ALERT! Diabetes And Your Vision (NAPSA)—Learning more about eye disease could save your vision, especially if you have diabetes. Each year, thousands of Americans experience vision loss as a result of diabetic eye disease, a group of eye complications of diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy, the most common diabetic eye disease, occurs when diabetes damages the tiny blood vessels inside the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Diabetic retinopathy often has no early warning signs. Other eye problemsthat can result from diabetes include cataract and glaucoma. To reduce the risk of vision loss from diabetic eye disease, the National Eye Institute (NED, one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), encourages people with diabetes to have a dilated eye exam at least once a year and recommends behaviors to help people keep their health on TRACK: *Take your medications as prescribed by your doctor. *Reach and maintain a healthy weight. Add more physical activity to your daily routine. Control your ABCs: AIC, blood pressure, and cholesterollevels. Kick the smokinghabit. Getting annual eye exams, timely treatment and appropriate follow-up care can reduce the risk of blindness by 90 percent. To learn more, visit www.nei.nih.gov/ diabetes/.
