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by: JuliaHanf
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What does a common man refer diabetes to? Sugar? Glucose? It actually doesn't mean just this. Diabetes is actually a multi-organ disease affecting all the parts of the body at the same time. Eyes are one of the important organs that get affected. The disease has certain side-effects that can be prevented or at least delayed with major course of actions.

During diabetes there are some changes that are termed as diabetic retinopathy in which at the back of the eyes there are damages of the blood vessels. So diabetic retinopathy may have some long term effects. Initially it starts with when you can see normally moving down to a blurred vision and then patchy vision which even cannot be corrected using spectacles. Other problems are like balancing, reading, watching television and recognition of the people. There would also be also a problem by being over-sensitive to the limelight and facing difficulty in seeing in the night.

The prediction of retinal disease is not possible at time when a person is diagnosed with diabetes. However, about two-thirds of people with juvenile-onset diabetes (type 1 diabetes) will develop some significant retinal disease by 35 years after they've been diagnosed. One-third will develop swelling in their central area of vision. This is known as macular oedema.

The time period to develop retinal diseases for people suffering diabetes takes minimum period of 30 years who takes insulin or the people who are not able to control their blood sugar level. In US, there are more than 8000 cases of blindness mostly resulting in the age group of 25-74 years which is caused by Diabetic retinopathy which indicates that diabetes itself is responsible for more than 12% for blindness. The second place having higher number of diabetic patients is UAE having 20% of their population suffering from it.

Diabetes related blindness is one of the complicating factors for metabolic disease. Many people in this world don't even come to know that they are suffering form diabetes. For the welfare of the patients some screening programs should be implemented which would take care and give attention towards the sugar level testing.

More and more people should be reached with the help of mobile clinics by the public health screenings. NGOs should also lend a helping hand in arranging these programs thereby screening people at various places for a long time. There should be a system under which patients suffering with diabetes should be followed up at each primary healthcare centre with the help of ministry of health.

Further, Good control of diabetes is the best way of preventing complications. If the disease is detected before it affects your eyes, vision loss can be prevented with the help of laser treatment. But in the case of already damaged vision, treatment can only prevent from getting worse. The most effective way of detecting any damage to your eyes would be having them checked regularly by a doctor. This should be at least every year if you are taking insulin, and every 2 years if you are not. However, if you are getting symptoms like blurred vision, especially if this comes on suddenly, then see a doctor without delay.