Diabetes Talking

Question:

That happened to my son also, but within 3 or 4 months his eyesight was back to what it had been before developing diabetes.  To bad, it would have been nice if something positive had occured.

Response:

I was told by my eye doctor that the eye actually is strained for the period of time when the vision is blurred.   When the excess water is removed from the eye (BG back to normal) the eye’s  shape actually over compensates for the prior imbalance, yielding great vision.  The effects are temporary and vision return to normal after a few days to a week. In the case that you were diabetic for many years prior to being diagnosed as type I,  Your eyesight may clear up to better than is was previously. As your sight has been blurred for many years of high blood glucose levels. I notice a blurred vision starting at any level over 140 mg/dl.  Helps as a good indicator for me. rick

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hello-    I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes two weeks ago.  One of the symptoms I had before diagnosis was blurred vision.  Now that I have started to get my blood glucose levels under better control, my vision has improved.  But here’s the strange part: my vision is now better than it was _before_ I contracted diabetes.  I previously wore glasses (I’m nearsighted) but in the last week have not worn them at all, and I can see fine to watch movies, drive, etc. – all things I previously wore my glasses for.  I have not noticed any change in my vision for nearby objects.    My blood glucose levels are not tightly controlled yet, but have been under 200 mg/dL (11 mmol/L) most of the time for the last week.    Has anyone else had or heard of a similar experience?  I have an appointment with my optometrist to get my eyes checked soon, but I don’t know how much experience he has with diabetic patients and I’d like to hear other people’s experiences.

When I was first diagnosed and placed on insuling my vision improved to better than 20/20. Alas, it only lasted a couple of weeks and my vision soon returned to my normal nearsightedness. It sure was enjoyable to be able to count the bricks on buildings more than a block away without my glasses though!

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Yup, I gather that’s pretty typical. When I was first diagnosed, I was very nearsighted (I’m not sure what, but I focused without my glasses about 3 inches in front of my nose. Shortly before I was diagnosed (i.e. when I was almost 13) my vision got very blurry, I couldn’t see the blackboard, I couldn’t read a book either with or without my glasses, etc, etc, etc. When I was finally diagnosed/hospitalized, I was given a pair of reading glasses which corrected my vision 100% (for about a week).  Over the course of the next 2 or 3 months my vision gradually returned to normal–i.e. nearsighted–though there was a wonderful week in there where I could see perfectly–no glasses needed at all (for the first and only time since I was 6).  They gradually stopped about 2 pairs of glasses down from where they had been when I was diagnosed (at that point in my life my glasses prescription changed about every 6 to 8 months). toodles, gretchen

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Hello-         I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes two weeks ago.  One of the symptoms I had before diagnosis was blurred vision.  Now that I have started to get my blood glucose levels under better control, my vision has improved.  But here’s the strange part: my vision is now better than it was _before_ I contracted diabetes.  I previously wore glasses (I’m nearsighted) but in the last week have not worn them at all, and I can see fine to watch movies, drive, etc. – all things I previously wore my glasses for.  I have not noticed any change in my vision for nearby objects.         My blood glucose levels are not tightly controlled yet, but have been under 200 mg/dL (11 mmol/L) most of the time for the last week.         Has anyone else had or heard of a similar experience?  I have an appointment with my optometrist to get my eyes checked soon, but I don’t know how much experience he has with diabetic patients and I’d like to hear other people’s experiences. Thanks very much, Eric Jensen

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hello-    I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes two weeks ago.  One of the symptoms I had before diagnosis was blurred vision.  Now that I have started to get my blood glucose levels under better control, my vision has improved.  But here’s the strange part: my vision is now better than it was _before_ I contracted diabetes.  I previously wore glasses (I’m nearsighted) but in the last week have not worn them at all, and I can see fine to watch movies, drive, etc. – all things I previously wore my glasses for.  I have not noticed any change in my vision for nearby objects.    My blood glucose levels are not tightly controlled yet, but have been under 200 mg/dL (11 mmol/L) most of the time for the last week.    Has anyone else had or heard of a similar experience?  I have an appointment with my optometrist to get my eyes checked soon, but I don’t know how much experience he has with diabetic patients and I’d like to hear other people’s experiences.

