Retinopathy caused by diabetes

About 5% of the Italian population lives with diabetes every day.

Some of these people also have to deal with disorders and diseases associated with diabetes, such as diabetic retinopathy (RD - Social Manifesto), a disease that affects the eyes and which is also one of the main causes of low vision and disorders even more serious, such as diabetic maculopathy or even blindness.

Every year, the Camo, Centro Ambrosiano Oftalmico, in conjunction with World Sight Day, which falls in October, warns about the risk to the eyes that a disease like diabetes can cause, especially after many years and absence of regular and regular monitoring.

The main cause of diabetic retinopathy is in fact connected to a poorly controlled diabetes, which, over time, leads to the development of alterations in the state of small blood vessels.

The SID-AMD guidelines, at the bottom of this page, (Italian Society of Diabetology-Diabetes Association Doctors) recommend an ocular screening every two years, if retinopathy is absent at the last check. Obviously the prevention and treatment of diabetes, therefore the first move to play, always starts from nutrition.

Diabetes and eyes

Diabetes is a disease to be reckoned with that can lead to the development of diseases and dysfunctions to various organs, if not adequately cured. The result of this that, in the long run, the eyes of diabetic people can suffer, is that of an accumulated damage in the long term against the small blood vessels of the retina .

The positive thing is that, as communicated by IAPB (the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, or the Italian section of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness), retinal damage associated with diabetes is generally avoidable .

For this reason it is important to monitor the patient at 360 °, ie by periodically checking blood sugar levels and blood glucose levels, but also monitoring the state of the ocular fundus, performing, if necessary, specific tests such as retinography, fluorangiography and OCT.

Centers for vision care and diabetes

The importance of relying on the care of a specialist, diabetologist and ophthalmologist, or a center that can guarantee effective and effective help with this type of problem is beyond doubt.

Here is a series of associations, institutions and Italian centers of reference that can be useful and that promote vision care, in parallel with diabetes monitoring.

> IAPB Italia Onlus with the guidelines on diabetic retinopathy ;

> SID-AMD (Italian Diabetes and Diabetes Association);

> Diabetes Italy;

> FAND Italian Diabetic Association;

> IBDO Italian Barometer Diabetes Observatory Foundation;

> Italian Society of General Medicine (SIMG).