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Blurring of vision T2

Loukay1

Well-Known Member
I was diagnosed around 1 year ago, but over the last week I've been having blurred vision when trying to read or look at anything with fine detail, I have a eye test booked but read that it could be caused by my diabetes, if it is, what will happen?
 
Until recently I was switching between 7 pairs of glasses, elevated blood sugar will blur your vision. Do you test your BG ?
 
Mine alters a bit, but very much due to contact lenses. Soon enough, I'll have to cross over to specs but I will hang on for as long as I can. GOOD control over your BS will certainly help. Don't get caught in the trap of buying new glasses to correct something that might well correct itself. Think of the number of people (diabetic or not) that had 20 /20 and suddenly they need glasses. It happens
 
I was at the optician today
The reason was I wanted to have my eyesight tested again as the glasses I had made at the start of August do not sim to work any more. Turns out I am 0,75 more shortsighted now than I was then. I mentioned to the optician that this may be because my glucose levels are normal now whereas they were elevated at the start of August. I was amazed when he said that my sugar levels must have been around 100 units (in mg/dl) (5,6 mnol/l) more then. He is right as far as can tell. When I started testing again on August 7th my glucose was 214 ng/dl (11,9 nmol/l) . My current average over the last month is 94 mg/dl {5,2 mmol/l)
 
Best not to spend a lot of money on new glasses if your blood glucose levels are high. The sugar swells the eye lenses causing blurred vision. Get a blood glucose meter to check which foods spike your blood sugars. In general, eat low carb food and avoid breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. Once your blood sugar levels normalise then your eyesight should improve.
 
Although blurred vision can be a temporary problem due to raised blood glucose affecting the lens of the eye, it can also be due to diabetic macular oedema (DMO) or clinically significant macular oedema (CSMO). These changes are normally picked up during eye screening before symptoms develop - changes called diabetic maculopathy can be seen on the eye screening images and the patient is then referred to ophthalmology for further tests to see if the patient has macular oedema which needs treatment.

Sometimes macular oedema develops between screenings, in which case the person should have an eye test as soon as possible and not wait for the next screening. The optician should be able to tell the difference between blurriness due to high blood glucose (or other, non-diabetic reasons) and blurriness due to macular oedema. If they suspect macular oedema, they can ask the GP to make an ophthalmology referral. Treatments for macular oedema are discussed here:- http://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/diabetic-macular-oedema.pdf
 
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