Eye care a special concern for those with diabetes

Eye care is important for everyone, especially diabetics. Optometrist Dr. Jeremy Fast recently spoke at the Nevada Senior Center on diabetic eye care. Fast said diabetics face eye complications more frequently than the rest of the population. Patients who take insulin are more likely to have eye problems than patients who do not.

"Diabetes is the number one cause of blindness for people of working age, usually people 20 to 75 years of age," Fast said.

Diabetics need to have regular eye checkups to ensure that they aren't in the initial stages of eye disease.

"Diabetics shouldn't wait for signs or symptoms," Fast said. "Diabetic Retinopathy often has no symptoms, there are no early warning signs. They should have a comprehensive dilated eye exam every year."

Once vision is lost, in most cases, it is lost forever. Treatments can prevent further loss but cannot reverse the damage.

"You can't regain lost vision but you can prevent further loss," Fast said. "That's why it is so important to have regular checkups. If you catch the damage early you can begin treatment to prevent any more damage."

Diabetes weakens blood vessels. Since the blood vessels in the eye are small they are particularly at risk of leaking blood, a condition called diabetic retinopathy. There are two types, proliferative or non-proliferative. Non-proliferative retinopathy is a condition where the blood vessels leak or become clogged. Proliferative retino-pathy is when new blood vessels are created abnormally, or when they bleed or rupture.

Fast said that prevention is the best treatment for diabetic retinopathy. When that fails laser surgery can help slow the development of proliferative retinopathy.

"We're still doing laser treatments," Fast said. "That helps stop the bleeding, which can cause blurred vision and other problems."

Fast said that working with primary care doctors to regulate the patients blood sugar can help prevent problems in the future. Prevention and early treatment are keys to keeping good vision. He emphasized that treatment doesn't cure retinopathy but that it can help prevent and delay some of the symptoms.

"The optometrist can get with the primary care physician to try to regulate the blood sugar better," Fast said. "That's a key element, keeping the blood sugar regulated, with follow-up by an optometrist or opthamologist."

Daily Mail Columnist Leonard Ernsbarger has written his own first-hand account of Fast's presentation, which appears on Page 4 of today's edition of the Nevada Daily Mail.