levels in your blood and that kind of insight, this sort of inflammatory and neurovascular process. These new vessels that grow can cause some damage, bleeding inside the eyes, vision loss, permanent damage, retinal detachment. We're talking about cataracts, glaucoma, a whole spectrum of conditions. A lot of those are indicators of similar damage happening in other organs, like the heart, the kidneys, all these vital organs that we need," says Dr. Sami.  

Out of control blood glucose, the amount of sugar in blood, is to blame for the complications. 

"Diabetes is when the body is resistant or is not producing enough insulin, and insulin is a hormone we need to control the level of glucose that our body and our systems are exposed to. When we develop diabetes, that glucose level goes up and causes all this damage that over time, can have a cumulative effect on all these organ systems," explains Dr. Sami.

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The symptoms of diabetic retinopathy range from blurry vision to loss of vision. 

"People will also have dry eyes and infections as well, because remember, when the glucose levels are elevated, your immune system goes down. So, people are a little bit more prone to skin infections, facial infections, eyelid infections, sinus infections, and so that's how I end up seeing a lot of that in my practice, treating people and just trying to figure out, why is it that they're developing all these infections and their immune system is not able to basically control it," says Dr. Sami.

She goes on to explain that 90 percent of permanent eye damage can be prevented by early detection and intervention. 

Here are some ways you can prevent complications from diabetes: 

• work to always have a healthy glucose level
• maintain a healthy weight
• exercise on a regular basis (ideally 30 minutes per day)
• make healthy food choices: which means fewer processed foods
• manage your blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• avoid smoking.

For more information: https://www.houstonoculofacial.com

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-diabetic-retinopathy