5 Signs and Symptoms of Diabetic Eye Disease - How Diabetes Affects the Eyes

🔔 Subscribe for more free eye health education and tips:

Diabetes affects the eyes in many ways. In this video, we will break down the top 5 ways diabetes affects the eyes and the symptoms you may experience.
1️⃣ Blurred Vision
Diabetes may cause blurred vision or poor eyesight through: crystalline lens changes, diabetic macular edema, and cataract development.
2️⃣Spots in your vision
Diabetics may see eye floaters of many kinds, but diabetics may specifically struggle with what is called a vitreous hemorrhage, where blood inside the eye floats within the vitreous.
3️⃣ Diabetic Retinopathy (bleeding within the retina)
Diabetic retinopathy is usually the first thing your eye doctors may notice during a diabetic eye exam. This is recognized as blood vessel changes and bleeding inside the eye.
4️⃣Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy
This is when new blood vessels grow inside the eye (neovascularization) which often break and leak fluid inside the eye.
5️⃣Retinal detachment
In cases of extreme diabetic retinopathy and untreated proliferative diabetic retinopathy, fibrovascular scar formation may lead to retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is an eye care emergency and carries a poor prognosis as it can result in irreparable vision loss and blindness.

-The better a diabetic’s blood sugar is controlled, whether that is with diet, exercise, and/or medication, the less chance of developing diabetic eye disease and other systemic complications.

🔥 It is recommended to have a dilated eye examination at least every year if diagnosed with diabetes. Sooner or more frequent if your doctor recommends.

I always strongly encourage heart healthy lifestyle changes for people struggling with diabetes.
Here are some videos by other fantastic doctors and researchers discussing lifestyle changes and science behind diabetes.
Diabetic Eye Exam (Coming Soon)
Diabetic Vision Supplement Review (Coming Soon)

0:00 - 5 Signs and Symptoms of Diabetic Eye Disease
1:11 - How Diabetes Affects the Eyes
1:34 - Blurred Vision
3:23 - Diabetic Macular Edema
4:45 - Seeing spots (vitreous hemorrhage)
6:14 - Diabetic Retinopathy
7:29 - Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy
8:14 - Diabetic Retinal Detachment
8:59 - Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment
9:38 - Helpful Links for Diabetes

✅ Recommended videos and playlists:
===

Let’s Connect! Dr. Allen on Social Media:

Want to stay up to date on eye health science & vision products?

⚡ Doctor Allen is now scheduling new patients at

==
MEDICAL ADVICE DISCLAIMER: All content in this video and description including: infor­ma­tion, opinions, con­tent, ref­er­ences and links is for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only. The Author does not pro­vide any med­ical advice on the Site. Access­ing, viewing, read­ing or oth­er­wise using this content does NOT cre­ate a physician-patient rela­tion­ship between you and it’s author. Pro­vid­ing per­sonal or med­ical infor­ma­tion to the Principal author does not cre­ate a physician-patient rela­tion­ship between you and the Principal author or authors. Noth­ing con­tained in this video or it’s description is intended to estab­lish a physician-patient rela­tion­ship, to replace the ser­vices of a trained physi­cian or health care pro­fes­sional, or oth­er­wise to be a sub­sti­tute for pro­fes­sional med­ical advice, diag­no­sis, or treatment. You should con­sult a licensed physi­cian or appropriately-credentialed health care worker in your com­mu­nity in all mat­ters relat­ing to your health.

About This Video:
In this video Joseph J. Allen, OD, FAAO, Diplo. ABO discusses how diabetes affects the eyes and common symptoms of diabetic eye disease. If you are researching how diabetes can hurt the eyes, check out this video. The subject of diabetes can be very complex and many people don’t understand how uncontrolled blood sugars can hurt the eyes. In this video, you’ll learn about diabetic retinopathy and what your doctor may see during the exam.
#diabetes #eyehealth #doctoreyehealth

[DoctorEyeHealth]

Do you have other questions about Diabetes and Eyesight? Let me know so I can answer those questions in more videos!

