We’re closing out National Diabetes Awareness Month with a discussion of one of the most common eye-related side effects of the disease: glaucoma.

Sometimes called the “silent thief of sight,” glaucoma can begin with little or no pain. It is caused by the building up of fluid pressure in the eye, causing damage to the optic nerve. Individuals with diabetes are twice as likely as non-diabetics to develop glaucoma,1 although glaucoma can occur in non-diabetics, too. As a result, proper treatment of diabetes doesn’t simply increase your general health; it can have a dramatically positive effect on your eyesight as well.

Generally, there are two major types of glaucoma that patients may experience. The first, primary open-angle glaucoma, occurs when general fluid pressure builds up within the eye and applies pressure on the optic nerve. This often-painless variety is the “silent thief,” since without regular eye examinations, a patient may not notice the gradual decrease in vision.

The second, angle-closure glaucoma (sometimes called “closed-angle” or “narrow-angle”) is far more painful — and far more damaging. This occurs when the iris suddenly bulges and fully blocks the eye’s drainage ducts, causing pressure within the eye to rapidly increase. Without immediate medical attention, this glaucoma can irreversibly damage the optic nerve. Victims’ only warning is often sudden nausea, dizziness, or drastic distortion of vision.

Diabetes & Glaucoma

Diabetes can induce or worsen glaucoma in several ways. The primary way is diabetic retinopathy, a disease in which thin, sensitive blood vessels servicing the optic nerve in your retina are damaged by high blood pressure due to excess blood sugar. The eye may try to repair these nerves or even grow new ones, but the altered vessels will often increase pressure within the eye as well as increase susceptibility to glaucoma.

A secondary way for diabetes to cause or worsen existing glaucoma is called neovascular glaucoma, which is similar to retinopathy except for the blood vessels in question are directly on the iris. The increased swelling or abnormal growth here causes direct pressure on the eye as well as the ducts by which the aqueous humor, or fluid, is drained.

In all varieties, regular visits to your eye doctor can catch early warning signs and take corrective action. While glaucoma’s damage cannot be reversed, further damage can be prevented, often through eye drops that reduce the amount of fluid your eye produces within its interior. There are also manual and laser-based surgical methods for manually draining fluid from the eyes before real damage is done — almost all easier and less invasive the earlier glaucoma is caught.

All Things Considered

For diabetics, there are additional variables besides the mere presence of diabetes in your conditions. Recent studies have indicated that a longer history of diabetes — the amount of a patient’s life spent with diabetes as a condition — in particular, has a great degree of correlation to a higher risk of glaucoma versus shorter histories.2 “Longer duration of diabetes was consistently associated with a higher risk of glaucoma … independent of age, race, gender, and other confounders controlled in the original studies,” stated the American Association of Ophthalmology (AAO) in regards to a 2015 study.

But regardless of how long you may have dealt with diabetes, there’s good news, too: “90% of vision loss from diabetes can be prevented”, says the AAO. And the National Institutes of Health agrees: “If you have diabetes, you should have a complete eye exam every year.” Besides good health practices, the best way to prevent vision complications from diabetes is through regular examinations. As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Are you among sixty percent of diabetics not getting the examinations their doctors recommend?3 It’s time to save yourself pain and irreparable eye damage through an easily-scheduled appointment. With over seven offices in the Roanoke area and additional offices in Wytheville, Blacksburg, and Westlake Corner, Vistar Eye Center’s doctors make it convenient and easy to ensure your future optical health. Schedule an appointment at a convenient location today.