Understanding eye conditions related to Diabetes
Diabetes occurs when your body doesn’t produce enough of the hormone insulin or because the insulin that is produced has a reduced effect. Insulin regulates the way your body uses the food you have eaten. If you have diabetes, your body cannot cope in the usual way with sugar and other carbohydrates that you eat. Nearly 1 in 25 in the UK has diabetes mellitus.
Some children have diabetes, but developing diabetes is much more common in later life. Diabetes can cause complications which affect different parts of your body, including your eye. The two main types of diabetes mellitus are known as Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
This booklet explains how diabetes may affect your eyes. It gives information on how your eyes should be monitored, how eye conditions related to diabetes are treated and the help that is available when your sight changes.
Further information you can find in this booklet
- About diabetes
- How your eye works
- Diabetes and your eye
- Reducing risk
- Treatment for diabetic retinopathy
- Treatment for diabetic macular oedema
- Treatment for advanced diabetic retinopathy
- Other ways diabetes can affect the eyes
- Important points to remember
- Useful contacts