Diabetes can affect the eyes and causes blindness, when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high.

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Edited by|Christian Megan 

Health section - CJ journalist

19 March 2023

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     The Dasman Diabetes Institute, established by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, recently organized a two-day workshop for two different groups of general practitioners from primary health care at the Ministry of Health, on Diabetic Retinopathy. According to the institute, retinopathy is common in patients with diabetes, as it occurs due to high levels of sugar in the blood feeding the cells in the back of the eye, known as the retina, which, if left untreated, can lead to blindness.

He pointed out that this workshop will contribute to the development of ophthalmology services and care, and raise the level of treatment services provided to patients. 

Diabetes can affect the eyes and causes blindness, when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high.

In the short term, you are not likely to have the vision of losing high blood glucose. People sometimes have blurry visions for a few days or weeks when they're changing their diabetes care plan or medicines. High glucose can change fluid levels or cause swelling in the tissues of your eyes NIH external link helps you focus, causing blurred vision. This type of blurry vision is temporary and goes away when your glucose level gets closer to normal.

If your blood glucose stays high over time, it can damage the tiny blood vessels in the back of your eyes. This damage can begin during prediabetes when blood glucose is higher than normal, but not high enough for you to be diagnosed with diabetes. Damaged blood vessels may leak fluid and cause swelling. New, weak blood vessels may also begin to grow. These blood vessels can bleed into the middle part of the eye, lead to scarring, or cause dangerously high pressure inside your eye. Most serious diabetic eye diseases begin with blood vessel problems. The four eye diseases that can threaten your sight are