Diabetic Eye Diseases - Article Example

Diabetic Eye Diseases Diabetic eye disease is eluded as the problems pertaining to eyes that arise in the diabetic patients. Chances of having eye complications like glaucoma, cataracts, retinopathy and many more, increase almost double in diabetic patients as compared to others. Diabetes mellitus is an unmitigated and potentially malignant form of diabetes, which is characterized by the deficit of insulin, increase in sugar level in the blood and urine, and abnormal thirst and hunger. Diabetes may cause a reversible, temporary blurring of the vision, or it can cause a severe, permanent loss of vision.

High blood sugar and other abnormal metabolic activities damage the blood vessels of the eyes in persons suffering from diabetes. As a result of these, these vessels failed to supply oxygen to different parts of the body and the scarcity of oxygen causes strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, and vision loss. In some cases these thin blood vessels may begin to balloon and gradually formed micro aneurysms, and started leakage of the fluid that is called edema and blood (called dot and blot hemorrhages) into the retina.

This process is called non proliferate diabetic retinopathy. If this fluid deposits in the central part of the retina (called the macula) and causes swelling there, the process is called diabetic macular edema. Sometimes new blood vessels, which are extremely leaky and fragile, may begin to grow and this process is called as proliferate diabetic retinopathy. This results in discharge of blood inside the eye (vitreous hemorrhage) and finally resulting in severe vision loss or even blindness. Cataracts are another disease, which results into the clouding of the eye's lens and the vision becomes blurry.

In addition, cataracts tend to develop at an earlier age, around middle age, in people with diabetes. Glaucoma also results from an increase in fluid pressure inside the eye that leads to progressive optic nerve damage and loss of vision. Though, retinal vein occlusion (RVO) occurs frequently in diabetic patients, the main underlying medical conditions for RVO in diabetics are hypertension and hyperlipidaemia, and these may be important in the etiology as in the non-diabetic. Also, RVO is more common in type II rather than type I diabetes (Dodson 1993).

Retinal arteriolar emboli, like RVO is also associated with carotid artery disease, hypertension, and other cardiovascular risk factors (Wong 2005). In a study by Marcucci and colleagues (2007), they demonstrated that the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia and smoking and the “thrombophilic burden” are increased in patients with retinal artery occlusion. Diabetes mellitus aggravates carotid occlusive disease that can manifest as ocular ischemic syndrome (Inoue 1999). Along with diabetes, ocular ischemic disease is associated with arterial hypertension, coronary artery disease and previous history of stroke/ transient ischemic attack (Mizener 1997).

The risk factors for age-related macular degeneration include smoking, increased lipids, cholesterol and hypertension (Ophthalmology, 2000). The National Eye Institute urges all people with diabetes to have an eye examination through dilated pupils at least once a year, more often if you have more serious retinopathy. A recent study, the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), showed that better control of blood sugar levels slows the onset and progression of retinopathy and lessens the need for laser surgery for severe retinopathy.

Physical activities, improvement in diet and healthy weight maintained are the keys to maintain blood sugar and they ultimately help to control all the related disease. Further research, however, is clearly needed, because the rates of obesity are increasing tremendously, and changing behavior for the long term has proven to be very difficult. Four key topics related to obesity and physical activity that should be given high priority in future research efforts: 1) environmental factors related to obesity, eating, and physical activity; 2) adoption and maintenance of healthful eating, physical activity, and weight; 3) etiology of eating and physical activity; and 4) multiple behavior changes.

The National Institute of Health is focused on following areas in type 1 diabetes research (1) Understand the genetic and environmental causes of type 1 diabetes; (2) prevent or reverse the disease; (3) to develop cell replacement therapy as a cure; (4) prevent or reduce hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which limits tight control of blood glucose; (5) prevent or reduce complications; and (6) attract new talent and apply new technologies to research