Diabetes & Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a type of optic neuropathy (a disease that can cause damage to the optic nerve in your eye). It causes a reduction (or complete loss) of vision due to an increase in the pressure within your eye. The pressure increase is caused when the fluid that is produced naturally within the eye is unable to drain out of the eye back into the veins (as it normally does). This build-up of fluid excerpts pressure on the optic nerve at the back of your eye which slowly reduces your vision.Different people will develop symptoms of glaucoma at different eye pressures (due to have different susceptibilities to the disease) so you may suddenly experience a lot of eye pain and significant loss of peripheral vision, or you may not notice as your vision slowly worsens over time. If you are diabetic, then you are thought to have a higher risk of developing glaucoma than non-diabetics (and conversely, if you have glaucoma, then you are at a higher risk from developing diabetes). The relationship between these two diseases is thought to be due to the high intraocular pressure and low blood flow found caused by diabetes and diabetics have been found to have a larger amount of nerve damage caused by their glaucoma compared to non-diabetics. Whatever the connection, diabetes and glaucoma are the two largest causes of blindness. If you are diabetic and you have recently noticed a reduction in your peripheral vision, increasingly blurred vision or frequent headaches then you might want to discuss your concerns with your GP and have an eye examination to check for glaucoma.   

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