If you have diabetic fundopathy, I’m sorry to say that you will no longer be able to eat meat and drink alcohol, but you will need to control your diet and force yourself to exercise so that you can live as well as you can later in life. Here, I want to tell my patients with diabetic fundopathy about this disease, so that you know that although this disease cannot be cured, we can still work together for a good quality of life. First of all, let’s talk about what this disease is. In layman’s terms, because of your high blood sugar, your blood is like thick sugar water, the blood vessels soak in such thick sugar water for a long time, and something goes wrong, the walls of the blood vessels are soaked, and as time passes, many blood vessels are flattened, and finally there is no blood. But the tissues supplied by these blood vessels still need blood to nourish, so the body believes that these blood vessels are atresia is lack of blood, so it will try to grow some blood vessels again, so as to supply blood to these places. These newly grown blood vessels are called neovascularization. These blood vessels are not the same as your previous blood vessels, they are typical cottage products, they are fragile, their walls are very thin and inelastic, so they can easily rupture and cause massive bleeding, and eventually your eyes will be blind. The picture below clearly illustrates the problem. (This is the normal fundus as seen by the fundoscope, clean, red, clear blood vessels, and good vision. The majority of diabetic patients do not have significant fundus changes and maintain good vision during the first 5 years of their disease, when regular checkups should be performed and control of diabetes should be the main task.) (This is a moderate retinopathy, where exudation, retinal edema, and vascular abnormalities can be seen. At this point, the patient’s vision is already affected, and timely treatment is necessary to slow down the development of the lesion and protect the vision, otherwise it will progress to a level where vision is difficult to maintain.) This is a more serious fundus lesion, with extensive hemorrhage in the fundus, varying degrees of damage to blood vessels, nerves and other tissues, and severely compromised vision. Treatment at this point can only be salvage treatment, trying to maintain the current vision for as long as possible, making it difficult to improve vision again. However, patients often develop complications and become nearly blind over the course of a year to several years. You may ask me, so when did I get funduscopic disease? Actually, diabetic retinopathy can occur in anyone with diabetes. The longer a patient’s history of diabetes, the more likely they are to develop diabetic retinopathy. Between one fifth and half of people who have had diabetes for more than five years get the disease, and 70% of people who have had diabetes for more than 20 years will get it. Also, poor blood sugar control, smoking, high blood pressure, alcohol consumption, and pregnancy can all aggravate the lesions. So how far does diabetic fundopathy progress? Diabetic retinopathy can be asymptomatic at the beginning, followed by a mild loss of vision, and as the disease progresses, vision can become significantly blurred until complete blindness. Some patients may become blind suddenly, mainly because of vitreous hemorrhage. Some patients may have eye pain and swelling along with blindness, which may have occurred as secondary glaucoma. The photo above shows it very clearly. The question we are most concerned about is: Can this disease be prevented? No, even if the blood sugar is smoothly controlled and other indicators are normal, it cannot completely stop the occurrence and development of diabetic retinopathy, but can only delay the development of the disease and protect the vision. In layman’s terms, it means to repair and maintain the eyes to make them last longer. So what can be done? There is only one way to reduce or slow down the occurrence of the disease: 1. Early diagnosis and treatment: Once a patient is diagnosed with diabetes, he or she should go to the ophthalmology department regularly for fundus examination. When the bare eye or corrected vision is normal, the fundus can be checked once every six months. When there is visual impairment, the examination and treatment should be carried out under the guidance of a doctor. 2.First of all, we should control blood sugar well, not to make blood sugar high and low, and should use blood sugar lowering drugs correctly under the guidance of endocrinologist. Many of my patients still use fasting blood sugar as the standard, thinking that their blood sugar control is still good, in fact, this is completely wrong, some people’s blood sugar is good in the morning, once they eat, some people are high at night, I recommend a check: glycated hemoglobin, this index, if high, means that your blood sugar must have been high, as to when, it needs to be checked in detail. In addition, if you have a problem with the fundus, I recommend that you immediately use insulin, do not listen to some rumors, afraid to play insulin, even if you use oral medication blood sugar control is very good, you should also switch to insulin, because it has the greatest protective effect on the eyes 3, control blood pressure, blood lipids, develop good habits, do not smoke, do not drink, maintain a healthy and positive attitude towards life, appropriate participation in exercise, etc. These articles, whether for people with or without the disease, are actually applicable. Nowadays, there are many drugs, prescriptions and instruments for the treatment of diabetes complications in the society. I personally think that, except for the drugs in regular hospitals, don’t use these things, especially those things that are advertised, they often bring more harm than good, if these things work and have good effect, foreigners will definitely use them and doctors will definitely use them. So please don’t spend that wasted money. How can I help you? I refer to the findings of 30 years of research by the American Academy of Ophthalmology as my guiding principle. The American Academy of Ophthalmology believes that early diagnosis and observed treatment are important determinants of a patient’s quality of life, and that even patients in progressive diabetic retinopathy have a 90% chance of maintaining their living vision if they receive treatment early. I can check your fundus regularly, and if needed, I will give you a contrast test. If your condition is mild, you can have laser, and use this method of shedding your car to protect your most important central vision. If your fundus lesion is already serious, for example, you already have a lot of bleeding, you can choose vitrectomy to clear out the blood first, and then have laser. In conclusion, in short: since you have the disease, you have to manage yourself more carefully. There is not much your doctor can do to help you; managing yourself is the best way to make your life happier.