Eye Risk What diabetics can do to protect their eyesight

Diabetes with complications: How sufferers can protect their eyes

Diabetes can cause numerous complications. Among other things, eye disorders that can lead to blindness. Experts explain what can be done if the eyes are already damaged and also how affected people can protect their eyesight in advance.

Diabetes can cause numerous complications

There are around seven million people with diabetes in Germany. The disease not only has serious effects on the metabolism, but can also cause numerous sequelae. Often diabetes causes diseases of the cardiovascular system over time. The nervous system is also affected. Particularly often the supplying nerves of the feet are damaged, which can lead to the fact that the affected ones develop a so-called diabetic foot. Even eye diseases that can lead to blindness are typical complications of diabetes. Experts explain what can be done against the latter.

Eye disorders are among the dreaded sequelae of diabetes. However, sufferers can do something to protect their eyesight. Also important are regular check-ups of the eyes. (Image: Henrik Dolle / fotolia.com)

Most common cause of blindness

As the University Hospital of Freiburg writes in a statement, the damage to the blood vessels in the retina of the eye is one of the dreaded sequelae in diabetes mellitus.

Physicians use the technical term for diabetic retinopathy. The consequences are bleeding and circulatory disturbances in the eye or the accumulation of fluid in the macula, the so-called diabetic macular edema.

According to the experts, 21.7 percent of all diabetics in Germany suffer from diabetic retinopathy. The damage to the retina is always symptomless at the beginning and can lead to blindness in the course.

About eleven percent of all cases of blindness in Germany are due to diabetes mellitus. This makes diabetes mellitus one of the most common causes of blindness in Europe.

Better treatment success through early diagnosis

"If symptoms occur, there is usually already an advanced retinal damage," explains Professor. Thomas Reinhard, Medical Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Medical Center Freiburg.

"For this reason, an early diagnosis is important if the patient is not visually impaired and the treatment is good," the physician continues.

As the message states, laser treatment can slow or halt the disease. Injections of active ingredients into the eye have been established in recent years as a therapy for diabetic macular edema.

What affected people can do themselves

According to the experts, sufferers themselves can do a lot to protect their eyesight:

People with diabetes should look for good levels of blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol as well as a healthy lifestyle and preferably not smoke.

Those who are overweight should lose weight. "Very important for all diabetics is also the annual inspection at the ophthalmologist," said Professor Reinhard. (Ad)