It's said that the eyes are the window to the soul, but they're also instrumental in providing clues to our overall health.


According to a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, eye-care professionals are seeing greater numbers of vision problems — even loss of vision — because of the prevalence of diabetes across the country, and across the world.

"It's more like an epidemic," says optometrist Dr. Scott Morrison of New Paltz, and he shares some startling numbers to back that up. "In the last eight years, there's a 23 percent increase in Type 1 diabetes, and a 21 percent increase in Type 2," he says.

And because of that, Morrison says he is seeing more and more of what is called "diabetic retinopathy" in many of his working-age patients.

"Retinopathy occurs when there is damage to the nerve layer in the back of the eye, what is called the retina, due to high blood-sugar levels," Morrison says. "We are seeing bleeding, hemorrhaging and swelling of the blood vessels, which then leak into the retina, causing blurred vision and sometimes total vision loss.

"In its early stages, diabetic retinopathy may or may not affect vision, but it can permanently decrease vision in its later stages, and glasses might not help at all," he explains.

According to Morrison, the percentage of his patients with diabetic retinopathy is "more than double the cases in the last 10 years or so." What's more troubling, he adds, is that he's seeing the ailment in young adults and children.

There have been cases when Morrison says he has diagnosed diabetic retinopathy when the patient was unaware of having diabetes. "Diabetes can start and progress without warning," he says. "There's no pain, and unless there are regular physicals and eye checks, it can go undetected to the point where some serious damage to the body has occurred."

When young adults and children get diabetes, the possibility of going for years with the disease increases, and that puts more strain on the eyes as they age.

The first course of action when diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed is changing the diet, and increasing activity, which will bring the blood sugar reading to a healthy level.

"Then," says Morrison, "the blood vessels should return to normal size, the bleeding will stop, and vision is usually restored. If that doesn't work, the patient will be referred to a retinal specialist who may perform laser treatment. If caught early, vision is usually preserved without significant visual loss."

Diabetes also can produce other eye problems, says Morrison, such as doubling the chances of getting cataracts and getting glaucoma, plus causing wounds to the eye to take longer to heal.

Because diabetes is becoming such a common diagnosis, Morrison says he wants to emphasize the importance of annual physicals and eye exams so that if diabetes is in its early stages, it can be caught and treated as early as possible.