Every year without fail I go to my ophthalmologist, my eye doctor. And every year, along with checks for vision and glaucoma, I get a dilated eye exam. Someone will put a drop of liquid in each of your eyes, you wait 20 minutes for your pupils to get bigger, and then the doctor will take photographs of the back of your eye looking to see if there’s any damage.

High blood sugar can cause the small blood vessels in the back of your eye to burst or leak. This can cause big diabetes eye diseases, like retinopathy or macular edema, not to mention vision problems. But don’t expect vision problems to warn you there’s trouble brewing. Often at the start of a diabetes eye disease you won’t notice anything. So it’s really important for a qualified eye doctor – ophthalmologist or optometrist – to perform a dilated eye exam.

Eye get it. There’s a ton to do if you have diabetes to keep yourself well. But don’t overlook your eyes. The non profit organization, EyeCanDoit.org, has a great site for eye education. I pulled this photo above from one of their fun and thorough educational presentations.

You owe it to yourself to invest a few minutes to learn about taking care of your eyes and eye health. Then make an appointment with an eye specialist if you haven’t seen one in more than a year and request a dilated eye exam.

I made a little eye video myself for dLife earlier this year – look after your eyes.