Unexplained Diabetes-related Eyesight Improvement

A few years ago, my friend was diagnosed with diabetes. After she had gotten her blood pressure under control, she noticed that her eyesight was improving. In fact, she got to the point where she no longer needed to wear her glasses. Unfortunately, after about a month, her eyesight returned to what it was before diagnosis. This strange phenomenon that she experienced is not unique. A simple google search will lead to multiple diabetes discussion pages talking about people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes experiencing an increase in eyesight immediately following diagnosis. They also talk about their eyesight returning to what it was before after a few months. (Facing it, 2010) Some people say their physicians were shocked by their eyesight change and others say their physician described it as a common occurrence. 

With so many people describing the same experience, you would expect some sort of research to have been conducted to describe what is causing this to happen. Surprisingly, there appears to be no literature explaining this occurrence  It is well known that people with diabetes are at risk of developing retinopathy which causes eyesight to worsen. Through our understanding of this condition, we know that an increase in blood sugar can cause swelling in the eye that causes a change in the shape of the eyes’ lenses that negatively impacts eyesight. (Willermain et al., 2018) This could explain a decrease in eyesight when the patient’s blood glucose is not under control, but it does not explain why eyesight would be improved for such long periods of time following diagnosis.

This appears to be a medical mystery at this point. However, research of this topic could be beneficial. It would increase our understanding of how eyesight works and show us how diabetes or its treatment has impacts in other parts of the body such as the eyes. One blog member said that if we had a better understanding of why this is occurring, we could find a way to improve eyesight for everyone. That is a very optimistic thought, but the idea that greater beneficence could be brought to patients through understanding of this occurrence is important. This is a very interesting occurrence that I believe is worth a closer look, and it would be interesting to hear any theories people have surrounding the temporary increase of eyesight following diabetes diagnosis.

References:

Facing it, Neanderthal, Zpeishan. (2010) Eyesight got better??? Retrieved from

     https://www.diabetesdaily.com/forum/eyes/41365-eyesight-got-better/

Willermain, F., Scifo, L., Wber, C., Caspers, L., Perret, J., & Delporte, C. (2018). Potential Interplay 

     between Hyperosmolarity and Inflammation of Retinal Pigmented Epithelium in Pathogenesis of

     Diabetic Retinopathy. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(4), 1-17. Https://doi

     org.dml.regis.edu/10.3390/ijms19041056