If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, one of the things you may not have realized is that the disease can affect your vision. When diabetes starts to affect your eyes, it is known as diabetic eyes. 

The best way to manage this condition is to be diligent about taking care of your health. Here are some of the main ways in which you can help prevent diabetic eyes from getting worse.

Monitor Your Health

Lifestyle changes are some of the best treatments for diabetic eyes. You must try to keep your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar at healthy levels to reduce the symptoms that you will have from diabetic eyes.

Keeping your cholesterol down means that you will need to eat a healthy and balanced diet. To keep your blood sugar levels down, you have to monitor how much glucose you are ingesting. Additionally, to keep your blood pressure in check, you need to watch your salt intake, exercise more, and take blood pressure tablets if necessary.

Take Your Medication as Prescribed

Ensuring that you are taking your diabetic medication as your doctor has prescribed is one of the best ways to control the deterioration of your eyes. If you are a smoker, it's a good idea to quit as this can affect your blood pressure and your blood sugar levels as well.

This means that it can reduce the effectiveness of your medication, or it may cause you to need stronger medication. Taking your medication like clockwork and quitting smoking are two of the biggest lifestyle changes you can make to prevent more damage to your eye.

Intrusive Treatments

While it is always best to try lifestyle changes to see if they can prevent further damage to your eye, there are times when intrusive and aggressive treatments are necessary. Two types of treatments that are often used to deal with problems caused by diabetes are laser treatments and eye injections. These treatments are mostly aimed at stabilizing your vision and preventing it from getting worse. 

Diabetes can steal your vision if you are not careful. However, the good news is that once you find out that diabetes is affecting your eyes, you can make significant lifestyle changes that will help reduce the deterioration of your vision. If all else fails, there are medical procedures available that can help stop your vision from getting worse over time.

Contact a service like Northwest Ophthalmology to find out more.