Diabetic eye care with Dr. Jason Kvitle

Diabetes is a disease that affects almost every part of your body, including your eyes and is becoming more prevalent. A recent study from the American Diabetes Association estimated that roughly 34 million Americans – that’s around 11% of the population – has diabetes. 

Plus, it’s thought that close to 9 million people with diabetes aren’t aware of it. Almost 98 million people are at a high risk of developing diabetes, that is, they have prediabetes. This spells bad news for their general health, including their eye health. 

We are big on diabetic eye care, and in this article, we’ll show you the link between diabetes and eye health, provide details on diabetic retinopathy, and stress how important a diabetes eye test is, and how Kvitle Eyecare is committed to caring for people with diabetes.

What is diabetes?

Simply put, diabetes disrupts your body’s ability to regulate levels of sugar in your blood. Your blood sugar levels are managed by the hormone insulin. 

If your body can’t make any or enough insulin, or the cells in your body can’t respond to insulin properly, your blood sugar levels stay higher for longer. And this is what leads to health issues. 

Making the connection

High blood sugar can damage many different organs and tissues in your body, including your eyes.

Your eyes are supplied by a network of small blood vessels, which provide nutrients and oxygen. High blood sugar levels cause these blood vessels to become less elastic and narrower. This reduces the amount of blood flowing through them, and blood flow through some of these vessels can even become completely cut off.

So, how do your eyes react when this happens? 

They try to grow new blood vessels in a process called neovascularization. However, these blood vessels don’t grow properly and leak, causing damage to the surrounding eye tissue. Left untreated, this leads to vision loss. 

And that’s why diabetic eye care, including a diabetes eye test, is so important. It can reduce your risk of developing sight-threatening eye diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma, and cataracts. 

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetic eye condition, so let’s take a closer look at what happens. 

Diabetic retinopathy 101

The retina, light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye, needs an abundant supply of blood. 

As we’ve already mentioned, high blood sugar levels narrow and block blood vessels in your eyes. These blood vessels swell and leak fluid and blood into your retina. Plus, as these blood vessels fail, your eyes try to make new blood vessels that ultimately don’t form properly. These new, poorly formed blood vessels also leak fluid and blood into the retina, causing further damage.

Diabetic retinopathy can, therefore, be broken down into 2 distinct stages: 

1. The first stage, NPDR (non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy), is when the retina swells as fluid builds up from leaky blood vessels. This can cause the central part of your retina (the macula) to swell, which is called diabetic macular edema. As the macula is responsible for your central, detailed vision, macular edema can cause blurred vision.

• The second stage, PDR (proliferative diabetic retinopathy), is when your retina starts growing new, poorly formed blood vessels that also leak, often into the jelly-like substance that fills your eyeballs (vitreous). This causes small dark shapes to float across your vision (dark floaters). Scar tissue also forms, which can lead to part of your retina detaching from the back of your eye and, vitally, from its blood supply — this is an eye emergency and can lead to permanent loss of vision.

Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy are not usually present early on, in fact, it can take years before the damage to your eyes becomes noticeable. Luckily, we have a few methods of detection that are extremely useful in managing and spotting diabetic eye disease early on.

Diabetic eye screenings – the best form of defense

A simple diabetes eye test can be life-changing. The eyes are one of the first parts of the body that show signs of diabetes, so if caught early, there is a much better chance of being able to minimize and slow down the progression, which will benefit your eyes and the rest of your body.

Utilizing the power of OCT

An invaluable tool we use here at Kvitle Eyecare is a fantastic piece of technology called optical coherence tomography, usually referred to as OCT. 

An OCT eye test allows us to get a detailed, 3D cross-sectional image of your retina and optic nerve (the nerve that sends visual information from your eyes to your brain). These images show every tissue layer, including their thickness, allowing us to detect and accurately pinpoint even the smallest changes to your retinal structures that indicate diabetic eye conditions. They have been known to diagnose eye diseases up to five years earlier than standard eye exams.

An OCT scan doesn’t just help with detection, it also allows us to monitor any changes over time and help decide which form of treatment is the most appropriate.

Perhaps best of all for our patients, it is completely non-invasive, quick and pain-free.

Using our expertise in the community

Continuing the work of his father and building the business from strength to strength, Dr. Jason Kvitle, your local Quincy IL eye doctor and eye disease specialist, has been making sure the issue of diabetes remains in the spotlight.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and together with the Blessing Diabetes Center, we held a no-cost diabetic screening event to get as many people screened for diabetes as possible.

We hope that the success of days like these will help spread knowledge in our local community, get people talking about the disease and its impact, and help catch symptoms early.

Make your eye health a priority

We are here to make your diabetic eye care journey as smooth as possible. It’s easy and simple to book an eye exam with us – and we’re sure you’ll be glad you took that first step.