Diabetes is a lifelong disease where there are large amounts of sugar in the blood.  There are different variations of this disease, but all can effect the eye.  Diabetes can damage specific parts of the eye: retina, vitreous, lens, optic nerve.

Damage to the retina from diabetes is very serious and can result in vision loss.  Having high blood pressure and blood glucose and cause the blood vessels within the eye to swell and weaken.  As these blood vessels weaken, so will your vision.  This is a very slow process, so no vision loss may be noticed at first.  The only way to truly know that this is occurring is to have a yearly checkup with an optometrist or ophthalmologist where a dilated eye test is conducted.  This condition is known as Diabetic Retinopathy.  This is the most common eye problem as a result of diabetes.

Diabetes can also cause cataracts and glaucoma.  Cataracts caused by diabetes is more severe than cataracts that occur naturally.  Glaucoma that is caused as diabetes usually develops at a faster rate than glaucoma that occurs naturally.

It is very important if you have diabetes to have a regular eye exam from an optometrists or ophthalmologist.  During this eye exam, your eye doctor will conduct a wide variety of tests to makes sure that diabetes has not