I am nearsighted also, and my experience has been that high blood sugar can result in a slight improvement in my uncorrected vision with respect to focussing, but it is so uneven and astigmatic that I consider my sight better without it.  I used to have a very similiar effect when I wore hard contact lenses before I switched to gas-permeable ones. I would not be surprised if the effect is temporary and vanishes in a couple of weeks.  I would also suggest that you put off your optometrist appointment until your blood sugars and vision have stabilized.  Any refraction measurement that your optometrist does on you now will be off later on.  Of course, this suggestion is contingent on the fact that you don’t have other concerns about your vision to be attended to now. — Steve Kirchoefer Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC  20375-5347

Response:

Hello-        I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes two weeks ago.  One of the symptoms I had before diagnosis was blurred vision.  Now that I have started to get my blood glucose levels under better control, my vision has improved.  But here’s the strange part: my vision is now better than it was _before_ I contracted diabetes.  I previously wore glasses (I’m nearsighted) but in the last week have not worn them at all, and I can see fine to watch movies, drive, etc. – all things I previously wore my glasses for.  I have not noticed any change in my

Yes, the condition you are describing can happen when you are first attempting to get under control.  Please see my post on blurry vision, article number 7546, December 21, 1994.  If you can’t find it, email me and I’ll forward it. Steve

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Path: mars.dsu.edu!news.starnet.net!wupost!uhog.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hook up!news.moneng.mei.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.pop.psu .edu!ra.nrl.navy.mil!chrisco.nrl.navy.mil!swkirch Newsgroups: misc.health.diabetes Organization: Electronics Sci. and Tech. Division, Naval Research Laboratory Lines: 40 NNTP-Posting-Host: chrisco.nrl.navy.mil Hello-        I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes two weeks ago.  One of the symptoms I had before diagnosis was blurred vision.  Now that I have started to get my blood glucose levels under better control, my vision has improved.  But here’s the strange part: my vision is now better than it was _before_ I contracted diabetes.  I previously wore glasses (I’m nearsighted) but in the last week have not worn them at all, and I can see fine to watch movies, drive, etc. – all things I previously wore my glasses for.  I have not noticed any change in my vision for nearby objects.        My blood glucose levels are not tightly controlled yet, but have been under 200 mg/dL (11 mmol/L) most of the time for the last week.        Has anyone else had or heard of a similar experience?  I have an appointment with my optometrist to get my eyes checked soon, but I don’t know how much experience he has with diabetic patients and I’d like to hear other people’s experiences. I am nearsighted also, and my experience has been that high blood sugar can result in a slight improvement in my uncorrected vision with respect to focussing, but it is so uneven and astigmatic that I consider my sight better without it.  I used to have a very similiar effect when I wore hard contact lenses before I switched to gas-permeable ones. I would not be surprised if the effect is temporary and vanishes in a couple of weeks.  I would also suggest that you put off your optometrist appointment until your blood sugars and vision have stabilized.  Any refraction measurement that your optometrist does on you now will be off later on.  Of course, this suggestion is contingent on the fact that you don’t have other concerns about your vision to be attended to now. — Steve Kirchoefer Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC  20375-5347

I had a similar experience when I was first treated.  I didn’t have to wear my glassses for a few weeks, but I returned to my pre-diagnosis lack of visual acuity.  I asked my physician at the time, 1975 (a professor at U Cal SF Med Center) and he wasn’t sure about why it happened but he thought that was due to altered osmotic conditions in the lens versus the rest of the eye.  The lens and the rest of the eye are more saturated with glucose and other sugars before treatment.  After Insulin treatment starts, most of the eye becomes more normal in glucose content, but the lens lags behind in losing the high glucose content.  This lag results in a temporary change in the refractive characteristics between the lens and the rest of the eye. Anybody got a more recent explanation Bill S

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