Stories on Health

In case you didn’t know, the primary cause of legal blindness in the working population of the United States today is diabetes mellitus. Of the fourteen million Americans with this health issue, it is estimated that a diabetic is 25 times more likely to go blind than a person in the general population. In fact, some sources say that vision impairment is occasionally already present in many newly diagnosed cases of diabetes. The unfortunate thing is that most vision impairment due to diabetes can be averted.

As always—the most important safeguard is to monitoring of your blood sugar closely. With prolonged high blood sugar levels, it is possible to develop a condition called retinopathy in which capillaries lose their ability to carry essential nutrients to the retina. According to the National Institutes of Health, diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year. In its early stages, there are few physical symptoms, which is why it is so essential for diabetics to have annual dilated eye exams. Proper care of your overall health—as well as making sure your eyes are regularly evaluated—can make a tremendous difference in the quality of your life.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Health, Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.