What kinds of eye problems affect people with diabetes?
Diabetic eye disease refers to a group of eye problems that people with diabetes may face as a complication of this disease. All can cause severe vision loss or even blindness. Diabetic eye disease may include: • Diabetic retinopathy. This disease is specific to those with diabetes and damages blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that translates light into electrical impulses that the brain interprets as vision. There are no early symptoms, only an eye exam can identify diabetic retinopathy. Irreversible vision problems occur when the disease has progressed. • Cataracts. Cataracts are clouding of the eye’s lens that causes vision to become blurry. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop a cataract as those who do not have the disease. In addition, cataracts tend to develop at an earlier age, around middle age, in people with diabetes. • Glaucoma. Glaucoma produces an increase in fluid pressure inside the eye that leads to progressiv
