November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Dr. Charles Calvo talks about the importance of early detection through annual comprehensive dilated eye exams.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Living with diabetes can force major changes to your lifestyle, but if left unchecked, it can also rob you of your vision.  

Almost 30,000 Nevadans suffer from diabetes, and they are more likely to develop blinding eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts.  

Research shows after 20 years of type 1 diabetes, 99 percent of people will have some type of diabetic damage to the eyes and 60 percent of type 2 diabetes will have suffer damage. 

The trouble is: there’s hardly any warning signs. So, you are urged to get an annual eye exam to spot problems in time. 

“Very often there will no signs of diabetic eye damage until very late in the disease,” said Dr. Charles Calvo of Retina Consultants of Nevada. “That is the importance of the annual screening eye exams. When the damage is pretty late in the game, you can have loss of central vision, you can have lots of floaters, you can have loss of peripheral vision.” 

Dr. Calvo insists much of that vision loss can be minimized or even reversed if its caught early enough. So, an annual comprehensive dialated eye exam is essential. 

Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in working age population — that includes anyone from their 20’s to their 70’s.   

November is Diabetes Awareness Month. So, if you haven’t done so yet this year, schedule that annual eye exam. 

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/health/early-detection-is-key-to-prevent-vision-loss-from-diabetes/