Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness and that is a major reason for concern because it is largely preventable.

When blood sugar level stay high (8mmol/l plus) for long periods of time, it can cause damage to the small blood vessels and nerve endings. Depending where the damage occurs, it can give a range of complications.

In the eyes the blood vessels starts to leak or bleed, these factor affect the vision in different ways. The three main complications caused by diabetes are diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

? Diabetic Retinopathy

It is most common diabetic eye condition, it happens when the blood vessels get

damage in the retina. The result is that the images that get send to the brain appear distorted or blurred. No signs or symptoms are displayed to warn you of this pending condition until it reach it final stage. When abnormal blood vessels start to grow and develop in the eyes floating objects or specks will start to appear in the line of vision.

? Diabetic Macular Edema

This is a result of untreated retinopathy and at least 10% of sufferers will experience moderate loss of vision. The macular is the area in the center of the retina and when fluids leak it causes this area to swell. The first symptoms that you will see is blurred central vision or “floaters” because the macular is responsible for central vision.

? Glaucoma

This condition is twice as likely to happen to people with diabetic, the abnormal blood vessels in the eyes can cause a growth in the iris. Glaucoma causes pressure in the eyeball and in turn damages the optic nerves. No outward symptoms are displayed until often irreversible damage has been occurred.

The best way to prevent these conditions from taking place is to be on the look out for the diabetics signs symptoms and have your eyes examined regular.

Diabetes is a disease of lifestyle. It affects mostly overweight people and people who have made poor choices of food consumption both in quality of food as well as quantity of food. The control diabetes diet has been shown to reverse the progress of this dangerous disease better than the most frequently prescribed drug. So why aren’t more people following the guidelines of this life-saving program?

Deadly Mistake # 1

Avoiding going to the doctor when they realize that there’s something wrong with them because they’re afraid to hear the facts. This could be deadly as not knowing that you have diabetes could cause you to do things that could bring on a deadly attack. Knowledge is power. When you know that your body responds poorly to certain foods, you can regulate that food consumption and reverse your disease. This will prevent an attack, or the deterioration of nerve endings, or eyesight. It could even prevent you from losing limbs.

Deadly Mistake #2

When some people get the news that they are pre diabetic or are diagnosed with the disease, they become disheartened. They start to think about how this disease can cause them to stop living their life to the fullest. They get into a funk and start to think that there’s something wrong with them that will restrict their enjoyment of life itself. This is a big mistake. The lifestyle changes recommended are not so drastic as to interfere with living a fulfilling and rewarding life. In fact the dietary changes are really quite simple and if followed prior to their diagnosis probably would have prevented the onslaught of the disease in the first place.

Deadly Mistake #3

Thinking that a control diabetes diet will be too involved to follow. This is simply not true. Studies have shown that small changes are the most effective. This is especially true because you want to make these changes long term so you will never see the dangerous effects of this disease. By just reducing your body weight 7% overall through reducing calories, and fat from your diet and increasing exercise activity levels to 30 minutes a day 5 days a week, you can reverse the path of this deadly disease.

Combine Stress Reduction With A Control Diabetes Diet

A major aspect of the changes necessary is in the mindset of the patient. When you know that you have the power to take back control over the path of this disease you can make the changes that will insure your success. You can use your mind to learn to deal with stress more effectively as well. Stress has been shown to cause elevated blood sugars in diabetics so a program of learning how to de-stress can be extremely valuable to the diabetic.