Improving Diabetic Control and benefits for eye health!
Management of diabetic retinopathy is one of the most challenging aspects of retinal ophthalmology but it can also be one of the most rewarding. Uncontrolled diabetes relentlessly leads to severe vision loss, renal failure requiring dialysis and many other systemic consequences. Helping someone avoid this fate is immensely rewarding.
This requires not only careful management of the eye, but perhaps even more importantly, motivation to control their diabetes. We all know optimising our diet and exercise is not easy but uncontrolled diabetics need even more support with the same consistent message regarding this. . An important step is to encourage them to learn what HbA1c means and what their value is. Importantly, this gives them a goal and a target to aim for.
The increasing availability of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) is a wonderful advance, allowing patients to monitor their blood glucose in real time and see instantly the effect eating certain foods has on their blood sugar. These are expensive, but like all technology is rapidly coming down in price and many young diabetics can qualify for free via the NDIS or NDSS. Many non-diabetic longevity physicians in the USA are wearing CGM’s to minimise spikes in blood sugar throughout the day. There are even hopes that this technology will soon become available non-invasively through the Apple Watch so we will all be able to see the effects of a can of Coke or other unhealthy food choices on our blood sugar.
Dr Mark Donaldson