Hello. My name is Georgette Wilkinson. Welcome to my website about optometry services. When I first went to see my optometrist, they performed a thorough eye exam and determined that I could see quite well. Over the years, however, my vision declined and I developed a need for glasses. My optometrist immediately spotted the decline during a regular exam and helped restore my vision with corrective lenses. Through this site, I hope to help others see the value in acquiring regular optometry services. Please feel free to explore my site on a daily basis to learn more about how optometrists can help you see clearly.
Diabetes is a complex condition that can affect many different parts of your body, including your eyes. Many people with type I or type II diabetes suffer from diabetic retinopathy, a degenerative eye condition that can severely damage your sight. Catching its symptoms early gives you the best chance of saving your vision.
What Is Background Diabetic Retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is caused by high blood sugar levels. It causes damage to the blood vessels in your retinas, the layers of light-sensitive cells in the backs of your eyes that allow your brain to interpret what your eyes see. Excess sugar molecules in your bloodstream damage the walls of these blood vessels, causing them to weaken and eventually burst.
Like other degenerative conditions, diabetic retinopathy has different stages of severity. The first and least severe stage is background retinopathy, also known as non-proliferative retinopathy.
Background retinopathy occurs when tiny bulges start to form in the walls of the blood vessels inside your retinas. There may be a small amount of bleeding, as the smallest, weakest blood vessels fail and burst.
The vast majority of people with background diabetic retinopathy do not suffer any loss of vision at this stage of the disease. This is why anyone with diabetes should visit a diabetic eye treatment center for regular screenings.
Why Should You Act Now To Treat Background Diabetic Retinopathy?
You might assume that, because background diabetic retinopathy does not affect your vision, it is not an urgent problem. However, once the disease has reached this stage, it can progress at an unpredictable (and sometimes rapid) rate.
Because the blood vessels are already weakened, they are more vulnerable to severe damage caused by high blood sugar levels. The next stage of diabetic retinopathy is called proliferative retinopathy, which causes scar tissue and deformed, leaking blood vessels to develop within the retinas. This type of retinopathy can quickly cause permanent damage to your eyesight, especially if your blood sugar levels remain high.
Background diabetic retinopathy can also worsen other eye conditions associated with diabetes. If blood from damaged blood vessels leaks into your retinas, there is nowhere for the excess blood to drain away. This raises the fluid pressure inside your eyes and can lead to glaucoma, another condition that can cause permanent vision loss.
How Should Background Diabetic Retinopathy Be Treated?
As with many other complications related to diabetes, the best way to prevent background retinopathy from worsening is to keep the diabetes itself under control.
If your blood sugar levels are consistently too high, talk to your doctor about lifestyle and dietary changes which may help keep your blood sugar levels low. If you take insulin via injections, pumps, or inhalers, changing the amount of insulin you take, or the times at which you take it, may also help keep blood sugar levels under control. Do not make any changes to your insulin regimen without your doctor's advice.
If you don't already, you should also start visiting a diabetic eye treatment clinic on a regular basis, so your eye health can be carefully monitored by professionals who specialize in diabetic eye problems. These clinics can use sophisticated imaging equipment to monitor the state of the blood vessels in your retinas and can spot the earliest signs of worsening retinopathy.
If your retinopathy does show signs of worsening, diabetic eye treatment specialists can offer targeted treatments to minimize damage and save as much of your sight as possible. Laser treatments and injected medications can remove scar tissue and seal leaking blood vessels. In more advanced cases, surgery to remove large amounts of scar tissue and accumulated fluid can provide significant, lasting benefits.
Reach out to a service like Northwest Ophthalmology to learn more.