The Effects and Look Of Diabetes

The other night my roommate and I were channel surfing on the television and found the show “Briadalplasty.”  We were quickly absorbed by this dramatic (and quite silly) reality television show that pits brides-to-be in a competition for the dream wedding and the perfect body.  The brides-to-be are given plastic surgery treatments for winning competitions hence the name “Bridalplasty.”  One of the brides in the episode opted for brand new teeth as hers were decaying or not as healthy as she would have liked due to diabetes.  She didn’t like the way diabetes affected her looks.

This got me thinking about just how damaging diabetes can be to someone’s overall health and look.  It affects your teeth, your eating habits, your lifestyle, and also your vision.  The side effects of diabetes can be devastating not just on the outside of your body but also within so proper care of your body and health is needed.  For your eyes, yearly eye examinations are needed to make sure vision isn’t compromised from diabetic retinopathy. 

Those with type 1 or 2 diabetes can have diabetic retinopathy which causes partial vision loss or even blindness if not treated.  This side effect of diabetes doesn’t just affect your look but how you can see others. Diabetic retinopathy involves damage to the blood vessels in the retina either with vessels swelling and leaking fluid or growing abnormally.  We need a healthy retina to see and diabetic retinopathy doesn’t allow this.   Symptoms at first can be invisible so by the time symptoms do occur such as blurry vision, spots, shadows and pain the disease may already be severe according to a post on WebMD.  The best prevention?  Keeping blood sugar in check as well as getting yearly eye examinations by your Indianapolis or Indiana eye doctor. 

Although symptoms may be absent to you, eye doctors like Dr. Tavel and his board certified associates are able to detect conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and  save your vision.   So yes “Briadalplasty” is a bit silly, but it did expose how diabetes can change your look not for the better.