[nmrowdy]

I've been diabetic for 40+ years. I had avoided going to the eye doctor for about 5 years. Both my parents died in 2012. Mom and I had gone to the eye doctor together for years. When I finally went my eyes were a mess. One of my retinas was being pulled and nearly detached. Also my lens were changed like you described. My vision was so poor. After a few treatments and getting myself out of my grieving pity party, I have much of my vision back. My central vision isn't great but I have learned how to make the most of it. Eye health is so important, and especially so if you diabetes or other major health problems.

[elpilonvideo]

I was diagnosed with diabetes 2 on February 2023 before that I was having problems with my right eyes vision, I lost 70 percent of the vision on that eye.
I went to an eye doctor in Brooklyn and he injected something in my eye and the next day I was seeing better.
For the next 5 months he kept injecting my eye and for the last 2 months my eye and blood sugar keeps getting better.
Thanks to the libre 2 sensors I managed to keep my blood sugar low .
My eyes used to be in pains when ever blood sugar went over 120 now I don’t feel any pains on my eyes no more. I’m eating vegetables all the time .

[KarolinaSays]

This was so hard for me to watch. I went through this a few years back. I'm 35 and I've had diabetes for 30 years. My diabetes was completely out of control for a few years in my late teens/early 20s. It was years before I experienced any symptoms. I started to notice blurred vision and soon after I experienced hemorrhages. Very severe and often. I had so much bleeding in the eye, the blood completely blocked my vision. I went through months and months of PRP laser treatments and injections to the eye. My peripheral vision was completely killed off in order to stop the requirement of blood to the eye and keep my centralized vision. Eventually, I had retinal detachment in both of my eyes and had surgery to remove the blood from the vitreous gel and to have my retinas welded back down. Was completely blind (only seeing movement and light/dark changes. I am grateful to have the vision I do now. I am able to live a normal life and have adjusted to not having any peripheral vision in either eye. The scarring also causes something like "blind spots" in my vision that makes it hard to read small print and focus in on detail. My diabetes is in great control now with an A1c of 6.4 and trending down but my eyesight changes were a long and life altering journey.

Thank you for this video. I wish I had been better educated when I was younger, I wish I had been exposed to the serious complications of diabetes. But, I have gotten a second chance and this (along with a few other events) really was a wake up call for me to change my lifestyle and really understand the seriousness of diabetes and its complications.

[JoeR]

I found out I was diabetic in October of 2016 when I got an infection in my big toe. Prior to that, starting around 2014, my vision would get blurry. But since it was happening in the colder months and I worked outside, I figured it was just dry eyes. Then I noticed a black spot (not a floater) just above the center of my vision field. I checked online and figured it to be an edema. It eventually went away. Months later (in 2017) my vision was getting blurry in all weather conditions.

I went to my eye doctor and he started giving me injections in the eye to reduce swelling. Every month for around 6 months. Then, when the swelling was down to his satisfaction, he did a laser treatment. He never told me this was his objective when giving the injections. So after he zapped me in 6 or 7 areas of the eye, I started to develop spots. They looked like floaters. Black with a white halo around them. But they weren't floating and they were clustered together. Making them hard to count, but I counted 9-12 at times. The worst part is, they shimmer and in different lighting conditions, I notice them more.

He said they were lipid deposits and would go away. I still have a couple but now I also have a distortion in the center part of my vision. It's usually grey. Sometimes almost clear. It's like looking through a murky water droplet. But when it's grey, it's basically a cloud and blocks objects from my view unless they are closer to me and therefore bigger than the "cloud". I believe this is a result of the laser but he says it's the diabetes. He didn't warn me about any side effects of the laser either before or after he did the procedure. I didn't think to ask. I went in there trusting modern technology. I feel it was a result of the laser because this is happening in the eye he worked on. My other eye is fine (even though it's been legally blind since I was a kid), so why would diabetes only affect that one eye he worked on with a laser??? Of course, none of the other doctors in his practice will admit to any wrongdoing on his part.

