Improved eyesight after diagnosis?

Hi, I'm short sighted. I didn't notice any change, sorry.

If they notice anything, most people notice a temporary degradation in eyesight.
I believe this is due to the excess glucose in your blood trying to find a way out. This is why weeing a lot is a common symptom of high BG and some dentists notice increased teeth decay.
The glucose comes out in our tears which become sugary and have a different focal length to salty tears. Our lenses need to adapt to cope with this. It then takes a while for them to adapt back to normal salty tears.
Now, if your eyesight is long/short sighted to start with, this temporary adaptation may improve your eyesight but it may only be temporary.
The usual advice is not to change your glasses prescription during the first few weeks of diabetes diagnosis whilst your eyes are going through this transition.

mentat said:

I'm asking purely out of curiosity. Did anyone else experience temporary remission of non-diabetic short/long-sightedness after they were started on insulin?

It's normal for eyesight to deteriorate due to dehydration in the months leading up to diagnosis, and this should reverse once on insulin. I'm not talking about this.

I'm talking about longstanding vision problems not related to diabetes that improved or disappeared for a while after starting insulin.

I have myopia (short-sightedness) which got worse in the few months prior to diagnosis and then completely disappeared once I was diagnosed. After a month or two the myopia returned. I wonder why?

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Yes I did. I had to wear glasses for about 7 years prior to diagnosis for distance, being short sighted and then had a prescription added in for reading too. After diagnosis, I had initial problems with blurred vision at distance (sudden deterioration triggered diabetes diagnosis) which settled. Just been for another check and I no longer need my distance prescription! I have perfect distance vision now, don't really understand why it's so much better but it is.

mentat said:

I'm asking purely out of curiosity. Did anyone else experience temporary remission of non-diabetic short/long-sightedness after they were started on insulin?

It's normal for eyesight to deteriorate due to dehydration in the months leading up to diagnosis, and this should reverse once on insulin. I'm not talking about this.

I'm talking about longstanding vision problems not related to diabetes that improved or disappeared for a while after starting insulin.

I have myopia (short-sightedness) which got worse in the few months prior to diagnosis and then completely disappeared once I was diagnosed. After a month or two the myopia returned. I wonder why?

Click to expand...

Sorry 're read your post. I'm not actually on insulin just oral meds.

I've always had 20:20 vision so this doesn't really cover your question, but my God, the improvement in my eyesight when I started on insulin was amazing! I had just assumed I needed glasses all of a sudden - it took 2-3 weeks from perfect vision to not being able to watch the TV.

Bertyboy said:

I've always had 20:20 vision so this doesn't really cover your question, but my God, the improvement in my eyesight when I started on insulin was amazing! I had just assumed I needed glasses all of a sudden - it took 2-3 weeks from perfect vision to not being able to watch the TV.

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Me too! It was the worst thing about the whole situation. I couldn’t read, drive or see how many carbs were in foods! Bought some off the shelf specs to tide me over.

The medical term for this is 'transient hyperopia', and although its occurrence has been known about since the 19th century the precise mechanisms are still not completely understood and research into it continues.

The degree and duration have been correlated to the HbA1c around diagnosis and the rapidity of achieving glucose control afterwards. The mean effect on sight peaks around 1.5 dioptres, although as much as 4.5 dioptres is nothing that unusual.

mentat said:

I'm asking purely out of curiosity. Did anyone else experience temporary remission of non-diabetic short/long-sightedness after they were started on insulin?

It's normal for eyesight to deteriorate due to dehydration in the months leading up to diagnosis, and this should reverse once on insulin. I'm not talking about this.

I'm talking about longstanding vision problems not related to diabetes that improved or disappeared for a while after starting insulin.

I have myopia (short-sightedness) which got worse in the few months prior to diagnosis and then completely disappeared once I was diagnosed. After a month or two the myopia returned. I wonder why?

Click to expand...

Definitely! It was a very long time ago I was diagnosed but I can remember that after diagnosis I realised I hadn't got my glasses on but could see the wall clock the other end of the ward. I thought I would never need my glasses again but, unfortunately, after being at home for a few weeks, this was proven not to be true.

Oh yes - I had 20:20 vision for the first time in 30 odd years. I could drive without glasses or contacts and was secretly hoping that something good would come of the T1 diagnosis. Sadly I've pretty much reverted back to my usual short-sightedness, albeit with worsening astigmatism. Not sure I can blame that on T1D but I would really have liked to have ditched the glasses.

Bertyboy said:

I've always had 20:20 vision so this doesn't really cover your question, but my God, the improvement in my eyesight when I started on insulin was amazing! I had just assumed I needed glasses all of a sudden - it took 2-3 weeks from perfect vision to not being able to watch the TV.

Click to expand...

same here

I found after four years of maintaining fairly good, fairly near-normal BG levels, my night vision (which had deteriorated) has improved.