Know how to protect your eyes

Each person has only one set of eyes and it is important to protect them. According to Jeremy Fast, optometrist, the number one cause of blindness for ages 20 to 75 is diabetes. Fast was the speaker at a recent group diabetic education meeting held at the Vernon County Senior Center.

He discussed diabetes and how to protect the eyes. Diabetics have a higher risk of cataracts and macular edema. Checking eyes once a year is needed for the prevention of further loss. When damage is done to the eye, the vision loss cannot be regained.

His suggestions are those commonly heard by diabetics. Keep blood sugar under control, control high blood pressure, don't smoke, eat a healthy diet and exercise. Problems with the eyes can develop without symptoms. All people may develop problems with their eyes, but being diabetic, the changes and problems are often greater.

Even though she was not diabetic, my mother developed problems with her eyes and had difficulty with her eyesight. It created difficulties for her and she could not do many of the things that she wanted to do.

Being diabetic the chances of getting into situations like that is greater. It becomes important to do all that can be done to prevent any problems.

Diabetics are at risk of having retinopathy -- including both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.

Fast said that some stage of diabetic retinopathy is experienced by 45 percent of diabetics. The blood vessels in the eye leak blood or become blocked.

Diabetic retinopathy causes vision loss through the blood vessels leaking and the development of vessels in different locations. "Floaters" are symptoms of diabetic retinopathy. The way macular edema and diabetic retinopathy is detected is by compressive eye check. Laser treatment of the eyes is done by an ophthalmologist, which is a medical doctor.

Fast discussed the procedures that ophthalmologist use for different conditions of the eye to prevent farther damage to the eyes.

The treatments are effective in treating conditions such as proliferative retinopathy.

The treatments have high success rate, which is not prevention. He emphasis the need to control high glucose. Ninety-eight percent of insulin users will get eye retinopathy after 16 years; many who do not use insulin also will have eye retinopathy. Those with Type 1 diabetes reduced the retinopathy by 76 percent by keeping the blood glucose under control.

Fast distributed two flyers from the American Optometric Association. The four titles on the flyers are "Low-vision Rehabilitation," "Living With Diabetes and Preventing Eye Disease," "What is Diabetes" and What Does My Optometrist See?" Much of the information that the speaker presented is included in these flyers.

One of the points included the fact that diabetic retinopathy causes from 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year. Diabetes is often detected by an optometrist.

One has told me in the past about this experience. He has had patients developing eye sight problems who did not know they were diabetic.

The information tells what the optometrist see during an eye exam, "During a comprehensive eye examination, your optometrist examines your visual acuity how clearly you see), refraction (nearsightedness or farsightedness); eye health and eye skills, such as visual alignment (ability of both eyes to aim at the same object); eye tracking (ability of both eyes to maintain alignment on a moving object); and eye focusing (ability of the lens of the eye to change shape to allow clear vision at all distances.

"To further evaluate eye health, your optometrist will sometimes put drops in your eyes so that your pupils become dilated. This allows the optometrist to actually see into your eyes through your open pupils during the examination. This is considered a dilated eye examination.

"When the optometrist looks inside the eye at the retina, he or she can see the blood vessels directly. The eye is the only place on the body that blood vessels can be seen without having to look through skin or tissue that interferes with the view. As a result, optometrists can detect many diseases that affect our blood vessels. Two such diseases include hypertension and diabetes."

It is important for each diabetic to have an eye exam at least once a year. According to the Centers for Disease control in 2001 only 71.1 percent of people with diabetes reported having a dialed eye within the previous year.

It could be a risk for permanent loss of vision not to have an eye examination.

I am interest in this subject because, one of my goals is to care for my own eyes, I do not want to lose my eye sight during my life expand.

Also, I have concern for other diabetics and urge each on to do what is needed in caring for the eyes. Lions International's emphasis is on eyesight conservation. As a 45-year member of Lions, I am deeply interested in sight conservation and support this important effort.