[barrymartinez]

Another great video! The timing of this video release, as I have just finished training to capture fundus photos in our clinic. The majority of our patients are diabetic, and being able to see the retina and other eye anatomy has been so interesting. And because the majority of our patients are Spanish speaking, and me being able to speak Spanish, I've had the opportunity to be in the room with our optometrists and patients going over the photos and explaining how to take better care of their overall health

[aeislugh]

I was recently diagnosed as Pre-Diabetes I'd been holding steady just under the line for a couple years, and it finally pushed over. Working to get the blood sugar down, but it is encouraging that we have this much insight.

Last year when I got my eye exam done for new glasses, the doctor was concerned I had this weird anomaly in my eye. I described it as kinda like if you had a tiny spec of water on a window. It was always in the same spot (did not float around) and was causing a weird distortion, but was only really an issue when trying to read fine print (so was messing up the eye exam trying to read the letters, I could see the letters clearly, but only from the peripheral vision, so had trouble identifying them). that initial doc said he could see something on my retina, and sent me to a specialist. in the next year, I saw THREE different specialists who couldn't see anything. (was good to see them anyway, cause I ended up with lattice degeneration showing up at the same time so got it fixed)

[franzordonio]

Thank you so much.. Great help for layman... Awesome content.. Love you Doc Allen.. Take care and Godbless you more....

[lourdesrodriguesvas]

Thank you, Doctor! I can see the Sky in your eyes! Thanks once again!

[jellybean]

That’s how I was diagnosed with diabetes.was having eye problems, my eye
Dr picked it up my fasting blood sugar was never high when I went for bloodwork

[Su-ymmi]

Perfect for me. I have scheduled an eye exam. Thank you for the education, doctor. Question: We check cell phone or watch computer too much that hurts our eyes. Any videos for advice? Is it possible to have my sight back if I stop my bad habits?

[MrSridharMurthy]

Thank you sir! This was a wake up call for me to control my blood sugar levels!

[mariebarker]

Diabetes is awful on eyes. Thank you for great information! 🙏

[yoonlee]

I love the detailed explanations and pictures. Thank you!!

[ashokdewan]

Thank you very much - very well explained

[orangecat]

Wow: this video is going on my rewatch list. This is very important information.

[JaxGreen]

Whenever my power increases. I become really stressful. I really wish there was a natural way to fix my eyes. I am only at a young age. But am afraid to be blind and not being able to chase my dreams

[wjbroadcast]

Hi Dr. Allen, I was diagnosed with diabetes 2 several months ago. I recently started getting flashes more and more. I saw my retinal specialist and he didn't see anything diabetes related, but he did send me off to a lab to be tested for Sickle Cell disease!! I don't have a history of the disease, but my oldest daughter has the trait. My late husband figured it came from my side of the family, but at that time, we didn't check. Now my dad's deceased, so I'm going to ask my mom to be tested. Have you ever seen a patient and suspected Sickle Cell?

[eddiea]

Thank you very much for this video. It was very informative. I am a type 2 diabetic and really appreciate this video.

[joevignoloru]

I'm diabetic and have had retinal hemorrhages in my right eye. In my case I went from normal vision in my right eye to complete vision loss overnight. Basically the eye fills up with blood in just a few hours. This has happened twice even after my blood sugar was under control, probably because the abnormal blood vessels had been there for a while. Fortunately if treated promptly and properly retinal hemorrhages don't appear to do any long term damage to the retina. I've also had a retinal detachment in the same eye but it was caught early and repaired. It's important to deal with both the diabetes and the other related problems with the retina while those issues are still confined to the peripheral retina. If you wait until they spread into the central macular region then you can end up with severe and permanent vision loss. Even after all the problems I've had with the right retina and after the eye needed cataract surgery I'm currently at 20/25 in that eye. In my experience the eye is a very resilient organ but like anything else there is a limit to how much abuse you can throw at it.